Ready for Anything: A Disaster Planning Manual for Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs

RESPONSE

All the preparation in the world will not matter if you do not also plan out the specific course of action you will take when a disaster strikes. Disasters bring with them chaos, confusion, and fear. The most effective way to combat these destructive elements is to have a clear, comprehensive, well-practiced response plan in place. What are your priorities? What supplies are most critical? What phone numbers will you need? What will each staff person’s responsibility be? What should the youth who are present do?

This section of the manual will walk you through the process of answering these questions, and will show you how to create your own disaster response plan (using the template located in Appendix H) for those disasters that pose the greatest risk to your facility.

The ‘big question’

The first decision you must make during a disaster scenario is whether you, your staff, and youth will remain in the facility during the disaster or leave. This decision informs every other part of your disaster plan.

Study the flowchart below. It breaks down the general response options for any disaster scenario, and will help guide you as you draw up your disaster plans.

As you can see, a disaster scenario begins with the “big question” of whether to stay or go and moves through a series of other decisions until you arrive at the recovery stage, at which point the crisis has passed and you can begin to assess your performance, recover from the disaster, and make any necessary changes to your overall plan.

You’ve already developed your plans for building, local, and regional evacuations, so you know what to do if the answer to the big question is to go.

What if the answer is to stay? Many of the disasters you are likely to experience will not require an evacuation. Instead, you will more often remain in the facility and deal with the crisis at hand, with the goal of resolving the situation as quickly, efficiently, and safely as possible.

“Remain in the facility” can mean different things. It may, in the event of a blizzard or large-scale power outage, simply require that everyone should stay put and wait for the crisis to pass. It may also require aggressive action on the part of facility staff (for example, to put out a fire or resolve a medical emergency). Finally, “remaining in place” can refer to the act of “sheltering”—that is, seeking refuge in the facility’s safe room.

Disaster response plans

You've already identified those disasters most likely to affect your facility. Now it's time to begin planning your specific responses to each one. Consider the large-scale disasters that you selected in the previous chapter-which ones would require evacuation, and which ones would have you sheltering within the facility?

On the next page, you will see a completed disaster response plan that uses the template found in Appendix H. Spend a moment reviewing this plan, then turn to the following page for a detailed discussion of its various parts.

Disaster response plan for a tornado

As you can see, the top box on the template is where you identify the specific disaster for which you are planning—in this case, a tornado.

Below that are the procedures. This space is for breaking down, in as much detail as possible, the steps that you, your staff, and youth will take in response to the disaster at hand. The answer to the big question, in this case, is to remain in place—the staff and youth will take shelter in the facility safe room. While the on-duty support staff take responsibility for moving youth there and handing out critical supplies, the director (or lead staff person) takes responsibility for turning off the gas, closing exterior doors and windows, and shutting off lights. Once the entire facility population is in the safe room, they use their battery-powered radio to listen for weather updates; when the all-clear is announced, they leave the safe room and check the facility for damage. If the facility is no longer habitable, the local or regional evacuation plan comes into play.

Below the procedures area is a space to list the critical supplies and resources that the specific disaster scenario demands. Since there is a possibility that an evacuation will be necessary in the wake of a tornado, this plan calls for distribution of all the facility’s Go-Bags. The first aid kit, if not already in the safe room, would be brought there as well, in addition to extra flashlights and a battery-powered radio for listening to weather updates as they are broadcast.

The area below the supplies and resources section is for listing emergency contact information that applies to the specific disaster scenario. For example, a response plan for a medical emergency might list the local fire, rescue squad, and police emergency numbers. Since the only real response to a tornado involves sheltering and riding it out, there is no number listed here.

The final area on the form is for detailing the recovery processes that will help return life to normal when the disaster is over. See the final section of this manual, “Recovery,” for more information on this section.

Crafting your own plans

Sounds straightforward, right? Now, try designing your own! Review everything you’ve done so far and consider your facility, your resources, and your staff. Then, turn to Appendix H and make a copy of the disaster response plan template. Use it to draw up a disaster response plan for a large fire in your facility. Be as thorough as you can. Don’t worry about the “Recovery” phase yet.

When you’re ready, scroll down and compare your plan with the one shown below.

Disaster Response plan for a fire in building

So how close was your plan to this one?

Remember that there is no one way to draw up a disaster response plan. The single most important element of any plan is your overall level of preparedness—how much you’ve done to supply your facility, train staff and youth, and anticipate potential problems before they happen. No one plan can account for every possible nuance of every disaster—the best you can hope for is that, by taking the time to anticipate your response, you will be prepared to handle any situation when it arises. But take a few moments now to walk through the fire response plan above.

Obviously, the answer to the big question here is evacuation. The first step requires the person responding to the fire to pull the fire alarm, which is the facility’s signal for an immediate building evacuation, the plan for which is referenced in the procedures. This plan, already designed, specifies who is responsible for gathering needed supplies, what the procedures are for getting to the rally point, and so on.

Next, the responder must evaluate the situation. Depending on the extent of the fire, he or she would either attempt to extinguish it using a portable fire extinguisher (step 3) or seal off the affected area to help prevent the fire’s spread to other parts of the facility (step 4). He or she would then call emergency services (two possible numbers to use are listed in the contacts section) and evacuate, joining the others at the rally point.

Two critical resources are listed in the supplies section: a fire extinguisher and the facility Go-Bags, which would have been taken as part of the building evacuation plan.

The end result is a manageable plan that you can teach to staff and youth, one that can be drilled and refined as necessary. It may not be perfect, and it may not anticipate every facet of a fire emergency, but in the end it’s a starting point—and that’s what any real disaster response plan is: a good start.

Moving on

Return to those disasters, both large- and small-scale, that you believe represent real threats to your facility. Make additional copies of the disaster response plan template (Appendix H) and begin drafting response plans for each one. Be thorough. Involve your staff and youth (if possible). Think about how each plan fits into your overall preparedness—your supplies, your evacuation and transportation plans, your communication systems, your staff’s training, and so forth.

When you’re finished, you’ll be ready to move on to this manual’s final section, “Recovery.”

Recovery >>