Pendleton County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Newsletter

Fall 2010

Volume 1, Number 8

Why Is Gun Safety Important?

We have all heard stories about children who are accidentally killed by guns at home or at friends' homes. These tragedies can be prevented if a few simple safety rules are followed.

Most parents know that electric outlets should be covered and that cleaning agents and other poisons should be kept away from children. However, more children younger than 10 are killed by guns than by poison or electrocution. Gunshot wounds are second only to car accidents as a cause of fatal injury in children. This means that gun safety in your home is as important as using car seats and seat belts in your car.

What Can I Do To Protect My Family From Gun Injury?

If there is a gun in your home, it must be kept out reach of your children and their friends. The gun must also be kept safe from family members who are depressed, who are abusive to others, who are abusing drugs (including alcohol) or who have Alzheimer's disease.

Children are naturally curious and like to explore. If there is a gun in your home, keep it unloaded and locked away, separate from the bullets, with the key available only to responsible adults. Teach your children what to do if they find a gun, even if they are not sure whether it is real or a toy. Teach them to remember these words: Stop! Don't touch! Go away! Tell an adult!

Before your child visits the home of a friend or a baby sitter, ask the parents at that home whether they have a gun in the house and, if so, whether the gun is unloaded and locked away.

Teenagers often act without thinking first. When teenagers are angry or depressed, they are more likely to kill or harm themselves if they can easily get a gun. It's best not to have a gun in your home at all if someone who lives there is depressed, thinking of suicide or is troubled.

Are There Other Ways I Can Keep Violence Out Of My Family's Life?

Children learn how to behave by watching and doing what the adults around them do. It's best for the parents to talk peacefully in the home, to solve problems with discussion instead of anger or physical violence and to treat all people with respect.

Parents who want to raise peaceful children may also choose not to allow their children to watch violent TV shows, play video games that involve one player hurting another or play with toys that are pretend weapons.

Children who watch violent TV shows and play violent video games are likely to model violent behavior. Children who watch a lot of violent TV shows or movies may even have trouble understanding that violence in real life actually hurts people.

Read more: http://www.righthealth.com/topic/Safety_In_The_Home/overview/FamilyDoctor20?fdid=FamilyDoctor_57200f696a0bb3c834f4cdd988dbb8e9#ixzz0wy57eRH0

How can you prevent carbon monoxide poisoning?

Many people die every year from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. There are some important steps you can take to reduce your risk.

• Have all fuel-burning appliances (such as oil or gas heaters, stoves, water heaters, and space heaters, fireplaces, and woodstoves) inspected each year.
• Check chimneys, flues, and vents regularly to make sure they are in good shape, properly connected, and not blocked.
• See a doctor right away if you think you have symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, especially if more than one person has the same symptoms.

Know how to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning when you operate a vehicle:

• Do not leave your car running in the garage, even if the garage door is open.
• Do not ride in the back of a pickup truck with a camper shell.
• Do not swim behind an idling boat.

Be safe when you use fuel-burning tools or appliances:

• Never use a kerosene or propane heater in an enclosed area, such as a camper, motor home, trailer, or tent.
• Never use a gas or charcoal grill indoors.
• Never use a gas oven to heat your home.
• Do not close a fireplace or stove damper before the fire is completely out.
• Do not use gas-powered generators, lawn equipment, or engines in enclosed areas.

Consider putting carbon monoxide detectors in your home near sleeping areas. Look for ones endorsed by Underwriters Laboratory (UL). If you install carbon monoxide detectors:

• Be sure to follow the directions carefully, and know what to do if the alarm sounds.
• Understand that carbon monoxide detectors are a backup safety measure. They do not replace the need to check appliances regularly and use them safely.

NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS MONTH

S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 0 |

To learn more about how you can prepare for emergencies visit

ready.gov or call 1-800-BE-READY,

TTY 1-800-462-7585

Put together an emergency supply kit

Make a family emergency plan

Be prepared to help your neighbor

Work as a team to keep everyone safe

Take action now to make sure your family, neighborhood and community

are ready for emergencies and disasters of all types

  www.pendletoncountyoem.com  Preparedness Month

Between these mountains lays valleys that when disaster strikes may leave many individuals and neighborhoods cut off from outside support. It takes time for emergency response agencies to set up and prepare for an organized response, and damaged roads and disrupted communications systems may restrict their access into critically affected areas. The initial period immediately following a disaster—often up to 3 days or longer---individuals, households, and neighborhoods may need to rely on their own resources for Food, Water, First Aid, and Shelter.

Individual preparedness, planning survival skills, and mutual aid within neighborhoods and worksites during this initial period are essential measures in coping with the aftermath of a disaster.

Here are some things you can do right now to be better prepared to help protect your family and you neighborhood:

• Check and change the batteries in your smoke alarms and replace all alarms that are more than 10 years old.
• Make sure you now where your local fire department, police station, and hospital are and post a list of emergency phone numbers posted near all the telephones in your home.
• Organize and practice a family fire/disaster drill—make sure your children know what your smoke detector sounds like and what to do if it goes off when they are sleeping.
• Locate the utility mains for your home and be sure you know how to turn them off manually: gas, electricity, and water.
• Create and emergency plan for your household, including your pets. Decide where your family will meet if a disaster does happen: 1. right outside your home in case of a sudden emergency, like a fire and 2. outside your neighborhood in case you can’t return home --- ask an out of town friend to be your “family contact to relay messages.
• Prepare a 3-day disaster supply kit, complete with flashlights, batteries, blankets, and an emergency supply of water and food  (and pet food)!
• Plan to hold a Neighborhood Watch meeting --- your local Sheriffs’ Office or Police Station can help you get started or contact you local Citizen Corps Council.
• Check the expiration dates of all over-the-counter medications—discard all that are expired and replace any that are routinely needed.
• Make sure all cleaning products and dangerous objects are out of children’s reach.
• Plan to sign up for a first aid training course. Call you local Officer of Emergency Services, your local American Red Cross Chapter, or your local Citizen Corps Council.
• Visit with your neighbors and discuss how you would handle a disaster in your area. Talk to neighbors with special needs and help them become safer too!

 Making Pendleton County a Safer Place to Live!

The Pendleton County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security has may opportunities for “VOLUNTEERS"

You can participate in many areas using your talent and interest in doing what you enjoy.

*Join the Franklin Citizen Corps Council

*Become a  “CERT” Community Emergency Response Team member

*Take free training provided through grants

*Learn the day to day operations of the Emergency Operation Center and support during disasters and/or emergency situations.

*Volunteer to be trained to support our Disaster Trailers/ People Sheltering, Pet Shelter, and Comfort Support (for Mass Migration.)

Please contact Edna Mullenax/AmeriCorps VISTA for the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security

304 358-3889 or mullenaxed@yahoo.com

Planning is the KEY to Preparedness! www.readywv.gov  can help!

 
 

Have we forgotten?

www.pendletoncountyoem.com

www.readywv.gov

www.volunteerwv.org