Nurse and stepdaughter team up to alert the public with book
Pulse editor
Published on: 07/27/08
A cyclone devastates Myanmar. The death toll rises after a disastrous earthquake in China. The Weather Channel reports almost 500 tornadoes in May.
These headlines tell us that life can often be treacherous on Earth, yet "almost everyone has the attitude that 'it won't happen to me,' " said Cheryl Adams, a former law enforcement communications specialist and co-author of "Hostile Planet: The Essential Guide to Surviving Natural Disasters, Pandemics, and Terrorist Attacks."
 Photos by BARRY WILLIAMS/Special | ||
| Carole Adams (left) and her stepdaughter, Cheryl Adams, co-wrote 'Hostile Planet: The Essential Guide to Surviving Natural Disasters, Pandemics, and Terrorist Attacks.' One thing that they recommend in the book is having a comprehensive first-aid kit handy. | ||
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| Cover of the Hostile Planet book. | ||
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Adams and her stepmother — co-author Carole Adams, RN — know that disasters happen. They've lived through blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes and chemical spills, and they know that preparation can make a world of difference.
Carole Adams, manager of same-day surgery at Banks-Jackson-Commerce Hospital in Commerce, lived in 12 states when she was growing up. She experienced blizzards in Montana, floods in Mississippi and hurricanes in Louisiana.
In 1969, she was working as an insurance clerk in a small hospital in Greenwood, Miss., when three tornadoes touched down nearby. As people began swarming into the small emergency room, Adams was pressed into service.
"They gave me a box with toe rings and some forms and told me to get down there and help with the bodies," Adams said.
About 200 people were killed in the twisters.
"People were bringing in bodies of family [members] and strangers and wounded victims for hours," she said. "I was in a state of shock and, since the phones were out, had no idea how my husband and three children were doing. I just thought: 'I can do this. I'll collapse later.' "
In 1979, Carole Adams became a licensed practical nurse, and she later worked as an emergency medical technologist and an EMT instructor. In 1989, she graduated from Louisiana State Technical University and became a registered nurse.
When Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992, Carole Adams was working as a nursing supervisor for a home-health agency in Louisiana. She helped transfer patients to shelters.
When the eye of the storm passed through and the wind died down temporarily, she ran five blocks to fix a malfunctioning pain-medication pump for a terminal cancer patient.
"I knew I could do it and I didn't want him to be in pain," she said.
Emergency plan
During the same storm, Cheryl Adams was living in Plaquemine, La., and was working in communications for the local police and sheriff's department.
"We had been warning people to prepare for a hurricane for a week, but people still weren't ready," she said.
Cheryl Adams' neighborhood was without power for five days, and she helped feed neighbors by grilling meat using the 100 pounds of charcoal that she had stockpiled and sharing canned goods from her fully stocked pantry.
While other families complained about how they would fill the time without TVs, VCRs or computers, Cheryl Adams and her daughter picked up tree limbs in the yard and pretended to be pioneers.
"We tried to cope with the stress by making it fun," Cheryl Adams said. "People often lose their common sense in emergencies. Yes, police and emergency medical people work overtime and they will come, but they can't be everywhere at once. You need to have your own emergency plan."
A book is born
Having written a training program for the Louisiana State University Law Enforcement Communications Training Academy, where she taught from 1999 to 2005, Cheryl Adams decided to write a guide to help the public prepare for emergencies. She asked her stepmother to write the medical portion, which includes information about pandemic flu, radiation exposure, botulism and emergency CPR.
"We wrote it in plain language — putting medical terms in language that everyone could understand — but we tried to cover as many emergencies as possible," Carole Adams said.
Among the instructions in the book are how to stabilize and how to place a splint on a broken leg and how to deliver a baby.
"If you are prepared for major emergencies — and you should be, if you live in an area with frequent ice storms or hurricanes — you can easily handle the small stuff," said Cheryl Adams, who lives near Commerce and holds seminars about emergency preparedness.
The book, which was published in 2006, gives practical checklists to follow, such as how to secure your home during a storm, how to create an emergency plan for your family, how to assemble a first-aid kit and how to stock a pantry. There's also a glossary of medical and technical terms and a list of emergency resources.
Feedback from readers has been positive.
"People told us that they wanted to be better prepared, but [they] didn't know where to start," Cheryl Adams said. "This is a guide they can keep and use."
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