Ready and Resilient

Because the Idaho Transportation Department has a multi-faceted role in the state’s infrastructure, staff at the department work hard to be prepared for a variety of emergencies. These can include floods, fires, landslides, severe weather and accidents.

Being prepared means understanding emergency preparedness, and emergency response. Here’s a break down of what each means:

Emergency preparedness are actions performed before an emergency. Examples can include planning and coordination meetings, writing communication or standard operating procedures, training staff, volunteers, and community members, conducting emergency drills and exercises, and ensuring that emergency equipment is available, in good repair, and ready to use.

Emergency response refers to actions taken after an emergency or natural disaster to help minimize the negative effects. Examples can include emergency communications, coordinating first responders and volunteers, providing emergency medical care to injured, coordinating temporary shelter for evacuated or displaced survivors, and organizing supplies and equipment for those assisting in and affected by the emergency or disaster.

We also have a responsibility to be more resilient. How can we do that? First, we need to identify weaknesses in our equipment, ourselves and the organization as a whole, then work for a solution (innovate)! What do we mean?

1. Equipment - if there is one part that fails and require months to get a replacement – maybe we should have that part on hand. (I know it takes work to find that out).

2. Ourselves - do we keep ourselves in good working order (health, fitness, mind), have our families prepared so as not to worry if we have to respond and have the proper tools/supplies handy (See #1)?

Enough lecturing - Shift your attitude to be more engaged when it comes to being ready and resilient.

Published 10-04-19