I’m a new member to this great site/community, so please bear with me. I’m probably explaining more than I need to, but being vague always gets me in trouble when asking for solutions to a problem.

Here’s the situation: I am a Christian missionary working within the homeless community in the intercity of a large US city. We have about 20 staff where I live/work and we run a number of programs, not only for the homeless but also for the surrounding metropolitan area, including hosting youth groups (up to 130 high school aged kids) to come and work alongside of us in our ministry. They get to experience a reality that they never could have imagined in their fairly sheltered suburban environment. Their stay usually lasts between 2 to 7 days.

In the event of an emergency, i.e. natural disaster, terror attack, etc, the favored choice would be to ‘shelter in place’. In storage at our facility is enough food (mostly rice in 5gal buckets) for 150 people (max occupancy w/ staff and students) for 7-10 days. There is also about 1000 gallons of treated drinking water in 55gal plastic drums. This food and water is rotated and replaced every five years (just rotated in September and the water and food was uncontaminated and still in good shape to consume). But beyond that, there is not much else that is slated for emergency use only. There are several propayne camping stoves that would presumably be used to cook the food, but their main duty is for yearly camping trips with staff and small groups of students. There are also basic hand and some power tools available that are used for building maintenance. A few flashlights too, but nothing I’d bet on surviving a short fall off the shelf. First Aid is mostly boxes of band-aids and a few bottles of aspirin, tylonol, and ibuprofen. Most of the staff live in the building we work in, including myself, so I should have quick access to my own personal gear, but it’s tough to keep enough for 150 people on my own.

I want to propose some additions to the stock of food and water (first aid equipment is number one priority) but what else?

My ideas:
Most of the people I work with wouldn’t be carrying any of this daily, so I’d like a few lanyard/key rings or something similar to ‘issue’ each of the staff that includes:

Small folding knife
Emergency whistle
Some form of fire starting
Small flashlight (probably LED)

What else would you add for the staff? For the students? General supplies?
What if we had to evacuate the city? (What a nightmare! Getting 150 people, teenagers at that, out of harms way, leading them to ?)

Suggestions welcome. Budget is a big consideration.


Thanks,

-Jeff

I am sure you will receive many excellent suggestions for supplies and equipment from members of this forum. Therefore, I will take a slightly different route.

I suggest for any program to be successful it must have the inclusion of the staff. A successful Emergency Action Plan (EAP) is more likely to be looked at, as a vital component of your overall operation, if the staff helps, by brainstorming, acquiring skills and the necessary supplies, as they will have a vested interest in it’s success. A plan on paper that someone else develops is more likely to fail in a real situation. As vested members of the plan you/they would gain the advantage of diverse points of view in assembling an EAP that will work for your situation.

By developing such a plan by those vested with it’s success, you can bring in other organizations such as the local Fire/Rescue Department, Red Cross, Scouting groups to help you train and possible acquire the necessary resources for an organization of your size. It will also help those organizations know of potential needs in their response area.

Pete

I think youre certainly on the right track with this idea. Whistle and flashlight can give a significant advantage in the event of an urban disaster and there are a million uses for a knife and fire in a wide variety of possible situations.

I think a whistle and LEDlight would be a great place to start. the CMG/gerber lights are durable and on sale at sierratradingpost.com for $12 . They run on a single AA battery for ease of replacement.

I would worry about knives being too heavy to wear around the neck comfortably. I am sure you know the maturity level of your volunteers and whether they will be able to handle sharp pointy objects, since they may not have a lot of experience doing so.

Since you are planning to 'stay in' I question whether fire starting needs to be made available. Particularly since you will be rotating volunteers in and out, will they have time to practice and use the firestarters? Will you be willing to replace them as they are used up?

A flashlight and whistle are easy to use, for the other items I would look at how much time training with those materials you are willing to commit.

Otherwise i would look to accumulate more blankets and food along with a stach of empty 5 gallon buckets & lids for toilet duty.

Mr Badger,

You have quite a problem here that an LED light and small knife will not help with.

Plain rice will not go down very well after a day.
Suggest something to spice up the rice some. Even some bulk soup mix mixed with the rice will make it taste better. Dried TVP and veggies , some dried fruit and powdered milk and hot chocolate and coffee, sweets,sugar, salt and pepper all help ease nerves.

Large pots to cook the rice and food, cleaning gear for cookware. Stoves tested for reliability and a repair kit.

Toilet supplies are hugely important for this size of group as the sanitation issue is more important than food for 7-10 days.
Bleach Bleach Bleach!!!

