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Carriage Crest Elem
Kent School District
18235 140th Ave SE
Renton, WA, 98058
Phone (253) 373-7597

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Emergency Preparedness Plans, Current Progress & the New Student Comfort Kits
Last updated 5/21/07

Windstorms, snowstorms, rainstorms & floods have all proven to be disruptive events to our area this last year.  However, these are the minor events that threaten our area.  In fact, Washington is at risk for numerous significant natural disasters: tsunamis, volcanoes, etc… but our greatest risk for a regional disaster is catastrophic earthquake.  Washington State is ranked number 1 in the nation for risk of natural disasters (FEMA) and is ranked number 2 in the nation for risk of disaster from Earthquake, just behind California (FEMA).  Remember, these major events are a regional disaster and unlike hurricanes, we don’t get evacuation warnings.

So the key for us is in the preparation. The Emergency Preparedness Committee is working with Carriage Crest to strengthen our emergency preparedness for major, regional disasters.  To do this, we need to:

1. Strengthen our school’s emergency supplies
2. Improve the training of those who might help the school with it’s response
3. Increase awareness and preparedness among our families

Current Progress:

Over the last year we have worked with the school to discuss emergency plans, inventory our current supplies and compare it with recommended lists from the district and other highly recommended sources.  In January the school & PTSA reorganized the emergency container to prioritize placement of emergency supplies.  In spring of 2007 the PTSA voted to spend $4200 on group supplies for our school emergency supplies.  Modeled after recommended emergency supplies, we purchased supplies to provide medical, triage, search & rescue, shelter, toilet, sanitation, and administration support for our students, staff and a few parent volunteers.

2007 Changes to the “Student Comfort Kits”

This fall we will need to improve the student supplies covered by our comfort kits.  Remember, we are preparing for a regional disaster in which half of the student population leaves every 24 hours.  There are several key problems with the traditional emergency comfort kit that need to be addressed.  Anyone staying more than a few hours with a traditional comfort kit would find themselves very hungry for lack of calories.  Furthermore, it is simply unrealistic to expect some children to go hungry while others eat from their kit.  Finally, every year, kit supplies are handled over and over and create hours of work moving and organizing the supplies from home to school and back again.

For this reason, we are switching to bulk supplies that are only replenished as necessary.  We ask your support in helping us build this more efficient program. 
 

Some supplies like blankets, ponchos, toys and activities will be purchased once and will never move unless they are needed.  Other supplies like food and water, hand wipes, sanitizer, etc… will be rotated in bulk as they expire.  The food supplies will be significantly bulked up.  Instead of having parents collect small food snacks which typically offer between 50-300 calories, we will be storing special food rations which offer about 1400 calories a day for each child and 2000 for adults.**   We are storing enough food to cover our school population as it lingers over a 3 day period.  Should you be unable to collect your child after an extended time you will live with much more confidence knowing that we have a survival ration of food we can give to your child.  These food rations are Coast Guard approved.  They are very similar to a cookie.  They are made of flour, fat, sugar and a tiny bit of salt.  They are made to be hypo-allergenic.  For more information about the food ration you can contact Rochelle Long.

We’ve tried to come up with a minimum donation needed to sustain the program.  Instead of buying and sending comfort kits next year we will be asking for a $5 donation per child to cover the cost of keeping the supplies current. The $5 dollars will be spent each year as follows:

$2 will be spent rotating food (It doesn’t last forever)

$2 will be spent rotating other supplies that expire (first aid, sanitation, etc…)

$1 will be spent encouraging training (Its not supplies that save you, its people). 

In an emergency, we have to share our supplies with all children.  Wherever possible, we also need to share the costs.  The $5 donation assumes a high level of participation. We all need to work together to keep our costs down.

This year, we also need help seeding our starter supplies of the non perishable items.  We’d like to keep the ponchos and space blankets from the comfort kits we currently have.  Without these donations, we will probably have to collect more money to purchase them next year.  This spring we will return the comfort kits without the space blankets and ponchos.  If you want to keep yours and do NOT want to donate them to the school, fill out the form on the back and we will return your kits - undisturbed.  We sincerely appreciate everyone who is willing to donate their ponchos and blankets!!! Next year we will also have a tiny toy drive for small toys that could be used in an emergency or activity books, etc… Keep that in mind as you are picking through those McDonald’s toys. ;-)

** Note that the 800 calories is considered the required minimum emergency daily ration for an Adult.