Domestic Civil Defence -
Community Action in a Crisis

Surviving a major disaster is an achievement, but rebuilding your household and your life can be much more challenging. No or little official advice or provision is made for this in most countries in the world. The writer has looked at a number of disaster scenarios and has listed their effects elsewhere. In this section, the problem of keeping the community you live in being is considered. A united response from the community automatically maintains law and order, as all have a stake in the success of the town, village or neighbourhood. As Iraq demonstrated, all that is necessary for evil to succeed, is for good men and women to do nothing.

Action Plan :

1. Contact other people and establish the nature and scale of the crisis.
2. If all that is needed is to work together to resolve a local problem (e.g. clearing snow, helping elderly and vulnerable people get food and water) get on with it. Sometimes a rota may be needed.
3. If matters look more serious, consider more extensive action ;-
   
   1. Contact the authorities and report your findings, if possible learning the scale of the problem across the area and establishing the amount of community-level action that may be needed.
   2. Consider action to be taken if the situation continues to get worse and discuss it with officials (e.g. Police, Emergency Planning, Community and District/Regional Councillors) and any useful voluntary organisations (e.g. Scouts, Red Cross, WRVS, church groups, Round Table, Rotary, National Farmer's Union) who may be co-ordinating action under official supervision.
   3. If information is all that is needed, help to distribute it. The writer has found that 100 letterboxes can be visited in an hour in average suburbia and council estates, dropping to from 40 to 60 per hour in extended villages. That was on foot or on a bicycle.
   4. If action is needed, only offer as much as can be done without causing trouble at work or in the family. Naturally, in really severe disasters, the workload will be more and local voluntary action may be officially recognised by payment of essential expenses.
   5. Keep a diary of action taken and any expenses incurred whilst acting under official supervision.
4. Whatever you do, make sure that you retain the goodwill of fellow-volunteers and clients needing assistance. Any delegated authority you have in a crisis will end with that crisis.

The extensive planning and organisation needed for Community Civil Defence are beyond the Domestic level, so are dealt with in the Community Civil Defence Website, now being compiled. Working notes can be inspected on the website. Note that copyright remains with Richard Edkins and the material may not be used without specific and written permission.

Community Organisation and Emergency Information :-

[Assessing Needs and Resources] [Holding a Public Meeting] [Neighbourhood Support]
[Rest Centres] [Communal Feeding] [Communal Services] [First Aid Post] [Law and Order]