Author: Volunteer

Anyone who is active in the world of emergency preparedness recognizes these simple truths:

• Disasters, whether natural or man-made, are becoming more frequent and more serious. And more deadly.
• People with a personal survival plan have a better chance of surviving a disaster than those with no plan. Same for businesses and for communities with active neighborhood emergency response groups.
• Getting individual Americans to make a plan is an uphill battle!

How Can We Help More People and More Communities Be Better Prepared for Emergencies?

The government plays a role in preparedness.

FEMA was formed in 1979 with good intentions. When disaster awareness took front stage after 9-11-2001, FEMA’s efforts ratcheted up.

Actually, even before that, FEMA had seen the efforts of Los Angeles Fire Department to train civilians in earthquake preparedness. The LAFD program was adopted in 1993 as a national program and called Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

CERT training is now available in all 50 states. Thousands of citizens have been trained and now serve as valuable interim backup to official First Responders. Training is at minimal cost and in some cases is free.

For the past decade or so, shifting from its traditional top-down approach, FEMA has looked at improving resilience at the community level. But here we are today, having gone through Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, Irma, Maria and Michael. We’ve experienced hundreds of mass shootings, thousands of acres of historical flooding, massive wild fires, and millions of data breaches — and the level of preparedness in American families hovers unchanged at around 50%!

Why don’t individual Americans prepare for emergencies?

After 30 years of working with our individual neighbors all across the country, we have found it boils down to this: the comforts of urban living have overtaken the urgency to develop survival skills.

And there’s a secondary reason, too. While people understand that working together will give them an advantage in an emergency, our increasingly diverse and ever-more-mobile society makes working together harder. 

So while people will always agree that they SHOULD be preparing, and that working together will give them an advantage, most lack the necessary leadership skills or they just aren’t willing to make the effort.

CERT Volunteers do their best to engage neighbors – but . . .

CERT training attracts a special breed of people, people who recognize risk and are eager to take action to reduce it for their families. When they have completed the CERT training they have a unique understanding of how their community and in particular how their First Responders work in a disaster. They also have skills to help save lives on the ground until those First Responders arrive.

But CERT training does not include a module on “community organizing.” Without the aptitude for sales or sales training — and lacking backing and financial support – individual CERT volunteers who want to build neighborhood groups around themselves inevitably run into a wall.

Businesses have preparedness advantages that individuals don’t.

Are you familiar with the statistics for business survival after a disaster?

FEMA reports that up to 40% of businesses never reopen after a disaster, and those that stay closed for more than 5 days are unlikely to last more than a year.

With a solid emergency preparedness or Business Contingency Plan, chances improve dramatically for a business to make it through or re-open more quickly.

But small businesses, like individual families, still lag behind in planning. They may not recognize the powerful advantages they already have for effective preparedness:

1. A business is already an existing group. Its members are typically in close physical contact. They know each other. They are used to working together as a team to meet a common objective.
2. Businesses have a built-in network of resources to call upon for help in planning for emergency. Those resources include other neighboring businesses, partners like suppliers, city governments, utilities, and professional advisers like accountants, attorneys, insurance agents, etc.  And CERT training is available to business usually at no cost.
3. Every business has a duty to protect lives, and everyone in the business has an incentive to protect their livelihood!  Even if the doors of the business are closed, the business has to make sure regulatory and legal commitments are met. A proper plan can assure this continuity, keep employees paid and deflect legal assaults.
4. The owner or employer sets the tone and can require and ensure that the business develop a preparedness culture.
5. Where the business’s plan includes well-thought-out emergency communications with employee families, it reduces employee anxiety and gives employees an incentive to stay or at least return to work during the critical minutes and hours immediately following an event.
6. And the prepared business actually adds a bonus for the whole community. Employees will take knowledge and training home and spread it within their local neighborhood.

Businesses start ahead of the game. All they have to do is get into it! 

Logically businesses might first turn to their existing team of professional advisers for help in putting together a plan. These are the accountants, attorneys, bankers and insurance brokers who currently advise them on their business issues. Each has valuable expertise.

But these professionals may not see themselves having a role in emergency preparedness. So without that guidance, how can businesses turn the corner on preparedness?

Businesses can use CERT to jumpstart preparedness training at their location.  

Once the business has been exposed to CERT, building a more comprehensive Business Contingency Plan will be a natural. And once employees have been exposed to CERT, they will automatically take new awareness and skills home with them right into their neighborhoods!

