AEDC Emergency Management announces participation in September’s National Preparedness Month (NPM)

  • Published
  • By Shawn Jacobs
  • AEDC/PA
Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn. --  This month, our nation is marking the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Arnold Engineering Development Center's (AEDC) Emergency Management Office has committed to participate in National Preparedness Month (NPM) in September, an event founded after 9/11 to increase preparedness in the United States. The event, now in its eighth year, is a nationwide, month-long effort hosted by the Ready Campaign and Citizen Corps, encouraging households, businesses and communities to prepare and plan for emergencies.

AEDC Emergency Management is participating this year by re-emphasizing the various components of the base's preparedness plans and encouraging employees to think about preparedness at home as well as on the job.

One of NPM's key messages is be prepared in the event an emergency causes you to be self-reliant for three days without utilities and electricity, water service, access to a supermarket or local services or maybe even without response from police, fire or rescue. Preparing can start with three important steps:

1. Get an emergency supply kit.
2. Make a plan for what to do in an emergency.
3. Be informed about emergencies that could happen in your community and identify sources of information in your community that will be helpful before, during and after an emergency.

Preparedness is a shared responsibility; it takes a whole community. This year's National Preparedness Month focuses on turning awareness into action by encouraging all individuals and all communities nationwide to make an emergency preparedness plan. Preparedness information and events will be posted to Ready.gov.

"We always try to be prepared," Daryl Justice, Emergency Management lead for Aerospace Testing Alliance, AEDC's operating contractor, said. "We do the plans and the exercises, but we want to do a little extra this month. What we want to do is maybe get out and be seen, go through some of the facilities and check for educational materials that people might have posted. We've got emergency management representatives throughout the organizations, both in ATA and Air Force, and we send information to them and ask them to help us disseminate it."

Justice said a surprising number of people nationwide are not prepared for either a natural or man-made disaster.

"It's estimated - all the statistics that have been run through FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] and all these different emergency response agencies - that up to as much as 64 percent of the public is not prepared," he said. "It's almost like the American people think they have a bubble around them and [think] nothing will affect them, so a significant number of the American people aren't prepared.

"That's what National Preparedness Month is all about. It's to encourage people to get prepared. It can be a family plan. Talk to the officials at your kids' schools and find out their plans for an active shooter or the tornado plan. If something does happen involving the schools, how do they get in touch with their kids?"

Even though readiness plans are in place and frequently practiced on base through exercises, Justice said NPM is still a good time to give extra thought to such plans. For example, he said there is sometimes confusion between the different shelter measures taken in the event of some emergencies. Employees are urged to lock down or barricade-in-place for an active shooter, shelter-in-place for a hazardous material release and take protective shelter for severe weather. The principle is the same, but the actions taken are different, according to Justice.

"For an active shooter, you try to get behind a locked door, barricade the door with furniture if possible and not make any noise," Justice said. "[In the event of] a hazardous material release, you want to go upstairs as much as you can because they settle closer to the ground. Get into a pre-identified room, seal it and let the danger pass. For a tornado, of course, it's the lowest level, away from any doors and windows.

"The fire department and police practice at least quarterly at AEDC, but we try to get out and involve the base populous sometimes, whether shelter-in-place or maybe an active shooter exercise. People need to take it seriously. Once we've practiced, we need to implement it when the emergency happens, and [people will] be amazed that they don't have to stop and think."

For more information about the Ready Campaign and National Preparedness Month, visit Ready.gov or call 1-800-BE-READY, 1-888-SE-LISTO and TTY 1-800-462-7585. At AEDC, call Justice or Emergency Management Coordinator Brad Walker at 454-7758.



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