Pray if you like, but also put together a hurricane kit
The Chronicle's Alexis Grant reports on a Third-Ward community initiative to help prepare the community for emergencies:
It may have been fun, but the drill behind a community center in south Houston had a serious purpose: to let members of the Third Ward's Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, practice using a fire extinguisher so they would know how in an emergency.
More people are becoming familiar with the CERT acronym in Harris County, where the number of volunteers has doubled since last year, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and Hurricane Rita threatened Houston.
Through the federally funded program, neighbors organize into teams and attend a free, eight-week course to learn how to respond to emergencies.
"This program is about being able to take care of yourself and the people around you so you don't become a statistic or part of the problem," said Regina Chapline, manager of Texas Citizen Corps, which includes CERT and several other volunteer programs.
Professional fire and EMS workers teach members hands-on skills, such as basic first aid, light search and rescue and fire suppression. Volunteers also prepare mentally for man-made and natural disasters, and learn how to organize a group should a catastrophe strike.
The purpose is to make communities self-sufficient if they become cut off from emergency personnel and to teach them how to cooperate once professionals arrive on the scene.
A recent survey completed by researchers at Texas Southern University suggests that the city's African-American population isn't buying into such efforts:
Blacks living in Houston are far more likely to count on faith for protection this hurricane season than government agencies that most blacks see as dishonest and unprepared, according to a university study released today.
Eighty-three percent of blacks surveyed believe the city is only somewhat or poorly prepared to handle an ordeal such as Hurricane Katrina, the aftermath of which led Texas Southern University to conduct the telephone poll of 404 blacks in Houston.
Fifty-six percent of those polled said they don't trust the government to tell the truth about disasters, while 55 percent said they believe the government uses disasters as an excuse to remove the poor and minorities from their neighborhoods.
But when asked whether God would protect them from harm if a hurricane hit Houston, nearly eight in 10 of blacks surveyed said they believed that was true.
Not to downplay the role of God or the government, but neither one is a good substitute for a hurricane kit, planning ahead, and a little old-fashioned self-sufficiency.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/25/06 11:20 PM | Houston Miscellany | Print | Comments (5)
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