Spreading CERT from the business into the community at large isn’t a guaranteed or proven answer to more community resilience. But, given the uneven track record that many communities experience in trying to organize neighborhoods, this would certainly seem to be an approach worth testing.

Let us know what you think!

Here at EmergencyPlanGuide.org we’ve been committed for years to preparedness at the community level. To help businesses get started, we have published a simple guide to preparedness for small businesses. We are making it available to professional business advisers, too, along with reference materials and more resources from that particular service perspective.

If you are what we could call a “solo preparedness devotee” (or perhaps “voice in the wilderness?”) you know it’s hard to stay inspired and to maintain any momentum in learning new stuff, keeping your supplies up to date, etc.

And if you are involved with a group of neighbors or even trained citizens, you experience the same problem — only worse!

How to keep people interested and inspire readiness?

A close call works.

For example, a 4.5 earthquake works well here in California. News of disasters in other parts of the country or even the world also catches people’s notice and can inspire readiness. Even an announcement about a change in course of FEMA can be useful.

But close calls usually indicate that someone is suffering, so we certainly don’t like waiting for them or depending on them . . .

For a group, we look to regular meetings for inspiration and engagement.

So then the question: What should be on our meeting agenda this month?

I’ve been organizing or helping organize our neighborhood emergency response group meetings for about 16 years now. Even if we figure only 4 meetings a year during that time, that adds up to A WHOLE LOT OF MEETING AGENDAS! Every meeting is an effort — and a challenge! – to inspire readiness through training, door-prizes, entertainment, examples, stories . . . whatever works.

Fortunately, other groups share their meeting agendas with me.

If you’ve been sticking around here at Emergency Plan Guide for a few years, you’ve read about a number of meetings – and not just ours, but also meetings I’ve heard about from other CERT or neighborhood groups. For example, just this week I got these three reports that have already helped suggest meeting topics here in my neighborhood:

• A friend in a Northern California coastal town reported that she is putting on an earthquake tabletop exercise for a neighboring town. Both those towns are in the way of tsunamis if/when there’s a big Pacific Rim earthquake. Here in Southern California a tsunami is less likely, but an earthquake?  You bet.
• Another leader in a different Northern California city wrote to tell me that her neighborhood group had planned and executed a Fire Prevention Clean-up Day – removing Juniper trees (very flammable), trash, leaves, fallen branches, etc. from around the homes in their mobile home park. Hearing about this group’s enthusiasm was certainly inspiring to me! We’re working on a similar project right now! (Watch for more.)
• Still another formal CERT group got this media mention yesterday: Lafayette, CA: The Lamorinda Residents Guide to Wildfire Preparedness & Evacuation. a joint effort that included the Lamorinda Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT) was mailed to more than 62,000 residents in critical wildland fire hazard areas of the East Bay (CA).

Emergency Plan Guide tries to share as many good ideas as possible!

In the past I have put out many individual Advisories about successful meetings we’ve held. And I’ve also published two downloadable books with meeting planning ideas, with about 75 plans for easily-repeatable neighborhood meetings.

Note – these aren’t official CERT trainings. Rather, they are ideas stressing readiness that can be used with “ordinary” groups of neighbors, some of whom have had CERT training but most of whom have not.

I am in the midst of updating them with more meeting agendas and will soon be republishing them in a new format.

And this brings me to a request.

What can YOU add to our list of meeting resources that will help other neighborhood groups inspire readiness within their own ranks?

Have you held meetings that have been particularly interesting, fun or productive? And that lend themselves to being copied? If so, could you please send a description so I can include it in the next version of the book?

I’m thinking that together, we can produce something like “Chicken Soup for Great Emergency Preparedness Teams!”

Here are some simple questions that might work for telling your Great Meeting story:

1. What was the title/theme of the meeting and what was your objective?
2. How did the meeting unfold? Any surprises? Any laughs? Any hiccups? What was particularly inspiring or engaging?
3. Did you need props, handouts, show-n-tell items, other materials?

Please send a story! If you want to remain anonymous, or your group wants to remain anonymous, just say so/ But let us know what sort of neighborhood you’re in, to help readers adapt your great meeting to their neighborhood.

Sharing strengthens volunteer groups and thus whole neighborhoods!

