Transcript of interview with Charlotte Porter, MPH, deputy director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Individual and Community Preparedness Division
Interview conducted by Lindsey Wahowiak, senior editor for The Nation’s Health newspaper.
Listen to this interview as a recording on our podcast page.
First question I have is, when we talk about preparedness, what is preparedness? Like, what do we need to be prepared for?
Americans need to be prepared for really any and all potential hazard or disaster that they may be susceptible to. So we do focus a lot on natural hazards, but it really runs the gamut. And what we have found is that nearly 60 percent of American adults have not yet practiced on what to do in a disaster by participating in a drill or a preparedness exercise at work, home, or school in the past year.
And that's really the whole point of America's PrepareAthon!, which is a grassroots campaign to not only educate and bring awareness to individuals and communities, but also to encourage them to take action with the education that they receive so that we build a muscle memory of sorts to increase the nation's preparedness and resilience at the individual level.
Tell me a little more about the PrepareAthon! Like what actual steps should people be taking during the PrepareAthon! in order to make themselves more ready for emergency situations?
The America's PrepareAthon! works to build a more resilient nation. We do that by increasing the number of individuals who understand what disasters or hazards they may be susceptible to in their community.
We want them to know what to do to be safe and how to mitigate damage to their property. We want them to take action to increase their preparedness, as I just mentioned and I'll talk about that in a second. And we also want them to participate in community resilience planning.
So this campaign, again, is really to get people to the point of taking action. To get them better prepared for an emergency. We offer a lot of free and easy to use tools for families, organizations, communities, schools, et cetera for many disasters such as, and again we've talked about those natural hazards, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, wild fires, and floods.
But what we really want to do, is we want to encourage individuals to take action and participate. We've even created basically it's kind of an easy graphic to look at. It's Ten Ways to Participate in America's PrepareAthon! It includes testing communication plans, updating your supplies or go kit, drilling or practicing an emergency response, making sure that you document and insure your property, and maybe planning with neighbors.
We want to make sure that every family has a family plan, but not just a plan in place. We want to make sure that families actually take the time to exercise that plan. And that's what we mean by taking action.
It's great to have the education. It's great to have the awareness. But without practicing, without drilling, exercise, taking action, the knowledge will only get you so far. And so we really want to get everyone to the point where, as I said, they're taking some sort of action to better prepare themselves. And we feel like this will create a more resilient and better prepared nation.
What should individuals look for when they're making their preparedness kits? What should I have as a person who lives by herself? And then, separately, what should public health workers need to know and what should they have on hand?
Everyone regardless of what your position is or where you work should have a kit. And in that kit you want to make sure you have water. You've got canned goods and a can opener. A can opener is very critical.
We want to make sure that you've got any medical supplies you might need or supplies for your pets. We want to make sure that you've also got any kind of — if you need batteries for certain medical equipment, that you've got additional batteries in your supply kit. A first-aid kit would be helpful. Flashlight. The usual battery powered or hand-cranked radio. And then anything in addition, such as like little tools or maps, cash if you can get cash on hand, a cellphone charger. These are all good things to have in your kit.
As far as public health workers and public health professionals, I don't think that what they would need in their kit is any different than any other individual. However, of course, if you're — if we're thinking that someone is a nurse or something like that and other people maybe in their neighborhood know that that person is a nurse and maybe they would seek in an emergency to seek out that person, so maybe that person might want to store extra supplies in their first aid kit. But really I would stress the fact that these types of supplies need to be incorporated into anyone's kit, whatever your position is.
And when we talk about these kits, do they need to be portable? Like what if you have to go somewhere? So, it's great to have a bunch of canned goods, but if you can't carry them — so how should we be storing this stuff?
Individuals need to understand if they're being asked to evacuate by local officials or to stay in place. So that's first and foremost. And we want to make sure that people do heed those warnings as they're being told by their local officials to stay in place, we want to make sure that they do that and they pay attention. And if they're being told to evacuate, we want to make sure that they are ready to evacuate and they pay attention to those warnings and they actually heed them.
We want to make sure that people have disaster supply kits in their cars, including blankets and, as I said, flashlights and things like that. And then you also want to, of course, have one in your house. We know that there's going to be instances where you may have to walk somewhere and maybe have to leave your house and walk.
So what I would suggest is having a backpack or something filled with supplies. So you have your larger disaster supply kit and then maybe you've got what we call it a go bag or something like that. Something you can grab and head out if you have to walk somewhere.
