Gloucester issues "BUG-OUT-BAGS" for seniors

[glostamon]

Safety in a bag
Seniors' council helps prepare for an emergency with evacuation bags


By Quinn Allen-Wardell
Staff Writer


If you had to evacuate quickly, in the face of a flood, a hurricane or some other emergency, would you have enough things together to evacuate safely, and effectively?

The Gloucester Council on Aging's TRIAD Council is hoping to help local seniors plan for that type of emergency. The council is initiating an emergency evacuation bag program, and making the bags available for Gloucester seniors age 60 and over. And beginning Tuesday, the council will be paying visits to various local senior housing facilities in hopes of promoting evacuation awareness and preparedness.

Using donated money from local businesses, the council has purchased 500 emergency backpacks, each carefully designed to fit an assortment of essentials. In case of a fire, flood, or natural disaster, seniors can grab their emergency bag with minimal effort, and quickly evacuate the building.

"In a state of panic," TRIAD's project coordinator Peter Jenner said, "many seniors do not know what to take or how to react. The Emergency Kits allow them to grab a simple bag, get out safely, and keep a peace of mind."

The Council hopes that the bags will prevent occurrences like the confusion that seceded the Poplar Park flood scare in May 2006, during which dozens of elderly Gloucester residents were left without many of their essential items, such as medications, glasses and hearing aides.

One of the backpack's smartest features is its easy-to-use wheeled capability. "Some of the senior citizens in Gloucester would not be able to carry a heavy pack out of a building," Jenner said, "so we chose a rolling backpack."

The council and retired Gloucester Public Health Nurse Sunny Robinson will travel to five different senior housing facilities, and plan to host a general meeting at the Rose Baker Senior Center in May. The bags will be available at a cost of $5 each.

Jenner said he believes it will take some time to reach the majority of Gloucester's senior public.

"There are over 6,000 senior citizens in Gloucester alone, and many more around Cape Ann," he said. "It may take years to reach them all, but the effect we'll have will be profound."

Gloucester's TRIAD council has become the first TRIAD in Essex County to initiate an emergency bag program, and estimates that the idea will catch on quickly. "A bag like this is essential for all elderly people whether in assisted living, or at home," Jenner said. "Every community should provide some sort of evacuation kit like this, and before too long, this could become a reality."

Emergency bag

distribution

 

[matt]

Kudo's to the local business that supported this and to this group for working on this! I don't know what's in the bag, but it represents the right mindset if nothing else.

I was in the Billerica public library a few months ago and they had a display of a BOB and a PSA about preparedness that was actually pretty good.

 

[Finalygotabeltfed]

My my my, how things change when the slap in the face of reality stings the senses.

There was a time not long ago when the word "survivalist" would get you arrested, now everybody wants to be one.

Bug out bags?.........Gee, who'd have ever thunk huh?

 

[Len-2A Training]

Are you sure that they aren't "doggie bags" for the early-bird specials?

 

[theGringo]

Oh, great! Legions of GOMERS clogging the highways in their Lark scooters, electric wheelchairs ... or with their bug-out wheelie-bags strapped to the roofs of their Plymouth Belvederes ... all of them asking, plaintively, and fruitlessly ...

HOW DO YA GET TA MILLINOCKET?​

 

[glostamon]

Oh, great! Legions of GOMERS clogging the highways in their Lark scooters, electric wheelchairs ... or with their bug-out wheelie-bags strapped to the roofs of their Plymouth Belvederes ... all of them asking, plaintively, and fruitlessly ...

HOW DO YA GET TA MILLINOCKET?​

+! ....

Whats the first thing you put in a senior citezens "Bug out Bag"?.....DEPENDS?

 

[appraiser]

I had to do an emergency response evacuation at a senior housing complex last month and let me tell you I would have killed to have had those bags ready to go with essentials for the seniors, not knowing how long they were going to be out of the complex (frozen pipe burst) , not knowing the shelter situation, or how many were going to stay with family members it would have made life a lot easier if they had a bag with the basics, a med list, contact info, etc.

I'll have to bring this up with the Director of Elderly Services next time we sit down.