Confirm with your family that they are supportive of your ESS response volunteer work – consider child, elder, or pet care arrangements if required.
Involve your family, including children, if any, in preparedness efforts, to reduce their fears about similar disasters at home.
Discuss With Your Employer
- That each community is responsible for its own ESS program, although the province sets the standards for ESS.
- Volunteers are required primarily for their own community.
- ESS assignments don’t happen very often.
- Explain that it is possible that an experienced ESS responder could be called to help in other areas of the province.
- Volunteers do not have to accept an assignment.
- Assignments are generally up to 72 hours duration but could be longer.
- Training for new volunteers is generally held on evenings and weekends.
- Determine whether you could take paid time off during an ESS assignment.
- Sometimes volunteers may need a written request to allow for them to be released from work or study. Figure 1-2 is a sample letter that your ESS Director can send to your employer or school confirming you are part of an official ESS team, explaining the importance of having ESS volunteers, and asking for support for paid time off.
Family Reunification Plan
- Develop a family reunification plan to get the family back together in case of separation at the time of a disaster – planning is critical in reuniting the family when communications break down following a disaster.
- Pick a meeting spot in case you’re separated from family members.
- Arrange for an out-of-province emergency contact and communicate their contact information to your family’s daycare(s), school(s), local emergency contact(s), and employer(s).
- Identify a person who is willing and able to act as your family’s out-of-area contact person.
- Seek his or her support in the family’s reunification planning process.
- The person should have voice mail to record calls when away and should routinely check for messages.
- Keep your out-of-area contact info in your wallet, “Grab and Go” bag, or other readily accessible location.
- Assign someone who is previously approved by the school, to collect your child(ren) from school or daycare if you can’t.
Emergency Supply Kit
- An emergency supply kit is a collection of basic household items you and your family may need during an emergency.
- Prepare your family including pets, to be on their own for 72 hours – assemble an emergency supply kit with enough water, food, and supplies.
- Most of the items on the checklist won’t need to be purchased—look around your home for items that you already own; if items must be bought and you are on a limited budget, try spreading out your purchases over several paychecks knowing that your family is taken care of during a disaster means you can focus on helping others in need.
- Decide on a system to remind yourself when it is time to replace items that may expire, for example, twice per year when you change your clocks to daylight savings time in the spring and fall.
- See Figure 1-4 for a checklist of items you may need for your emergency supply kit.
Grab-and-Go Bag
- When a disaster happens, there may not be enough time to collect emergency supplies and evacuate – assemble a grab-and-go bag for your home, office, and car.
- A grab-and-go bag is a collection of basic household items you may need during your call out to an assignment or if you need to evacuate from your home, office, or car.
- Ensure the bag contains enough supplies for a minimum of 72 hours.
- Most of the items on the checklist won’t need to be purchased—look around your home for items that you already own; if items must be bought and you are on a limited budget, try spreading out your purchases over several paycheques.
- Pack healthy foods with a long shelf life.
- Pack lightly – each person will have to carry his or her own bag.
- Decide on a system to remind yourself when it is time to replace items that may expire, for example, twice per year when you change your clocks to daylight savings time in the spring and fall.
- See Figure 1-5 for a checklist of items you may need for your grab-and-go bag.
Training
- ESS training is developed in partnership between Emergency Management BC and the Justice Institute of British Columbia and is provided at no cost to ESS responders in BC
- Register and participate in ESS training at website: www.jibc.ca/ess/