As you know, FEMA’s most recent push has been for Community Resilience – as opposed, I guess, to national response capability. I’ve been working at the community level for years, and I think most of you have been, too. Sharing ideas to help organize communities and inspire readiness among their residents is what we’re about.

I welcome your ideas for great meetings to share!  Please send them to Virginia@EmergencyPlanGuide.org.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

In case you’ve missed them, here are a couple of Advisories from the past about meetings that worked to inspire readiness. At least, I have received repeated assurances that they made a difference!

• Use a quiz as the basis for group discussion!
• The perennial favorite: Show and Tell. Have members bring examples of each of these!

Take an Insurance Inventory Before You Need It

After last week’s Advisory about spring cleaning, with the comments on updating insurance, I felt obliged to take action and create an inventory of our stuff, once and for all. First, I looked for some advice about how to begin. Here’s what I have discovered so far about inventories.

What goes into an inventory?

I started by looking at several paper inventory sheets that are meant to be filled out by hand or, in some cases, by computer. Here are examples.

What layout do I prefer?

What you see immediately is that there is no one format that works for every home or every business.

Determine what information to include.

What I did find, though, is that if you are doing an insurance inventory you want to include at least these items, in whatever format you prefer:

• Date of the inventory
• Item type
• Item description (manufacturer, brand)
• Where item is located now
• Cost when originally purchased

If you are doing a business insurance inventory, you will want to include this information also:

• Make/model
• Serial number
• Warranty
• Current value

Organize by category or location?

Some people lump all similar items together in categories– for example, they’ll do a list of electronics, one for books, one for appliances, one for musical instruments, etc.

Others organize the inventory by location – everything in the living room, office, kitchen, etc.

However you do it, don’t forget things you own that are not inside the home! For example, do you have items in a bank safety deposit box? A storage unit? Digital items stored only in the cloud? What about patio furniture, tools in the garage, etc.?

Just this far in, and the thought of writing it all down seems overwhelming.

So I looked into other options.

Video-tape an insurance inventory!

This makes sense. Go through the house or office, starting outside the entrance and going through every room, carefully filming everything and commenting on the tape as you go.

Depending on how much stuff you have, you may need or want to supplement video with still shots.

Here’s some thinking I did for two sample categories in my house.

Office inventory

In our office, I will start by panning around to show furniture, certificates on the wall, book cases, file cabinets and the supplies closet.

Then I’ll stop the filming to prepare the desks and supply cabinet for the REAL inventory – opening drawers and boxes so supplies and files are visible, and then taping the whole area again.

Our network setup (routers, modem, controller) is worth another whole series of shots with commentary.  Same with phones, computers, monitors and printers.

Special collections

You can guess that we have a lot of emergency supplies and equipment.  Some of this will show up in the office, but most is stored on shelves in the laundry room and two different closets!  I’ll have to go through these to film emergency radios, HAM radios, emergency lanterns, batteries and more batteries. We also have survival kits, CERT helmets and miscellaneous camping gear. Lots of stuff for the insurance inventory!

Note about collections. This I already knew! If you have valuable collections (art, jewelry, collectibles) you may want to get them appraised and add a rider to your policy to be sure they are adequately covered. Most regular homeowner policies have a surprisingly low limit on specialty items. There’s also a limit on coverage for home business equipment that may not be enough for you.

You get the idea!

In an emergency, if the house were flooded, tumbled by an earthquake or simply trashed by intruders, just these two categories alone – office and emergency — would be almost impossible for us to reconstruct without help from pictures!

Moreover, without some picture proof, we would be unable to put together a decent and fair insurance claim. And guess what – You may be asked for a list of what is missing within the first 24 hours of the incident!

Can I make an inventory using my phone?

If you are like me, you turn to your cellphone for a lot these days.  Can you use your phone to create the insurance inventory video?

Take photos.

There are apps (iOS, Android or both) designed specifically for inventories using photos. Take a picture, then label (tag) and put into a folder and file.  You can add just about as much info as you want; the app may even calculate the total value of the items in the inventory! Some apps allow you to transfer your inventory data to a spreadsheet or pdf. And at least one app creates QR labels so you can stick them to moving boxes!

As you can imagine, many of the inventory apps are free; the ones with the most options have a monthly or annual fee.

Make a video.

Since I am not an accomplished thumb typist, I looked at option 2 –narrating a video of my stuff.

Depending on the phone, the video will be limited by . . .

