Emergency!

Are you prepared for the Zombie apocalypse?

This silly video (aside from ArhArhArh meme that has taken over our classroom) reminds us of the three rules of emergency planning:

  • Know the risks
  • Make a plan
  • Create an emergency kit

Here in coastal British Columbia we don’t prepare for tornadoes (or zombies, for that matter), but we do anticipate earthquakes. We do regular drills where we drop-cover-hold-on-20mmacg

then evacuate the building. At our school we have first aid kits, a large emergency preparedness container, and organized plans for students to stay safe and be reunited with their families. Our staff train often to be prepared for a variety of emergency situations. Doing drills means we will stay safe, feel calmer, and be able to help each other through a difficult time.

Our Canadian neighbours in Fort McMurray, Alberta know that preparedness saves lives. Last year a devastating wildfire destroyed buildings and property in and around their community. Yet 88,000 people were safely evacuated in a very short time thanks to government organizations, local businesses (from gas stations to airlines), emergency responders, and individuals stepping up and helping.

Readers from the Student Blogging Challenge, here are your possible choices this week:

Activity #1
Readers, what natural disasters or emergencies are factors where you live? How have you prepared? If you have faced a large-scale emergency, how did you deal with it? Do you have any advice for us? Please let us know in a comment (and please leave your blog URL!).

Activity #2
Write a list post of items that a student can put in an emergency bedside kit. If you had to leave in a hurry, what could you have ready to grab-and-go? (Come back when you are done and leave your URL so we can read your post).

Activity #3
Write a post describing a natural or human-caused emergency that has happened in your community. What were the consequences? How did you, your family, or emergency responders deal with it? (Come back when you are done and leave your URL so we can read your post).

Activity #4
Please take our Emergency Preparedness Survey. We will share the results and our conclusions by mid-November. Thanks!

Stay safe, fellow bloggers!

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120 comments

  1. Hi Mrs. Smith,

    I have done all the activities.
    When I was about 3 years old, Hawaii (Oahu is where I live) had a big storm. It was raining for 40 days and 40 nights straight. The whole island was pretty much flooded and a sewer line broke during those days. My parents didn’t make a very big deal about it, they still went to work (I actually don’t remember if I went to school or not).

    Thank You,
    Alexandra

    Blog: http://hmsalexandra.edublogs.org
    Activity 1-4 post: http://hmsalexandra.edublogs.org/2016/11/22/edublogs-week-4-activity-1-4/

  2. Hi Mrs. Smith (activity #1),
    Here in Hawaii we mostly have floods. We just make sure that we aren’t really spending too much time outside. We also try to time it so that we are home already or at least not driving. We would just make sure that we have food, water, light sources, phone chargers, and we would also make sure that we stay together.

    http://hmstylers.edublogs.org

  3. Dear Mrs. Smith,

    I live in Hawaii and we don’t have a lot of earthquakes, tsunamis , tornado’s are any natural disasters. But we do have fires. In case a fire happens my family knows the escape routes and we check the smoke alarms. At school, if we have a fire we file in outside.

    Please check out my blog,
    Mina

    http://hmsmina.edublogs.org/

  4. Dear Mrs. Smith,

    I live in Hawaii and we don’t have a lot of earthquakes, tsunamis , tornado’s are any natural disasters. But we do have fires. In case a fire happens my family knows the escape routes and we check the smoke alarms. At school, if we have a fire we file in outside.

    Please check out my blog
    http://hmsmina.edublogs.org/

    -Mina

  5. Hi Mr. Smith,

    Hi I am from HMS in Honolulu, Hawaii I enjoyed the video and I will tell my famiy bout this and making a emergency kit at home with water , food , flashlight , ETC. I also have a kit a school in my locker for smaller emergencys like rubber bands and band-aids just in case.

    My Blog: http://hmskarli.edublogs.org

    Aloha,
    Karli

  6. Hello Mrs. Smith,

    My name is Weiyi and I am a student from Ms. Kriese’s class in Texas. I was looking through the posts and I had found this to be interesting. My mom and I have experienced some natural disasters in the past few years. Severe weather is a somewhat common one here in Texas, and we are in tornado alley, which is an area in the United States where tornados are more common than other parts of the country. We also have experienced a part of Hurricane Harvey, and we had packed our car just in case we needed to evacuate.

    Going back to the blog post though, I do like some of the things that the post includes. I like your examples which allowed me to learn more information about your region. I also like the fact that you have started the blog post as somewhat of a joke that ended up pretty serious. The flow of the post is also pretty nice.

    This blog post has given me some inspirations for future stories and future blog posts. Thank you for writing this post!

    If you ever want to come and visit my blog, here’s the URL to my blog: http://edublogs.eanesisd.net/weiyi4363/

    May wondering words and epic examples rule!

    Best Regards,
    Weiyi Huang

    1. Hi Weiyi,
      Thank you so much for reading this post so thoughtfully and taking the time to reply in detail. 2017 has be a tough year for severe weather, flooding, and fires. The south-eastern US, the Caribbean, and California have been particularly affected and will take many years to recover. Our province experienced record-breaking forest fires that required the evacuation of many cities and towns for more than a month.
      I have visited your impressive blog and left a comment on your post about your coach.
      Thanks for visiting,
      Ms. Smith

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