Survival 12: Your Survival Team. Organizing Your Neighborhood/Work Place
This is particularly key in moderate emergencies. During natural disasters such as hurricane, flood, extreme weather, wild fire, etc. an organized neighborhood can be essential to survival. When I say neighborhood, I also mean your work place. On Nine-Eleven, offices in the World Trade Center that were well organized and had emergency evacuation plans with designated personnel acting in key positions had much higher survival rates. Does your place of business have an emergency plan? Is it practiced?
I touch on things like this in The Green Beret Guide to Seven Great Disasters series of books, showing how people either helped cause a disaster or helped avert one.
One thing to ask yourself is what are the boundaries of a neighborhood? Realistically, you’re looking at around fifteen to twenty households. Larger than that and it can become unwieldy.
Your neighborhood might already have such a team. If so, join it and find out how well organized and prepared they are. If not, then take it on yourself to start one. Usually your larger community will have resources to help you do this. Contact emergency services and the Red Cross and ask.
Do you know who your neighbors are and what they do for a living? What special skills they have? That person you think is a nurse going off to work in her scrubs might actually be someone who works at a kennel washing dogs. Don’t make assumptions.
Inventory the neighborhood:
Chain saws
Winches
Four wheel drive vehicles
CB and other radios, including satellite
Water purifying systems
Where are all the gas meters and propane tanks?
Who needs special help? Focus on the handicapped, the elderly, and children who might be home alone at periods of the day.
Each household should have large placards made up with OKAY on one side and HELP on the other. Use fluorescent colored poster board available at your local supermarket. Have this stored near a front window under a rug. Display as needed.
Determine where the neighborhood gathering site will be; in essence the neighborhood IRP. People should go there before trying to run around and rescue others. Organization saves time and lives.
Have a contact list tree of who alerts who. In the military we always had alert systems. This is a way of communicating so each person knows who they are responsible for contacting. There are events such as wildfires where this is life-saving.
This is excerpted from: The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide
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