Emergency Preparedness at Home

Are you ready?

Differences between preparing at Work and at Home!

• Work

– It’s part of our job

– We get paid for it

– Employer pays for necessary supplies

needed to continue operation

• You may be asked to bring personal

supplies if you are required to report to

work during a disaster response

– Most of the preparation is done by

someone else

– We just have to show up with our

personal supplies.

• Home

– It is totally our responsibility

– We have to do the planning and

preparation

– Cost of supplies is totally our

responsibility

– We have to set aside time, money and

energy to come up with a plan and

prepare for possible implementation

– No one sends us a meeting planner and

tells us to show up for the meeting

First Week of June 2010

This was caused by a Thunderstorm that lasted less than an Hour!

What happened at your house?

• Did you have tree damage?

• Any structural damage to your

home?

• How about your electricity?

My House

• Well, the thunder and lightening woke me up.

• I turned on the weather channel to see that the radar was mostly red right over Corpus Christi.

• Then the lights went out!• Probably not the best course of

action, but I just went to bed!

Waking Up

• Still no electricity!• No way that I could find my

flashlight!• I did have candles so was able to get

ready for work by candle light.• Totally surprised when I left the

house to go to work.• Tree limbs, trees down all up and

down my street.

NOT AMUSED!

• The next thing that I noticed that all of the houses across the street still had power!

• I live in an “older neighborhood.”• Most of the worst tree damage was

in the area of “established neighborhoods”.

Inconvenience• I don’t keep very much food on hand, well

actually almost no food in my refrigerator or freezer!

• But with the power gone, no way to get the chilled, filtered water from the through the door dispenser on the refrigerator.

• Came home, talked with the neighbors. (we had a front yard get together) actually met some neighbors that I didn’t know.

• Still difficult to take the fact that the neighbors across the street had power and air-conditioning!

• Several of the neighbors decided it was time to go to a hotel for the evening.

Optimism Revisited!

• I checked my refrigerator/freezer. Not much there, but everything was warm.– Note: If you have a frostless refrigerator or

freezer, food will thaw in less than 24 hours. You either have to cook it or store it in an ice chest.

– If you have only electric cooking appliances, cooking is not an option!

• Very lucky! – All of the fast food places and convenience stores in my

area have power!

Some Recommendations

• If you need an extended time to store food, water, drinks or ice for drinks:– You should store them in separate

coolers.• Have one for the food• One for the canned and bottled drinks• One for ice for consumption.

– Caveat: Ice was readily available, that is not always the case!

Power Returns!

• Saturday morning, I drove to the local convenience store for a much needed cup of coffee.

• I was elated to see the power crews working at the end of my block!

• Got my coffee, came home and was just ecstatic that I heard my neighbor’s air-conditioner, on my side of the street running!

Relief!

• I was able to turn on the lights, ceiling fans, air-conditioner, and the refrigerator was running!

• One thing that I had forgotten!– Notify the Home Alarm Company!

• When the power goes off and returns, it sends an fire alarm notice to the alarm company.

• The alarm company called me immediately and told me that they had dispatched CCFD to my address.

– Thank GOD, there were probably alarms going off all over my neighborhood, so my buddies at CCFD did not show up!

Unprepared

• Well, within 30 minutes of the power restoration I found my flashlight!

• I found out that the power outage had affected over 70,000 customers in our area.

• Imagine the impact if this had been a region wide power outage.– No stores open– No ice available for the coolers– Limited gasoline for cars.

Lessons Learned

• I am totally unprepared for a “disaster at home!”– For the past 18 years, I had always

relied on the fact that if there was a major disaster, I would report to the hospital, and that most, if not all, preparations had been taken care of.• Power would be available, food/water would

be available, even if I needed to bring my personal supplies with me.

This was different!

• The “disaster” was limited to certain

sections of our city, even though it was a

large area.

– But, it directly affected my part of town and my

home.

Emergency Vs Disaster

• I think that all of us were taught in Nursing School that an Emergency is declared by the patient when they have exhausted all of their resources and coping mechanisms.

• I’m going to apply that definition to a Disaster! – I had gotten very close to exhausting all

of my resources and coping mechanisms. It was a disaster for me!

Emergency at Home

• In our area we tend to define Emergencies and Disaster as it relates to Hurricanes.

• Very limited view, and inadequate preparation.

• Hurricane preparation is a great place to start!

• Most of this preparation can be applied to any home emergency.

Types of Home Emergencies

• Weather Related

• Power Failure

• Major Appliance Failure

• Injury at Home

Weather Related

• Do you have a plan for a Weather Related Emergency at home?