• how much total storage the device has
• how much data is already on the phone (programs, photos, etc.)
• what resolution video you’re shooting.  (Higher resolution takes up more space.)

Use a camcorder.

Personally, if it comes to taking pictures, I think I would opt for using a camcorder. I have an old camcorder and it fits a lot better in my hand. I can see just what I am filming. It also has a better microphone.

It used to be that camcorders were considered “expensive.” Take a look at these models – way less than half as much as a new smart phone!  (Of course you can spend thousands of dollars on high-quality cameras for film making. We’re talking here about easy-to-use models perfect for everyday – and for inventories.)

The first one is very small, very compact, fitting right into your pocket. It offers zoom and wide angle. You can choose resolution: higher resolution uses up your battery faster. You can connect the camcorder to the TV and show your videos, or send to your computer. Click on the image or the link to get to Amazon for full details and prices. Obligatory disclaimer — we are Amazon Associates.

Sony – HDRCX405 HD Video Recording Handycam Camcorder (black)

Right in the middle of my research for this Sony camcorder at Amazon, I also got an ad from a big box store for the exact same item. There was a price difference of $40!  (Amazon was the better deal; well under $200.) It pays to shop!

Here’s a second example, with more zoom power, a two-channel microphone and what I would call movie effects.  Probably more fun for family and sports videos! Again, under $200 at Amazon.

Panasonic Full HD Camcorder HC-V180K, 50X Optical Zoom, 1/5.8-Inch BSI Sensor, Touch Enabled 2.7-Inch LCD Display (Black)

Final point. Protect your inventory.

Your inventory is useless if it is washed away in the flood, burned up in the fire, or stolen along with the collectibles. Be sure to keep extra copies off premises (with a family member?), in a fireproof safe and/or saved online in the cloud.

Now I have to admit that I haven’t actually STARTED on my inventory yet. But now I know what the next steps will be. How far along on an inventory are you???

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

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If you are a dedicated spring cleaner, you’ve already taken care of the windows. You may have done some spring cleaning in closets or in the garage, too. And when the time changed a few weeks ago, you undoubtedly checked the batteries in the smoke alarms. (You did, didn’t you?)

With summer coming up quickly, it will be easy to get caught up in end-of-school parties, vacation plans, etc. In the midst of that, your spring cleaning may get interrupted, along with some of your good preparedness habits.

Here are a few quick reminders for your family and your neighborhood team. Click on the images to get more details on these items from Amazon.

Walkie-talkie spring cleaning.

Yesterday we picked up my daughter at the airport. While Joe circled, I hopped out with a walkie-talkie so we could keep in touch. This is one of the most convenient uses for these hand-held radios!  No dialing, no busy signals, no dropping of the signal. Just push to talk: “OK, I see her! “OK, we’re at gate 3, right at the crosswalk.”

But the walkie-talkies have to have good batteries! Actually, we have added walkie-talkie battery replacement to our twice-a-year Daylight Savings Time checklist.

Last week we also added 10 more walkie-talkies to our supply for our neighborhood group Block Captains. The Uniden model continues to be our favorite, and prices haven’t gone up much at all. Here’s the model we buy – less than $25 for a set of 2:

Uniden GMR1635-2 Up to 16-Mile Range, FRS Two-Way Radio Walkie Talkies, 22 Channels with Channel Scan, Battery Strength Meter, Roger Beep, Call Tone, Keypad Lock, Black Color

If you are building your emergency team, or are planning family outings that will involve keeping track of each other in crowds (like a theme park) or in the woods, consider Walkie-talkies for your own family use. For short-distance communications they really can’t be beat.

Spruce up safety clothing.

Some clothing items seem to find their way into dark corners and onto the floor of the trunk of the car. I’m referring to sweatshirts, gloves, hats, etc.

With summer coming, it’s time to clean out and be ready for warmer weather. But don’t forget the safety gear that you KEEP in the car.

For example, we have found that having colored shirts and/or reflective vests are smart additions to our usual car survival kits.

• Heading for Disneyland? If everyone in the family — Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Kid 1, Kid 2, Kid 3, etc.! — is wearing the same bright-colored T-shirt you will be a lot easier to spot!
• Being on the street in the dark next to a disabled car is terribly dangerous! A reflective vest becomes an important safety item on the street and a reassurance in a campground at night.

