I moved to Nashville, Tennessee in June 2006. In all honesty, I have been more scared of storms in the past 6 years than I ever have been in my whole life. Nashville and the surrounding areas were battered with tornadoes just three months before I moved here. I had never heard a tornado siren before living here nor had I known how I would long for a storm shelter.
Then in 2011, we had a 500 or 1000 year flood and it shut down the city. Friends couldn't get home from work for over a week. People lost their homes, their life's work. We had to be put on water restrictions because one of our water treatment plants were impacted huge by the flood. Schools were flooded and had to stay closed.
But disasters aren't just natural ones. They can be man made ones. Our schools now must be prepared for what to do if a shooting or other man-made disaster should happen.
When they announced the Save the Children Diaster Report for 2013 was out, I was curious how Tennessee measured up. For once, it seems, we got a great report card! Check out the pic below.
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| Click on the picture to find out how your state did! |
Sad to say but in our house, we don't have a plan in place. This week was safety week at Abbey Grace's preschool. The day she had a firefighter come and talk with her school we figured we should have a plan of where to go to if the house ever caught on fire.
They say hind-sight is 20/20 and that is usually what it takes to learn what to do the next time around. But it shouldn't have to take it personally happening to us to get prepared and have a plan in place. Check out this plan and set up something for your family:
Check out your states report card and see how they measure up. If they don't measure up well, then contact your representatives. If they do, make sure the plan is being implemented.
I don't know the full details of my daughter's preschools plans but I am going to email them to find out.
And now being a school nurse, I am going to make sure our school is taking steps to be prepared and I am going to learn my role and speak up for what needs to be done.
I was in nursing school at the University of Louisiana at Monroe when Hurricane Katrina hit. I remember watching it on our news during class. Several classmates were from south Louisiana. The Gulf Coast was use to being warned about hurricanes but they usually turned before hitting directly. But as we watched it grow and grow and show no signs of turning and people chose to stay or were just then deciding to evacuate, it was too late. Obviously, Louisiana was not prepared in any way for that. While our nursing school made care packages to take to our Civic Center to pass out to the incredibly large number of people who came to our area, it was evident that no one in the state would remain unaffected by Katrina. Our little town was bursting at the seams and we were not prepared either. With all that said, this quote below still stuns me! I could not imagine going six months without my child!
