Disaster Resiliency for Your Organization

0:05 All right, welcome everyone to Visionality's Building Forward I am so
0:10 excited that you're joining us today I... we have our special guest star Tony
0:16 and remind me of your title because it keeps growing every time we talk to each
0:21 other so... so what do you do in the world Tony so I have the pleasure of leading us
0:28 about 30 employees and about 1200 Red Cross volunteers and all things Red
0:34 Cross in the central California region wonderful and we've done a little bit of
0:40 work together in my sort of side hustles of Disaster Response and... so so today
0:48 we are talking about disaster preparedness and taking it... you know from both a business
0:55 perspective but also a non-profit perspective and what can we each do as an organization what's important for us
1:02 to do annually monthly just to be aware of... so that we can
1:09 ... recover quickly be safe... and then turn around to support our community because that's the other
1:14 really interesting Factor right as as we're doing disaster planning for non-profits quite often you you as an organization
1:23 could be in a recovery phase your board members your volunteers your donors
1:28 could all be in a recovery phase and you're expected to respond and so that's just a very different nuanced
1:37 ... position that a lot of our colleagues play in Disaster Response
1:42 so should we jump into it let's go okay so we have here
1:51 the Visionality disaster plan and Tony today we are gonna go through
1:57 this and so just a little peek behind the curtain we did go through this a
2:02 week ago thank goodness and you helped us Shore it up a little bit because there are always opportunities
2:09 ... but we're just gonna go through this and this is literally the disaster document that we work from we update it
2:15 annually... and so we're going to talk through it but then we're also gonna make some
2:20 notes about what everyone should be thinking of... also also don't feel like you need to
2:26 take notes because we will send this out to everybody and it'll actually be a non-profit version that has specific
2:33 areas that non-profits need to fill in so we're just gonna like hop right in so
2:39 the best Disaster Response plan starts with preparedness right so we've
2:45 ... we've created a list of things that visuality does will do needs to do
2:51 annually in preparedness and we picked June... we picked June because we're a
2:58 california-based company the fall is fire season in our line of work June
3:04 like the summer months tend to be a bit slower and so we picked June just based on our business operations but it's
3:11 important to pick a month where... just in your own line of business tends to be
3:17 a slower month... so every year in June we are updating
3:22 employee contact information and emergency contacts we are providing employees with suggested preparedness
3:29 measures right if each of us is a little more prepared than as a community we're much more resilient
3:35 so go back you know most communities have an emergency notification system
3:41 ... and then Tony can you elaborate on this we came up with some suggested like information
3:46 like the information that when someone's in a disaster they they forget that they
3:52 need so things like a list of medication right with doses what else is on that
3:58 list so not just for you but for your kids for your pets
4:04 ... and and I know that we talk about this as a non-profit but every non-profit is filled with people so we
4:12 want to make sure that as a non-profit that we are letting our employees or our
4:17 volunteers or our board members be as prepared as we are as an organization so
4:23 what we're asking people to do is make sure that you have all of the important things like hey shot records uh
4:30 medication and dosage it's one thing to know that oh well I know they need this
4:35 medication but if you don't have it and you need to get it refilled you have no
4:40 idea what it's supposed to be so you know it's really easy just to jot that down and then some of the other things
4:47 that we're thinking about is just if you had to just come back to your place of
4:52 business and your place of business is not there any longer... where do you start and this is a
5:00 great place for us to start the other I totally didn't think of was like our
5:06 our vision prescriptions right like what are what are what are what glasses do
5:12 you wear if you have to leave your home and you don't have glasses so I'm going to say glasses prescription
5:19 what other you know when people show up to the shelter what are is there any other like super common things you know
5:28 that they need to replace that it's just handy to have written down somewhere so
5:34 some of the other things that we've seen when people show up at a Red Cross shelter is they only have the clothes on
5:39 their back and they have they have no idea of all of the things that their normal day entails because they're going
5:46 through a disaster so what we usually do is we sit them down and we don't ask them a whole bunch of questions up off
5:52 the top we get them to a point where where okay they feel safe they understand that someone's here to take
5:58 care of them and then what we do is we kind of say what is your typical day look like and as we walk them through
6:04 their typical day we start to point out some of the things like okay so Grandma
6:10 does Grandma have pills that she has to take every day and it'll take them a little bit but they'll get there so we
6:16 talk about that we kind of walk them through their day now I think the best way for someone to be prepared is to
6:23 just take notes throughout the day of some of the things that you do without even thinking about it if you could take
6:29 the time say maybe a full hour in a day just jot down some of the things that
6:34 you do on a typical day as you get to the end of the day and you look at that list you'll say wow there's a lot that I
6:41 do that I don't even think about and I'm glad that I can see this now on paper so I know some of the things that I need to
6:47 do so I am prepared in case of a large-scale earthquake or you know we're
6:53 we're all quarantined in our homes or you know you like I said you come back to your place of business and it's not
6:58 there anymore love it excellent and this stuff needs to be stored in the cloud right
7:06 ... and so maybe it's like a a Google doc
7:11 or it's you know whatever so again make sure that this information is updated
7:17 annually and it's available in the cloud... the next thing we do annually is we
7:23 review our file storage procedures with each employee confirming that all the work is being done via the Dropbox Cloud
7:30 so this is a major piece of Visionality's resiliency program which
7:36 is we operate entirely on the cloud any document that a Visionality employee
7:42 should be saved to the Dropbox folder not to anyone's computers so if we have
7:48 a major earthquake you know we're going to have to talk later about the electrical systems and the internet
7:53 going down and you know the Dropbox you know Amazon web service is going down but in terms of like
