By: Sienna Escobar
Collegedale’s first-ever Storm Safety Day brought together professionals and volunteers from more than 10 organizations last week to educate the City of Collegedale and the greater community on emergency preparedness.
The event, which took place from 3 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at The Commons, attracted an estimated 400-500 people, according to Collegedale Commissioner Laura Howse.
A main focus of the event was to allow community members to buy new weather radios or bring their old ones to be programmed by an expert. According to Amy Maxwell, public relations manager for the Hamilton County Office of Emergency Management, around 125 weather radios were sold or reprogrammed during the event.
“That’s 125 families that have that emergency tool,” said Maxwell. “It makes us happy to see that we have families in the city of Collegedale who are proactive when it comes to emergency preparedness.”
Despite the seriousness of the topic, Storm Safety Day had an almost fair-like atmosphere, with lights strung across the venue and hot dogs and other snacks for sale. After viewing live safety demonstrations and informational booths, families shared food around outdoor picnic tables and enjoyed the sunny weather.
Along with community members, volunteers and personnel took the opportunity to meet and interact with other organizations. Representatives from the Collegedale Police Department and the Tri-Community Fire Department joined volunteers from the Humane Educational Society, the Samaritan Center and the American Red Cross, among others. Members of Southern’s Nursing Club also ran a booth and took an active part in the event, from conducting blood pressure checks for Collegedale police officers to engaging young members of the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Squad in a friendly push-up contest.
“It’s been really great to even just meet our community partners and get to know the people that will be there to help [in an emergency],” said Howse.
The free health clinic offered by the nursing club was “a huge hit” with visitors, according to Howse. At the booth, Southern nursing students screened community members for important health indicators such as blood pressure, pulse oximetry and body mass index. Based on the results, students provided online resources for further education. At another table, students gave out information on how to put together an emergency medical kit.
According to Nursing Club member Maddie Showalter, getting Southern students involved in the event was a way to help them connect with locals in a different setting.
“It’s just so important,” said Showalter. “It grows community outside of where we are.”
Howse said one of the most important safety measures for community members is an emergency plan, which explains where to get good information and where to find the safest part of their homes.
During large storms and potential cell service outages, weather radios are more reliable than cell phones to warn people of tornadoes and other dangerous conditions. Even when cell phones have service, weather radios often receive warnings minutes before the phones do, which can give people valuable time to get to shelter, according to Howse.
Emergency Management Director Chris Adams explained that the best warning system includes three means of notifications: weather radios, cell phone alerts and news networks on television. To help, the Emergency Management Office maintains an emergency alert system where county residents can receive warnings to their phone numbers or emails. Interested individuals can sign up for these notifications at the Emergency Management Office’s website, hamiltonready.org.
According to Adams, hosting a community event such as Storm Safety Day cuts through the distractions of daily life by meeting people face-to-face and making sure they know how to act in an emergency.
“That’s just a big thing about community,” said Adams. “You know, we ought to work together, and when [disaster] happens, we all got to come together to help each other.”
