ICE and YOYO

What?

No, we haven't gone bonkers.....just wanted to provide you with another instructional acronym to use when discussing the act of being prepared.

YOYO stands for You're On Your Own ....the ASSE refers to YOYO 24 or the time between an emergency situation and the time help/relief becomes available......you can see from recent events such as Hurricane Katrina that this could be extended and at minimum you might use YOYO 72 for personal situations....

What does this mean for the average citizen? In short in means that safety professionals - public and private have recognized that the reality is we the people have to get our collective act together in order to pull through some of what life, nature and those crazy zealots are dishing out....

So, if it suits you or your organization ....be prepared for YOYO72 at minimum.

Job sites are usually fluid and often a dangerous mix of trades people working in unison to construct (or demolish) structures. On many an occasion, operations run into trouble and people get hurt - lack of training, complacency, inattention due to medical conditions, substance abuse (recent studies indicate that 1 in 12 construction trade and restaurant workers have a substance or alcohol abuse issue) or working in proximity to other, shall we say...less astute or trained persons who create a hazardous situation.

Federal Law requires that Emergency Action Plans be in effect on job sites so that in the event of an emergency, workers will know who to call or what to do.....
So, in your personal portfolio...do you carry any emergency information or instructions that would allow others to call for you?

Let's go beyond that....safety specialists on site...big project, time crunches, multiple subcontractors everywhere - supposedly all aware of your site safety procedures, policy and location of emergency info - right?......okay, maybe not .....
Visual devices and color are important on a jobsite....trained workers can understand the different meanings on OSHA and ANSI type signs, but during the emergency situation a phenomenon called "tunnel vision" overwhelms you and your focus becomes very limited and your responses can seem to take longer than they do (the term "forever" is sometimes used).

If you have to denote locations for Emergency Equipment or Info and you have the bare minimum of time to train newbies coming on site - how about employing the ICE image ?
ICE cards in helmets, ICE PHR records inside a sealed pouch in the helmet or in a wallet, ICE
signs denoting safety rescue equipment, first aid or emergency communications devices and EAP plans...the reality is that while some of these trainings actually do take place, they sometimes are not repeated, done in haste or various communication (language) barriers exist.

When tunnel vision hits....ICE may be fresh in their minds.
So, ICE fits well within the KISS (Keep it Simple ...)principle.

Can't miss the colors...they are not red/green so your colorblind crewmembers (25%)can't confuse that one. Just a refresher....something to think about.

September - National Preparedness Month!

You now have 2 weeks to prepare your organization to recognize National Preparedness Month....so what are you going to do? Not enough time...can't think of anything......well how about taking an hour and working up some ICE posters or handouts for your group or community to get them thinking about being prepared.

Many people still have not heard of ICE and even worse are still not the least bit prepared for anything....much less any serious incident like a storm or accident.

If you visit the website Preparedness Forum Page you can download an ICE Calendar Poster for September 2007. http://www.ice4safety.com/

Unique Water Rescue Tool and An Idea......

Here is a really great device from Hyde Engineering Group in Brooksville FL. Check out how it works at http://www.resqdisc.com/index.html

The Liverpool, NY Police Department was recently featured on television demonstrating the use of the rescue tool being carried by their department which patrols a large shoreline along Onondaga Lake and the adjoining parks/marinas.

This forum doesn't endorse any particular safety products but this one caught our eye as it helps demonstrate the other potentially effective uses for ICE as a universally recognized symbol of preparedness.

Since this symbol was developed and protected with free educational use as the goal, it makes perfect sense to adopt it for this purpose. Other commercial products will lock you into their profit picture. Who does that serve? You have options and they are good and getting better - still all for free!

So, ICE4SAFETY.COM will be soon be facilitating a way for people to acquire high visibility and durable ICE Stickers in a variety of formats that adapt to a variety of other common sense uses...it is not just for cell phones anymore folks....if you can afford to do it yourself....go ahead ...just don't be selling them for a profit .....its not about the money here folks..its about getting the job done right and doing it for the common good.

Back to School

It is that time of year again.....what happened to Summer you say? It was suggested that school is right around the corner again and maybe a good time for teachers or administrators to develop a lesson plan on being prepared......imagine that...giving kids the smarts to think about what to do in case of an emergency...not just fire drills......granted in some parts of the country we have instruction on what to do for regional disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes and even flooding. So what about the rest of the country? Guess you would have to ask yourself that question and then take some action. Since ICE is free here it shouldn't hurt your tight school budgets any and kids already know about their "fave 5" in their cell phones....taking it further couldn't hurt.
So, any teachers out there who would like to submit a lesson plan for elementary, middle school and high school curriculum...feel free. We'll post it and you get the cred. Colleges are taking some action now partly in response to some real terrible incidents involving deranged individuals with guns...good for them...so remember the story about the police officer hurt on duty who was a single fellow...no one knew for quite some time who to contact when he had to have emergency surgery while on the job.....now, you would think- right?.......so what are the chances when your kids are out of the home in an unfamiliar town and off-campus somewhere enjoying themselves and get in harms way....just when might you be finding out.

Your call. Education and ICE - good combo. Postcard Courtesy of Delaware Americorps 2007.

ICE at the State Fair

This very nice young lady sporting the ICE Hat will be representing the State of Delaware at the upcoming State Fair this month at a booth dedicated to promoting ICE ! Please stop in and say hello!

Kathleen Aviles works for the State as the Disaster Services Volunteer Coordinator (DHSS) and as such works directly with CERT Groups, DEMA, Americorps, Delaware Citizen Corps and the Governor's Office. These folks get it.

Pennsylvania State Senator Andy Dinniman gets it as well...members of his staff are currently distributing ICE Palm Cards at the PA Fair in the 19th District this week and we are told the reception has been indeed quite positive!! Thank you Deb Woolson and Senator Dinniman for being advocates for personal preparedness!

Now let's see...if you were the head of an ambulance corp, fire company, boating safety/power squadron, police or university security force looking for a simple way to advance the safety agenda this summer...and you finally ran out of all those "Dial 911" stickers ....
you might want to consider doing what these folks are doing.

Lost Kid Tags are quite visible with the always free ICE design on them....that is a suggestion for the New York State Police...just in case they happen to visit this site.....
You can design your own template for these using the tools we describe in the blog.....way too easy....

Just One More Free Tool Tip - This Week

Now if you feel awkward downloading free Word Files onto your computer, you can simply use this online software feature from http://www.avery.com/ and design your family's ICE Card or group brochure, sticker, magnets etc.....and you were going to pay someone to do this...c'mon people.....time to wake up...


Anyone needing the suite of Avery Word Templates can hit the email link and ask so we can send the small zipped file to you asap. We now have the card cutter described earlier and it works just fine......ahhh! Okay your groups can mass produce cards if you like and change the design on the fly this way...at county and state fairs described above....