8:01 our documents they exist out there and at some point in the next two weeks we can find a way to access those documents
8:08 and so... for us... and again thank you for meeting with
8:13 us a week ago you know I'm skipping in saying oh Tony we're so resilient we use Dropbox and you're like well Emily what
8:20 happens if Dropbox goes down... so we added this here monthly measure
8:25 to download the entire Visionality file system to a physical hard drive
8:31 ... and again I picked the third week of every month because... things are really busy the the fourth week of the month
8:38 preparing invoices and getting them out the first week so whatever I picked the third of the month
8:46 ... we are updating the Visionality property inventory including pictures and receipts what the heck do we have
8:52 and where does it exist and this is important for insurance purposes right
8:57 if if something happens and we need to file an insurance claim we know what we have and who has it and where it lives
9:06 ... reviewing insurance policy season making any adjustments reviewing the current Client List
9:13 ... and then this one I think is really interesting identify of our clients right we're a for-profit company who
9:19 work with non-profits who of our clients are at a high risk of being greatly affected by a local or
9:26 Regional disaster and who is most likely to be activated in any Disaster Response
9:31 so you know all all of our clients will be... responding in some way but for
9:37 example the Humane Society of Ventura County they're a first responder like right they're in the the animal master
9:42 plan versus you know teddy bear cancer or the Moxie Museum right they're not
9:48 First Responders necessarily they'll still be affected... so then us just preparing to support
9:54 our clients through that what other things should we be looking for Tony so as you're talking about most likely
10:02 to be activated in a Disaster Response if you're a non-profit you're going to
10:07 be affected but how is it how is that disaster affecting your Workforce your
10:12 clients... your board so you want to make sure that you have a 360 outlook on
10:18 when a disaster happens how is it affecting the people that are our stakeholders whether that's the people
10:24 that... that donate to the non-profit... whether that's the people that you are
10:29 providing services to you'll need to have a good understanding as far as how much disaster has happened or how how
10:37 much people have been affected and then that will help you as you start to recover yourself a lot of non-profits
10:44 have a continuity of operations plan... and this is one of those things that
10:49 people kind of forget about they go okay we're good we're good we're good okay but how about the people that you you
10:55 work with or that you work you know alongside you want to make sure that you understand what their landscape looks
11:01 like so that you can be a better partner for them love it love it
11:07 ... we're updating our client contact information right to make sure that we can get a hold of them and ask how we
11:13 can support we are updating and circulating this plan
11:18 ... we're reminding our employees where to find it in Dropbox and asking them to print this plan out and put it in their
11:24 go bag because yes we're going to ask you to make a go bag also Tony what the
11:30 heck are we doing with freezers this is my favorite thing that came out of our conversation so I learned this a few
11:37 years ago from a firefighter and he says that you know the one place where you can keep documents is in your freezer he
11:45 says it's a cold storage he says in most cases if you have it in a good bag a
11:50 good plastic wrap bag that's got a good seal on it he said the entire house could burn to the ground and nine times
11:56 out of ten your refrigerator is Standing Tall it said it's really easy for someone to come back into the home
12:02 actually open up the freezer grab that bag and you'll have your documents or copies of documents there I think that
12:09 is a fantastic idea I tell it to everyone who will listen I know I have
12:14 you know copies of my my my my shot records and you know my covid-19 record
12:19 I have a copy of that in there... I have a copy of that everywhere but it's just one of those things where it's
12:24 like I feel like I feel like I'm putting treasure away it's like I'm just going to zip it up and put it in my little bag and put it in the freezer hopefully I'll
12:32 never have to go get it but if I do I know it's there and I'm fairly sure it's going to be safe
12:38 Wild today we learned put things in your freezer excellent all right
12:46 ... create an update an emergency WhatsApp team group chat so talk to me
12:51 about communication channels and we're talking in the in the sense of like a really major regional disaster
12:59 so we've learned that the phone systems may go down
13:04 ... but a text message is a short burst and that information can get through a
13:10 lot of times when the phone lines are down you may be able to get you know a quick text out and what we tell people
13:17 is that when you have a text group whether that's just a regular straight up text group or a WhatsApp we always
13:24 say this find someone who is in your work group that does not live in the
13:30 immediate area so for Visionality it you have an employee that's not in Southern
13:35 California you want to make sure that that person is the person that everyone can call or text or reach out to saying
13:43 hey I'm safe with that text group everyone will be able to to check on everyone in such a
13:49 way that it really makes it almost instantaneously because you want to make sure that all of your folks are taken
13:55 care of and their families are as well so that text group especially with someone who's outside the immediate area
14:01 gives everyone an opportunity to as we used to call in the military muster on station and that means everybody says
14:08 I'm safe or I need help or we're we're not good or we are good it just gives everybody an opportunity for everyone
14:15 else to see how we're doing love it love it
14:20 ... annually in June we are going to update... the Visionality onboarding procedures
14:25 for when we hire new employees to reflect any changes to this plan we are going to review and update the
14:31 Visionality chain of command which is what we talked about right so you know
14:36 if if it's a local Southern California disaster Delaney guess what you're the
14:42 queen of the castle congratulations because you don't live here so... just
14:47 having sort of this chain of command and when we do what you know if it's something you know maybe you have only a
14:54 local... employee base right and so everyone is equally affected so maybe that's the
15:00 a group chat to say who's the least affected who can who can become our lead
15:06 Communicator In This Moment I I thought about this after our
15:12 conversation... annually within the team we should review our decision making methodology
15:18 right so that we can each trust one another to make a decision that's in
15:23 line with the Mission Vision Values of our organization and I was reflecting on
