Fairfax County General :
Fairfax Underground
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Lessons from the Storm: If You're Disabled, Register with the Police
Posted by:
McGruff - The Crime Dog!
()
Date: July 21, 2012 10:55AM
Lessons from the Storm: If You're Disabled, Register with the Police
The June 29 blackout left some important lessons
By Judi Hasson
July 19, 2012
http://fairfaxcity.patch.com/articles/lessons-from-the-storm-if-youre-disabled-register-with-the-police
On June 29, my husband and I were scrambling around trying to figure out how to deal with the power outage that engulfed Potomac Hills where we live and most of Northern Virginia.
We never thought about letting the police know I could be in potential danger because I’m disabled by a chronic disease or that I should have registered with the Medical Needs Registry before an event occurred.
Instead, we had no checklist of what we might need and raced around to load our medical supplies into our car, carting my walker, wheelchair, ice chest full of perishable medicine and plenty of other paraphernalia and set out to find a hotel with working air conditioning.
I had never heard of the Medical Needs Registry. It’s an emergency preparedness tool that’s used by Fairfax County officials for communicating with people with medical needs, pre-event emergency planning, and for evacuating and sheltering during actual emergencies such as flooding, hurricanes or hazardous material spills, and gas leaks.
An estimated 550 residents in Fairfax County have registered, but the number should be much higher, said Bruce McFarlane, the county’s lead Emergency Planner.
“We’re trying to get the word out,’ he said. “One of the biggest barriers from the citizen side is that people are reluctant to let government know about their individual issues.”
Analysts say on a national average 20 percent of a population is disabled. McFarlane said the Fairfax registry should probably have a population of disabled residents of about 20,000 of the county’s 1.1
million residents.
David McKernan, Fairfax County coordinator of emergency management, said the county emergency services had a number of successes during last month’s power outage.
They were able to download the number of people who had registered, overlay their addresses on a map to see if they were affected by the blackout.
On Sunday, July 1, a day-and-a-half after the outage began, the emergency center began calling people on the registry to make sure they were not having problems.
They reached one woman on the registry who thought her oxygen was running low on her tank. The emergency services team sent a medic to check on her health and well-being,” McKernan said.
He said there were plenty of “lessons learned” from the 2012 power outage, including the need to get more people registered.
“We need to advertise and get more people on it,” McKernan said.
Registration is voluntary and all information collected will be kept private and confidential and securely stored, according to the Medical Needs Registry website.
Attachments:
The June 29 blackout left some important lessons
By Judi Hasson
July 19, 2012
http://fairfaxcity.patch.com/articles/lessons-from-the-storm-if-youre-disabled-register-with-the-police
On June 29, my husband and I were scrambling around trying to figure out how to deal with the power outage that engulfed Potomac Hills where we live and most of Northern Virginia.
We never thought about letting the police know I could be in potential danger because I’m disabled by a chronic disease or that I should have registered with the Medical Needs Registry before an event occurred.
Instead, we had no checklist of what we might need and raced around to load our medical supplies into our car, carting my walker, wheelchair, ice chest full of perishable medicine and plenty of other paraphernalia and set out to find a hotel with working air conditioning.
I had never heard of the Medical Needs Registry. It’s an emergency preparedness tool that’s used by Fairfax County officials for communicating with people with medical needs, pre-event emergency planning, and for evacuating and sheltering during actual emergencies such as flooding, hurricanes or hazardous material spills, and gas leaks.
An estimated 550 residents in Fairfax County have registered, but the number should be much higher, said Bruce McFarlane, the county’s lead Emergency Planner.
“We’re trying to get the word out,’ he said. “One of the biggest barriers from the citizen side is that people are reluctant to let government know about their individual issues.”
Analysts say on a national average 20 percent of a population is disabled. McFarlane said the Fairfax registry should probably have a population of disabled residents of about 20,000 of the county’s 1.1
million residents.
David McKernan, Fairfax County coordinator of emergency management, said the county emergency services had a number of successes during last month’s power outage.
They were able to download the number of people who had registered, overlay their addresses on a map to see if they were affected by the blackout.
On Sunday, July 1, a day-and-a-half after the outage began, the emergency center began calling people on the registry to make sure they were not having problems.
They reached one woman on the registry who thought her oxygen was running low on her tank. The emergency services team sent a medic to check on her health and well-being,” McKernan said.
He said there were plenty of “lessons learned” from the 2012 power outage, including the need to get more people registered.
“We need to advertise and get more people on it,” McKernan said.
Registration is voluntary and all information collected will be kept private and confidential and securely stored, according to the Medical Needs Registry website.
Attachments:
Re: Lessons from the Storm: If You're Disabled, Register with the Police
Posted by:
Thanks!
()
Date: July 21, 2012 06:19PM
I care for someone with special needs and never knew this was in place.
You never know when you will need help.
Thanks!
You never know when you will need help.
Thanks!
Re: Lessons from the Storm: If You're Disabled, Register with the Police
Posted by:
wilford brimley
()
Date: July 22, 2012 12:29AM
Does this mean the cops will change my Depends when the power goes out?
Re: Lessons from the Storm: If You're Disabled, Register with the Police
Posted by:
Ivy Bigbee
()
Date: July 22, 2012 06:30PM
This is good to know.
Re: Lessons from the Storm: If You're Disabled, Register with the Police
Posted by:
fem
()
Date: July 22, 2012 07:39PM
The "lessons from the storm" should be----you are on your own. You won't even be able to call the worthless, overpaid motherfuckers.
Never put your life in Fairfax County's hands. If you have a disability, do what you can to prep for an emergency. Generators, guns, extra medications, whatever.
Never put your life in Fairfax County's hands. If you have a disability, do what you can to prep for an emergency. Generators, guns, extra medications, whatever.