A way to purify water as your supply will not last long.

Books, games time killers are needed.

More fuel than you can imagine for the stoves as rice kills fuel fast cooking it.

Your first aid kit is non existent. Get a decent one and add some convenience everyday meds for common issues. That many people should have a full first responder kit with O2 bottles x4 and at least 3 people trained on its use. Many agencies will donate a first responder kit to such a group or at least give a good discount.

More lights and blankets. Soap and disinfectant, towels etc...

Lots and lots of garbage bags in all sizes as you will have waste to deal with of all kinds.

Clothes spare for the few who are in need.

Batteries for the couple radios with lots of spares. Keep your batteries a common size so the flashlights and radios do not need differnet sizes and you can get more easily.

Paper plates cups knives forks spoons as fresh water and fuel will be at a premium and you don't want to waste it washing dishes..

Cleaning supplies.

Have any babies comming? Diapers, formula, wipes ,disposable bottle liners etc...

Ask for donations from people like Walmart and the city and quote the homeland security requirements.

As you can see you are sorrily underpreparred for 150 people and will realize your mistake in spades when the time comes.

I salute your efforts to date as the world is a better place because of people like yousrelf.

Thank you.

Flip

Jeff,

Simple or complex answers? Pete's suggestion to involve the staff is A-1 in my book, BTW.

I think you have an especially complex situation if you and other staff (with families?) are living in the same building (upstairs?).

IMO, a week is a heck of a long time to try to keep that many folks sustained and sheltered on your own. The 72 hour rule of thumb is probably tough, too, depending on your climate and the exact circumstances. And if you need to evacuate your urban area, so will everyone else around you - that's not realistic to plan for on your own.

I think some risk-assessment is in order. What are likely scenarios, what are the likely consequences of those scenarios, etc. Also, I suggest you chat (a lot) with your local emergency management agency. Who knows - maybe they have specific plans in place for your facility in certain situations (I would hope so, with 150 homeless folks in one facility). You'll be ranked below, say, hospitals, but... and if they have NOT factored in facilities like yours into plans, you may just be able to participate in building a cooperative plan with the agency.

Really general here because I don't know enough particulars in your case to get more specific:

A lot of urban emergencies are handled in hours. Some take a day. Large scale disasters vary - an extended effect of something like massive storms can be loss of power and possibly other utilities for fairly long times. But other types of large scale disasters - perhaps a conventional terrorist attack, if you think that is probable - either permanently affect your facility or they don't, and any shelter-in-place options are likely to be of fairly short duration, regardless - say 1 day or three before massive aid swarms in to help.

What kinds of adverse things are probable at your facility? How much of those consequences are you going to have to deal with alone? And for how long?. There are common things that can happen, such as loss of the structure to fire. What will you do with all those folks?

Move on to overnight situations. Then 24 hours. I suspect that by the time you get 72 hours covered, you'll be the most prepared facility of its type - and well-prepared by an absolute yardstick.

Not sure how you plan to train staff, but if you have a large staff, I suggest that you always have a skilled leader on site, designated as the disaster coordinator du jour. Also, as Ike supposedly said: "Plans are useless. Planning is essential" (I hope that concept applied to disasters is clear enough).

If you want to explore this more, please share additional info - your climate and urban setting would be a handy bit of info to share. There are a ton of folks here who will have great ideas, and several are "in the business", so to speak.

Regards,

Tom

All of the material suggestions previously posted are great. I hope that you will print out the list that Flipper made.

You probably know this already (and if you do, please forgive my post), but since you didn't mention it I'll suggest that you have ALL your staff trained in First Aid and CPR. If they already know it, try and get them more advanced lessons so they can better handle large groups of people. Maybe some workshops on how to work as a team (if those even exist). Also, I didn't see a defribullator on your list. That's a good thing to have around, and first aid courses often include how to use it.

I'm not a professional so I hesitate to give advice especially when lives are at stake, but I can give my armchair general opinion <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> just keep in mind I'm not very experienced.

