WESTFIELD – Residents, and especially municipal employees who are the city’s emergency first responders, are invited to attend a seminar on emergency preparation, for both natural and man-made disasters next Saturday.
Health Director Joe Rouse said the city hired a preparedness consultant to present the free seminar Saturday, May 31 at the South Middle School. The two-hour seminar includes a PowerPoint presentation, a display and demonstration of equipment and items, followed by a question and answer period.
“This is an opportunity for citizens of Westfield to learn how to prepare for disaster, what they should have in their homes if they have to go without heat and electricity for up to 72 hours or longer,” Rouse said.
“I’m encouraging all of the city’s first responders to attend so they know their families are safe when they’re responding to an emergency,” Rouse said.
That list of first responders includes not only police and fire employees, but all city employees called out to deal with blizzards, hurricanes and tropical storms. The Department of Public Works, Water Resource Department and the Westfield Gas & Electric Department routinely call upon employees to deal with those emergencies.
The seminar is being presented by Robert Prince of Chicopee, a retired U.S. Army airborne soldier, whose expertise began when he was trained to organize and carry on his back everything he would need to survive and accomplish his military mission.
“I started getting into being prepared for a disaster in the late 1990 when Y2K was an issue,” Prince said. “That came and went, but I found I was being ripped off, that I was buying a lot of items I’d never need, so I formed my own preparedness company (Storm Ready, Inc.) to advise people how to economically prepare for disasters.
“At the beginning people were not receptive to the idea, until 9/11, then Katrina where a lot of people were on their own and not prepared,” Prince said. “Then Sandy, Irene and a lot of other names disasters came. We have faced, in the last 10 years, three times the number of natural disasters than we faced in the previous decade.”
“We, as a society, have transitioned to a culture of technology. In a disaster the first thing that fails is technology which doesn’t work without electrical power,” Prince said.
Prince said that in New England the greatest disaster threats are poised by blizzards, hurricanes and tropical storms.
”But an event doesn’t have to be local to affect us, an earthquake in California, a drought in the Midwest can disrupt our food supply locally,” Prince said.
“Proper storage is the meat and potatoes of preparedness,” Prince said. “Food, water, and emergency equipment should be stored in a location quickly accessible. Preparation equals family safety.”
“Westfield is the first municipality to do this seminar and I wish that other cities and towns would host it to make sure that the families of their municipal workers are prepared,” Prince said. “Knowing that their families are safe means a greater employee response to an emergency call-out, means that employees are doing the jobs more effectively, that their heads are in the game and not worrying about how their families are dealing with that same emergency.
There are other disasters in addition to natural events, economic upheaval or terrorist attack can disrupt the nation’s lines of communication and distribution as well.
“I am not a doomsday preparer,” Prince said. “If you want a bunker and weapons, this seminar if not what you’re looking for. I’m pro-government; a former paratrooper who believes that it is an honor to serve my nation, and to continue to serve my community.”