Last week when we put in our order for more walkie-talkies for our team we also bought 10 more reflective vests for our neighborhood group Block Captains. They are amazingly modest in price!  (It’s not like we are wearing these every day, so they don’t need to be top of the line.) I chose these because they have pockets, and the package came with an extra vest in child-size!

Click on the link below the imageto get full details.

CIMC Yellow Reflective Safety Vest with Pockets, 10 Pack, Bright Construction Vest with Reflective Strips,Made from Breathable and Neon Yellow Mesh Fabric,High Visibility Vest for Working Outdoor

Battery replacement.

How many flashlights and emergency radios do you actually have, when you add up all the ones in the cars and in the house?

Guess what, they probably all use batteries! And have you noticed the rule that says batteries will whimper and die just when you really need them?

So, the competent Prepper adds a flashlight check and battery replacement exercise to the spring cleaning list.

Over the years we have tested and tested different batteries. The best ones one year seem to lose place to another manufacturer the next year. So we simple buy batteries on a regular basis.

Again, you probably need different sizes. Here’s a convenient pack with the AA and AAA sizes most common for our flashlights and walkie-talkies. Click on the image for exact pricing.

You may want to separate batteries and put a set of extra ones – of the right size – in a plastic baggy that you store alongside the item they belong with. When the power is out you can’t be searching through your battery box . . .!

Here’s an image of one of our flashlights. Note the green batteries in the holder which will be replaced with the gold ones stored in the bag.

Car survival kit spring cleaning.

We’ve spent time before on everything to consider for the survival kits you carry in your car.

For spring cleaning, it may be enough to simply refresh.

• Go through your first aid kits and replace old bandages, anything that has cracked or gotten wet. Recycle old medicines and put in new ones. Add anything you’ll need for summer, including sunscreen and dark glasses.
• Replace all your snack food with new packages. Canned stuff may last a while longer, but why not eat it up now and put new things in its place?
• Remove kids’ items that they have outgrown, and replace with more appropriate things – we’re talking games, toys, etc.
• Consider adding a new battery-charger for your devices. As we’ve written before, the “power packs” store enough to charge your phone more than once. (Scroll to the P.S. in that Advisory for an example of a popular power pack.) And solar-powered chargers are now ubiquitous. Both make good gifts, too.

Communications update.

Do all family members have updated phone numbers? Do all response team members have updated phone numbers for their neighbors? Now’s a good time to refresh this info.

And test family members’ memory. Can they recite the phone number of your out-of-town contact?  (Make it a contest as you are driving to that vacation spot. . .)

Insurance review.

We see so many ads on TV about saving money by switching auto insurance. Maybe you have switched, and actually saved money!

When it comes to other insurances, it’s important to shop and compare, too. Given the past couple of years’ dramatic storms, fires and floods, you may discover that the coverage you thought you had has changed, or is going up in cost. Or maybe you thought you were covered and you haven’t been covered at all! Or you are now required to have coverage that you didn’t have to have when you bought your house years ago!

Check out these Advisories for important questions to have ready when you talk with your insurance agent.

• Insurance for natural disasters
• Insurance for landslides
• El Nino preparations (Scroll down to the middle of the page for insurance info)

OK, this Spring Cleaning review could actually take some time. You probably can’t do it all in one week.

But every item you check off the list means you are in better shape to avoid an inconvenience, not to mention an emergency.

Good luck!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

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Updated March, 2019

A Common Emergency Than Can Turn Into a Disaster

It’s Friday morning, you arrive at work and are greeted with . . .

“Guess what! Power is out!”

As people pull in and start to crowd around the front door, questions ring out. . .

• “Who’s in charge?”
• “Don’t we have a generator somewhere?”
• “What about next door, is their power out, too?”
• “Has the outage been reported?”
• “How long will it last?”
• “Does the boss know?”
• “Shouldn’t we turn stuff off so it doesn’t all go on when the power comes back?”
• “What was on?”
• “What about the deliveries we’re expecting?”
• “I have appointments today. Should I cancel them? Can we meet somewhere else?”
• “Who’s in charge?”

Power outages are happening more often and lasting longer.

Inside Energy reported that in 2014 in the United States, the five-year annual average number of outages doubled every five years from 2000 to 2014.

Three years later, according to the US Energy Information Administration, the length of the average power outage nearly doubled from 2016 to 2017 – to almost 8 hours. Then came this addition: “. . .and the total duration of interruptions caused by major events was longer.”

