Weekly Newsletter: Shelter in Place
Weekly Newsletter: The tornado season is upon us. The past week rounding out the month of April brought much devastation to families caught in the path of tornadoes. Heavy rains caused roads to give way creating huge sink holes. Flooding was up and down the East coast. What does bad weather have to do with Federal and Postal employees. The answer is EVERYTHING. These workers make up the largest workforce in the world making it highly conceivable that the workers and their families or someone they know will be impacted by disaster whether an act of nature or man-made.
Because the Federal Government takes the possibility of such occurrences very seriously a program called PREPARE-ATHON shelter-in-place is a part of the government’s emergency preparedness efforts. The workforce actually has practice drills to understand what to do in case of such an emergency. When something unforeseen happens, the first instinct of the average individual is to leave the facility where they are and rush out to gather children and other loved ones.
Although it is a natural instinct, it might not always be the safest step to take. Shelter-in-place programs are becoming more and more wide-spread because if workers can best be protected where they are and children can best be protected where they are, perhaps not the ideal situation for parents, then it might be the best and safest course to stay where you are. That is easier said than done, especially for parents of children of any age.
We are reminded of the terrible winter storm in Atlanta where children were not able to leave their schools for safety reasons and parents could not get to them. When parents did try to reach their children, the massive pile up on the roads and expressways of Georgia were like a back-up we had never witnessed. Cars had to be abandoned and children had to sleep in schools for more than one night.
There are many disasters that happen thus the reason for emergency preparedness plans that the workforce is thoroughly familiar with. The largest workforce in the world must be prepared to respond to such emergencies. In addition to the Prepare-A-Thon program, the Federal Government has a Dismissal and Closure Guide that outlines everything employees need to know. There is also an Occupant Emergency Plan.  None of these programs are effective if the largest workforce in the world is not thoroughly familiar with them. If your agency is offering the Prepare-A-Thon program individually or in tandem with other agencies, participate so that you will be prepared and you will also be prepared to help someone else.
Employees can take initiatives on their own by designating individuals in their agencies to be Emergency Preparedness Captains of Information. This only means that the Captains of Information are charged with staying abreast of safety and emergency offerings of their employer – the Federal Government and passing that information down to their colleagues.  Email news alerts are great, but brown-bag lunch gatherings give workers to collaborate and discuss what they think they would do in case of an emergency.
Based on the information discussed, Captains of Information could determine if OPM needs to add additional information to their emergency plans or if they have answered the call as is. Helping to get prepared is a burden we should all want to share. There is safety in numbers. For more information go to READY.GOV. This concludes our weekly newsletter.
p.s. Always Remember to Share What You Know
