Meeting Places: Introduction
The first thing that happens after a disaster is that people try to gather with other people. They’re scared and they seek company. They intuitively sense that there is greater security in community. They want to find out who needs help and who is okay. They want to determine what’s going on and how badly hit their community is.
To be able to gather most efficiently, we recommend pre-determined meeting places at each of our four levels.
Household
In a sudden, devastating nighttime event—like a wildfire, earthquake, flash flood, or landslide—you and the others in your household may need to evacuate your home quickly. You don’t have time to check every room to make sure it is empty; you need to get out. Once you’re out you want to be able to determine immediately if everyone in your household evacuated. If you don’t have a pre-established meeting place, then you can’t know for sure and people will put themselves in danger by reentering the building to look for people they can’t see.
By establishing a pre-determined meeting place, you can find out immediately who managed to get out and who is still inside.
If you live in an apartment building, then this meeting place will be outside on the street in a safe, somewhat open area. If you live in a house, then you will want to pick a specific place in the yard, on the sidewalk, or in the driveway.
Make sure everyone in your household stores key evacuation supplies under their bed that will help them quickly and safely get to the meeting place.
Street
At the street level, the meeting place is an outdoor spot that neighbors agree during their Ready Your Street party is likely to be safe in an emergency. In an area affected frequently by flooding, for example, you wouldn’t choose a spot by the river but instead somewhere on higher ground. In earthquake country, you would choose a place that is unlikely to be buried under toppled trees. In tornado country, you might need to determine a priority list of places in case some get damaged.
Neighborhood
At the neighborhood level, the meeting place is the Disaster Hub. A Disaster Hub is a building that people in a Neighborhood can walk to after checking in at the Street level. It should be within a mile or two of all neighborhood residences.
The Disaster Hub must accommodate the following:
Bridge services to connect neighbors in need with neighbors who have extra resources and can offer support.
Daily information updates from the community’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) via Ham radio.
Interim medical care administered by volunteers.
Limited shelter, food, and water for injured people as well as an area for their pets.
Psychological first aid.
A morgue.
Setting up Disaster Hubs requires creating memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the owners of the chosen buildings—like schools, churches, or community centers. It also requires gathering key supplies and finding a way to store them on site. Finally, it requires standard operating procedures (SOPs) to guide people in getting them up and running.
Community
At the community level, you will eventually want to have at least four meeting places:
A Disaster Medical Center that will be staffed by volunteer medical professionals to provide a higher level of medical care than is possible at the Disaster Hubs.
A Child Reunification Center that will care for minors who have not yet been able to reunite with family or approved caregivers.
A Severe Weather Shelter where senior citizens and people with special needs can seek relief from extreme cold or hot weather.
A Domestic Animal Care Center to help care for injured and lost pets or farm animals and to facilitate reunification with their caretakers.
Each of these meeting places requires memoranda of understanding (MOUs), supplies, storage, and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