Why the increase? Most notable: more and stronger hurricanes, massive winter storms, raging wildfires.  And lurking behind it all, the vulnerability of the grid itself.

We’ll be watching for statistics from 2018, and later for 2019, which has started out as bad or worse than ever before.

Note: Are you familiar with Allianz, the global insurance company? Their 2019 Allianz Risk Barometer now adds cyber incidents to the list of top business interruption risks.

A power outage in the workplace is a lot more problematical than one at home.

You may be able to get along at home because you have immediate access to extra food, clothing, etc. But to respond to a power outage in the workplace YOU NEED TO HAVE PREPARED IN ADVANCE!

Here are three simple questions you can use to start the preparedness conversation.

1. What equipment will go off? Will it be damaged or dangerous if it shuts off suddenly?
2. Who needs to know about the power outage? How quickly do they need to know?
3. How will we communicate with employees, customers, suppliers, regulators and the news media when the power is out!? Who will do the talking?

Resources for planning for workplace outages.

Fortunately, there are some super resources out there to help out in this regard. One of the best is: Agility Recovery. Started 30 years ago, Agility is now serving businesses of all sizes in 44 states. While you may or may not be a candidate for their services, be aware that their website’s library has excellent videos and checklists for every business. The case histories of specific industries (banks, healthcare) are particularly interesting.

Agility has been on my radar for a couple of years now. I’ve attended their training webinars online and talked to several of the sales people, with very useful results.

Four suggestions for taking action to prepare for power outages in the workplace.

1- If the questions in this Advisory have hit any nerve at all, head over to Agility and grab Agility’s free Power and Generator Checklist. You’ll see a complete list of things to do BEFORE an outage, with specific questions to ask your electrician. The checklist adds safety recommendations as well as steps to increase security during an outage.

2- If you’re concerned about having some basic equipment available to help you through the outage — like lighting, power for computers, or a generator — check out our Emergency Plan Advisory: Fire related power outage

3- If it’s time your company considered the bigger picture, I recommend our own book: Emergency Preparedness for Small Business

It too has checklists – many of them! They start at the very beginning to help you get over procrastinating, identify ALL the possible risks (not just power outage), and get you started on pulling together a real business continuity plan step by step. (We describe Joe’s secret weapon that he discovered and developed when he was in military intelligence.)

4- In any case, consider assigning someone from your company to attend the upcoming webinar being offered by Agility on May 15, 2019, 12 – 1 p.m. MT. These webinars last just one hour, and are crammed with interesting info. May’s topic:  Ask the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery experts. You can reserve your spot here: https://www.agilityrecovery.com/event/free-webinar-ask-the-bcdr-experts/ 

(In case you’re wondering if I have any particular affiliation with Agility Recovery, I don’t. As you know, I am constantly researching resources, and I simply feel very comfortable recommending them.)

With 70% of businesses anticipated to lose power sometime in the next 12 months, this is an important topic for all of us at Emergency Plan Guide. I urge you to take steps now to protect yourself and to keep an outage from becoming a disaster.,

Before you leave, please read the P.S. for just a few more examples of what happens when power goes out at work!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

P.S. We all have a good idea of what happens when the power goes out. At least, what we notice immediately. BOOM!  No lights! Meeting rooms, offices, halls, closets, bathrooms, stairwells – all dark except for emergency lighting.

But look a little further, and you may discover . . . .

• Automatic gates and doors are frozen open, so you have no security.
• Communications are down.  No landlines, no internet access, and the heightened potential for increased cyber vulnerability.
• Bathrooms don’t work if you have power assisted toilets or water faucets.
• UPS systems everywhere are pinging, pinging, pinging. (How long will they last?)
• There’s no power to the kitchen = no coffee, no microwave, no refrigerator. (Medicines may be compromised, food starts spoiling immediately.)
• Time clocks and timers may shut off.  (How to track employee time, industrial processes, scheduled communications?)
• A/C and air handlers go off, same with pumps in the basement and any electricity-driven medical devices (Environment may become uncomfortable, even unsafe.)
• Your out-of-gas vehicles can’t refill their gas tanks or recharge their batteries.
• The only tools or pieces of equipment that work are those with battery backup or that run with rechargeable batteries. (What about dental drills? Auto repair tools? Restaurant stoves and freezers?)

