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Emergency Preparedness
Show-and-Tell is coming to Ouray County (Colorado). We've been talking in this column for months about emergency preparedness and offering ideas on how you can safeguard yourself and your family. Now we are going to show you what we've been telling you.
Ouray County has a strong sense of community with lots of community groups and education forums. The community outreach is astounding. The Ouray County community will be offered an emergency preparation outreach event wit the educational purpose of showing people how they can take steps to protect themselves in case of an emergency.
The Emergency Preparedness Education Committee is planning three meetings in Ouray County in May; one each in Colona, Ridgway and Ouray. In these meetings we plan to talk about your personal family/household preparedness plans and those of the County. We'll update you on avian flu, the state and federal plans and how they impact the county, and offer a brief summary on the County plan and how it impacts the citizens.
The show part of these meetings is to share what a short-term food supply would look like, what kinds of emergency gadgets you can have on hand, and provide handouts, including a vial of life which is a tool to help emergency responders should they be called to your house for a medical emergency.
We feel good that as a county that we are ahead of the curve. The State is urging Coloradoans to get ready for a three-day emergency that would cut off our access to grocery stores and pharmacies — be it a winter snowstorm, flu pandemic, or biological attack. Their spokesperson commented, "Statistics show that in emergencies, lower-income folks are the hardest hit either because of where they live, or because they're least likely to put together these kinds of kits." Ouray County has such a population and we are especially interested in protecting their interests through our education efforts.
To help your plan take form, plan to attend one of our three meetings. Dates and locations will be announced closer to the time. See you in May at one of our Education sessions on community preparedness.
