• Lightning striking his/her house.
• A water main break on his/her street which causes flooding in their basement.
• Storm winds causing a tree to fall on his/her car.
• Or, an event that constitutes a disaster, affecting large numbers of people, could be:
• A hurricane that causes wide spread damage to southeastern New England.
• Another “blizzard of ‘78” revisited here in New England.
• Rainstorms causing widespread flooding.

The point being made here is that there are basically two general types of “disasters”. One type affects one or a relatively small number of people in a localized area. 
    The second affects large numbers of people over a widespread area. Are they equally serious to the victims? They absolutely are!
    Can victims in both the localized and the widespread examples reasonably expect or hope for the same level    of immediate emergency aid from responders?     Absolutely Not!
    In the event of a localized emergency, responders are rushing to aid victims immediately. In large scale incidents involving many people over a large or widespread area in need of aid, it quickly becomes impossible to get help to every person immediately, and it becomes absolutely necessary to be prepared to help ourselves and each other until Emergency Services help arrives or the situation subsides. 
    Recently as the Fire Chief and Emergency Preparedness Officer for the City of Woburn, I attended a meeting where I learned of an initiative to increase the awareness of the public entitled “Emergency Preparedness Begins at Home”.  This information is attached here because I think it provides positive, practical measures we can all take to help lessen the impact of a disaster or emergency until help arrives. Please take a few minutes to read, print and share with family and friends the information contained in: Be Prepared. Plan Ahead. 

Yours Sincerely,

Chief Paul Tortolano