Getting ready for the next disaster

City and county officials in Southeast Missouri are tweaking emergency plans after February's ice storms. Regardless of how airtight they become, people still need to be prepared, according to Jamie Koehler, emergency services director for the Cape Girardeau chapter of the American Red Cross.

In 18 months at her job, she's helped people after house fires, floods and weather extremes, such as heat waves and ice storms. For 23 years before that, she ran the family readiness program for the Missouri National Guard.

"I've seen tornadoes in Jackson, Crosstown and Caruthersville, flooding in Lilbourn, and in 1993 and '95, flooding everywhere," she said.

During March, both Missouri and Illinois observe "Severe Weather Awareness Week." It is this week in Illinois; next week in Missouri. On March 11, Missouri emergency management workers will coordinate a tornado drill with the National Weather Service. Last year, Missouri was hit with 42 tornadoes that killed three people and injured three. Floods killed two, as did lightning. Excessive heat was blamed for 13 more deaths.

'Disasters don't have boundaries'

Midwesterners are affected more by weather extremes than any other kind of disaster, according to Jim Opoka, from Homeland Security's community preparedness office in Chicago.

"We all manage our risk based on our own personal perspectives of that risk taking place," he said. It's not unusual to get complacent about such risks.

He said Homeland Security has earthquake planners because a significant Midwestern quake would affect "somewhere between seven and 13 states."

"Disasters don't have boundaries," he said.

In Jackson, the ice storm created an estimated five times more damage than the 2003 tornado. City manager Jim Roach said city officials are rethinking emergency management plans, especially after hearing about the magnitude-6 earthquake that struck Wells, Nev., on Feb. 21, its first earthquake in more than 150 years.

"An earthquake, in the worst scenario, you'd lose a bridge, a road. Underwater wells could be gone, and gas and power lines," Roach said, adding that recovering from that kind of crisis would take months, if not years.

A week's work of supplies

Koehler said earthquake preparedness is part of the Red Cross crisis planning. She has three emergency kits: One is in her car, one in her office and one in the basement of her home.

"Each and every one of us, in every household, needs to be prepared for a disaster," she said.

Emergency kits should include supplies for five to seven days.

"We use that as an average. It could take that long in a catastrophe, even for assistance to arrive from the outside," she said.

Some agencies recommend filling a five-gallon plastic pickle bucket with supplies, but in reality, Koehler said, such a container is too small.

"A gallon of water per person per day? That's a lot of volume," she said, recommending using a clean trash can.

The survival kit should include nonperishable food -- Koehler uses military-style MREs, but she said energy bars will do -- and equipment such as blankets, duct tape, waterproof tarps and some tools.

Koehler suggested picking up a pocketknife or other sturdy multitask tool, a crowbar or claw-foot hammer and a pair of leather work gloves.

"Usually after a disaster, we're talking broken glass, rebar, broken wood -- lots of sharp edges, in other words," she said.

Cape Girardeau's Red Cross chapter regrouped after February's ice storms to figure out how to alert people more efficiently to warming centers and overnight shelters. In Jackson, 80 contractors arrived to help fix electric outages and ended up sleeping in their trucks, according to Roach. Ameren officials had called the Red Cross in advance and were assigned a separate shelter so their coming and going was not disruptive, Koehler said.

Mayor Barbara Lohr said Jackson is re-examining its communications process.

So what's the line between being prepared and being overly cautious? Koehler throws her head back in a burst of laughter, saying, "I don't know."

More seriously, she said it's hard to overprepare for disaster.

"Just the one time you need it, it's worth all the expense and craziness," she said, with a small exception. If worrying about a disaster "impacted your day-to-day life and you couldn't live your life the way you should, then you might have gone overboard."

For training or to get emergency management tips for the home, visit www.ready.gov/america/getakit or www.citizencorps.gov or www.semoredcross.org.

Today, the Southeast Missouri chapter of the Red Cross will benefit from a Day of Giving at Culvers, 295 N. Kingshighway. Ten percent of all sales today will be donated to the Red Cross.

The agency offers a free Red Cross Ready class from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. March 22. Call 335-9471 for details and class registration.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127

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