2010 Diocesan Preparedness Month
Why Prepare?
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Why Prepare?
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Why Prepare?
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Why Prepare?
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‣ Acknowledge our vulnerability in considering the worst possible scenarios that could affect us.
‣ Take precautions to minimize the effects of a crisis situation and maximize our ability to recover quickly.
‣ Equip ourselves to assist others, responding with love to an affected community.
Why Prepare?
‣ Put together a team.‣ Establish parish priorities.‣ Identify your risks.‣ Make preparedness part of your regular
maintenance schedule.‣ Secure your facilities.
How do I prepare?
‣ Make an evacuation plan. ‣ Create a communications plan.‣ Help to ensure that your parishioners are
protected.‣ Connect with community disaster groups.‣ Review and update your plan annually.
How do I prepare?
‣ Elect a Parish Emergency Coordinator.‣ Form a Parish Emergency Committee.
Step One: Assemble a Team
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Mission of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas
in Times of Crisis:To serve Episcopalians and their
neighbors.
Step Two: Establish Priorities
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‣ Consider the composition, culture, and particular needs of your parish.
‣ Consider partner ministries associated with and/or included in your church community.
‣ Identify priorities specific to your parish.
Step Two: Establish Priorities
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‣ Research local crisis history.‣ List out all events of the past 50 years,
including both man-made and natural disasters.
‣ Think about crises that could affect your community, including even the most extreme.
‣ List out all possible crises.
Step Three: Identify Risks
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‣ Rank historical and possible crises, and identify the emergencies most likely to occur.
‣ Mentally walk through each of the most likely disasters.
‣ Find out how you will receive warning, and what the procedures are for evacuation or shelter-in-place, if necessary.
Step Three: Identify Risks
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‣ Walk through parish facilities, noting areas of particular vulnerability.
‣ Identify ways to reduce hazards.
Step Three: Identify Risks
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‣ Complete a full inventory of parish property and holdings annually.
‣ Store a copy of the completed inventory off-site or online.
‣ Record insurance contact information.
Step Four: Maintenance
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‣ Check all hazard alarms, including fire and carbon monoxide.
‣ Install additional alarms or replace where necessary according to the recommendations of local authorities.
Step Four: Maintenance
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‣ Train all staff and ministry leaders in the use of fire extinguishers.
‣ Post instructions for us and local fire officials contact information.
‣ Check extinguishers to ensure that you’re using the right type for each type of fire.
Step Four: Maintenance
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Step Four: Maintenance
Classifications: http://www.hanford.gov/fire/safety/extingrs.htm
‣ Put together at least one first-aid kit.
‣ List out the parishioners, staff, and ministry leaders trained and certified in first aid and CPR.
‣ Encourage others to get trained.
Step Four: Maintenance
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‣ Know who has access to the building at all times.
‣ Train staff, vestry members, and key ministry leaders in disarming the security system.
Step Five: Secure Facilities
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‣ Record the location of and instructions for shutting off each utility.
‣ Train, staff, clergy, and ministry leaders.
Step Five: Secure Facilities
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‣ Identify important files and records.
‣ Store securely on-site and off-site or online.
‣ Keep a list of passwords and user names for all computers, software, and websites utilized by the parish.
Step Five: Secure Facilities
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‣ Identify essential items to remove from parish in an evacuation.
‣ Create a “church in a box” containing all items essential to holding services.
‣ Identify alternate operations/worship sites.
Step Six: Plan for Evacuations
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‣ Gather information from all parishioners, including phone numbers, home addresses, email addresses, and evacuation destinations.
‣ Create a plan for contacting parishioners and update annually.
‣ Identify persons authorized to address the media.
Step Seven: Communications
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‣ Never assume your parishioners will be safe in an emergency, or that they have taken the recommended precautions.
‣ Identify vulnerable persons within your congregation and help to ensure that they will also be safe.
Step Eight: Serving Parishioners
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‣ Identify community organizations and officials who are or will become active in disasters.
‣ Introduce yourself, know how to contact them, and let them know how to contact you when disaster strikes.
Step Nine: Connect
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‣ Partnering with another parish provides an opportunity to both serve others and to receive services in an emergency.
‣ Establish a relationship with a parish in another region of the diocese, not susceptible to the same emergencies at the same time as your parish.
Step Nine: Connect
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‣ Fill out the summary at the end of the workbook and send to Russ Oechsel, Co-Diocesan Emergency Coordinator for the Diocese of Texas.
‣ Set an annual review date.
Final Steps
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Questions?