Director of the Division for Child Behavioral Health, Jeffrey Guenzel offers these tips on helping your child cope with the stress of the hurricane.

Children of all ages need to feel safe and that they can turn to their caregivers to provide safety. Caregivers should let their children express their concerns and fears.

· Be as calm as possible around your children. That sense of calmness can really help. You can share your own fears and concerns in basic terms, but try to avoid “venting” your own emotions with your children. Try to find another supportive adult to “vent” your emotions.
· Following a disaster, children need reassurance that they are safe. Provide that reassurance, however it needs to be honest, not a false sense of reassurance. Avoid telling them that a disaster will never happen again, rather reassure them that adults are working hard to protect them and focus on the positive things your family did to get through the disaster.
· Be honest and open, but keep it simple. Don’t get into needless detail about the disaster. Too much information can be confusing and can raise anxiety. At the same time, children can often sense when information is being hidden from them. So, be honest, but keep it simple.
· Maintain your daily routines as best as possible. Once you get past the first few days of managing the disaster, work towards getting back to your children’s normal activities as best as possible.
· Be aware that your children get information from other sources such as friends and the media. Encourage them to talk with you about what they hear. This not only gives them a chance to talk about it, it also gives you a chance to dispel bad information that they may believe is true.
· Manage the amount of information about the hurricane your child is exposed to in the media. Viewing images or hearing descriptions of the hurricane and its aftermath may only heighten a child’s anxiety. For example, a young child may not understand that media footage of collapsing buildings or distraught victims are replays of an event, and may think that a new hurricane has arrived.
· Respect and take the time to listen to your child’s feelings, thoughts and reactions, even if they are different from your own.
· Keep in mind that feelings and thoughts of other events your child may have experienced, such as 9/11, may come back up during this time. Also, the stress of going to school and being away from home can create anxiety for some children. Again, listening and talking with them about this can be very helpful, while also supporting them getting back into their normal routine of going to school and learning.

Finally, caregivers should seek additional help if needed. If a child seems “stuck” and keeps focusing on the hurricane, can not seem to get past the anxiety or sadness, is having trouble sleeping, or is having any continued problems with their daily lives, seek professional help. Talk with your pediatrician or seek out a mental health professional directly. Obtaining professional help as soon as you recognize that your child is having trouble dealing with the effects of a disaster can aid in their recovery. To obtain services for a child through the New Jersey Division of Child Behavioral Health Services, please contact 1-877- 652-7624.

Yes, but precautions must be taken to protect food contact surfaces from contaminating your food. When cleaning or disinfecting, wear protective clothing, such as gloves, to avoid skin contact, irritation, or infection.

• Discard wooden cutting boards, wooden dishes and utensils, plastic utensils, baby bottle nipples, and pacifiers that have come into contact with flood water. These items cannot be safely cleaned.
• Thoroughly wash countertops with soap and water, using hot water if available. Rinse, and then sanitize with a solution of 1 tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of drinking water (or the cleanest, clearest water available). Allow to air dry.
• Make sure to clean corners, cracks and crevices, door handles, and door seals, in rooms that have been affected by flood water.

• Thoroughly wash metal pans, ceramic dishes and utensils (including can openers) with hot soap and water.



• Rinse and then sanitize them by boiling in clean water or immersing them for 15 minutes in a diluted bleach solution (1 tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach per 1 gallon of drinking water).
  


• Allow to air dry.



• Wash countertops with soap and water, using hot water if possible. Rinse and then sanitize with a diluted bleach solution (1 tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach per 1 gallon of drinking water).




• Allow to air dry.
  

The Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority (MCMUA) has scheduled 3 days of household hazardous waste clean up to manage chemicals residents need to dispose of as a result of Hurricane Irene

Thursday, Friday and Saturday
September 8, 9 & 10

Pequannock Town Hall
9am-2pm (rain or shine)
530 Newark-Pompton Turnpike
Pompton Plains, NJ

Directions from the South:
Take Route 287 North to Route 23 South. At third traffic light make right onto Newark-Pompton Turnpike. Go through one traffic light. Town hall is five to six blocks on the left at 530 Newark-Pompton Turnpike.

Questions: Call (973) 829-8006 or got to http://mcmua.com/index.htm

No Computer and TV Drop-Off During Hurricane Irene Emergency Household Hazardous Waste Days
E-waste drop-off will not be available during the post Hurricane Irene household hazardous waste day. These emergency program are targeting the chemicals and not the electronics.

The MCMUA's permanent household hazardous waste facility in Mt. Olive is open all year by appointment if you cannot make one of these days.

The Morris County Office of Emergency Management has added a recovery resources web page to its website. The page includes links to information about disaster assistance, clean up, keeping healthy after the storm, and disaster information for businesses. During cleanup, be sure to avoid scams and price gouging. The page includes links to NJ Division of Consumer Affairs where you can check contractor licenses and charity registrations.

NJDHSS has opened a call center for health concerns after Irene. Experts from health, enviornmental health, andother state government departments will be answering phones. Monday - Friday until 8PM. Over the Labor Day weekend 10am - 5pm.
1-866-234-0964

Regardless of your vaccination status, there are steps you can take to avoid injury and prevent infection while working in flood-affected areas. Recommendations include:

• Clean your hands as often as possible. Use soap and water if your hands are visibly soiled, and rub your hands together for at least 15 seconds. Use an alcohol-based hand rub if your hands are not visibly soiled.


• Take care of cuts or wounds immediately: Clean your hands thoroughly with soap and water before cleaning a wound. Clean the wound with soap and clean water and apply a clean, dry dressing. See a healthcare provider for potentially contaminated wounds, bites or punctures. Contact your healthcare provider if you are bitten by an animal.


• Wear protective clothing: Heavy, waterproof, cut-resistant work gloves, Safety goggles Heavy, hard-soled boots, Long-sleeved shirt and long pants

The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services has released information on immunizations for flooded areas:
As recovery efforts continue in the flooded areas of New Jersey, questions are being raised regarding the need for tetanus shots or other vaccinations. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), outbreaks of infectious disease after floods such as we experienced here in NJ are unusual, and there is generally no increased risk of getting vaccine-preventable diseases. Mass immunization clinics are not a standard recommendation. However, since each situation is unique, there may be the need to vaccinate particular individuals involved in clean-up efforts, those providing medical care or displaced individuals living in communal settings.

Tetanus:
People who sustain some type of wound should check with their healthcare provider promptly to see if they need to be vaccinated. That decision will depend on an assessment of the wound and the patient's past immunization history. For people who sustain puncture wounds, or wounds at risk for contamination (e.g., exposure to substances contaminated with feces, soil, or saliva) a tetanus shot is recommended if they haven't had one within the last five years. If they haven't had at least three previous tetanus shots at some point in the past, a dose of tetanus immune globulin is recommended. For people who sustain clean, minor wounds, a tetanus-containing shot is recommended if they haven't had one within the past ten years. Further information regarding wound management is available through the CDC website at http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/disease/tetanus.asp and the appropriate chapter of the Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases available at http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/default.htm .

Hepatitis A Vaccine
There is no recommendation for mass vaccination with hepatitis A during flood events. The virus is not common in the US and is generally not present even in sewage. For persons responding to the disaster, the risk of getting the disease is extremely low, and so the vaccine is not recommended for them. During Hurricane Katrina, hepatitis A vaccine was not specifically recommended for response workers. However, hepatitis A can be transmitted if displaced people live in crowded conditions for a long time and in these circumstances, vaccination is recommended for people living in these communal settings. Again, vaccination would be done on a case-by-case basis.