Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge

Overview

Eagle required

Scouts are often called upon to help because they know first aid and they know about the discipline and planning needed to react to an emergency situation. Earning this merit badge helps a Scout to be prepared by learning the actions that can be helpful and needed before, during, and after an emergency.

Requirements

(1) Emergency Situations. Do the following:
- (a) Discuss with your counselor the aspects of emergency preparedness and include in your discussion the kinds of questions that are important to ask yourself as you consider each of these: prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery.
  
  Resources: 5 Steps of Disaster Risk Management (video)
- (b) Using a chart, spreadsheet, or another method approved by your counselor, demonstrate your understanding of each aspect of emergency preparedness listed in requirement 1(a) (prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery) for 10 emergency situations from the list below. Discuss your findings with your counselor.
- (1) Home stovetop or oven fire
  
  Resources: How to Put Out a Stovetop Fire (video)
- (2) Home flammable liquid fire
  
  Resources: Flammable Liquids (video)
- (3) Gas leak in or near a home or with outside cooking
  
  Resources: What to Do If You Smell Gas (video), How to Turn Off Main Gas Valve (video)
- (4) Food poisoning
  
  Resources: Stomach Flu and Food Poisoning (video), Safe Food Handling (video), How to Know If You Have Food Poisoning (video)
- (5) Automobile crash
  
  Resources: Responding to a Car Crash (video)
- (6) Vehicle stalled in the desert
  
  Resources: A Desert Survival Experience (video)
- (7) Vehicle trapped in a blizzard
  
  Resources: How to Survive A Car Stranding in Winter (video)
- (8) Backcountry injury
  
  Resources: Patient Assessment (video), Review of Traumatic Injuries with Wilderness First Aid (video)
- (9) Boating or water accident
  
  Resources: Preventing and Managing Boating Accidents (website)
- (10) Toxic chemical spills and releases
  
  Resources: Chemical Spill Preparedness (video), Household Chemical Emergencies (website)
- (11) Nuclear power plant emergency
  
  Resources: How to Stay Safe in a Nuclear Emergency (video)
- (12) Fire or explosion in a public place
  
  Resources: How to Survive a Building Explosion (video), How to Survive a Burning High-Rise (video)
- (13) Violence in a public place
  
  Resources: A Navy SEAL Reveals How to Survive an Active Shooter (video)
- (14) Wildland fire
  
  Resources: If You Are Trapped by a Wildfire (video)
- (15) Avalanche (snowslide or rockslide)
  
  Resources: Survive an Avalanche (video), How to Survive a Landslide (video)
- (16) Earthquake
  
  Resources: 10 Ways to Survive an Earthquake (video)
- (17) Tsunami
  
  Resources: How to Survive a Tsunami (video)
- (18) Major flooding or a flash flood with water outage
  
  Resources: How to Survive a Flood (video)
- (19) Hurricane with power outage
  
  Resources: How to Survive a Hurricane (video)
- (20) Tornado
  
  Resources: How to Survive a Tornado (video)
- (21) Lightning storm
  
  Resources: What Happens When You Are Struck by Lightning (video), Backcountry Lightning Safety (website)
(2) Planning for Family Emergencies. Do the following:
- (a) At a family meeting, discuss the situations on the chart you created for requirement 1(b) and make emergency plans for sheltering-in-place and for evacuation of your home. Discuss your family meeting and plans with your counselor.
  
  Resources: How to Shelter in Place (video), How to Evacuate From Wildfires (video)
- (b) Develop and practice a plan of escape for your family in case of fire in your home. Draw a floor plan with escape routes and a map with a safe meeting place. Discuss your family’s home escape plan with your counselor.
- (c) Using a checklist in the Emergency Preparedness merit badge pamphlet or one approved by your counselor, prepare or inspect a family disaster kit for sheltering-in-place and for evacuation of your home. Review the needs and uses of the items in a kit with your counselor.
  
  Resources: Checklist for Sheltering in Place (PDF), Checklist for Evacuation (PDF), Build a Kit (website)
(3) Preventing Accidents and Emergencies. Do ONE of the following:
- (a) Using a home safety checklist included in the Emergency Preparedness merit badge pamphlet or one approved by your counselor, inspect a home (or a similar building near where you live or at a camp) for safety hazards with the help of an adult. Present your completed checklist to and discuss your findings with your counselor.
  
  Resources: Checklists Home Safety (PDF)
- (b) Develop emergency prevention plans for five family activities outside the home, as approved by your counselor. (Examples are taking a picnic to a park, seeing a movie, attending a worship service, an outing at a beach, traveling to visit a relative, or attending a ball game or concert.) Each plan should include an analysis of possible hazards, proposals to prevent, protect from, mitigate, respond to, and recover from emergencies, and the reasons for the actions that you propose.
  
