At the Edgemoor Neighborhood Night Out, held at Fairhaven Middle School June 7th, Assistant Chief Doll gave us some great, simple, common sense ideas about being ready for an emergency (think major earthquake).
- One of scariest parts of a disaster is not knowing where the rest of your family is. Officer Doll pointed out that most of us have cell phones, and if the GPS is activated, emergency personnel can locate us.
- Text messages are more likely to get through than are calls, and text messages out of and into our area are more likely to get through than local messages. With that in mind, establish a family member or friend who lives out of state as a central contact person and have your immediate family text that person in the event of an emergency.
- Water and food are critical, and you should have enough for 5 days. You will need 1 gallon of water per person per day…and you may already have that stored in your hot water tank! He suggested dried, packaged, nutricious foods readily available at the grocery store, rather than the commercially available “emergency rations”. Apparently they aren’t very palatable.
- Put food, medications, pet food, flashlight and a battery operated radio in a plastic tub where it is readily accessible. Freshen it up on a regular basis.
- Secure high, heavy items like bookshelves securely to the wall or move them away from sleeping areas.
- Get to know your neighbors – you will be each others “first responders”.