It’s difficult to predict when an emergency might happen. It could be anything from the current H1N1 Influenza outbreak, the 2004 Southeast Asian Tsunami, a terrorist attack, to your car breaking down one night on a country road.
Across Canada, from May 3 to 9, it’s Emergency Preparedness Week, with the tagline, Is Your Family Prepared?
“It’s a good time to remind people to have their own emergency kit ready,” says Kathy Branton, manager of York’s Emergency Preparedness Program. “An emergency can take any shape or form. Right now, we’re in the middle of a major influenza outbreak.”
Right: A sample kit
As part of York’s 50th anniversary and Emergency Preparedness Week, the Emergency Preparedness Program will be at this Saturday’s York Community Festival (see YFile, May 4) from noon to 5pm on Campus Walk with a sample emergency kit. People can get an idea about what they should include in their own kit and what to store all the items in (see YFile, May 6, 2008) for suggestions on what to put in the kit.
“It is the responsibility of each one of us to make sure we have an emergency kit at home, at work and in the car to, cope on our own for at least 72 hours should an emergency strike,” says Branton.
With any kind of major emergency, it can take awhile before police, fire and ambulance crews will respond as they’ll be busy assisting those in immediate danger.
For more information, visit the York Emergency Preparedness Program Web site or contact Kathy Branton at brantonk@yorku.ca or ext. 55258.
Also, check the federal government’s Get Prepared Web site to watch the video Preparing a Family Emergency Kit.