15:30 a disaster preparedness plan that I was helping a client make and and they work
15:36 with animals and we had to make the tough decision and document that there
15:43 may come a point when we leave the animals right and we will prioritize
15:48 human life and this is when we decide to go and it's going to break every single
15:54 one of our hearts and this is we will do this and so the
16:00 importance of documenting that and communicating it to everybody that like we are going to
16:07 prioritize people in this order we're going to start you know with our employees and their families and then
16:14 we're going to Branch out to support our community and so that those can just be really tough conversations to
16:21 acknowledge that in a major disaster you have to choose where you focus right
16:26 can you talk me through that maybe ease some of our guilt of saying like we're gonna take care of
16:32 ourselves like talk me through it sure it does talk to this it does say
16:37 that here we have we have it in if then scenario so if this happens then we go
16:43 here and then we do this and everyone has to have buy-in and you need to make sure that everyone understands that
16:50 yes this is the decision that we decided that we were going to do before so that people don't have that same sense of
16:57 guilt yes they will feel bad because they're saying this is what we this is what we've decided before the disaster
17:02 these are the conditions that are in front of us and with these conditions this is the path that we're going to
17:07 move forward... there there may be some time where you're sharing that with your team where people just say I I can't do that and
17:15 you need to be able to talk through that with them and explain to them why we're doing what we're doing so that you don't
17:22 have to make the decision the decisions already been made you just need to make the call
17:27 ... and and when you kind of tell the people when you tell people that it kind of assuages the guilt to a
17:33 degree where they're saying this is what the group decided when we were doing our disaster plan
17:39 ... something else that we talk about is Emily if you are in Aspen and you are
17:46 you know enjoying the slopes and you're having a great time and there's a disaster in Ventura County
17:52 everyone needs to know who's in charge so this is another thing that has that has to happen when we're talking about
17:58 what that chain of command looks like and we're talking about decision method decision making methodology we need to
18:04 know okay Emily's not here who's in charge right now who has who has the authority to
18:10 make the decisions that we've talked about in this decision Matrix so it's
18:16 really important that we review that and we talk through it and we make sure that everyone understands and is in alignment
18:22 with what is being actually decided before the disaster well and it's additionally complicated
18:30 when we're talking about non-profits right because they've got the CEO or the executive director but they also have
18:35 the board and the board chair so I think for our non-profits specifically it's going to be really important to have
18:42 this again annual conversation with the board to make sure that everyone
18:48 understands the chain of command and everyone has buy-in on this
18:54 ... procedure correct what else is on my annual list
19:05 let's see so I think one thing that needs to be on on and it's it's something that we talk about
19:11 ... we we talk about making sure that we we have we have a pull we talk about in
19:17 the Red Cross we say you need to have a kit you need to make a plan you need to be informed where are you going to get
19:24 the information that you need to get you know to make those decisions who are
19:30 you dialed into who are you subscribed to who are you who are you you know
19:35 where where are some of the places that you need to get that Vital Information would that be the county would that be
19:41 the state would that be your local city... you know reverse text are you are you
19:46 dialed into every way of getting information from the local authorities as possible love it excellent
19:54 awesome all right we already talked about monthly we're downloading the entire viz
20:01 system to a local hard drive is there anything else that's happening monthly
20:07 ... just reviewing I know that when we when we bring new when we bring new team members on that we're just reviewing you
20:12 know the roster that and that's just one of those living documents that as people come and go we're updating that we're
20:18 just making sure that that's one of those things that could slip behind the cracks and you want to make sure that
20:23 you're on top of it because if you aren't you may have a brand new employee that everyone doesn't know or you know
20:29 when you're a smaller non-profit it tends to it tends to to filter down but you know the larger non-profits if
20:35 you're not on top of that roster you may find yourself in a position where you don't have all the contact information
20:41 or they don't have all the contact information so that's one of those things that we try to review monthly as
20:46 well love it and so I just increased that to the employee the board and the volunteers awesome
20:54 excellent we've made it Tony to the plan yay we made it... okay so first I added
21:03 a section for our approach again the idea is to empower each of my employees
21:08 to be the lead decision maker if that is the most appropriate situation so the
21:15 visuality employee that is farthest from or at least impacted by the disaster becomes the company representative
21:22 ... and that's essentially the Visionality response and Recovery lead they're they're the top of our chain of
21:28 command regardless of who it is... the primary form of communication will be text messages or WhatsApp to the
21:35 employee's personal cell phones all decisions will be made to improve the safety and well-being of Visionality
21:41 employees their families and then our clients so again we can't do everything at the same time and so what we're going
21:49 to do is... help our immediate people and families and then we're going
21:54 to keep making that Circle bigger as we are safe and rebuilding and recovering right
22:03 what else should be added to our approach what should our non-profit Partners be thinking about I think this
22:09 is actually really good right here and it's very succinct... and I think the picture that we're
22:14 trying to draw for our num our nonprofits is if we're on the airplane and the masks come down they always tell
22:21 you to put your mask on first... you can't help anyone if you aren't
22:26 in a position that you are stable so that is really important so this approach is absolutely spot on
22:34 all right here's our timeline one one thing that you brought up to me
22:39 these these are all quite fluid timelines right we don't know if it's
22:45 two weeks from the disaster it could be three days it could be two months right but the general idea is this is the
22:52 order in which things happen so... 24 to 40 hours from the disaster
