What stood out the most for me was the role that social science plays in emergency alert systems. When you’re talking about hurricanes, you are talking about warning people for a weather event that often doesn’t have an impact on everyone in the evacuation zone. You have people who have evacuated their homes, for what some see as “no reason”. After a while, they start to think that the warnings aren’t important because the chance of something actually happening seems slim. However, it is very difficult to predict where the most damage will occur and to explain that each hurricane path and impact is different. To work on alerting the public, weather sciences are collaborating with social scientists to create emergency preparedness and alert systems that are meaningful and educational to help reduce the loss of life and property during a hurricane. Details such as the colour and font of the alert do have an impact on how people will react to it. By asking questions such as: How do people get warnings? How do they understand them? What actions do they take?, better warning systems can be created that have a real impact on people’s actions.
My big AHA moment, however, came when talking about emergency preparedness. Emergency preparedness kits are something that everyone living in a possible disaster area should have in our homes. Many of us think that either we will never need one, or that if there ever is an emergency, we’ll be able to go pick up what we need. However, what Director Knabb said that really stuck me was the fact that many people do not have the budget to have an emergency kit with food and water in their home. These people are relying on the resources from the stores and the emergency shelters when disasters hit because they do not have the money to be prepared. The rest of us, those of us who do have the money and choose not to create a kit, when we are going to the store after an emergency, we are taking away the resources from those who need them most. And because we probably have cars, we will get there first. I had never thought about it this way.
Kind of makes you rethink the need to have a preparedness kit doesn’t it? I know it made me think about my lack of earthquake preparedness kit and I have taken the steps to get one in order. You can read more about #HurricaneStrong and emergency preparedness in the links below.
Hurricane Strong YouTube video : www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9XgH8AouuE
Hurricane strong website http://www.flash.org/hurricanestrong/
Hurricane strong kids http://www.flash.org/hurricanestrong/kids.php
Red Cross - Emergencies and Disasters in Canada: http://www.redcross.ca/how-we-help/emergencies-and-disasters-in-canada
Earthquake kits for those in the Lower Mainland: https://earthquakekit-ca.myshopify.com
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