Emergency shelters in our community

Submitted by AJEPS on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 13:03

the problem:

This past spring, a community about 60 miles from here was flooded out by a river that normally doesn't flood. People, including emergency management, were taken by surprise. The Red Cross shelter designated to take care of the needs, was under water. This got us thinking about our community and what we would do if the waters around us flooded their banks. Many people would be cut off, the main highway runs right down our main street which would go underwater also. Because our 4-H club was working on emergency preparedness and outdoor survival, we were very interested in what would happen. We started asking questions of our emergency manager and we could not get any real answers. It was like people thought it couldn't happen here.

vital stats:

people impacted:

10,000

people involved:

8

why it's important:

Our 4-H club wanted to come up with a way to put out information about emergency preparedness and help our city prepare for an emergency. We wrote a grant to ESRI and received community mapping software for our laptops. Our leader already had GPS units so we were all set. We decided we would create a map of the Red Cross emergency shelters and a brochure to tell people what was at those shelters in an emergency and what they needed to bring with them. Our club discovered that our city had ONE - for 10,000. That was not going to work. So, we changed our brochure to include the Red Cross shelter, buildings that meet the criteria to be a shelter, and alternative shelters in surrounding communities for those citizens who will be trapped on the other side of the river or our water and sewer become compromised and no shelters in our city will be useable.

the plan of action:

First, we attend a camp to learn how to use the GPS units and the software. Our leader also took a college class on how to use the software. Second, we practiced taking waypoints and making tracks by geocaching, earthcaching and mapping a community trail system for the city. We also mapped an animal refuge and a hiking trail just to practice using the softward and downloading information we needed to include.
Third, we divided the places we wanted to include in our maps and, as individuals, club members got waypoints and downloaded them into their ArcMap programs. We copied each others waypoints onto our leader's computer so we'd have a backup copy.
Now we are at the point where we're going to start building our brochure. We will take these maps and include them with the information, get it published and start distributing it to the community. We are participating in a GIS/GPS competition with our maps and information on March 14 and we were invited to attend an agri-business trade fair to put up a display and hand out our brochures.

how you can get involved:

We need funding to print our brochures and buy display boards and materials for the trade fair and our county fairs. People can help with information - especially flood plain maps and data.

project updates:

09/14/2009

We set up our display at the Aroostook County Fair for a week in the 4-H exhibit area. They estimated 1000+ people a day attended the fair so we think at least another 1000 people got the information by stopping by. We had our handouts (what is left of them), information from the Red Cross and FEMA. We won a ribbon but that wasn't the important part of the display.

Then, we were asked to put up our display at the Balloon Festival Street Fair at the end of August. It poured rain but many people stopped and talked to us about our project. We could have sold the Red Cross Emergency kits if we had had any but at least people saw them.

Now we are working on two projects. Our first one is a taping of a cable TV show. It will be taped in four segments so we can explain our project in detail to thousands of Time Warner viewers across the state. Second, the Red Cross asked us to be part of their display during the Lowe's Family Safety Day coming up in October. After the rain at the Balloon Festival, we have to redo our poster but that's not a problem.

Our 4-H leader attended a tabletop exercise with the Aroostook County Emergency Management people and she gave them one of our brochures. They were VERY impressed and are grateful for everything we've been doing.

Our goal is to become more involved in the emergency preparedness of our community and the Red Cross. It looks like that's going to happen soon.

06/29/2009

We created a poster using our community maps to show where the Red Cross shelter was. Since there is only one in Presque Isle, we included another map showing where potential shelters will be if needed. Then we added a map of the nearest community in case we had to evacuate the city. Another map showed where the National Guard could set up a staging area with room for a helicopter. This location also includes a hand pump so water will be available if the water plant is affected. We also started to work on the Aroostook River which, if flooded, will cut off the entire top 65 miles of the state. Mark Matson, a GIS specialist from the University of Maine, helped us make our maps look good.

From this information, we created a brochure that included these maps plus information about what to expect at a shelter and what you need to take with you. We had 250 printed on heavy paper and in color.

Our survey was designed, typed and copied and we worked on a way to get the results back.

We also put together a display on what should go into a "GO" bag if people had to leave to go to a shelter.

All of this material went to the Agri-Business Trade Fair held in Presque Isle in April. We set up the display and manned the booth Friday - Sunday. Our survey resulted in 157 useable surveys. We gave away 4 door prizes if they completed the survey and the drawing was held each day.

Presently, we have about 15 brochures left so a lot of people took them. Of course, we've been passing them around both before and after the Trade Fair.

Now we are getting ready for our County Fair in August. We'll have to print more brochures and work on the survey a little bit. The display will need refreshing also.

Someone saw our maps and was very impressed. They asked us to enter our state GIS championship. We won the Aroostook County regional competition so we were invited to participate in the state championship June 13. We won second place. That was an entirely different audience than expected but the more people we can reach with our being prepared message, the better.

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