22:57 the company representative notifies all employees of the disaster and discusses the current situation safety requirement
23:04 immediate and Urgent needs and a plan of action in case further disasters happen right perhaps it feels like a big
23:12 earthquake but it's coming before the real big earthquake right we locally had
23:18 the fires and then we had the debris flow... so what other things in this initial
23:24 contact does the company representative need to connect or confirm or understand with
23:31 the immediate employees so I think the one thing that they need to do is they need to make sure they've
23:36 heard from the local authorities... you've got to you've got to have a you've got to have an outside of view of
23:43 what's Happening... because if you don't then you're not exactly sure where you're going next so
23:49 you want to make sure that that you've you've dialed into the local authorities
23:54 and you know exactly what the scope and the scale of the disaster is in the initial hours
24:01 okay okay so I'm gonna do is that first
24:08 that is one of those things that you want to make sure that yeah well I would say it's kind of in tandem because your
24:14 phone's going to be ringing off the hook and you're going to need to be able to say yes we do know that we I looked at
24:20 the app I can tell it was a 5.0 earthquake in Ventura
24:25 ... now you need to make sure that you're speaking with the local authorities as to where what their what they're
24:31 advising it may be a hey we need to do all of these things boil water remain
24:36 shelter in place so when you can get all of this information you can you can
24:42 actually promulgate that to everyone in your company
24:51 right so our job is to follow instructions in a disaster right someone else is the boss
24:57 and it just trickles down right so so you know Delaney's the boss of
25:04 Visionality during a large-scale earthquake and Delaney's job is to tell
25:10 us what her boss said which could be the county which could be the fire
25:15 department right so our whole job is to follow instructions from the person above us love it
25:22 ... we are assessing business closure right we're gonna close if there's a major disaster we're gonna close
25:30 ... identify any outstanding business needs with within the next 24 to 48 hours payroll especially in a disaster
25:36 we gotta run payroll right people need money... is there a non-negotiable client
25:42 deadline that again could impact their ability to respond or recover from a
25:48 disaster I'm just going to put this out there we're we're taking care of our people
25:54 first your end of your appeal might be a little late
26:00 ... identify any critical client support within the the next 24 to 48 hours again that'll be referring back to who might
26:07 be... First Responders within our Client List and how can we help them show up for the community
26:14 provide a timeline to all staff and delegate client check-ins or outstanding business needs to the company
26:19 representative... if possible update the Visionality homepage with any necessary information
26:25 and set a company-wide out of office message what else are we doing in the
26:31 first 24 to 48... right there just trying to get as much information I think what there is
26:37 really good and this is one of those things that you may have to go back to the very beginning and it just turns
26:43 into a cycle for those first 24 to 48 hours as we're starting to get information I can tell you that... you
26:50 know for the Thomas fire yes we knew the Thomas fire was on top of everything and what it looked like but we didn't in the
26:56 first few hours know which way it was moving with the fire profile looked like so it really was one of those things
27:03 where we had to learn and keep learning and relearn and it wasn't a one one and
27:08 done as far as what the information sharing looked like so... know that you may have to go back to
27:13 the very top of that list you know several times in the first 24 to 48 hours because the information is going
27:19 to be rapidly changing got it love it... next phase we're calling it one week
27:25 for the disaster we'll see... the company representative is checking in with all employees and
27:31 clients discussing changes in situations safety requirements updated needs right so again what I keep hearing is
27:38 communication communication communication... we are assessing damage and business
27:43 closure we're contacting our insurance to review options and file claims if
27:49 necessary... I'm gonna at make this its own Point review the
27:54 county state websites for specific insurance claims... available again we're just from the
28:00 this was my big Thomas fire lesson is you need to start the data collection as
28:08 soon as you can and this is why you tell us to have a a pencil and a notebook in
28:13 our go bag because when you're in a disaster you cannot remember anything that happened you can't remember
28:19 anything that anybody told you and... so it's just important to start documenting
28:25 right away because you're going to need that information in a year when your insurance claim finally gets settled or
28:32 whatever with that being generous [Laughter]
28:38 ... okay and my friend Tony keeps freezing because well that's that's how this thing goes
28:45 ... we are also signing up for any relevant email lists for ongoing disaster related support locally here
28:52 EDC is incredible the economic development collaborative for us that they were the Clearinghouse for all of
28:59 the business and non-profit disaster relief and support FEMA of course
29:07 you know what you want to sign up for all the lists right
29:12 ... we're creating an action plan to accomplish the immediate goals we're creating data collection mechanisms to
29:19 ensure I'm sorry to measure disaster related losses and expenses again like
29:24 if if you have real losses you will be filing an insurance claim you will be
29:30 ... you know we saw like the idle loans economic injury disaster loans those all measure what your economic injury was so
29:37 it's important to start collecting that information... and then communicating back to the staff what else Tony are we doing in
29:44 this second phase of our disaster so I think I think the insurance piece
29:50 is huge and I think the other part is trying to figure out where you need to
29:56 focus for the next month
30:05 that first week out you were looking non-profit needs to have to get to a
30:10 place where you are stable and in that first week you know now what the design
30:20 all right Tony's coming in and out but what we're doing is we're determining where we focus during the next month we
30:25 need to get to that next stage so how do what what is it what's the next 30 days what do we
30:31 need to do to to get to a place where we're not you know disaster responding
30:38 we're so the goal in this plan is to move from response to recovery yes and you're gonna know where your
30:45 holes are after a week... after a week you you know exactly where you're lacking you know what
30:51 Partners need help and then what you can start to do is you can start you know developing what is that recovery look
