March is Severe Weather Preparedness Month in Illinois. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service have developed a Severe Weather Preparedness Guide, which provides information about tornadoes, severe storms, lightning and flooding and recommended actions to take before, during and after each of these weather events. The guide also includes definitions of important weather terms, including watches, warnings and advisories and a list of items needed for a family emergency supply kit. It is available on the Ready Illinois website or by calling (217) 785-9925.
And for the first time in our history, our country was faced with an enemy that was willing to take any step to destroy our country. These steps could include the release of deadly toxins and diseases bioterrorism.
One of the professions that answered this call was Public Health. In any emergency event there are components that are best handled by Public Health Professionals with the unique skills and talents that we possess.
Rather than responding to a fire, an auto accident, or an explosion site, the goal of Public Health is to prevent further illness and injury. If we can do this, we can greatly lower the impact the disaster will have on our families, neighbors, and communities. Our profession was asked to step forward to look into what could happen next. What illness can be caused by the emergency? What injury can we prevent by looking at the damage that has already been done, and stopping further damage? What affect has the emergency had on our community’s water, sanitation, and food systems? What medications do we need to deliver to protect our community from potential sickness caused by a disruption in our infrastructure?
Since 9/11, the Public Health system has been in the process of developing plans to respond to these emergencies, and we have tested these plans through exercises and drills that provide us with the opportunity to find and correct deficiencies before we are faced with a real-life need to act.
Hancock County Health Department has worked diligently to answer that call. With input from our emergency response partners, plans have been written, exercised, and updated. Relationships were established with emergency management leaders and responders. And those valuable relationships continue to be developed and nurtured. More than ever before, Hancock County has built on its already thriving system of responding to our citizens when an emergency strikes, and we continue to identify our strengths and weaknesses in an effort to build on that system.
We welcome questions and input from all of our partners in the community the people we call our neighbors, friends and families. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to know more about any of the following issues:
Medication Dispensing Drill
Periodically, the Hancock County Health Department conducts drills and exercises to evaluate our ability to dispense medications to all citizens in our county in a short amount of time.
The pictures below are from a drive-through dispensing drill held in September of 2007.