Thursday’s power outage lasted only a few hours, but if you were sitting in the dark without a working flashlight and bottled water, you know you’re not ready for the next wildfire or earthquake.
It’s time to finally put together that emergency kit.
Creating a family plan
Talking with your family and neighbors about what to do if a natural disaster occurs is the starting point for being prepared.
• Pick at least two places to meet — one near your home and one outside your neighborhood if you can’t get home. Families should carry a card with the addresses and phone numbers of the designated meeting places.
• Ask about emergency plans at the places where your family spends the most time — schools, day-care centers, workplaces, nursing homes or other facilities and how families are contacted in a crisis. Also find out if there are adequate emergency supplies, if there’s a “shelter-in-place” should the need arise, and if there’s an evacuation site if it’s necessary.
If a plan doesn’t exist, volunteer to help develop one.
• Designate an out-of-state relative or friend to be the central contact person. This is particularly important if phone lines within San Diego are busy, but calls outside the county may go through. Put that contact person’s name, address and phone number in writing for each family member to carry at all times and make it available to the people with whom your children or aging relatives spend time.
Initiate the plan
• Create a checklist of things you’ll need and need to do in an emergency; do what you can in advance; rehearse your plan as a family and update information every six months.
• Explore with your children the FEMA Web site for kids, where they can do activities and test their knowledge about disaster preparation. They also will find things to pack in their own disaster-supplies backpack (crayons, favorite books, scissors and glue, deck of cards, doll or stuffed animal, puzzles) to help them feel comforted and stay occupied in an emergency.
• You can find checklists, preprinted forms to fill out and other useful information at: ready.gov (U.S. Department of Homeland Security); fema.gov/kids; redcross.org.
On the road
Circumstances would dictate how to coordinate traffic flow out of an affected area, but here are a few general guidelines:
• Unless there is immediate danger, stay at home, work, school or elsewhere until officials signal where it is safe to go. Keep any driving to a minimum to make room for emergency vehicles and other necessary travel.
• If an evacuation is ordered, the sheriff’s office or other law enforcement agencies will announce details, what routes to take, where to go for shelter and care and how long the emergency and the evacuation may last.
• Freeways: Freeways, offramps and bridges could become unstable in an earthquake. Traffic managers recommend stopping as soon as possible to make sure it’s safe to proceed. Be wary when driving. Changes to directional flow on freeways and other roads could be made.
• Keep your vehicle’s fuel tank full. Depending on the type of emergency, gasoline may not be available.
• Mass transit: Transit agencies, school bus fleets, vans and ambulances stand by to assist in relocating people unable to leave on their own. Details on accessing emergency transit would be broadcast to the public along with a phone number to request special assistance.
• Create or buy a disaster-preparedness kit for your car in case you’re tied up in traffic or unable to reach your destination because of road closures.
• The San Diego/Imperial Counties chapter of the American Red Cross sells ready-to-go kits and emergency backpacks for vehicles, boats and campers. Filled with the essentials for survival, they are available in one-person packs for $40, two-person kits for $45 and four-person kits for $85. They contain items such as blankets, 2,400-calorie food bars, ponchos, light sticks, tissues, portable first-aid kits, trash bags and foil packets containing water.
The kits are available 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Red Cross headquarters at 3950 Calle Fortunada, San Diego; (858) 309-1200 or sdarc.org.