30:57 like for yourself and for those you know you've been entrusted to serve
31:09 well awesome so now we're in our third stage we're calling it two weeks
31:15 ... we're reviewing operations recovery efforts with executive staff or Partners
31:20 we're identifying short and long-term efforts needed new office location losing clients during the disaster
31:28 we're reviewing Insurance unemployment claims review our options with the clients to just to make sure that they
31:35 are recovering alongside us... and then we're continuing to communicate the action plan to staff
31:42 what else is happening in this third phase so in the third phase you're actually
31:47 looking at okay so we have a plan what what does that plan look like and how do we need to deviate or modify and it'll
31:55 be something that we kind of look at as the ongoing as we kind of get we look into we look into that next phase but
32:02 right now we have an idea we know where we're at we know where the holes are now we're going to bring in either we're
32:08 going to bring in Partners we're going to you know if it's our building we have to get contractors we know exactly what
32:13 our recovery looks like and we can move forward and because we can move forward we can now help more people because
32:19 we're now recovery we're no longer in response and now what we're doing is
32:24 we're actually starting to think about that next phase which is preparedness so when we think about you know a disaster
32:30 we're getting prepared and then we're responding and then we're recovering and when we get when we get to that good
32:37 spot that sweet spot in recovery we should be going right back to preparedness again love it love it so now this ongoing
32:45 phase right we're continuing efforts to restore the business we're reviewing insurance and unemployment and we're
32:51 updating and reviewing this emergency pre... procedures with Lessons Learned
32:57 correct the Lessons Learned process is is something that you know it's
33:03 invaluable you'll be able to see where you had a misstep you'll be able to say hey we did this well we could have done
33:09 it better or we didn't do this well at all and and this is something that we need to fix and then you bring all of
33:14 your stakeholders in and you try to figure out what that plan looks like so a Lessons Learned it really does need to
33:20 be something that's an ongoing thing part of that notebook that we talk about because if you try to sit down and say
33:26 one month after we're going to do a Lessons Learned well you may have forgotten some of the things in the initial response so we try to remember
33:33 and we try to you know in the Red Cross we actually have a Lessons Learned mailbox where people can send things in
33:38 during the disaster saying hey you know next time we need to do try this or this quite didn't quite work so it's an
33:45 ongoing thing for us so that is an option for for a non-profit to have a a mailbox where you can just kind of jot
33:52 down those things that you want to remember when it's time to sit down and do your Lessons Learned
33:58 ... I can't remember if it's already in here but I'm going to add to our annual
34:04 list... um create or review
34:12 what is it called The Dump location like we we're not organizing anything right where's The Dump location is it we're
34:19 emailing to info at Visionality right like what is the the data collection
34:27 ... points
34:34 excellent excellent... so so that's that's the plan so I
34:42 want to pause just for a minute and open it it up... for people who have questions for Tony who have lived
34:49 experience what did we miss... and then if there's nothing at this
34:55 moment then we can keep going through what we have documented in our plan because the what follows here is just
35:01 like good information to have on hand... but I'm just curious from everyone who's here I see my friend Tim
35:10 so I love this... and... thank you Emily for doing it and Tony for helping her
35:17 ... I have 12 either business owners or CEOs in my group and I am definitely
35:22 sharing this with them the one thing I'm going to add though that it may be implicit in this but you
35:28 know on the in the first steps of contacting people for them vendors are very important you
35:36 know they're getting supplies all the time from different vendors of theirs so I think I'd add that in the business
35:41 thing but kudos to you guys I you know I had no idea how valuable this was going to be
35:47 when I when I signed up today I'm so Tony and Emily thank you guys for that appreciate it
35:52 great it's a lot and it can be really
35:58 overwhelming which is why it's like okay just do something right just just make a
36:04 a step towards the right... with vendors
36:10 and other critical
36:17 how does that feel Tim does that feel like it yeah I like it I like it thank you so much
36:25 what else what else do people think what questions do you have... or maybe some specific nuances to
36:32 your... organizational operations that you want to ask Tony about
36:37 I got a wise guy comment call Vanessa Bechtel and ask for money
36:45 that's not a bet that's not a bad point so way down here where
36:53 ... I I say I direct everyone to building contact information for any critical
36:58 helpers I'm going to go ahead and write Vanessa with a smiley face right I'll make sure that you said I'll tell her
37:05 that you said so Tim
37:10 ... you know a a few of us have you know worked through disasters maybe not in
37:16 the response team but just you know being in our community so I'm curious if anyone else has
37:22 ... lived experience of things that were missing or things that they did particularly well during a disaster
37:32 all right let's keep going then so this is the information that we recommend you
37:37 collect and update every year so business
37:43 ... contact information so this is me and one of our employees
37:48 ... and I'm thinking actually Delaney we should probably update this to you because you're outside of the area and
37:53 Llewellyn and I share are pretty close physically... emergency contact information the
38:00 non-emergency police line the fire line our insurance provider Property Management right so just collect all the
38:08 info... primary business locations
38:13 ... again it just seems so silly but if you're in the middle of a disaster and
38:19 you have an office you might not remember that address or the phone number because you don't have anything
38:24 in your brains anymore... every employee's contact information
38:32 ... phone and email address personal address and then their emergency contact name and phone number this is so
38:38 important and... I remember one time we had an employee who had a medical emergency and
38:45 she literally didn't show up to work for two days and I called her mom and I was
38:50 like hey what is she okay and she wasn't okay and so just like in general
38:55 business operations and taking care of your people it's really important to keep employees emergency contact
39:01 information... just in case and again we're literally physically printing this
39:07 out and putting it where
39:13 ... so these are all of our critical business partners so we've got our