• It is not always a Hurricane!

– Think about our “Miracle Christmas Eve Snow!”

– Beautiful, but many people were unable to show up for work!

• That was probably a once in a lifetime experience for our area, but?

• I spent last Christmas in Dallas, on Christmas Eve we had BLIZZARD warnings and

received over 8 inches of snow on top of freezing rain!

• That was the second measurable snow for the winter season in Dallas, and there was

more to come!

– What about flooding rains?

Hurricane Threats to our area

• Hurricane damage is not limited to wind damage!

• Actually the worst damage is related to Storm Surge.

• For those of you that may be new to the area, storm surge is not focused on the Island and Bay Front.

Resources for Hurricane Tracking

• National Prediction Center• The Weather Channel• Spaghetti Models• Stormpulse• My Fox Hurricane Center• KIII TV• KRIS TV• KZTV

Power Failure

• Is it for a short time or an extended time?– Do you rely on electricity to supply power for at home

health care devices?

• Do you have a generator?– Do you need a generator?– Whole house generators are very expensive and may

require the storage of a large amount of fuel.– Smaller generators can supply power to selected

appliances.– In the event of a major disaster, will fuel be available?– Remember if there is a major power disruption, gasoline,

diesel pumps are powered by electricity.

Major Appliance Failure

• OK! This may not qualify as an area wide disaster, but it can qualify as a a disaster for your home and for your budget!– A week after the power was restored, both of

my central air-conditioners failed on the night before I was leaving for a vacation with the family.

– I had the option of cancelling my trip and getting the repairs done, or wait until I came back.

• Procrastination won out!– I left town!

Major Appliance Failure

• Another week without air-conditioning, but at least I had the ceiling fans! (Less than one week after the last Disaster)

• Busy schedule at work, just couldn’t take off the time to get it to be at home to meet the repairmen.

• This is the most important consideration– Do you have a financial plan to take care of

major repairs that are not covered by insurance?

• Do you have the financial back up to replace a major appliance or repair without having to rely on credit?

Injury at Home

• Do you have a First Aid Kit at home?

• How long has it been since you checked it for expiration dates?

• If you live alone, is there some way that you can notify someone that you

need help?

• I’m not ready to get one of those things that you wear around your neck to

summon emergency help, but I do have a panic button on my home alarm!

– Just hope that I can get to the button!

Planning

• If an evacuation order is issued, what are your plans?– Last minute flights may be limited and

very expensive.– If you plan to drive

• Leave early!• Know where you are going and be prepared

to choose another route.• Have a place to stay before you leave!

– During one evacuation scare, I spent nearly 4 hours trying to make reservations for my parents!

Communication

• Cell phones are great, but have a limited battery life.– One thing that I learned is that I needed to take my

battery charger with me to work to charge, no power at home.

– In the event of a major disaster, phone lines and cell phone towers may not be available.

• Computer communication– If you rely on Email, and the power goes out, do you

have a power back up for your computer?• Laptop computer battery life is limited!• If you rely on phone lines or cable, that service may be

disrupted.– Have you backed up your files, and are they accessable?

Communication Continued

• OK! This is going to be foreign to most of you!– After Hurricane Celia

• I had gone to visit my grandparents in East Texas, and was scheduled to return on August 3ed.

– Well that didn’t happen

• It took me three days to receive any news from my family in Corpus Christi and that was a brief 1 minute phone call.

Evacuation• What do I take?

– Contact information!• Let them know who you are and where you are going!• Place ICE (In Case of Emergency) on your cell phone

– Medications– Water and food for the evacuation– MONEY!

• Have cash on hand in case ATM’s and Credit Card machines are offline. – Insurance Information

• Contact information for your insurance company and your policies.• Have you thought about scanning important papers and placing them on a

flash drive that you can take with you?– Possessions

• What can’t be replaced?• What do you actually need?• What will fit in your vehicle?

Recovery

• My experience from 40 years ago from Hurricane Celia.– Major damage to our home.– We had to move out.– Damage occurred during August and we

were not able to move back in the house until November.

– That is a long time to be away from “home” and having most of your belongings placed in storage.

Summary

• We need to be prepared.– I found out in the last month, that I am

not prepared! (Or maybe not smarter than a 5th grader!)• What I have done

– I have a list of things that I need to get.– I am working on getting all of my records scanned

and placed on a flash drive so that I don’t have to worry about finding the actual documents.

– I have a plan to do some upkeep on my home!