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Kaya Pettit

Mr. Lay

English 11

4-26-23

Care to Prepare: A World in Need of Disaster Preparedness

Introduction

Natural disasters are great feats of nature that remind us how fragile mankind is. While

there is no stopping such catastrophes from occurring, we can certainly be prepared and ready for

any dangerous situation. Despite so many Americans having access to the resources, the Federal

Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has found that only 48 percent of Americans actually

have an emergency plan. What’s even more worrisome is that schools across the world do not

prioritize teaching about disaster safety due to a variety of reasons, some because the teachers

themselves don’t know the proper protocol, and others because they are worried that the heavy

topic will cause the children anxiety. This is a very short-term way of viewing this issue as when

it comes time, not knowing what to do in an emergency and leaving the children in the dark

about disasters, we risk losing countless lives and causing long lasting mental trauma. Seeing

first-hand the disastrous effects natural disasters can have on my community, I am certain that

there needs to be more done to properly educate children on how to stay safe in all situations.

More efforts are being made to keep children safe, however the change is not happening

quick enough and there is no urgency in communities that haven’t been recently affected by
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natural disasters. There has been an increase in programs around the world to ensure

communities are well prepared. Although different organizations such as the Red Cross, United

Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and governments

internationally have been making efforts to train educators on teaching children how to react in a

disaster, there needs to be more initiative taken by schools and people themselves in order to

develop a sense of priority and urgency when drilling children the proper protocol in a disaster

for their own protection. With the pressing worry of climate change, natural disasters begin to

pose an even greater threat to everyone and the creation of more Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)

programs along with preparing schools to be more equipped in a disaster, there could be

countless lives saved across the world.

The Problem

Disasters hurt and affect everyone. Natural disasters do not purposely target specific

races, sexes, or ages. However, their impact on people’s lives can be varied, it will weigh down

most heavily on the vulnerable members of our community such as children. “Children are most

vulnerable when disasters strike.” (US Department of Veterans Affairs 1) This is since children

are still developing their critical thinking and life skills. When adults leave the children in the

dark on how to be prepared in a disaster and there is no family made emergency plan, children

have no background knowledge on what the right thing to do is. It is unfair to leave children

even more vulnerable than they already are. “Every year, 175 million children globally are

expected to be affected by natural disasters, including floods, cyclones, droughts, heatwaves,

severe storms, and earthquakes.” (Lai & Greca 1) Children need to be taught how to be safe in

natural disasters in order to mitigate the lasting effects of deadly situations. Not every one of
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those natural disasters will be full scale causing hundreds of casualties, however, we have no

way of predicting when exactly will there be a devastatingly large disaster. This means we must

be prepared no matter what.

The issue of a country unprepared starts with the youngest members of our community,

children. Children will one day be the future of our lives and society, hence, the reason we

ensure their education sets them up for a modern world. However, as we move to this more

advanced and academically competitive society, honing the life skills of children become less

and less important. With the certain amount of money, a school is allotted each year, school

officials will push to prep their students for the best score in standardized testing and learning as

much theoretical knowledge as they can, to see the tangible and immediate changes their

students will make. While this is a wonderful thing to focus on and study, it also tends to neglect

the children’s practical lifesaving skills, risking the lives of millions to be left in the dark about

staying safe in dangerous situations. America is a country where our own government runs like a

business, this means everything will be decided through the most economic means and profitable

ways. Jeffery Schlegelmilch, who works at Columbia University studying to understand the best

ways for the nation to prepare and recover from disasters, says this on invesing in disaster

prepardness, “But we shouldn’t expect to see immediate major results. Existing infrastructure,

like old buildings and roadways, are not necessarily designed to be resilient, and it can take

generations for those investments to be realized at scale to provide a meaningful level of risk

reduction.” (Zandi 1) This means because the government cannot immediately reap the fruits of

their money, they will mark it off as a not worth their money. However, this sort of chang can

not happen overnight, we must remain patient and focus on preventing lives from being lost for

nothing. But why invest money into schools to teaching disaster preparedness or rebuilding
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buildings with the proper infrastructure to prepare for a supposed disaster instead of simply

fixing and sending help after the disaster strikes? While this might seem more economical it is

actually a very irresponsible way to view the issue. “There tends to be more of a focus on

response and less on disaster risk reduction, even though that money goes further. It costs more

money to build an earthquake-resistant building, but the payoff when that earthquake happens is

much greater.” (Zandi 1) Saving people’s lives and livelihoods before they are lost and ruined is

far more effective than sending some bottled water after their house has been torn to pieces.

