Yukon Kuskokwim Nushagak science

I was hoping for additional information guides for local businesses to use in their preparations. I thought the Mentoring Initiative from Ready.GOV (Homeland Security, home of FEMA) would be useful.

Designed as a call-to-action for business leaders, the Ready Campaign has created Ready Business Mentoring Initiative. This new initiative is designed to help owners and managers of small and medium-sized businesses prepare for emergencies.

http://www.ready.gov/business/mentor/index.htm

Here is the entire text of the (on-line in pdf format) Business Emergency Supply Checklist -
http://www.ready.gov/business/_downloads/emergency_supplies.pdf

Emergency Supplies
Talk to your co-workers about what emergency supplies the company can feasibly provide, if any, and which ones individuals should consider keeping on hand. Recommended emergency supplies include the following:

• Water, amounts for portable kits will vary. Individuals should determine what amount they are able to both store comfortably and to transport to other locations. If it is feasible, store one gallon of water per person per day, for drinking and sanitation
• Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
• Battery-powered radio and extra batteries
• Flashlight and extra batteries
• First Aid kit
• Whistle to signal for help
• Dust or filter masks, readily available in hardware stores, which are rated based on how small a particle they filter
• Moist towelettes for sanitation
• Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
• Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)
• Plastic sheeting and duct tape to “seal the room”
• Garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
• Emergency Supplies

Those of you who believe in always getting ready can explain the errors in the above to those awaiting further instructions from the governments, schools, churches, health corp. (about whether and what to do in emergencies).

[another source of business planning is from FluWickie

http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Consequences.WorkplaceContinuity

Thought experiments (which I think was Einstein’s term) or models or exercises — are very important to science and to planning. Unfortunately, we have not had public discussions in our region. In San Jose agencies had this discussion but they don’t seem to have involved the public, too. (Maybe people have been discussing in the newspapers or churches?) Many of us haven’t faced the moral dilemmas that even firefighters or first aiders are trained for. Individuals have certainly asked themselves, “what if….?” whether about false rumors or spring flooding or an infected person. But in remote areas it would be so much better if we thought about contingencies as a community.
Pam

Forum Debate Rights in a Pandemic
from San Jose Mercury News

Here’s how a worldwide flu epidemic might start:

A sales manager for a multinational corporation returns to his California office from a business trip to Vietnam, feeling sick.

Within days this otherwise healthy man is near death. Other employees come down with a flu-like illness. A cleaning woman dies.

Tests show he has infected his co-workers with a form of bird flu that originated in Asia. Public health officials fear the worst: an outbreak of deadly pandemic flu.

What responsibility does the multinational corporation have to its workers? Can public health officials make residents stay in their homes to prevent the spread of disease? Can the government commandeer a local doctor’s supply of Tamiflu for people who need it most, or force nurses to be vaccinated? What if frightened nurses refuse to work?

http://tinyurl.com/l8two
Read the rest of this entry »

What can be done to keep ahead of the Avian Flu?

Vern C. McCorkle and the Alaska Business Monthly has published an excellent think piece for businesses to consider. It’s in the March 2006 issue, pages 28-31. Unfortunately, it isn’t available on-line and all their own reprints are gone already (500!).

However, the publisher has kindly provided a pdf file version. If you can’t find a copy of the magazine article to reprint, let me know. I’m trying to find someone who can reprint the file and distribute copies to regional businesses, so it is easier for us locally to get a copy to read.

In the same issue is a related story by Deborah J. Myers, pages 68 to 71—

A Healthy Workplace: Employees need to be proactive in their diets and preventive care to remain healthy and to help their businesses remain profitable.

Obtain a copy from the locations in the comments. If that isn’t possible, please let me know.

Pam

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By Laine Welch, March 25, 2006 Saturday
http://www.sitnews.us/LaineWelch/032506_fish_factor.html

FEDS SAY STOCKPILE CANNED TUNA - As more countries mobilize to prepare for potential outbreaks of bird flu, U.S. officials are telling Americans to stockpile canned tuna! … Leavitt told the conference audience, “When you go to the store and buy three cans of tuna, buy a fourth and put it under the bed. After four to six months, you’ll have a few of weeks of food.” (He also recommended stockpiling powdered milk.)….
Clearly, it would have been more politically correct for a government spokesman to include other canned fish in his recommendations.

Here are some of the preparedness checklists from www.pandemicflu.gov, but transformed so they can be localized. The schools checklist was discussed earlier. The documents are in MS Word 97 file formats. Read the rest of this entry »