Top questions to ask your kids’ camp about fire, heat and floods : NPR
Experts say that there are key questions, parents and tutors should ask questions about forest fires, floods and heat risks.
Danielle Villasana for the Washington Post via Getty Images / Danielle Villasana for the Washington Post via Getty Images
hide
tilting legend
Danielle Villasana for the Washington Post via Getty Images / Danielle Villasana for the Washington Post via Getty Images
The death of at least 27 children and staff of the Mystic camp in the county of Kerr, Texas, has parents and tutors questioning the safety of summer camps, especially since global warming increases the risks of extreme time.
Part of the appeal of the summer camp is that children are outside nature. But this can also increase the possibility of a thermal disease and the risks of greater proximity to the forest areas or the areas subject to floods, explains Tracey Gaslin, director general of the non -profit organization Camp health alliance at Kentucky.
Apart from the regulations applying to all businesses, there are no specific federal standards, explains Henry Dehart, interim managing director of the American Camp Association (ACA). ACA has a national accreditation program which includes certain health and safety standards, but it is voluntary and only about 12% of the country About 20,000 The camps participated, he said.
At the state level, Dehart says that some state agencies carry out health health and safety inspections. But surveillance and protections vary considerably from one state to another, and some states have very little regulation.
“There are many states that have very little or no regulation related to the camp,” explains Dehart. “The regulatory framework is wide and varied and, in certain places, it is not very robust.”
Due to the shortcomings in the current regulatory framework, some experts in climate risks say that parents and tutors should ask more detailed questions about campers safety. Chad Berginnis, executive director of the Association of Floodable Plains Managers of the StatePlaced his 8-year-old daughter at the Scout camp earlier this month, and realized that he also had many more questions about the precautions of his daughter’s flood floods.
“Even as a floodplane plains manager,” he says, “I don’t think I even had an appreciation of what, as a parent, I should think about sending children to the camp.”
Now Berginnis has a list of points to cover. For parents or tutors who send children to any type of camp, here are the main questions that experts say that you should ask yourself for increased risks of heat, forest fires and floods.
Camps can be perfect for children, but can also expose them to heat. The development bodies of children and adolescents are not as good to regulate their body temperatures as adult bodies.
Serhii Bezrukyi / Getty Images / Serhii Bezrukyi / Getty Images
hide
tilting legend
Serhii Bezrukyi / Getty Images / Serhii Bezrukyi / Getty Images
What is the camp doing to reduce the risk of disease and death -related death?
This question is important because heat and death-related diseases are major and growing risks in the United States-and this threat is often underestimated.
In addition, the development bodies of children and adolescents are not as good for regulating their body temperatures as adult bodies, explains Rupa Basu, main scientific advisor for the University of California in San Francisco Center for Climate and Equity Health Center. This makes them more at risk of heat disease, she said.
“I think people don’t even often think of children as high -risk populations,” said Basu. “But they are absolutely.”
For these reasons, Gaslin at the Alliance for Camp Health thinks that parents and tutors should ask the camps how they think about heat and hydration. She suggests that parents and tutors wonder how the physical site of the camp is designed.
“Do you have things like shadow structures? The misting systems?” Said Gaslin. “A really solid infrastructure construction is important.”
Gaslin also thinks that parents and tutors should ask for how much campers are “aware of the climate. This may look like an activity in a cool place, then an activity outside in a warmer place, then return to fresh, she says. It is also important to ask how frequency the advisers are reminiscent of the campers to hydrate.
“It is really about thinking conscious how to manage this impact of heat,” she says. “If we’re going to be outside, guess what? Aquatic activities are a good thing to do.”
Chad Berginnis, the Executive Director of the Association of State Floodpain Managers, thinks that parents and tutors should know if their children’s camp is in a flood plain and what the camp does about it.
Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP / Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP
hide
tilting legend
Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP / Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP
What is the camp doing to reduce the risks of floods?
This question is essential because many camps are located in areas subject to floods, says Berginnis.
He says – in many ways – it is understandable. “For me, it is logical that you would have a lot of camps there because it has really interesting habitats. He has interesting animals and geology and everything, and children can learn a lot there,” says Berginnis.
But he thinks that parents and tutors need to know if their children’s camp is in a flood plain and what the camp does about it. Berginnis says adults can seek risks about this FEMA website. Parents and tutors can also connect Addresses to this FIRST Street databaseA climate risk modeling company. If it is a sleep camp, Berginnis says it is important to wonder where the children’s dormitory is.
“If it is a night camp, any type of residential accommodation during the night for children, if it is in a flooding path, it should be a huge red flag there,” he said.
And he says that parents and tutors should ask the camp camps as floodable sirens and details of emergency action plans.
“I would be very frank with a campsite: I want to know the procedure. If a lightning flood warning is declared for the region, what the camp does? What are the advisers doing? So that they can talk about it,” he said in an email. “Do not be satisfied with a generic response like” we have an emergency action plan “. Ask for them specific actions like someone who watched the weather at night? What are the designated evacuation zones? And if they cannot speak with you, again, I would say, it is another red flag.”
Tracey Gaslin at the Alliance for Camp Health claims that parents and tutors should ensure that all camps’ emergency action plans are regularly updated and examined by local emergency partners, including emergency medical staff.
Sandy Huffaker / Getty Images / Sandy Huffaker / Getty Images
hide
tilting legend
Sandy Huffaker / Getty Images / Sandy Huffaker / Getty Images
What is the camp doing to reduce the risks of forest fire and smoke from forest fires?
As with flood risks, parents and tutors should ask questions about emergency action plans and preparation for forest fires and smoke, says Gaslin.
“Parents can ask for camps, monitor air quality?” She says: “What is their evacuation plan? How are they going to communicate with families? So families will be able to say, in a moment of crisis, I want to be able to communicate with you in one way or another.”
Gaslin says that it is important to ensure that all the camp’s emergency plans are regularly updated and examined by local emergency partners, including emergency medical staff.
Gaslin says that parents and tutors should ensure that there are always staff on time, and in sleeping camps, there should be a solid communication system, so at night, individuals are alerted to changes or environmental concerns. This means that at least staff with mobile phones and radios at any time, to monitor the risk of forest fire, sudden floods or any other danger.
