Emergency Preparedness: Natural and Human-Generated Disasters

Floods are a real threat in the area where our childcare facility is located. The facility is housed in a church in the New Castle, PA area. New Castle lies at the juncture of the Shenango and Mahoning rivers and Neshannock Creek. New Castle is 40 miles north of Pittsburg where the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers merge and form the Ohio River. 70 miles north of New Castle is Lake Erie. After an extremely snowy winter there is the potential for the Shenango and Mahoning rivers and Neshannock Creek to overflow their banks. If there is a rainy spring the condition is worsened. When the rivers in Pittsburg get clogged with ice the water backs up into the New Castle rivers and creeks. There are many roads in downtown New Castle and homes in the surrounding areas that flood during severe rain.

The childcare facility is located at the top of hill 1 ½ miles south east of downtown. Flooding is not a threat to the actual facility, but many of our parents have to travel through flood prone areas to reach us. The facility is prepared to take care of any children that parents or caregivers can not reach. We have all the resources available that would be needed to house the children for an extended period of time. Medications needed for children are kept locked in the facility. The owner of the facility is a first aide and CPR trainer and has some training as a nurse. The minister of the church where the facility is located was once an EMT. Most of the workers have cell phones which would come in handy if phone service was disrupted. The facility has home phone numbers, work numbers and cell phone numbers of parents, grandparents, guardians and friends of the children in their care.

There is a county wide plan in place for pandemic flu. The church, where the daycare facility is located, is a designated place for healthy citizens to come to. The Lawrence County Public Safety department would bring all that was needed to feed and take care of these people. This could possibly cause problems for the childcare facility. Children who were sick would not be allowed to come to the center, those who drop and pick up the children would not be allowed into the building if they were sick. The children would have to be monitored much closer since there would be many people in the facility. There might even be the possibility that the facility would have to close in order to ensure the safety of the children and those who seek refuge in the church. The church keeps all of its doors locked and the parents of the children enrolled in the childcare facility enter through a door that has a security camera trained on it.

The church is a designated shelter for various disasters. It was originally a bomb shelter. The outer walls and many interior walls are 16 inches thick. An area nursing home has an agreement with the church to house their patients if the need arises. If there is a disaster at the church the childcare facility has an arrangement to take the children to a nearby restaurant across the street or an elementary school a couple of blocks down the street. The owner of the childcare facility lives five houses away from the church where children could be taken to as well. Parents have been informed of all disaster plans and the emergency plan is stated in the parent handbook that every family is given when a child is enrolled.