5 Key Benefits of Disaster Insurance

In 2006, I was car-jacked at gun-point in Orlando Florida. It was by far one of the scariest moments of my life. Unfortunately for me, I did not have full insurance coverage on my car. As a result, I did not have any penny in compensation. That was a nightmare!

From that incident, I learned that there is power in preparedness. Without foresight, you can suddenly find yourself sinking. That is what happens to you when you don’t have insurance on your home or your business.

Having insurance, can make or break in the aftermath of a disaster. Here are 5 reasons why you need disaster insurance in my understanding as a disaster guy. Am not selling anyone ‘s insurance here. Far from it.

Benefit # 1: Control:

When you have disaster insurance like flood insurance, you have a degree of control and hope, should things fall apart during a disaster. With such hope, your blood pressure will not burst through the sky. More importantly, you will be compensated regardless of whether there is a presidential declaration of disaster or not.

Benefit # 2: Continuos Coverage:

Another beauty of having disaster insurance is that once you have it, it can serve you multiple times. Such coverage does not have to be renewed or cancelled in case of repeat losses. That can be extremely useful if you get hit twice by in the same year or so.

Benefit # 3: Federal Money is Not Free:

Did you know that you can only get federal compensation only after there is a Presidential Disaster Declaration? In the absence of such a declaration, your hopes for recovery will depend entirely on YOU. Additionally, in some cases, federal money will be given as long term loans, thus, you are better up having your own insurance than taking a loan.

Benefit # 4: Cost of Policies is Low:

Most disaster insurance polices cost significantly low premiums compared to the value insured. On the average you can pay about $500 annually for insured value over $100K. If you look at this in terms of cost versus benefits, you will realize that this is a big bang for your buck when you need it most.

Benefit # 5: There is no Payback:

When you have disaster insurance, it is your own to keep. This means that you can have some sleep at night, without having to agonize over how your business (employability) recovers from the disaster. When your insurance steps in, you can have a new lease of life to bounce back while others are sinking. Think about it! A word to the wise is sufficient!

Gideon F. For-mukwai, CEM

Preparedness Champion

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Good Samaritan Laws in Nevada

Have you ever walked away from helping someone who was in dire need of help like cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or severe bleeding? Were you more concerned about your own health or about potential liability from making a mistake in the course of helping someone?

The next time that happens, do not walk away; provide the person in need with help. You can save a life! If that ever happens, that memory will live with you for ever.

The good news is that if you are concerned about liability issues, Good Samaritan Laws will protect you. These laws have been enacted in all 50 states in the US. In general, the Good Samaritan Laws protect ordinary citizens who act in a reasonable and prudent way, in the course of giving first aid to someone in an emergency or life-threatening situation.

Someone who acts in a reasonable way, exercises care and the following-

• Moves a person in danger only if that person ‘s life was in danger, for instance when there are falling objects or rising flood waters,
• Get permission or consent from a conscious person before attempting to give care during an emergency,
• Check the person for other life-threatening conditions like bleeding before attempting to provide care,
• Call for urgent medical care from professionals like the 911 or enhanced 911
• Give care until medical professionals arrive to take over

In the State of Nevada, the Good Samaritan law (Nev. Rev. Stat. 41.506 – 2000- Gen. Stat) states, “Any person who, in good faith, renders emergency medical care or assistance to an injured person at the scene of an accident or other emergency without the expectation of receiving or intending to receive compensation from such injured person for service ‘  shall not be liable in civil damages for any act or omission; not constituting gross negligence’ in the course of such or assistance.”

In essence, a Good Samaritan Law protects rescuers or lay people who voluntarily help others in distress from being sued in tort or for wrongdoing. Given that these laws differ from state to state, I encourage you to check the provisions of the Good Samaritan Law in you state.

Armed with the knowledge from the law in your state, next time some collapses at work or in the subway, you should be able to help without being worried that you may be sued for making a mistake.

Gideon F. For-mukwai, CEM, MA

Preparedness Champion

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Is Your Family Safe? 5 Critical Elements of Family Safety

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “we tend to study geology the morning after an earthquake.” With family safety, we cannot afford to something only after an emergency has happened.  Then, it will be too late.

Readiness has to precede an emergency. To be a safe family, it is critical to have a basic understanding of what to do in an emergency. This takes 5 critical elements you must strive to accomplish in your family.

Make a Plan

A family safety plan is a simple statement of what to do (plan) during an emergency. The plan ideally, should reflect what could go wrong, who should do what and how it should be done by family members. If for example you share you apartment with someone who is very ill of pneumonia, your plan should identify what action steps should be taken in the event of an prolonged interruption of electrical power. The plan does not need to be complex, it needs to be customized to your needs. Identify problems and solutions. Another vital question is where will you keep your pet, if the public shelters do not accept your pet?

Get a Kit

Another key element of your family preparedness is a safety kit. Such a kit contains basic items that can be used in times of an emergency like a scissors, next of kin, water and disinfectant. This evening, I had to help a senior citizen suffered bleeding on his knee. Thanks to the availability of a first aid kit, I was able to bring the situation under control without being worried of my own safety. Without the kit, I would not have had disposable gloves or band aid to arrest the bleed. Before buying a kit insist on knowing the contents and how to use them. One vital question you may ask yourself is this: how will I light up our living room if there is no more candle in the stores.