Disaster preparedness can not have affects that are seen overnight, but their long-term effects are

beneficial to everyone.

Money isn’t the only reason schools aren’t teaching about disaster safety. It is common

for schools to avoid teaching children this as they are worried that it will cause too much anxiety

for the children. You cannot rely on the hope that a disaster will never strike, or that if you all

stay inside you can withstand the storm. “That’s why in addition to ensuring facilities have

strong emergency plans, preparedness education for youth is critically important.” (U.S.

Department of Veterans 1) Too often, disaster preparedness lessons are limited to school fire

drills, active shooting lockdowns or simply avoided all together due to the sensitive nature of the

topic. This leaves children with no other choice but to be stuck without any guidance. Children

are more resilient than we think they are and their reaction too natural disasters will simply

depend on how it’s presented to them. The more pressure you add to the thought of natural

disasters being an unstoppable frighting force, the more anxiety there will be, however, when

presented with safety options, it will create a much safe space for the children to learn and grow.

Previous Efforts
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Schools are one of the most crucial center points for dealing with disasters. Not only is it

a place many use as a shelter, makeshift hospital, amongst other things in a disaster, it is also the

starting place of learning. Children need to start being exposed to disasters and how to deal with

them from a young age and teachers play a major role in that. “Teachers undoubtedly assume the

most critical task in the education dimension of disaster risk reduction management.”

(Gökmenoğlu, et al. 24)" Even though schools are such essential places people look to in a

disaster, not just for shelter but also for educational guidance, it is clear that a large majority of

even teachers still feel unprepared. according to the pre-experiment survey conducted in Turkey.

“The survey results showed that 87.90% of the teachers (25 786) did not participate in DRR

education before. Furthermore, among these teachers, 87.46% did not feel ready for a future

disaster, 82.47% did not think that their school was prepared for a future disaster, and 82.92%

thought their colleagues in the school were not prepared for a future disaster.” (Gökmenoğlu, et

al. 27) Turkey is an extremely earthquake prone area, so the fact that even there, the teachers are

un prepared is unbelievably concerning. This is incredibly troubling as teachers are the trusted

adults children will turn to when they have questions regarding disasters. Turkey recognized this

issue and started a program that would aid in training teachers to be prepared, requiring them to

learn not only about disaster safety but the most effective ways to teach it. Understanding that

this was a dire situation and reaching as many teachers as possible was the number one priority,

they taught it though a cascade system of educating educators to go out and train more people.

“By employing the cascade teacher training system, the project reached 135,375 teachers within

a short time.” (Gökmenoğlu, et al. 24) They managed to reach plenty of teachers in schools

across the country. This helps to ensure the safety of the students and their families as the

training and learning is applied.

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Multiple organizations have been working on different disaster risk reduction (DRR)

programs as a way to provide learning opportunities for children, not just in school. The Red

Cross has developed a series of work books and videos that follow a friendly penguin character

through the “Prepare with Pedro” series. Pedro creates a comfortable and fun space for the

children to learn about disaster safety and learn how to deal with their feelings of anxiety or fear.

Save the Children UK, an international non-profit aiming to improve the lives of children

globally, recognizes that with climate change comes more natural disasters and an even greater

calling for disaster safety and preparedness. “Children are key to addressing both disaster risk

reduction and climate change issues – children as leaders and activists can bring about major

changes in knowledge, attitudes and practices. As they are disproportionately affected by

disasters, DRR programs must have an adequate assessment of children's needs and rights and

involve them in the design of the strategies.” (Save the Children 13-14) Save the Children

focuses on involving children in the process of reaching out to their peers. Allowing the children

to communicate in the most effective way and involving them in the process as leaders makes

them feel more empowered and motivated to continue the spread of disaster safety. This, in fact,

disproves the point of learning about disasters cause the children to feel anxiety so that we need

to stop teaching it to them as, ““The concern children feel about inheriting a world where

habitats, species and natural beauty are diminished is also important. Children cited this as one of

the key motivating factors behind their participation and activism in Save the Children’s

programs in the Caribbean and other regions.” (Save the Children 12) The concern children have

is valid, but we cannot underestimate the power and leadership they can hold as their voice can

be just as loud.

