Earth Today | Rethinking your go-bag amid a changing climate
Published:Thursday | September 5, 2019 | 12:00 AM
FROM EXTREME weather events, including the likes of Hurricane Dorian that this week battered The Bahamas, to ongoing warming of the planet and the risk to health, food and water security, climate change is forcing a rethink of the go-bag.
Environmental risk management professional, Eleanor Jones, said the time is now for Jamaicans to take a hard look at that ‘bag’ of essentials to aid and ease recovery after a disaster event.
“We focus on preparedness, which is getting ready to handle the event, but we also need to focus on recovery,” she told The Gleaner.
“What you see is that it can take a very long time to get back up and running (after a disaster), and that is because we do not do recovery planning. And the recovery planning is to be done long before you have an event, not after when you begin to scramble,” Jones added.
What is more, she said a document does not a plan make.
“So we can write down the things which we need to do, but we have to put it into practice. People need to know what to do, who is to do it and when,” noted Jones, who leads the consultancy firm Environmental Solutions Limited (ESL).
This, she said, brings into sharp focus the go-bag and what needs to be in it.
“We need to understand that we are living with risk; that is part of the reality of the world today. We tend to focus on bed, biscuits and blankets, which are important, but then you also need these other essential items,” the ESL boss observed.
Items in the go-bag will differ based on whether the needs being considered are those of a business/sector or an individual.
“Your go-bag may not even be a physical bag; but even if it is a physical bag, you should now begin to look at where you are exposed,” she advised.
“For your business, you should have hurricane procedures and a business continuity plan. Your business continuity plan would consider what you need to be able to pick up the pieces and to start again (after an event). For instance, you need to store your data and ensure that it is protected,” Jones added.
For the individual, she said the thinking needs to go beyond ‘traditional items’, such as a change of clothes, shoes, toiletries and important documents.
“You need to think about your health needs, things like insulin if you are a diabetic, ice packs, headache pills and so on,” Jones noted, adding that thought also has to go into how these items can be best stored.
Meanwhile, reports on the devastation in The Bahamas continue to come in, with the death toll, up to yesterday morning, at seven. Hurricane Dorian is the lastest in a number of category 3 to five hurricanes that have impacted the region, leaving in their wake mass casualties and destruction.