In January, 2007, The Alaska Bird Club established an Emergency Preparedness Committee. This committee's primary goal is to provide educational resources to assist club members and the general public in emergency preparedness planning for themselves and for their birds and other pets.

Their secondary goals are to determine what club resources are available for emergency sheltering of birds in a disaster and to provide points-of-contact and shelter volunteer resources to the Animal Care Unit coordinator at the Municipality of Anchorage Emergency Operations Center in the event of a large disaster.

To guide us towards achieving our goals, we have established a Long-Range Plan which covers the next five years, 2007 through 2011. This is a working document and will be updated as needed. You can always come to this page for a link to the Long-Range Plan in the menu at the top of this page.

Emergencies and disasters come in all sizes from medical emergencies involving a single bird to regional disasters which threaten the well-being of people and pets over a wide area. You cannot plan for every disaster! Instead, be general in your preparedness efforts, be flexible in your response to disaster, and lower your stress levels by knowing ahead of time that chaos will be in charge.

Preparedness information presented on this web site is by no means an exhaustive resource. Links are provided which can take you to other resources for preparedness planning. Do your homework and build your human family preparedness plan before you tackle one for your animals. If you cannot take care of yourself, you won't be of any help to your pets!

A good first step is to have a full profile and behavior sheet on record for each bird along with a photo of each bird. Make two copies of each. Keep one set with your important papers that go with you if you evacuate. The other set can go with the bird if it has to go to a temporary shelter or to the vet. The photos will help identify your bird when it is time to be reunited. Visit our Bird Care Downloads page where you can obtain a Parrot Profile form in a variety of formats.

To assist us in knowing what resources and needs our club members have, we have made available a Disaster Preparedness Survey which you can print, fill out and submit to the club.

We also have a one-sheet Disaster Preparedness Worksheet which you can use to guide you to some basic steps in preparing for disaster.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is distributing a new citizen preparedness DVD entitled, “Getting Ready For Disaster -- One Family’s Experience” . The purpose of the DVD is to help citizens prepare for natural and man-made disasters. The DVD guides viewers through important steps of disaster preparedness and brings into focus issues such as drafting a family disaster plan, stockpiling food and water, helping children cope with disasters and preparedness for special populations such as the elderly and people with disabilities. The DVD is not limited to hurricane preparedness, since it follows FEMA’s all hazards approach to disaster preparedness. The content is based on the most reliable hazard awareness and emergency education information, such as the latest scientific knowledge and physical research on what happens in disasters.

The DVD is designed to be used with FEMA's 200-page workbook entitled "Are You Ready?" The FREE DVD and workbook can be ordered by calling the FEMA Distribution Center at 1-800-480-2520.

The Alaska Bird Club • P.O. Box 101825 • Anchorage AK 99510
akbirdclub@yahoo.com