Leap Day

Every four years we get an extra day. What will you do with it, to help you become more disaster ready or resilent? Here are some tips from Emergency Management.

in 1904, the mayor of Severance, Kansas announced that a "bachelor tax" would be imposed on all residents of his town who were not married by the end of the year. Here, E. A. Bushnell combines that with the tradition that, on February 29, women were "allowed" to propose marriage to men. Public Domain. Retrieved from https://picryl.com/media/bushnell-cartoon-about-kansas-and-leap-year-2ff620

February 29th — What will you do with an extra day this year?

2024 is a leap year, so there is an extra day this month, which comes around every four years. Here are some ideas from professional Emergency Managers, to help increase your ability to be more ready or resilient for disaster — before, during, and after they happen.

Check your Mental Health and Wellness

Take this extra day to do your own inventory on mental health and wellness. And this is for both you and your organization. Everyone is subjected to incident stress and trauma. Find out what resources are available to you from government, non-governmental groups, your job, etc. — and then make sure they are also available to your friends, family, co-workers, etc. — your wellness team. Just because someone was not ‘on-scene’ to witness or physically experience the disaster, does not mean they are immune to the adverse impacts of those incidents, especially over time. See how the POETE process (see below) is applied for aspects of critical incident stress management (CISM), and make sure it is baked into what we call the ‘Planning P’: CISM needs to be managed before, during and after — and throughout the time…