By T. Scott Boatright
Residents of Grambling learned lessons in crisis management should it be needed during an Emergency Preparedness Fair Tuesday morning in the Community Room at Grambling City Hall.
Those in attendance heard from the likes of Grambling Police Chief Tommy Clark, Ruston Fire Department Emergency Medical Services Director David Wells, Lincoln Parish Director of Homeland Security Kip Franklin and others to talk about things involving being prepared for emergencies.
The fair was set up by the Grambling Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. in cooperation with the city of Grambling’s fire and police departments.
Donna Fields, Community Outreach Director for Acadiana Legal Services, was the first speaker at the fair.
Acadiana Legal Service Corporation provides free, specialized, civil legal services to low-income individuals and families across 42 Louisiana Parishes. We work every-day to assist domestic violence victims, stand for the rights of abused and neglected children, help preserve housing for hard-working families, prevent homelessness for people with disabilities and veterans, help protect elderly consumers and remove barriers to health care.
“If you’re not prepared and a disaster happens, you might not have access to your identity documents or your legal documents,” Fields said. “And legal issues don’t stop just because a disaster happens.
“What we do is we’re able to go to disaster locations and help people access their legal documents so that’s at least one thing someone who’s been through an event doesn’t haven’t to worry about. And a lot of times, people don’t even realize that can be a problem until they realize we’re already there to help.”
Next up to speak was Wells.
“If you have family on fixed income who become dependent on air or medical supplies that help keep them alive, like oxygen, you need to have a plan when disaster strikes,” Wells said. “I saw it during the tornado and the hurricane that hit the parish in recent years, where people didn’t have the equipment, or that oxygen, there needs to be a back-up plan to make sure those people can be kept alive.
“During an emergency, a lot of those services get pulled into other action, or roads might not be clear, and other issues might come up that makes that harder to happen.”
Wells told participants to keep open lines of communications, especially with those in need.
“During disasters, or even this time of year where it’s getting dangerously hot, check on the elderly and others in need, and their pets, too,” Wells said. “Don’t forget about that.”
Wells also advised residents to not let financial issues prevent them from getting fast emergency medical care they might need.
“We (Rustos EMS) have an agreement with Lincoln Parish so that if you live in Lincoln Parish and call for an ambulance, we bill your insurance or Medicaid or Medicare only,” Wells said. “You will not be billed out-of-pocket for any of those services, and I know that’s important for those on fixed incomes.
“So if you’re thinking about not calling an ambulance or EMS when you need it, don’t do that. We’ll get you fixed up and taken care of the way you need to be with no worries to you.”
Lincoln Parish Director of Homeland Security Kip Franklin, explained his roles during disasters and offered up an emergency supply checklist everyone should have “just in case,”
“You can also go to the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security – Called GOSEP – their website has a “Get a Game Plan” button you can click that will offer even a lot more tips and ideas for emergency preparedness.”
Clark talked about the importance of emergency preparedness especially because of the high elderly population living in Grambling.
“We need to get their information at the Grambling Police Department so we can reach out to the elderly population so that we’ll know elderly people like there if fire and police are ever called out to that address,” Clark said. “That’s a resource for us to help them.”
Clark also had handgun locks, and pamphlets on gun safety, domestic violence, seatbelt safety and railroad crossing safety available, and scammers for those in attendance.
“That’s a problem here with people who try to run those crossings and beat a train,” Clark said. “You never really can outrun a train. It’s going to catch up with you sooner or later.”
“The information about scams is also important, because we have a lot of that going on right now, especially aimed at the elderly. We got a call last week from a lady who said a caller said it was her grandson calling, and when she told him it doesn’t sound like her grandson, he told her his nose had been broken and was in jail and needed $5,000.”
Clark said the lady told the caller she didn’t have $5,000, and responded by asking how much she did have, and she said she had $2,000.
“And they said – ‘sent that,’ and they got $2,000 from her on some app that we’re still trying to figure out what it was and how it worked. So we have information that hopefully will help prevent that from happening to others.”
Representatives from the Grambling Fire Department; GSU Director of Student Services Patrice Outley, who talked about Louisiana Medicaid’s Rewind program; and representatives from AT&T, the American Red Cross, Legal Aid of North Louisiana (LANL), Louisiana Healthcare Connections and State Farm were others also on hand to answer any questions for and provide any information for those attending the event.
