National Preparedness Month: Staying Informed and Ready for Local Emergencies

SINGAPORE

09.22.2016

Story by Petty Officer 2nd Class Joshua Fulton 

Commander, Logistics Group Western Pacific

SINGAPORE – (September 14, 2016) This September, Navy Region Singapore (NRS) joins installations across the DoD in participating in National Preparedness Month, a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awareness campaign which encourages Americans around the world to make preparations for natural and man-made emergencies that can occur at their location.
FEMA and the DoD promote an all-hazard and all-threat awareness campaign throughout National Preparedness Month, stressing the importance of making preparations for all foreseeable emergency events. NRS tailors the local implementation of the campaign to highlight the hazards and threats specific to the Singapore Region.
“The prevalence of mosquitoes here leads to an increased risk of Dengue fever and transmission of the Zika virus,” said NRS Emergency Management Officer Scot Freeman. “Other common concerns that we want to ensure people are aware of are power outages resulting from severe thunderstorms, the health impacts from Indonesian haze, and making our community as knowledgeable and prepared for terrorist threats or attacks as possible.”
Promoting family preparedness is the primary goal of NRS’s campaign, ensuring that active duty, civilians, contractors and dependents stationed in Singapore are aware of the regional threats as well as the steps each family can take to be ready for emergency situations.
“We focus on having families take the initiative to understand the types of threats that exist in our region and how to best deal with emergency situations,” said Freeman. “It is a four step approach: being informed, building an emergency preparedness kit that can support all members of the family for up to 72 hours, having a communications plan that ensures every family member is up to date on the situation at hand, and finally staying informed as threats and emergency situations change moving forward.”
The Installation Auxiliary Police Force is the primary point of contact for members of the NRS community if an emergency situation occurs. They can be reached at 6750-2578. Additionally, the Singapore emergency service numbers are 999 for police assistance and 995 for fire, ambulance and paramedic emergency service.
In addition to focusing on the threats and hazards local to Singapore, NRS’s National Preparedness Month also stresses the importance of being knowledgeable of the security environment that exists across the region.”
“Singapore is a wonderful hub for traveling throughout Southeast Asia, but bear in mind that you may be going to another country that may not be as politically stable as Singapore is, and therefore may not have the security infrastructure that Singapore affords us.” said Freeman. “Take advantage of the State Department’s Smart Traveler Enhance Program, an application which you can upload your location and periods of travel to, and in the event of an emergency incident the State Department will know where you are and can provide assistance as needed.”
The Smart Traveler Enhance Program can be accessed at https://step.state.gov. Additionally, information related to National Awareness Month can be found at the following locations:

• www.ready.gov
• www.ready.navy.mil
• https://navyfamily.navy.mil
• https://emergency.cdc.gov/index.asp (The Centers for Disease Control's Emergency Preparedness website where updates on Zika Virus and other outbreaks can be found)

The following local Singaporean government websites are valuable sources of information for community preparedness while assigned to NRS:

• http://www.police.gov.sg/sgsecure (Singapore Police Force SGSecure website)
• https://www.scdf.gov.sg/content/scdf_internet/en.html (Singapore Civil Defence Force, the equivalent of US municipal and local county fire department headquarters/Districts)
• http://www.nea.gov.sg/ (Singapore National Environment Agency for researching local Zika and Dengue mitigation efforts, Haze Alert monitoring/Air Pollution tracking, in addition current Meteorological Forecasts, Warnings, and Advisories)

• Date Taken: 09.22.2016
• Date Posted: 09.22.2016 20:34
• Story ID: 210353
• Location: SG