Bam, something happens, and people start pouring through the door. Some injured, others just trying to get out of the streets. Depending on the disaster, they may only need refuge for a few hours, or for the full 10 days. If people only stay for a few hours (for instance, on 9/11 some people just entered buildings to get out of the cloud of dust. They didn't need to stay long.) then you may have a situation where you have more than 150 people coming and going, even if not all at once. These guys just need to catch their breath, attend to any immediate injuries if applicable, and will probably be frantically trying to communicate with someone even though cell phones will probably be useless because everybody and their brother is flooding the network. For these people who are only staying for a few hours (if that), a bottle of water, a dusk mask, and a wet rag might be all they need, and it would be very helpful. Others will need first aid, and the ability to communicate with emergency personnel will be very helpful. Remember, their phones will be flooded with calls and cell phones might not work, so this is why it's important to work out a system with the local emergency services. Let them know you exist and see what you can work out with them. Maybe they can designate your facility as a critical checkpoint for the surrounding area. Being able to tend to 150 people in a disaster, when hospitals and other facilities are flooded is a big deal.

For long term (several days up to the maximum your facility is capable of handling) refugees, then they may need to be issued accomidations. Issuing them a cot or sleeping bag, a wool blanket, the keychain, and a hygene kit.

Set up an admittance plan for people who start coming through the door if you can, so you can keep track of them. Issue cards with questions on them, and have them fill out things like medical conditions, what medicine they may be currently taking, and so forth while they wait if they need medical treatment for minor injuries. This saves time, because you've got to ask that kind of thing anyway. Have them leave contact information, so if a friend or family member swings by and asks "Has so and so been here" you can tell them and maybe be able to give them information needed to get in touch with each other, instead of just feeling sorry and saying there's no way of knowing.

Bedding Facilities:
I'm not aware of your current situation in this regard. If it's some sort of shelter, then there may be facilities already in place. Do you have individual rooms (better depending on the disaster)? Larger, medium sized rooms capable of housing groups of people (also good for isolating groups and preventing the spread of illness) or do you have one big open air room, like a gymnasium?

Regardless, at a very minimum there should be a sleeping mat and a wool blanket available for each person, and a few extra wouldn't hurt. Both of these are inexpensive and can be found at most military surplus places (US cav for instance). The sleeping mat is like a roll of foam or something... hard to describe.

A cot and a footlocker for each person would be even better. In a large open air room like a gym, a footlocker is important as it gives people a sense of security. They can keep their stuff in there under lock and key and not worry about it being stolen while they sleep. You can store the wool blanket, a small lock and key, the keychain from your keychain idea, a couple of bottles of water (they can refill the containers) and a personal hygene kit inside the footlockers so that you don't have to hand them out in the emergency (frees up staff). Just assign them a place to rest/lay down and they've got everything they need in the footlocker.

If a cot and footlocker is out of bounds because of cost, you may or may not have to form lines and hand out the sleeping mat, blankets, and other items individually.

Some people will need special attention. You may have to stock up on items such as bedpans (for the elderly), baby food, and diapers. You probably don't need many of these (certainly not 150 sets, I doubt all the occupents will be babies or the elderly!), but at least some would be helpful.

Keep in mind some may soil the bedding through whatever means (bleeding, vomit, etc) and it would become unusable for the next person, so a few spares is good.

With only ~20 staff, and 10 days to go, hygene will be largely up to the individual and odds are they didn't bring anything but the clothes on their back. The hygene kit might include
-Purell hand sanitizer (the alcohol stuff you don't need water for)
-Soap
-Small mirror
-Shaving kit (if applicable)
-Comb
-Sponge or Cloth
-Toilet Paper
-Pack of kleenex
-Zinc/Baby Powder
-Deoderant
-Toothbrush set


It's going to get awfully uncomfortable for 150 people in there after a few days of no showers! Especially if some are sick.

Medium sized rooms are nice, because if one group is sick, recovering, or needs special attention, you can seperate them.

I assume you'll have a generator for power in case of a natural disaster. Laundry facilities, even limited (a couple of washer/dryers), would not go unappreciated I'm sure. It may not be absolutely needed, but a spare set of clothes would be good, even if you don't have enough for everybody. A simple set of plain loose drawstring pants and shirt would work fine, just to have something to put on while you're waiting for your clothes.

Agreed with flipper about the first aid kit. Ideally, you can aquire the medical facilities to treat problems possible in a natural disaster. The first aid kit shouldn't be just a small personal/family one obviously. While I doubt you'd need to treat all 150 people, you may have to give aid to several dozen even if most of them just have minor problems. As flipper mentioned, you can probably benefit from more extensive first aid facilities too. Oxygen tanks, IVs and stands, portible defribulators, facilities to treat burns, and depending on your climate, other issues (extreme cold/heat). More importantly, have at least a few people qualified to use it.

