Emergency Preparedness: Natural and Human-Generated Disasters
I live in Georgia, so the biggest natural disaster we get is tornadoes. My son’s daycare is on a main street in my town. It also happens to be right down the street from a Fire Station. Since tornadoes are a normal thing, we have sirens and drills. There are sirens at all Fire Stations and by schools. On the first Wednesday of every month in good weather, the sirens are tested. You can hear them every where. Also at this time, schools have drills that teach children how to duck and cover. This consists of having all children in areas with no windows. They will either be lined up in hallways on their knees with their hands clasped over their neck and their heads tucked down between their knees. If they are not in hallways, they are to be under tables and desk in this same position until the siren has gone off. In a childcare situation the older kids are able to be taught the drills, but the younger kids are not. In my city, there is a County Building that most day cares are assigned to go to in sever weather.
The first thing to get prepared for tornadoes would be to make sure all parents know where their children will be taken if the weather is too severe for their facility. There should be contact info for every child in the facility with the director. The facility should be equipped with weather alert radios so there is some warning before the sirens. Each staff member must be assigned a responsibility, and a group of children to be responsible for. There should be several cell phones on the premises also. If the power goes out, many land line phones will not work either. There should also be a checklist of all children at the facility. Check it off frequently to make sure all children are still there.
If there is not a set plan, there can and will be chaos. The teachers need to show the kids how to be calm. The children are going to be scared. If they see that the teachers are scared or stressed out there will be chaos. In an instance like this, many parents will try to pick up their kids immediately. Try to tell the parent that they are safe there and it could be more dangerous trying to rush and get them. Have them stay calm as well. Since this daycare is on a main road, there will be a lot of traffic. The daycare facility should be prepared to stay open later than normal. By all means in a situation like this, verify id’s of all people picking up the children. If there is chaos, a child could go missing. There may be power outages and down trees and power lines. Someone needs to access the damages to the building and surrounding area before it is cleared. If after the tornado, there is significant damage to the building, follow plan for evacuation to other facilities. At this point, all parents need to be notified that their child is at another facility.
Another big emergency takes place in the summer also. In Georgia it gets very hot and we have a lot of pollution. We are provided by our weather stations, warnings on the heat level and smog levels for each day. The director of the facility needs to be aware of this information everyday. Activities need to be planned according to this weather threat. There should also be records of every child’s health problems. Any child that has Asthma or any other respiratory problems must be monitored frequently. There should be a summer preparedness check list that the facility goes through. Prior to the hot summer months, all air units need to be checked and make sure they are in good condition. All windows and doors need to be checked to make sure they are not leaking. There should be plenty of water on site. If the children have outside time, they should be given adequate water. All staff should be trained to know warning signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. They also need to keep in mind that the hotter it is outside, the hotter the playground equipment is.
The main problems with this would be that a child or teacher gets over heated and the signs are not caught fast enough. Children could also receive burns from outside equipment if it is too hot outside. The teachers should be able to give first aid when needed and know when to call for help.
Works Cited
Robertson, C. (2010). Safety, Nutrition, and Health in Early Childhood Education. Belmont: Wadsworth.
http://www.nswfb.nsw.gov.au/page.php?id=579
No comments:
Post a Comment