Disaster Preparedness Month, night 9: Helping kids understand

April 9, 2010 11:56 pm
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 |   Preparedness | Safety | West Seattle news

Each and every one of the 30 nights of April, we are marking Disaster Preparedness Month with a suggestion of something you can do – in some cases a simple step, maybe just something to read – to achieve another bit of progress toward being prepared, albeit for things we hope never will happen. You can catch up with the archive by going here – each of our nightly items is tagged for the WSB Preparedness archive. Tonight, it’s about the youngest members of the family – how do you bring kids into the preparedness loop without scaring them? Both FEMA and ready.gov have kids’ sections – here’s FEMA For Kids, including the “Kids to Kids” section with artwork and letters created by students (hurricanes, tornadoes and 9/11 are represented), and then there’s the slightly higher-tech Ready Kids, starring a family of mountain lions. And for parents, teachers and others who live/work with kids, here are resources from the American Academy of Pediatrics. That page, in turn, points to this one that reminds parents they should ask their children’s care providers what plan they have in place, should disaster strike while the kids are in child care – that “check-in number” we talked about back on Night 3 also applies here – if you cannot directly reach the provider, she/he may be able to get word to the out-of-area contact. One last note – remember that as noted on Night 6, a statewide earthquake drill is coming up April 21 – might be a good idea to make a note to talk to your child(ren) before and after. Now, our nightly reminders: Join the West Seattle Be Prepared group on Facebook if you haven’t already; set aside some time to browse the West Seattle Be Prepared website and know your nearest Emergency Communication Hub; and check in with the city’s 3 to Get Ready Challenge (WSB sponsor) – where you can register for fun freebies (yes, preparedness can be fun).

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