when Tilly Smith was just 10 years old
she saved the lives of as many as 100
people in one day how she ran into a
burning building grabbed 50 people under
each arm and then threw them all to
safety okay no not really
that’s not what happened it was much
simpler than that
but I think no less extraordinary she
and her family were vacationing on a
beach on the coast of Thailand when the
water started bubble up ocean started to
disappear into the distance two weeks
earlier in geography class she learned a
lesson on tsunamis so that day she
recognized these signs
warned her parents who worked with hotel
staff to evacuate the beach her beach
was the only one without reported
casualties from a tsunami that impacted
14 countries so not bad for a
ten-year-old girls okay interesting
story the disasters are what happened to
other people it’ll never happen to me
and that’s what I thought in 2013 I was
in Boston watching the marathon with my
family yeah that Boston Marathon I was
waiting for my dad who had just finished
his race when I saw the smoke begins
rising for the finish line down the road
I froze all around me the runners move
forward unaware and unresponsive to what
was happening behind them and long after
the second explosion I was still frozen
trust me on this in disasters your brain
isn’t always on your side everyone
reacts differently for a book the
unthinkable journalist Amanda Ripley
interviewed hundreds of disaster
survivors in order to describe how we
process these events she details a
three-stage arc of what we go through
the first stage denial this isn’t
happening to me the second stage
deliberation okay
what am I gonna do about it and the
final stage what she calls the decisive
moment people always talk about the
danger of pain
in an emergency but what she describes
the tendency for some people to under
act not overreact
they frites what separates the ones that
freeze from the ones that act it’s not
fearlessness it’s not complacency I’ve
learned it’s knowledge planning in
practice during the Boston Marathon
bombing I didn’t have a chili Smith
moment farthest from but I used that
experience as the catalysts become the
kind of person who would act here at the
University of Georgia
I’ve studied disaster management and
explored the question how can we prepare
for disasters preparedness starts first
and foremost with the recognition that
these events can happen and that you
must take personal responsibility for
your own safety
an emergency management we seek to
leverage the strengths of individuals
throughout a community the government’s
standard for emergency preparedness is
self-sufficiency without phone
communications running water or power
for 72 hours after a disaster by
preparing for emergencies you’re
reducing the strain placed on emergency
responders so they can dedicate their
time and resources the most vulnerable
members of your community also by
preparing you can take care of the
people around you you can respond the
term first responder is a bit confusing
because in an emergency it’s rare that
it’s police firefighters or EMS that are
first on scene it’s usually bystanders
and we’ve seen on events such as the
Boston Marathon bombing that the actions
taken by bystanders can be critical to
saving lives
for example Devon way dinner junior at
Boston University was volunteering with
a medical team tending to the exhausted
runners when the bombs went off although
she didn’t have experience dealing with
major trauma she was still able to wheel
the injured to safety we saw more
recently during the Las Vegas shooting
with power of bystanders can achieve in
the confusion emergency medical services
were unable to enter the scene and
rescue teams were dispatched to the
surrounding hotels while waiting for
emergency responders concert goers help
carry Vandor to safety and send their
bleeding
one woman Lindsey pageant even used her
personal truck to help get the injured
two ambulances just like in Boston
ordinary people helped evacuate the
scene and provided life-saving first day
but you don’t need to know how to
perform complex medical procedures in
order to help out in emergencies Amer
Tilly Smith all she needed was a little
geography knowledge and the conviction
to take action by taking care of
yourself first and by preparing for
disasters you empower yourself to help
the people around you like we saw during
a hurricane Harvey the Good Samaritans
who were ready for the storm were able
to open up their businesses to provide
shelter to those in need in our own
community during Hurricane Emma students
helped pair those needing shelter with
people offering up space in their homes
these are just a few examples of what
ordinary people can achieve in disasters
so if you’re wondering how can I prepare
based on any recent disaster movie it’s
grab your leather pants and machine gun
it’s time to be pocalypse but I promise
you you don’t need to be zombie slayer
Rambo to get through the next emergency
you don’t need to spend extreme amounts
of time or money trying to identify
every possible hazard you don’t need to
become a prepper or a survivalist you
don’t need to stockpile ten years of
food and fifty guns and you’re don’t
like survival bunker it’s much easier
than that start with yourself and work
on your knowledge planning and practice
I know this sounds simple because it is
but because we deny that these events
can happen to us we fail to prepare for
them altogether so first knowledge be
informed look around you in your home in
your work place what are the most likely
hazards you might encounter an easy way
of staying informed is signing up for
your local emergency alert system also
you can follow local Public Safety
officials and meteorologists on social
media going a step further will you
share information with the people around
you so that they can take action second
step
planning plan for these most likely
scenarios an easy way of starting your
planning is building a basic emergency
kit food water flashlights batteries
think about that 72 hours I talked about
what would you need it’s worth the
investment who’s ever been to the
grocery store when there’s severe
weather in the forecast wouldn’t you
rather be kicking back in your pajamas
with a hot cup of hot chocolate instead
of
rustling someone for the loss of her
bread at the store and finally practice
practice your plans and the actions that
you might need to take who knows first
aid CPR overcome your fear of those
terribly creepy CPR dummies and get
trained and bonus credit on this if
you’ve got a fire to get involved in
local disaster response join an
organization throughout America we’ve
got Community Emergency Response Teams
which provide training to volunteers on
how to aid their communities during
disasters so why wait far too often we
put off paying for disasters until it’s
too late
Amanda Ripley writes regular people only
figure in to the equator and its victims
which is a shame because regular people
are the most important people at a
disaster scene every time knowledge
planning and practice through these
simple steps you can prepare for
disasters in order to ensure the future
resilience of yourself your neighbors in
your community don’t let just stand by stand up and take action thank you