One inevitable problem will be some people needing daily medication. For instance, diabetics, heart/blood pressure medication, and so forth. Because of the natural disaster and lack of preperation on their part, they might not have enough beyond a day or two, yet they are unable to get home, or have nowhere to go. Obviously you can't hope to stock those supplies, and you should concentrate on the most likely problems.

Make sure you can treat outbreaks of lice, fleas, and so forth. Worst case scenario for a natural disaster would be an outbreak of some sort of illness... if your facility is an open area like a gym, it would be very difficult to avoid spreading the illness.

Food:
Rice is fine. It'll keep people fed for 10 days, and that's what's important. Preparing it in different ways, and adding different seasonings will help, but that's a luxury of course. Variety is good, but make sure you haven't neglected another aspect of the facility in order to provide it. They can live with plain rice if they have to. But yeah, variety would be good. Maybe stock up on Ramen noodles, soup supplies, and so forth. 10 gallons of ice cream would be a real boost in morale after you've had rice for 8 days. MRE's would be great, but they're prohibitively expensive.

I was going to suggest offering a multi-vitamin to everybody if they'd like one, to help make up for what the rice does not provide, but 10 days isn't really that long. If it was several weeks or months that might be a good idea though.

Entertainment is important for keeping people from going bonkers... but I think it's a little lower on the totem pole. Some cards, board games, maybe a projector to play some movies...

As for electronics, a police scanner, a national weather alert radio, and various types of cell phone chargers might find use as well.

Some of the other replies contain excellent suggestions as well.

Again, I'm not an expert on the matter but those are a few thoughts. Cost will be the most limiting factor I'm sure... buying 150 items, even if they are only a few dollars each, adds up real quick, so I don't really expect you can implement all the suggestions. Some of the items are incredibly expensive too... a portable defribulator might run into the thousands. But hopefully some of the suggestions might give you some ideas <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />


Good luck and keep safe!

I agree that shelter in place is a good philosophy. And as others have stated contact the atthorities and see what their plans are and how you can dove tail your situation into their plans. They should be able to at least supply you with more information. Possably even some proffesional level training for free.

But you may not have the luxury of staying in place. To be on the safe side work up a set or really several sets of evacuation plan on a just in case basis. This could entail how to aquire the needed amount of transportation. From buses to on foot. Where could you get the buses. Also plan for several routes out. If you only have one route it may lead to worse conditions. Give yourself the extra options.

I hope that you?re saying he needs a lot of prep in addition to this rather than telling him not to bother having everyone on his staff carry (EDC) a small light, knife, whistle and fire starter. <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> The value of a light and a whistle alone is pretty hard to argue after reading a few accounts by 9/11 survivors and survivors of earthquakes in urban areas. That's an excellent list of gear you made up... as long as it is accessible after a disaster. If not then the surviving individuals will be left with what they have with them.

I would also suggest contacting your local government, city and county, as they may have plans in place in which your organization should be specifically included. They may also have training and supply resources available to you.

Thanks for the great replies everyone. Sorry it’s taken so long to respond. Because of the nature of what we do and how many people there are that come through here in the course of time, we are always well stocked with most of the supplies mentioned here. Blankets, towels, cleaning products – bleach, soap, trash bags, lots of paper plates, Styrofoam cups, batteries, etc. We have enough food for a few thousand meals on hand at any given time. I’ve talked to the decision makers about some of the ideas given here. The thinking is that our everyday supplies will be plentiful enough for any practical emergency (and probably are), but because the designated emergency supplies are stored right alongside the regular supplies, if the regular supplies are damaged/destroyed/inaccessible, then so would the emergency supplies.

The first aid situation is improving greatly. Even before I said anything we had a staff training day where one of our local police officers, also cross trained as a paramedic, gave us all a crash course in first aid. He even focused on what we’d likely see in the inner city environment we are located in: trauma wounds such as stabbings and shootings, and keeping someone alive long enough after a drug overdose for medical assistance to show up. One of the staff here who is also a registered nurse has also been giving us additional instruction and updating/increasing the quality and size of our first aid kit. This was probably the biggest of my concern.

I don’t think I’ll really get much for dedicated emergency use, so I’m thinking about putting together a cheap EDC kit of the whistle, light, knife, and maybe/or not a fire starter (most probably wouldn’t carry the fire starter though) to give to all the staff for Christmas. I’m looking at the CountyComm $1 lights. Are there any other good sources for cheap yet good lights, knives, and whistles? Thanks again for the replies everyone.

-Jeff