  Resources: Building an Emergency Kit (video)
(4) Dangerous Situations. Show how you could save a person from the following dangerous situations without putting yourself in danger:
- (a) Live household electric wire
  
  Resources: Rescue and First Aid for Electric Shock (video)
- (b) A structure filled with carbon monoxide
  
  Resources: Rescue from CO Poisoning (video)
- (c) Clothes on fire
  
  Resources: Stop. Drop. Roll. Get Low and Go (video)
- (d) Drowning, using nonswimming rescues (including accidents on ice)
  
  Resources: Reach, Throw, Row, but Don’t Go! (video), A Patrol Performs An Ice Rescue (video)
(5) Signaling for Help. Do the following:
- (a) Show three ways of attracting and communicating with rescue aircraft or drones.
  
  Resources: Ground to Air Signals (video)
- (b) Show ways to attract the attention of searchers on the ground if you are lost in the wilderness.
  
  Resources: Ways to Signal for Help in the Wilderness (video)
- (c) Show ways to attract the attention of searchers on the water if you are stranded with a capsized or disabled motorboat or sailboat.
  
  Resources: Signaling Devices for a Water Rescue (video), Water Rescue Signaling (video), How does an EPIRB work? (video), PLB and EPIRB Emergency Beacons (video)
(6) Moving an Injured Person. With another person, show two good ways to transport an injured person out of a remote area using improvised stretchers to conserve the energy of rescuers while ensuring the well-being and protection of the injured person.

Resources: Improvised Stretchers (video)
(7) National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS). Do the following:
- (a) Describe the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the local Incident Command System (ICS).
  
  Resources: NIMS (video), ICS (video)
- (b) Find out how your community and its leaders work to manage and to train for disasters. Discuss this information with your counselor.
- (c) Discuss how a Scout troop can help in an emergency situation using ICS.
(8) Emergency Service. Do the following:
- (a) Discuss with your counselor the duties that a Scout troop should be prepared to do, the training they need, and the safety precautions they should take for the following emergency services:
  
  Resources: Agency Cooperation in an ICS (video)
- (1) Crowd and traffic control
  
  Resources: Guidelines for Managing Crowds (website)
- (2) Messenger service during an incident
  
  Resources: Social Media Messaging for Natural Disasters (website)
- (3) Collection and distribution services
  
  Resources: Food Bank (video)
- (4) Group feeding, shelter, and sanitation
  
  Resources: Feeding LA Wildfire Evacuees (video)
- (b) Prepare a written plan for mobilizing your troop when needed to do emergency service. If your troop already has a mobilization plan, present the plan to your counselor and tell your part in making the plan work.
- (c) Using a checklist in the Emergency Preparedness merit badge pamphlet or one approved by your counselor, prepare or inspect a personal emergency service pack for a mobilization call. Explain the needs and uses of the contents to your counselor.
  
  Resources: Checklist for Go Bag (PDF), Family and Personal Emergency Kits (website)
- (d) Take part in an emergency service project, either a real one or a practice exercise, with a Scouting troop or a community agency or at Scout camp or at a school. Review what you learned and practiced with your counselor.
  
  Resources: Emergency Procedures at Camp (video)
(9) First Aid Merit Badge. Earn the First Aid merit badge.
(10) Careers. Do ONE of the following:
- (a) Interview an emergency services coordinator or a civil servant about their work in disaster management. Learn about how they chose this career and about their duties. Discuss what you learned with your counselor and whether you might be interested in this career.
  
  Resources: NYC Emergency Management Interns (video)
- (b) Identify three career opportunities that would use skills and knowledge in emergency services. Pick one and research the training, education, certification requirements, experience, and expenses associated with entering the field. Research the prospects for employment, starting salary, advancement opportunities, and career goals associated with this career. Discuss what you learned with your counselor and whether you might be interested in this career.
  
  Resources: Explore a Career in Disaster and Emergency Management (video)
- (c) Identify how you might use the skills and knowledge in the field of emergency preparedness to pursue a personal hobby and/or healthy lifestyle. Research the additional training required, expenses, and affiliation with organizations that would help you maximize the enjoyment and benefit you might gain from it. Discuss what you learned with your counselor and share what short-term and long-term goals you might have if you pursued this.
  
  Resources: Teen CERT Team Training (video)

Resources

Note: This is an unofficial archive of Scouts BSA Merit Badges that was automatically extracted from the Scouting America website and may contain errors.