39:19 bookkeeper our payroll our health insurance all of our other insurances our graphic designer our attorneys our
39:27 CPA Financial Consultant... where do you bank property management
39:32 building owner I.T support Media Partners Tony you added this to the list talk to me about the importance of
39:38 having your Media Partners and their contact information listed out sure... we can control our social media
39:45 but there are opportunities that you can use a traditional media to get the message out that you're up for business
39:51 or that you're that you need help... and I think that is one way that we can actually leverage our Media Partners
39:58 ... to help us with whatever messaging that we're trying to get out... I know that a lot of times like the
40:04 Ventura County Star will will list what operations are open and and who's closed
40:09 ... you want to make sure that you're on that list if you're open you want everyone to know that you know you know we're still operating it may be at a
40:15 reduced capacity but we're still there so you want to make sure that that you can leverage that as well
40:21 excellent... also you know this
40:29 Tim you mentioned vendors so this should also be all your vendors
40:36 ... excellent we've got our data security and backup
40:42 information so again this is going to say this is where the Dropbox is and the physical
40:49 records are at this address important websites and help guides... so
40:57 this will be different for every... Regional Community but you can just
41:02 list out and it and I think Tony this should be for not only where you're headquartered
41:08 ... but also where each employee lives right or like all the regions that you
41:14 serve right so we've got clients who serve Ventura and Santa Barbara counties... or the tri-counties so they're going
41:21 to need to have this information for each community yes excellent
41:27 ... kind of already talked about this again just collecting all all of the um
41:34 all the phone numbers if the internet's down you can't look them up
41:39 ... and then we've got a very basic suggestion for an at-home kit and again
41:44 I'm gonna bring it back to like resiliency is preparedness and so as a
41:50 business owner or a non-profit leader we're in a really critical place to encourage our team to be as prepared as
41:58 possible because as a community we can't all we're not independent right we can't all be fully prepared but as a community
42:05 if we raise our preparedness level... we will go through less harm as a
42:11 community right... I'm just looking at this
42:18 a lot of this stuff seems so silly but it's actually really easy to put together and
42:25 ... one of my recommendations is that... you go through your kit annually right if
42:32 emergency rations expire right water expires
42:37 ... and then just having a plan to you know when I built my my kit it's in a backpack and I sort of Built My
42:44 parameters around I'm going to have one backpack so what are my critical needs for three days right and... with the
42:52 assumption that within three days I'll be able to connect with people... and start to recover what else should
42:58 we be thinking of when we're building our kits what's the number one like missed thing that people don't include
43:06 in their go bag or their recovery kit flashlight flashlight thank you
43:13 ... crank flashlight batteries or battery operated... anything that's going to work that you
43:20 don't have to plug in one thing I did this round
43:25 ... I made sure that all of my things use double a batteries so I I had a a really
43:34 cool flashlight but it had like these D batteries or something and so I replaced everything so that a double A
43:41 battery so then I just need you know eight double a batteries and I can run all my stuff so I can add batteries
43:49 what else... I would suggest since we live in California a solar charger
43:55 ... they're they're very inexpensive if you could get like something that would be able to charge your cell phone and
44:01 you know that you're always going to have your cell phone handy I'd say a something like something to that so that
44:07 would definitely be one of those things that I know I have one in each of our GO bags we've got four of them they are in
44:14 they're in they're in the garage not that far from the interior door
44:19 ... we wanted to make sure that they were somewhere where we could get to them and get out the house kind of quickly so
44:25 ... you know and our GO bags our GO bags are kind of heavy because well I'm Red Cross and I have to overthink everything
44:30 when we're talking about preparedness but... everybody's got three gallons of water in their in their gigantic bag
44:36 they've got enough food to last them for three days... and we've gotten we've got
44:42 my youngest has all the dog stuff because it's their dog so they get to
44:47 keep all the dog stuff but... we wanted to make sure that we had everything in in such a place that everybody could
44:52 just grab it or I could grab them all and we can get out the house quickly... something that I tell everyone and
44:58 and this this makes it fun especially when you're you're talking about people with little ones
45:04 when you think about it you think about how are we going to get through a disaster I tell everybody imagine
45:10 camping out in your backyard for three days you can't go in the house you can
45:15 only have everything that you took out of the house with you so how are you going to be able to camp out in your
45:21 backyard for three days and I think once you get the kids involved in that the kids can start talking about what's important to them
45:28 ... you know that they've got to bring their blankie they have to bring this stuffed animal and you're getting the kids to understand that they're getting
45:34 prepared for it as well because a disaster really does wreak havoc for an
45:39 adult think about what it does to a kid so we want to make sure that we have the entire family and we're talking about
45:46 this I know we're talking about this for non-profits but I always say that nonprofits are filled with people those
45:51 people sometimes have families and we want to make sure that being resilient means that we're talking the entire
45:57 family gets some input into what that preparedness model looks like for the
46:02 family excellent I love it I love it we talked about animals so making sure that
46:10 ... you've got a little bit of food you've got you know a collapsible water
46:15 dish you have... including prescriptions
46:21 ... I just you know my my puppy was nibbling on his leash and so I bought
46:27 him a new leash and I threw his old lesion collar in my disaster bag because I'm whatever like why not
46:34 ... let's talk about prescriptions and Controlled Substances so there are
46:39 medications that are critical to people I have you know a couple of friends with
46:45 kiddos with autism right that would be a terrible time... for a kiddo with autism
46:50 to come off their meds unexpectedly so let's and those meds you can't get in
46:56 advance right I can get my I can ask for an additional 30-day prescription of my