Should we be doing different things to prepare at home versus at work? Should we have a go bag at work also?
The work thing is interesting because, for example, depending on where you work and also how prepared they are, there may be people who are designated as your representative and so for example, you may have a floor warden or something like that who may have a go bag for everybody that would include first-aid kits, extra water, that kind of thing.
And so if the instructions from the folks in the building, I don't know if it would be a building manager or your boss or whatever the case may be is to follow that person and leave the building, that person should typically have the bag. And, again, that's part of then the drilling and the exercise, making sure you know who that person is, making sure that person knows that they are that warden and that they are responsible for the go bag.
But that being said, I think it's never a bad idea to have your own personal go kit at work. For example, I do keep a pair of sneakers at work in case I ever have to leave the building and walk home. I also think it's a good idea to have a little extra cash on hand and any other potential supplies you might need in case you do have to walk to another location, be it your house or another safe place. You want to make sure you've got a bottle of water with you, granola bar or something like that and comfortable shoes so that if you have to do that, if you have to leave your place of work, you're able to.
And then what about our pets? Not at work, but at home. What should we be doing to make sure we are prepared to take care of our pets as well in case of an emergency?
First of all, that goes back to the family plan. When we talk about the family emergency plan, we want to make sure that you include, of course, your children and your pets. Because we know for a fact that in Hurricane Katrina a lot of people were not comfortable leaving their homes because they didn't want to leave their pets. We know pets are family members and so we want to make sure that every family takes precautions and takes those steps to ensure that their pets are taken care of.
I would recommend identifying a shelter that can accept pets. So if you are able to work with your local emergency manager in your county or city prior to an event, you want to email kind of where you might have to go.
I would say, again, put pet food in your supplies at home. And then also making sure that when you take that bottled water or when you store that bottled water, of course, your pets will need the water as well. Make sure that your pet has identification tags with up-to-date information and up-to-date security. If your pet is chipped, making sure that, that information is up-to-date so should anything happen, they're able to locate your pet and locate you. And make sure you have a current photo of your pet. You may want to take a photo of your pet and leave it on your phone or take a hard copy of a photo with you. And then also, of course, making sure you have a secure pet carrier or leash. That way if you do have to leave the home, you have a way to take your pet with you.
Can you tell me a little bit about the importance of September being National Preparedness Month?
Absolutely. So as you mentioned, September is National Preparedness Month. And America's PrepareAthon! as a campaign, while it's a year round campaign, we focus a lot of our efforts on September, particularly in September 30, because we call that National PrepareAthon! Day. And we actually have two days a year that we call — that are considered National PrepareAthon! Days, September 30 and April 30.
This year, the theme for National Preparedness Month is “Don't Wait, Communicate, Make Your Emergency Plan Today.” And throughout the month, what you're going to see is emphasis placed on emergency communication planning. This includes developing a family emergency communication plan as well as, as I've also described, planning for evacuation or staying in place.
There will be some PSAs that are out there. We have a number of how-to-prepare guides for various hazards. We have what we call Be Smart Guides and we have one that actually will be coming out around creating a family emergency communication plan.
But the ones that we actually have in place right now that are ready to go, one is about protecting your critical documents and values and then the other one is about alerts and warnings and making sure that you're up-to-date with the latest alerts and warnings available to the public.
And so, National Preparedness Month will there will be a different theme every week throughout the month, but the overarching theme, as I said, is Don't Wait, Communicate, Make Your Emergency Plan Today. And so we really want to gear our efforts around the country towards making sure that individuals, families, and community-based organizations and neighborhoods are working together to make sure that everyone has that family communication plan.
And then the last question I have is, if there was just one thing that you wished everyone would do to be a little more prepared, what would it be?
One thing is tough. I could give you like 10. And I don't want to weight one thing more than another because there are so many different very easy actions to take to be prepared.
But as far as the knowledge, there's so many different ways to access free alerts and warnings, but what I am going to push here is the FEMA app. For those who have a smartphone, the FEMA app is a great — it's fast, it's free, it's user friendly, and it's a great way to sign up for local alerts and warnings in your area that are sent to your smartphone.
Again, I realize that we do have folks out there who don't have smartphones, but I think there are other ways to sign up for alerts and warnings as well. And that includes contacting your local emergency manager or even your local public health department. They will typically be able to connect members of the public with the appropriate people to be able to receive alerts and warnings.