More thoughts on preparedness from "Our friend in the mountains"

 

In the past I've posted some thoughts from a friend who styles himself (for publication) "Our friend in the mountains".  He sent me a couple more e-mails in recent days, and I thought they were worth sharing.

Standing Guard

We've gotten used to the "Designated Driver" - the person in any family or group outing that agrees to not consume alcohol so he or she can do the driving.

It's now time to add the "Designated Watch Stander" - the person who stands watch for the family or group when they are out and about. The Designated Watch Stander has no other duties than standing watch - they don''t provide child care, assist with Grandma, do the cooking or food prep, or play with their phone. They stand watch. The first time they are caught paying attention to their phone instead of Watch Duties they are forever banned, not from watch standing, but banned from the group.

The Designated Watch Stander should be armed - and skilled with that arm -  but there is no reason for them to be the only person armed or skilled in use of arms.

Standing watch is Real Work - properly standing watch consumes a lot of mental energy, which is why in the military one stands watch in 2-hour or 4-hour increments. And when the watch changes the handover of responsibility must be clear and unequivocal - "I am relieving you, I take the watch;" "I stand relieved, you have the watch."

There should also be an "Alert Word;" this is easier with families, but important for groups as well. One word, or simple two-word phrase that is unique and very difficult to misunderstand or mishear, and the response from everyone in the group must be uniform: upon hearing the Alert Word all talking stops, all activity stops, everyone pays attention to instructions from the Watch Stander. No one does the "huh, what?" stupidity dance. It is quie reasonable to take two minutes to develop a response plan, what the group, and its members do, in the event an active threat develops.

All of this requires an understanding that threats exist, from terrorists on paragliders to snatch-and-grab thieves stealing from cars, and everything in between, and that Things Are Serious. Some people will refuse to accept that; those are not people with whom you want to spend time, they are mentally locked into what psychologists call Normalcy Bias, and that can be hazardous to your health and safety.

"Personal status reporting"

Family members can be, and usually are, in very different places during the course of a day, often, in several different places - school, grocery store, work, athletic practice, etc. When "something happens" each will be concerned about the  whereabouts, and status, of each other.

Pick a trusted friend or relative to perform as an Information Clearing House, preferably one some distance away to avoid being involved in the same event; if you live in Miami picking Aunt Sally in Ft Lauderdale is the wrong answer, she will be involved in the same hurricane you are. 

Uncle Ralph in Des Moines is a much better choice, unless Uncle Ralph is a chatterbox who can't keep the calls short, and who needs his reading glasses and a pencil to make notes but can never find either, etc.

The calls need to be short and concise: "Uncle Ralph, this is Suzy, there's been an incident at school that happened when I was in 3rd period Algebra. I'm not sure about all the details, but I'm fine, and my algebra class has been evacuated to the Pine Grove church at 4th and Main St. I'll call with more info as I have it."

"Hi Ralph, this is Fred, I'm at work, everything's fine here, I heard something about an event at a school here, has any family member called?" "Fred, Suzy called, she didn't have any specific details, she's fine, her class was evacuated to the Pine Grove church at 4th and Main St., I haven't heard from Marge or Junior."

"OK, thanks, Ralph, I'll call back at the top of the next hour. My cell is on and with me."

These calls are not "to catch up on things," discuss who is going to what dance with whom, did you get that problem with the outboard motor fixed, exchange recipes, etc. Short and informative. The Info Clearing House person needs to be able to prod callers to get to the point, not let them ramble - it's "who, what, where, when, goodbye." That person should have a list handy with everyone's contact info - meaning "instantly accessible" not buried in a drawer with 6 months of old grocery lists. And, being able to receive texts is very useful - in any emergency telephone systems, both landline and cell, become overloaded and it may be difficult to get through with voice calls but texts are not only "store-and-forward"  - texts will be queued and sent when the system has the capacity to do so - and texts consume a lot less system capacity (bandwidth) than voice calls.

Useful ideas for those preparing to deal with emergencies.  Thanks, "Friend in the mountains"!

Peter