47:02 allergy medicine prescriptions but for these Controlled Substances you can't get an extra Supply and so talk about
47:10 how at the Red Cross y'all... deal with that so we have nurses who are on station at
47:17 our shelters and they have the ability to call into a local doctor and get those prescriptions filled once they
47:23 verify once they do the verification process which isn't very hard and we are able to go to the local pharmacy and
47:30 pick up that controlled prescription and we'll be able to administer it while you're there at the shelter and then
47:36 when it's time for you to go you can take it with you so it is something that's super important but again it's
47:41 one of those things that if you know exactly what you're taking and how much you need to take it just makes the
47:47 process go a whole lot faster well and the same is true for like eyewear right if if I don't have glasses
47:54 I don't know my eye prescription right but if I have it written down somewhere
48:01 and I can give it to my shelter representative y'all can go Source some glasses for me or a pair of contacts
48:08 right and if we know exactly what that prescription looks like it makes it so much faster yeah so I want us to zoom
48:16 back a little bit and and we have a question in the chat I want us to think
48:21 about the maybe not in our immediate family but one step removed so the people that you
48:28 will care for in the time of a disaster so... Tim's question is what about
48:34 different sized diapers many of us are grandparents and have kids who have tiny kids so how far out from our CORE family
48:43 unit should we be looking... and factoring in those people into our the needs of those people into our
48:50 own individual disaster kits fantastic question I think that comes
48:56 back to how close are they I mean are they right down the street... if they're a couple thousand miles
49:02 away and and they don't visit often and I'd say probably not but if they're close then you have an idea
49:10 ... you know of what your your grants might need and if you don't you're always you know it's always easy to pick
49:16 up the phone and say hey Timmy's wearing what size diapers I'm just going to update update the... the go the go bag
49:22 and before Timmy gets from a size three to a size four maybe you want to give your your kid the size three before
49:28 Timmy grows out of them it is one of those things where you can actually just kind of you know as they're growing you
49:34 know continue to change that that go bag or or that supply that you may need to
49:39 have you know if if all the family has to come to your place to to weather the storm
49:45 well and when I just recently updated my go bag I was like whoa I've gained
49:52 weight these clothes don't fit me anymore so two just like this idea of
49:57 it's really important that you review it every single year because your body your
50:05 circumstances your dependence change every single year and two if you're doing it every year what you said you
50:10 can you can work the supplies into the thing that you're using now so you're
50:17 not creating all this waste of like well now I just gotta throw out the diapers because they don't fit anymore it's like
50:23 well you know every year we're going to review this so that we can use up those diapers before we outgrow them
50:31 ... talk to me about... elderly people or people with
50:36 different physical needs what do we need to be thinking about... when we are preparing for those groups
50:44 of people well we want to make sure that we have all of the things that they need as far
50:50 as for Mobility or for any other things that would help them get to a better
50:57 sense of normal we want to make sure that we take that into consideration so if you have someone with mobility issues
51:02 do you have an extra whether that be a cane or a walker or whatever that that
51:09 that apparatus is that they need do you have an extra one handy that you can kind of stash so that when it is time to
51:16 go you have that... that is one of those things where you're as we're as we're developing that
51:22 kid we're taking in all of the things that that our family is so you know
51:29 we've talked about prescriptions for for ones that need a controlled substance
51:34 now we need to think about okay we've got somebody with you know these issues
51:39 how can we work maybe with our doctor maybe with their doctor how can we work out a plan so that we're thinking about
51:47 them we're trying to make sure that we're including them in the plan so that it's not an afterthought after the
51:53 disaster happens love it love it... put your questions into the chat or
51:59 raise your hand if you want to ask Tony a question I'm Gonna Be A little vulnerable with you my friend I've never
52:07 been to a Red Cross shelter and the it sounds really intimidating to me so so
52:13 can you describe it to me and you know like let's put let's put our brains back
52:19 into Thomas fire and you know what is that even what does it even look like and how do I know where it is and you
52:27 know what should I expect so I would say the first thing that you want to do is you want to download the
52:33 Red Cross emergency app that will show you where the closest shelter is it'll
52:39 tell you if we are co-locating pets in that shelter... you'll you'll get directions you'll
52:45 be able to plug that into your phone you'll be able to drive there when you get there you will notice that a Red
52:51 Cross shelter is open for everyone... we if if you need a shelter and you
52:58 are close to it it is open to you and we want to make sure that we we say that the Red Cross is open for everyone and
53:05 that shelter is open for as long as we are needed when you come in you're going to be greeted by you know a Red Cross
53:11 volunteer and they're going to ask you know do you need a shelter do you need somewhere to stay and we're going to
53:17 collect just a little bit of information just so we know who you are and... we're going to ask you if there's any
53:23 medical or mental health needs that you might need we have people who will be standing by
53:28 ... and then once we get all of that taken care of we're going to take you to your place in the shelter and we have
53:34 you know a a waiting area we've got a dormitory area and then we've got a food
53:39 area and we're going to take you on a tour and we're going to show you where all of that is we're going to show you where the restrooms are we're going to
53:45 show you where the showers are and we're going to get you to we're going to make it as home as possible so when you get
53:52 there you will have been greeted by someone someone will ask if there's any immediate needs that you have and then
53:58 we're going to show you around and we're going to make sure that you know where everything is and you know what the schedule looks like so that there's
54:05 nothing that comes at you that you we didn't tell you previously you're going to see people walking through the
54:10 shelters and they're just going to be making sure that your needs are being met... you know after a day or so you will
