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May 2007 Topics:

Not being ready for disaster is a crisis
Safe tractor, equipment operator classes offered

Not being ready for disaster is a crisis

By Scott Cotton
Extension Educator, Dawes County

Many types of disaster can hit Nebraska citizens and communities, including ice storms, blizzards, tornadoes, floods, disease outbreak, power outages, and even terrorism. The first step in surviving any disaster is preparedness.
Preparedness is getting yourself or your community ready in case a disaster ever happens. The essential elements of disaster preparedness are to evaluate your dominant risks, establish emergency communication methods, establish safe locations, and pull together a set of emergency supplies.

“If” is the functional word for disaster preparedness, and should assume that all normal communications, travel mechanisms and supply sources are null and void for a minimum of 72 hours and preferably cover one week.

Disaster readiness involves:
• Preparedness – bracing for dominant risks.
• Response – effectively working in pre-trained teams to help after a disaster.
• Recovery – rebuilding the infrastructure and welfare damaged by a disaster, and.
• Mitigation – working to reduce the impact weaknesses in case of future events.

Individuals, families, farms and ranches, businesses, and communities can learn and benefit from the hard-learned lessons taught in disaster-impacted communities. In fact, government agencies and land-grant universities have been working diligently to develop materials and curriculum that they and their partners can share with individuals and communities. The efforts began with 11 universities, FEMA, Red Cross, and several other partners forming the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN), of which the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was right in the mix. This team has helped with direct response efforts to hurricanes, blizzards, floods, disease outbreak and yes, 9/11.

Resources for individuals, families and communities are available from local Extension Educators, who have access to handy materials on the EDEN website at http://www.eden.lsu.edu/Resources/onlineext.aspx. This group of educators, disaster specialists from across the nation, have created and identified materials to help people “snap back” from the edge of disaster.

Within the UNL system, DeLynn Hay, Richard Stowell, Shirley Niemeyer, and I focus part of our time on standing ready for disaster. We are blessed with strong working relationships with many groups, agencies, and government entities that partner directly with us.

A direct link from our UNL Extension website at www.extension.unl.edu will lead you to the EDEN web. For more information on disaster-readiness in the Panhandle District feel free to contact me Scott Cotton at (308)432-3373 or scotton2@unl.edu.

We can help you be more ready and recover faster.

Safe Tractor, Machinery Operation Classes offered

ALLIANCE – The most common cause of death in agriculture accidents in Nebraska is tractor overturn.
But lately ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) have replaced tractors as the type of vehicle most often involved in overturn fatalities, according to statistics quoted by UNL Extension Educator Bill Booker.

In an effort to reduce the number of agricultural deaths and injuries, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension will offer National Safe Tractor and Machinery Operation Program (NSTMOP) safety trainings in May and June at three Panhandle locations: May 30-31 at the Farm and Ranch Museum (FARM) in Gering, June 1-2 at 21st Century Equipment at Bridgeport, and June 5-6 at 21st Century Equipment at Gordon. The trainings begin at 8 a.m. each day and will end by 5 p.m.

Information and pre-registration are available at UNL Extension offices in Alliance (308-762-5616), Scottsbluff (308-632-1480), Bridgeport (308-262-1022), Rushville (308-327-2312) or Chadron (308-432-3373). There is a $35 fee for materials and the first day meal.

The safety training is for 14- to 15-year-olds who want to work on farms other than their parents’, or who just wish to have the safety training.
Booker said fatalities have been tracked since 1969. There have been 1,203 fatalities through 2006 – an average of almost 32 per year, many of them children. Last year’s 12 fatalities were the lowest since 1992. Overturns are still the major cause of death, with all-terrain vehicles replacing tractors as the main cause. Five of the 12 fatalities in 2006 occurred while on an ATV. ATV overturn safety will be covered in the training.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was amended in 1968 to include the Hazardous Occupation Order in Agriculture (HOOA). The order identified many agricultural tasks as hazardous for youth. Employment of youth under 16 to perform these tasks is illegal except for those working on their parents’ or guardians’ farm and 14- to 15-year-olds who have completed exemption training. The National Safe Tractor and Machinery Operation Program (NSTMOP) was developed to offer this exemption training. The training completion permits 14- and 15-year-olds to drive a tractor after 10 hours of training and to do field work with mechanized equipment after 20 hours.

Course completion also fulfills the driving and testing requirement to operate machinery on public roads. This also means that youth younger than age 14 cannot be hired to operate tractors or machinery. Producers who violate this law can be fined up to $10,000 the first time. A second offense can have the fine plus imprisonment up to six months.
The first day will include intensive classroom instruction with hands-on demonstrations and will conclude with a written test. This test must be completed satisfactorily to be allowed to do the driving tests the next day. The training sessions will include volunteers and equipment from local machinery dealers.

The second day will be for testing, driving and operating machinery, so participants should bring a sack lunch and dress for safety. Students will have to demonstrate competence in hooking up and then driving the tractor and trailer through a standardized course. Competence will also have to be exhibited in hooking up PTO and hydraulic systems.
The statistics say nothing of the number of injuries. The exemption class goal is to help students recognize and assess risk while operating and being responsible for all aspects of farm employment. ATV and tractor safety along with understanding stability will be emphasized for example. Respect for the job and the tools involved is the goal.

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Updated May 30, 2007
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