2017 Spring Kansas Child

ARENESS
emergencies such as national security,
and environmental and public safety.
Have a plan. If a storm is not expected
to cause damaging winds but will contain
heavy rain, lightning and thunder, simply
keep everyone inside. There is no need to
go to the basement if wind is not a threat.
Remember, basic lightning safety inside
includes staying at least three feet from
windows, metal pipes and electronic
devices connected by a cord to an outlet.
Lightning can actually spark through
TVs and video games.
With older children, once you know
everyone is in a safe place, consider
playing the lightning game. When you
see the flash of lightning, count the
seconds until you hear the thunder and
divide by five. That will give you the
distance in miles the storm is from you.
Each consecutive strike will tell you if
the storm is approaching or leaving. It’s a
great distraction and teaches math skills
— bonus! Remember, our planet needs
storms. Lightning is important. It helps
fertilize the land that grows our food.
If hail occurs in the storm, hurray!
It provides another great learning
opportunity and a fun experiment. When
it is safe, have the children gather a few
hailstones. Have an adult run hot water
over a knife and use that to slice the hail
stone in half. Let the children count the
rings. This will tell them how many times
this chunk of ice was blown upward
inside the thunderstorm until it got too
heavy and fell to earth. The bigger the
stone, the stronger the updraft was in the
thunderstorm.
If tornadoes or damaging, straightline
winds are threatening, you need
to be underground, in a basement. You
should already have your preparedness
backpack down there (See KDEM’s
article). If it is daytime, keep the children
entertained with the lightning game or
other games that are fun and distracting.
All the while, stay aware by monitoring
media, websites or the NOAA weather
radio. If the threat is expected overnight,
consider having a campout in the
basement that night. Make it fun. You
can sleep in a tent, build a fort and make
s’mores … whatever it takes to make it
feel like a special adventure. If a tornado
or damaging wind is imminent, seek
further shelter in a basement closet or
under the stairs, assume the tornado
safety position, cover your bodies with
pillows and blankets and if you have
them, put bike helmets and tennis shoes
on. If you have babies, place them in
their protective car seats on the floor of
the closet you’re in.
Children mirror the behavior
of their adult caregivers. If you are
tense and afraid, they will feel it and
model it. Be calm, stay aware of the
situation and have a plan that includes
learning opportunities, adventures and
fascination. n
Continued from page 5
likely to have serious emotional issues as
those who are unaffected.
Businesses also suffer when child care
is not available. Even without a disaster,
breakdowns in child care are costly to
businesses. Studies show that 65% of
parents’ work schedules are affected by
child care challenges, an average of 7.5
times over a six-month period. While this
might seem inconsequential, the effect
on businesses is immense. Adjusted for
inflation, U.S. businesses lose $4.4 billion
annually due to employee absenteeism
resulting from child care breakdowns. This
problem only gets worse during a disaster.
Simple steps can help aid the recovery
process:
•§
It is vital to meet with your insurance
company to make sure you have the
proper levels of coverage for both
your home and your business.
•§
Work with other child care providers
and your local child care resource and
referral agency to identify alternative
sites and arrangements that would
allow you to continue to care for
children if your program site is
damaged.
•§
Have a plan in place to communicate
with parents after a disaster.
•§
Have a process to document your
belongings (before a disaster), your
losses (after a disaster), and your
expenses (as you repair/rebuild).
Recovery is a very important issue, and
it is a community-level issue. Making
sure there are plans in place to ensure
the continued availability of child care
is of the utmost importance. After
housing, the biggest barrier for parents
returning to work after a disaster is a lack
of child care. Communities that ensure
the availability of continued child care
services during and in the aftermath of a
disaster can expedite reopening businesses
and re-establishing essential services.
Children can return to a normal schedule
and become reunited with their peers,
thus returning stability and familiarity.
Restoration of child care services also
allows first responders to return to work
more quickly.
In summary, there is still much to do to
increase the overall preparedness of the
child care system. Take the time to review
the excellent articles in this edition of
Kansas Child and think about how your
child care program could become better
prepared for disasters! n
www.ks.childcareaware.org Kansas Child 7