54:17 see the same red crossers there and you'll be able to get to know them and you'll end up bonding kind of like a family I know that depending on where
54:25 that shelter is set up it might be in a gymnasium for a school it might be at
54:30 the Ventura County Fairgrounds but we're going to do everything that we can to make sure that it's as comfortable as
54:36 possible and that when you come in you feel safe um
54:41 while you're there we're going to take care of your your we're going to feed you we're going to make sure you have something to drink we're going to make
54:47 sure that we're trying to do something as far as entertaining or giving information sometimes we have the local fire
54:53 department come through and give a brief saying hey this is you know in case of a wildfire this is what the fire activity
54:59 looks like this is what we anticipate for the next few days and then everyone wants to know if their house was spared
55:05 and we usually don't have that information it usually comes a few days later but we tried to pass on as much
55:11 information as we have to our clients so the time that we have them under our
55:17 care we are doing everything we can to make them feel comfortable thank you so much the other thing that I
55:25 want to stress is... Disaster Response and Recovery is a very long timeline right and so I
55:35 think too as people experiencing disaster it's important for us to to
55:40 know that things may happen in a couple days they won't they may not happen today and so
55:49 ... the the point there is it's important that we advocate for ourselves and are
55:55 the people that we're caring for on what their immediate and Urgent needs are and
56:00 we're gonna fill in all the blanks eventually but we need to advocate for ourselves
56:06 ... right because y'all if if I don't tell you that I'm on blood pressure meds you're not gonna know that I need them
56:12 and then I'm gonna become a medical emergency on top of the fire right so really advocating for our own needs but
56:19 to you know it's been so interesting you know going through Thomas fire and the
56:25 debris flow which were my first disasters and I was absolutely unprepared and our community candidly
56:31 was absolutely unprepared but then watching as other disasters unfold and
56:36 they really do follow the same Cadence and things happen faster or slower
56:43 but there is this like immediate like every everything's ruined and nothing
56:48 will ever get better and whatever exists now will exist for forever and it's like just
56:53 you're you're gonna need to be in a shelter for a minute and it's not ideal and it's not your favorite place to be
56:58 and you will get into a hotel or you know the job of a Red Cross shelter is
57:04 to close the Red Cross shelter right and to get people into a more stable location so just I think having the
57:10 sense of peace that the people are working the systems and
57:15 things are going to get better every single day I think the one thing that we we try to
57:20 stress is that you know a Red Cross shelter is a Lifeboat in a storm we're
57:26 we're not here for a very long time we're here for as long as we're needed but while we're here we're open to
57:32 everyone and we are trying to meet as many needs as we possibly can
57:37 thank you thank you we have one more question do you have any advice for dealing with people with anxiety during
57:44 a disaster fortunately have licensed mental health
57:49 workers who are in if they're not in every shelter they're itinerating between shelters
57:56 ... and sometimes we just need to have a quiet space for people with anxiety and
58:01 we try to build that into every shelter that we have and when they are going
58:07 through an episode where they just need someone to talk to we have people who are who are there to do that
58:14 ... I know just the fact that for people who are who are struggling with anxiety
58:19 just not knowing and being in a foreign place and being around a bunch of people that you don't know and that isn't
58:25 family can be overwhelming and and we do everything that we can to try to to get
58:31 them to a place where they understand what's going on because sometimes it's just they don't have enough information
58:36 and maybe that's where we're coming in to give them that information and tell
58:41 them this is what this looks like and right now we're in this phase and then we're going to move into the next phase
58:47 which looks like this and then the next phase that looks like this to give them something to be hopeful for so I think
58:53 that is one of the things that that our disaster mental health workers do very very well
58:58 love it thank you so much what other questions do people have or lived
59:04 experience or success stories and perhaps we've done it Tony we have
59:10 solved disaster we've solved it oh I wish that were the case but the
59:17 next disaster will always show us where we're where we're lacking and I think it's a it's a it's a forever learning
59:22 process... the Red Cross has been doing this for more than a hundred years and
59:28 if we said that we were the very best at it we'd be we'd be telling Tales so we try to learn from every single disaster
59:34 and we know like you said disasters have a Cadence we know what that looks like but it's the Nuance that makes things
59:40 different what happened in Maui was totally different than what happened in Ventura County for the Thomas fire yes
59:48 they were both wildfires that burned out of control and you know it took a long time for people to get to a a place
59:54 where now they're starting to do recovery but the nuances were different and that is that's our role we have to
1:00:01 try to understand that and we have to try to to get to a place where we are thinking what is the next step knowing
1:00:08 what we know now what is the next step and what should we anticipate with the shared knowledge that we've accrued
1:00:14 through the years excellent well thank you so much and you
1:00:20 know I'm you're you're kind of like the dentist I hope to never see you but I'm glad you're here
1:00:27 I hope you never have to work with you Tony but really glad to have you in our
1:00:32 community and thank you so much for your time and energy today and this was just really wonderful so thank you and and
1:00:40 we'll be sending out our version of the plan and also a blank plan and I invite
1:00:46 you to reply with questions we're here to help I'll say it one more time the
1:00:51 more prepared every individual and every... organization is for a disaster the
1:00:58 better and more resilient we are as a community so it really is in all of our best interests to make sure that your
1:01:05 neighbors and your family and your friends are doing similar you better believe I'm giving people go bags for
1:01:10 Christmas sorry everyone well thank you so much Emily and for
1:01:16 anyone that needs more information if you go to be Red Cross ready... if you type that into Google you'll be able to
1:01:22 look at what the Red Cross offers for businesses for individuals and families and you'll see all of the ways that you
1:01:28 can be prepared awesome thank you all so much have a good week thank you bye-bye