The Emergency Preparedness Topic

[Dio]

What have you done recently to prepare for emergencies in your area? The major natural concerns in our area include Earthquakes, Flash Flooding, Fires, and excessive Heat. The government suggests at the bare minimum that people should have three extra days of food and water for each member in the household. In addition to the food and water, people should have a plan that explains the role and materials needed in case of an evacuation. The plan should include the location of multiple routes out of your area that lead to your agreed upon evacuation points. Each individual or group should have a long distance contact that they can head towards if an evacuation is ordered. The family or individual should also keep all supplies readily accessible and maintained to the current time. Additional supplies that should have a place in your kit include copies of important documents, spare medication (if needed), food for any pets, spare clothing to meet the needs of expected weather throughout the year, first aid materials, and maps that provide detailed information of your area. The plans should receive tailoring to the hazards that will most likely occur in your specific area and to the needs of the individual or group. As an example, the plan to weather an earthquake would look different from the plan to weather a tornado. This further appears as the plan to meet the needs of a family with five members would look different than the plan that addresses the needs of an individual living by themselves. What portions of the above list have you completed? How much, if any, have you expanded on the above? What additional suggestions about supplies might you recommend? What suggestions about particular brands might you include? What creative ideas have you come across to address the above or additional needs? How does your plan generally operate? How does your family store supplies? The above questions only provide suggestions to start this discussion and obviously do not include all possible discussion points.

[Dio]

The major additional concerns that result from earthquakes in my area include Tsunamis (seismic sea waves), mass wasting (land slides, debris flows), and fires from damaged infrastructure. The human related issues include looting and other crimes. A few more possible discussion points follow this sentence. What types of additional hazards present themselves in your area? What procedures does your city or area plan to implement in the event of an emergency?

[Dio]

A potential natural disaster could occur on the east coast this week due to the presence of Hurricane Joaquin. It obviously is almost too late for people that have not prepared for it at this point, but this hurrican serves as decent reminder about the need to recongize and to prepare for natural hazards that frequently impact the area you live.

[Buster's Uncle]

Incidentally, if I'm not around Sunday, we probably lost power and I'm having a bad day, but probably nothing to get worked up about.

[Buster's Uncle]

- I'm talking about Hurricane Joaquin, of course.  It's almost surely not coming this far west by a couple hundred miles, and the only major concern for us is already had over 5" of rain in a week - people in flood zones could have a REALLY bad weekend, but we're on a hillside far from any flood zone.

[Dio]

Another important aspect of preparing yourself for emergencies is to include frequent practice of skills associated with the natural disasters in your area. This might include becoming familiar with the location of areas near your house or workplace that might provide safety in the case of flash flooding. Another example of this particular safety knowledge includes knowing the location of houses and neighbors in yor area that have cellars or basements you can use to ride out a tornado. A third example might include knowing safe locations to protect yourself from lighting strikes during a storm.

[Buster's Uncle]

A resourceful can-do Uno attitude is a big plus, of course, and worth more than a lot of supplies would be...

[Dio]

The most signficant issues presented by signficant rainfall in our region is the tendency towards mass wasting after fires remove vegetation from hillsides. This particular issue presents itself in mountainous or hilly communities in our region because of the man-made drainage required in those neighborhoods.

[Buster's Uncle]

Our yard was shaped far more by God than bulldozers, and isn't all that steep.  Nothing's impossible, but I'm not very worried about that one.

-Our power comes from southeast of here in territory in much more danger, though, so that is a concern.  We'd be in no danger, but it's very annoying to have to make do without our electronics for longer than a few minutes...

[Dio]

Our yard was shaped far more by God than bulldozers, and isn't all that steep.  Nothing's impossible, but I'm not very worried about that one.

-Our power comes from southeast of here in territory in much more danger, though, so that is a concern.  We'd be in no danger, but it's very annoying to have to make do without our electronics for longer than a few minutes...

A potential solution to that problem presents itself in the form of generators to supply essential electronics during power outages. The negative affects of extended power outages include loss of food stored in refrigerators and freezers. This loss of food can actually cost a family or an individual a signficant sum of money.

[Dio]

A resourceful can-do Uno attitude is a big plus, of course, and worth more than a lot of supplies would be...

Improvisation requires materials to allow an individual to employ this attitude in a meaningful manner.

[Buster's Uncle]

We do have a generator - and I even figured out how Mom can run it on the carport and run a line inside without it being a major production.

Tools and supplies/materials all over the place, I assure you.

I'm a little paranoid, and making paranoid just-in-case plans is almost fun...

[Dio]

We do have a generator - and I even figured out how Mom can run it on the carport and run a line inside without it being a major production.

Tools and supplies/materials all over the place, I assure you.

I'm a little paranoid, and making paranoid just-in-case plans is almost fun...

That particular issue remains pertinent in this situation because generators must always have a ventilated location outside the dwelling. If the generator remains inside, than the generator can potentially cause CO or CO2 poisoning to the inhabitants of said dwelling.

[Buster's Uncle]

Yes, of course - thus the plan to run it outside under shelter; it's not a closed garage.

[Dio]

I also cannot stress enough the importance of having an NOAA battery or crank powered radio on hand to access information about weather forecasts and updates on hazards.