Last Friday I attended a breakfast meeting of the Disaster Resistant Community (DRC) organization. DRC Community Partners are individuals, groups and businesses that help make Southwest Indiana a more prepared and safer place to live and work by being directly involved with local authorities. There are only two cities in the United States that have been given a grant for this type of start up – Evansville is one of them. According to Christine Martin, director of DRC, the following projects have already been completed:

• Structural retrofitting of 5 fire stations to protect the equipment needed following a disastrous event;
• Water well insulation, built to seismic standards, providing a source of fresh water for the downtown area;
•  Master of Disaster: education materials provided to all public and non-public schools in our 5 counties;
• Outdoor weather warning sirens provided for Gibson, Posey and Warrick counties;
• GIS aided computer systems for Spencer County emergency response vehicle;
• Carbon monoxide detectors and “Right Now” bags (am/fm radio, flashlight, whistle) to senior in older homes.

The executive director of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Joe Wainscott, was the keynote speaker for the meeting. According to him, there are two areas that keep him up at night: major earthquakes and highly contagious flu epidemics for which there are no vaccines yet. In his discussions he encouraged businesses and local communities to prepare for the day when 30% to 40% of the workforce in a company has to stay home due to the infection, and what needs to be done to continue to be productive and keep the company working.

I will continue to report on this topic and I will start a new series “Taking Emergency Action” which will give constructive suggestions in various natural disasters and emergencies. Even though this topic is not directly related to real estate, I feel that one can not be prepared enough and very little bit of information helps.

Please call me at 812-499-9234 or email me at Rolondo@TheTrentiniTeam.com if you would like to receive the “Taking Emergency Action” booklet.