Sept. is National Preparedness month-ReadyPa
Oxford Tribune and Daily Local News
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
September is National Preparedness Month, the federal government initiative to remind citizens and businesses to develop a plan in case of a disaster. Ditto for Pennsylvania.
This month Gov. Edward G. Rendell will launch ReadyPa, the commonwealth's new awareness campaign that is part of its National Preparedness Month activities.
The American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter is on board, too, with tips on its website on how to be prepared for a disaster as well as training and educational programs in the region.
But not everyone can execute a preparedness plan, so members of the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers, or NAPO, are getting trained to help them out.
For the first time, local NAPO members will participate in regional Red Cross disaster preparedness training taught by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster. The training in October will further enable professional organizers in this region to help their clients be prepared for life and its events, said Darla DeMorrow, market director for the chapter that includes members in the Greater Philadelphia region and South Jersey.
"It is a worthwhile effort," said DeMorrow, also the owner of HeartWork Organizing of Wayne.
In this region, the worry is not wildfires, or a series of hurricanes. Here fire and flooding are a real possibilities, DeMorrow explained. It doesn't mean necessarily that a house is washed away, but a few inches of water in the basement from rain or even a broken pipe is a disaster for a homeowner.
"People lose sleep, am I prepared?" DeMorrow said they question. "The (national) message is too broad for them to take action. They've never been evacuated. What does that mean?"
Professional organizers sort though the process of editing a business or homeowner's documents.
DeMorrow's first piece of advice for homeowners is that anything stored in the basement or the garage is one step away from being discarded. Basements are notoriously damp, garages are open to the elements and both can get visits from rodents.
Professional organizers', such as DeMorrow's, job is to help the homeowner reduce their clutter, edit what they have. If it is indeed something that should be stored, DeMorrow said she will suggest a safe way to do that.
If the client is a business, she said she will assess the company's information document retention policy and suggest a hard drive backup. The problem with being an entrepreneur is that all waking hours are spent focusing on the business with no time left to work on a disaster plan, she said.
Tom Foley, chief executive at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Red Cross, said in the past year the organization has reached more than 900,000 people with preparedness materials and conducted 10 preparedness summits for health and human services and faith-based organizations.
The summits focus on personal, organizations and pandemic preparedness, Foley said in a phone interview from his office in Philadelphia.
Health and human services and faith-based organizations are the group "that want and need to give care and can't unless they are prepared themselves," Foley said.
Foley said the Red Cross trains and educates for-profits, such as the professional organizers, as well as non-profits.
Helpful Web sites: Regional Red Cross: www.redcross-philly.org.
Insurance Information Institute: www.iii.org.
Philadelphia Chapter NAPO: www.napo-grc.org.
Federal government: www.ready.gov.
Pennsylvania: www.pema.state.pa.us.org. www.health.state.pa.us.