The Solution
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There is no one simple solution to disaster preparedness as “Preparedness is not a static

point in space and time or an end goal achieved; it’s a process that has to be engaged. With an

earthquake of this magnitude, you’ll always have damage and fatalities and you can’t fully avoid

it, as the cost of doing so is impossible.” (Zandi 1) There is no one right way to do it as it ‘s

about the process of constantly trying to improve upon our past efforts. However, it’s evident

some of the best ways we can start that is through the education of children.

Although Turkey managed to reach a great amount of teachers in such a short amount of

time, the cascade system employed risks vital details getting left out or forgotten when passed

from instructor to instructor at such a high speed. In order to apply that effectively in America,

the federal government should allot money in the budget dedicated to train school staff and allow

for disaster preparedness in the curriculum. This should not be an after thought, rather an integral

part of our community.

As for the different DRR programs, the Save the Children are good in theory, however,

we still need to educate those children before educating others. However, involving students in

the process of spreading the message appears to be highly effective. Prepare with Pedro from

Red Cross is effective as well. This is a good example of presenting disasters in a safe light

where it will not shove the end of the world down children’s throats, rather it’s okay to feel

scared of such uncontrollable things then present them with their options of what they can

control.

More of these DRR programs should be implemented. While it’s great they exist, many

people do not use them to their advantage and will avoid putting the effort to teach them. One

starting place would be starting events at the library for children. The library is a safe space for

many children and parents can be involved in this process as well. Having families learn these
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lessons together would be the most effective as they can discuss their feelings and family plans

as a unit rather than all be on different pages of disaster. From research done at the library event,

92 percent of children are excited to engage in different disaster relief activities. If you apply this

to the entire America as whole, millions of children would be motivated and eager to learn what

they can do in times of need.

Conclusion

Although there are different DRR programs that have been created on a global scale,

there needs to be more programs that are implemented with a sense of urgency. There can be as

many programs created as we want, however, both ourselves and schools must take the initiative

and step forward to start applying and teaching it to our children. Even if disaster preparedness is

costly, it is a necessary investment to ensure the well-being and safety of our society. The more

dependent we get on technology and infrastructure, the harder a natural disaster will hit us. We

need to teach our children not just the importance of academics, but the importance of survival.

Programs such as Prepare with Pedro from the Red Cross prove that teaching disaster

preparedness does not need to be an anxiety inducing event, instead it should be a safe and open

discussion.

Teachers and schools are the first place to start when working on disaster preparedness.

Schools provide a safe place both for learning and as a shelter in a disaster. Educating the youth

is the first step to a prepared community that will lower the causality rate of natural disasters

Although it is impossible to stop a disaster, it is our duty to focus on the safety of our community

and children with disaster preparedness.

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Works Cited

Gökmenoğlu, Tuba, et al. "A Cascade Teacher Training Model in Disaster Education: A Case of
Turkey." Uluslararası Eğitim Programları ve Öğretim Çalışmaları Dergisi, vol. 11,
no. 1, 2021, pp. 23-42.

Save the Children UK. (2007). Legacy of disasters:The impact of climate change on

children. https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/legacy-disastersthe-impact-
climate-change-children/

UNESCO. (n.d.). Disaster risk reduction. https://www.unesco.org/en/disaster-risk-reduction

U.S. Department of Veterans Association. (2020, August 17). Preparing for emergencies: It’s
never too early to start teaching kids. VA News. https://news.va.gov/77960/preparing-
emergenciesneverearlystartteachingkids/#:~:text=They%20are%20likely%20to%20suffe
r,for%20youth%20is%20critically%20important

Zandi, Daniella. "Why It’s So Hard to Be Prepared for Disasters." State of the Planet, Columbia
Climate School, 15 Mar. 2023, news.climate.columbia.edu/2023/03/15/why-its-so-hard-
to-be-prepared-for-disasters/.