Minnie M. Robinson:
“No, I do not have a disaster plan. However, I do feel we all should have one. Secondly, who I would contact in case of a major catastrophe – I would immediately dial 911. I feel they would have the necessary information on what to do and give me some kind of direction of what I need to do. Back to the first part of this question; we need to re-think a disaster plan if the need arises for it.”

Thomarus Jackson, age 13:
“No, I haven’t thought about a disaster plan, but I would contact my Aunt Pauline because she has helped me a lot during my life, and anytime I call her I can contact and count on her. If I could not contact Aunt Pauline Dole, I would contact my cousin Katanya Gillespie. After that, I would call 911.”

Linda Clarke:
“No, I do not have a disaster plan, and I think more information should be disseminated throughout this city because we need to know. I would just think to dial 911, but I’m sure that line could be flooded, so yes, we definitely need more information of what to do. We definitely need to think about it in these times. As a family, we have said ‘let’s try and meet at this location.’ But yes, we need to know what we need to have at home in case we’re stuck inside.”

Jamila McClinton:
“Right now I don’t have a specified disaster plan. However, we have thought about utilizing candles and calling family and friends out of state if there was a disaster in Chicago. Other than that, we have not specified a particular disaster plan. If you can’t use the phone at all, I really don’t know who you would call.”

Ray Charles Easley:
“Yes, I do have a disaster plan. It is important that we understand that the city has gone through great trials and tribulations to have a disaster plan available. Each community has a disaster plan throughout the city. Austin community has a disaster plan, as well as numerous bomb shelters throughout the city of Chicago. So we have to ask 911 or the emergency systems through (Chicago Fire Department Chief Cortez Trotter) to give us a plan so that individuals will know exactly where to go; so that we will not end up on the ‘bridge’ like they did in New Orleans. There is a bomb emergency center on the corner of Madison and Cicero. But what we should do more then anything is to identify the bomb and emergency shelters throughout our community. There are a lot of churches -especially some of our older churches- that have been identified as emergency shelters. We should implement a program to where individuals can identify with those shelters as part of our emergency preparedness program.”