Get Trained

It is not enough to have a first aid kit or a safety kit. It takes knowledge and awareness to know how to deal with a particular situation. Based on the threats in your area, enroll yourself for a seminar to know what to do in an emergency like an earthquake, extinguishing a fire or providing help to a family member who chokes a mackerel fish bone. Remember that the basic skills you have may make a difference in the life your loved one. An ideal way to learn new skills is to attend American Red Cross classes or other free classes provided by city or county. A possible hypothetical skill question is this: does my youngest child know what to do prior to the arrival of first responders when I suffer a cardiac arrest?

Test your Plan

If you take preparedness seriously, I challenge you to test your plan once in a year. You can make it fun and enjoyable. The goal of testing your plan is not find fault but to address issues that affect family safety. By this I mean, for example you can try to see if you have the contact numbers of your next of kin without the possibility of turning on your cell phone or computer. Alternatively, you can also test to see if everyone in the house understands the procedures of taking cover during an earthquake. Perhaps, an intriguing question you can test this: does my child have an mobile and office numbers if I am unreachable during an accident?

Update your Plan

Every year, your plan needs updating. Whatever you have learned in the course of the year, assign someone to hold everyone accountable to being up to date. For instance get someone to ensure everyone has a contact names in case of emergency (ICE) on their phone. By getting little elements of things learned, or just posting all key hotlines on the fridge and preparing wallet size copies for everyone, can make a big difference. Without doubt, the mindset to be prepared can come in handy at a moment when you least expected. An important question that can enhance your preparedness is this: do I have my child ‘s blood group and soccer coach ‘s number should there be a problem during the course of their travel out of town for a game?

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EMICUS Aggregates Disaster News

Gone are the days when you had to browse several sites to view latest updates about a particular disaster. EMICUS is an emerging system that consolidates everything for you.

Am OK

- As long you can breathe, you can send a word to your family that you are OK, provided you can send a text message. The system will broadcast it to all your family members, friends, followers that well-wishers via FB, Twiter that you are OK.

Gauge PPP people, places & photos

What if you are traveling in a new city that will be hit by a hurricane. What will you do? Stop and ask for directions? OK that is fine but do you know that lots of people barely know their way to their grand ma ‘s place and their gal friends because they go there often for dinner?

If you want to know where a public shelter, gas, food, and more, EMICUS can help you.  It is like your GPS.

Information Portal

With this feature, your company can broadcast a message like run and take cover or evacuate now to all your staff and employees using yesterday and today ‘s technologies. In this way people at multiple locations can receive the same message ASAP.

Platform of platforms

Because everyday citizens can access it and co-create and distribute content, everyone has suddenly become a reporter of sorts. Instead of a few reporters for major news corporations, we have a few hundred or thousand citizens with raw facts about realtime traffic or fire.

Lifeline for crowdsourcing

EMICUS combines information from both their system and other social media sites to create a pool of information that few can rival. This power of pooling from the crowd, listening and capturing a full view of an incident in text, graphics and video is extremely in getting the full picture of an incident.

If you like to check out a disaster news aggregator, go check out emicus.com.

Gideon F. For-mukwai,CEM

Preparedness Champion

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Haiti Earthquake Disaster: Lessons and Who is to Blame?

It is very sad to even contemplate talking about who is to blame for the disaster in Haiti. It is nonetheless a tough question we must ask otherwise we will Not be better prepared for the next disaster. Who is to blame for this calamity in Haiti? Should we blame nature, or should we human folly? It is pretty easy to eliminate technological causes for this disaster.

As an observer of contemporary geopolitical issues at work in developing countries, especially disaster related issues, I take issue with both nature and man in this disaster.

Nature is to Blame:

With respect to nature, we can blame the tectonic plates for their constant movement and restlessness. That said, it is not our business to determine how tectonic forces work or move. It is our business to attempt to mitigate or prevent the impact of their movement on human life. Yes, nature is to blame but ultimately, man shares the blame for napping and not doing enough.

Secondly we can also blame nature for Haiti ‘s precarious geographic location next to a dangerous fault-line that became the epicenter of the quake. The location and geography did not make the situation any easier for the impoverished nation… but more could have been done by man to prevent the impact of this disaster.

Man-made is to Blame:

Haiti ‘s disaster is also largely a man-made disaster in the sense the the leadership of the country did not do enough to prepare the country for such a disaster. The leadership failed failed its people in enacting a building code to provide guidelines on how to build earthquake-resistant buildings. When NPR reported on this on January 14, I thought it was a joke that there is a country without a building code in the 21 Century. Think about that!

Secondly, the citizens also failed to hold the leadership accountable in adopting international emergency preparedness principles to shape mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. In my work as president of the International Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), I have never met with any colleague from Haiti coming to conferences to gain knowledge to help the people back home.

The purpose of this blog post is not to lay blame but to ask a few questions that can help us learn. Thus, I am asking myself what lessons can the world learn from this disaster?

What Lessons for the Rest of Us?

Humans don’t learn from disaster. Sadly, in this disaster as in Bandar Aceh, Katrina and others, man does not learn much from disasters. Something must be done to ensure that man learns. How soon are going to see the end of such drama in other parts of the world?

Accountability: Is it not time the world should hold leaders accountable for failing to prepare their people for disasters? Is it not time we make disaster preparedness mandatory? Without making mandatory like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, dysfunctional and functional governments will continue to undermine the safety of their people. It is time the UN steps in.             As a citizen of the world, with roots in Africa, Asia and Americas, I am hereby calling on the United Nations to work towards signing a Universal Declaration of Mandatory Disaster Preparedness for all nations of the world.

Nations that deliberately fail to prepare and expose their people, the leaders that fail to mitigate threats should be made to face civil for criminal charges for undermining the safety of their people. This is long overdue!

Gideon F. For-mukwai, MA, CEM

Preparedness Champion

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