What will happen in YOUR workplace when the power goes out? You need to know, so you can be prepared. Otherwise, this outage could truly become a disaster for the business.

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How many cars do you have in your family? Which car do YOU take when you head out? How many people usually ride with you? How far from home do you get on a regular basis?

Have you ever been stuck in your car?

On any given day if you are more than a couple of miles from home, being stuck in your car could become an emergency.

Imagine any one of these things happening, to you or to a family member . . .

• You run out of gas coming back from a sporting event. You are on a strange road.  And it’s dark.
• Fog causes a massive pile up on the interstate and you are caught in the middle of a mile-long traffic jam.
• A freak snow storm closes the pass. You can’t turn around and head back down. All you can do to pull over onto the shoulder of the road and hunker down.
• A downtown political rally turns into a riot and you need to find a safe way around the violence.
• You are heading back to the office from a remote client meeting when you hear on the news that a chemical spill has blocked the road home.

In all these cases, you are physically OK. Your car may be out of gas, or close to it, but it isn’t damaged.

But it looks as though you may be stuck in your car for HOURS. What do you have with you that will make this an adventure, instead of a disaster?

When you are stuck in the car you will turn to your Get Home Bag.

There are two aspects to each bag: EQUIPMENT and SUPPLIES. Let’s take a look.

Let’s look first at emergency EQUIPMENT for your Get Home Bag.

When I was a kid the only emergency stuff we carried in the car were tools, a jack and a spare tire. (We used a screw driver from the tool kit to pry off the hubcaps so we could use them as buckets for picking wild blackberries.)

Today cars are a lot more reliable. It’s rare that we get a flat tire or a breakdown. But incidents like those listed above – storms, accidents, out-of-control crowds — are in the news every day! And hundreds if not thousands of people are caught up in them.

If you’re one of them, you are going to be a lot more comfortable and safer if your Get Home Bag has some if not all this equipment:

• Lights for seeing and reading (flashlights, lantern)
• Flares for signaling.
• Radio reception so you can find out what authorities are doing. Your car has a good radio, but not if you run down the battery. You can also supplement with a battery, solar-powered or hand-crank emergency radio. Not knowing is scary and may lead you to make a dumb decision.
• Phone so you can call for help. Same issue with the battery. Do you have a power bank or solar charger? (That traffic accident could happen on the long desert road between Las Vegas and LA. Solar would work perfectly – though there may be limited or no service!)
• Some basic tools – pliers, wrench, tape – and a shovel and traction tracks for snow or sand. Samples below of each of these. Click on the images for full details and prices at Amazon.

Sahara Sailor Folding Shovel Camping Survival Shovel, Collapsible Tactical Shovel – Tri-Fold Handle, High Carbon Military Steel – Entrenching Tool with Storage Pouch ,Camping Survival Gear

I took a look at several shovels. I was looking for something small enough to fit in the trunk, but sturdy enough to be useful. The shovel above seems to fit the bill, plus it has a case. This same manufacturer also makes a more complete “kit” with multiple attachments. Check it out when you get to Amazon.

ALL-TOP 4×4 Recovery Boards – 2 Pcs Off Road Traction Tracks Mat for Sand Mud Snow 4WD Track Tire Ladder + Storage Bag (Red)

If you could be caught in snow or sand, having a set of traction tracks makes all the sense in the world. They come in varying sizes and weights, but I liked this set because of its orange color. One smart marketer has actually packaged these tracks with a shovel.

What about emergency SUPPLIES for your Get Home Bag?

Now we’re back to survival kit basics that you ought to be able to rattle off. Here are 6 main categories for every kit, including the get-home-bags in your cars:

1. What you need to keep you warm and comfy: clothing, blankets, gloves, comfortable shoes, hand warmers.
2. Food for energy and comfort: snacks, protein bars, raisins, hard candies.
3. Water to maintain hydration.
4. Towels or wipes to keep you clean in the car. Plastic bags for trash. Toilet paper to allow you to stay clean when you have to head outside the car. (Use that shovel to bury your waste!)
5. First aid kit for any scrapes, headaches, sunburn, etc.
6. Personal items: chap stick, sun glasses, pills, tampons, etc.

OK, those were the basics. Now, for two often overlooked items . . .

First, check out that guy in the image at the top of this page. What’s he holding? In this digital age, paper maps of your city and the larger surroundings may be forgotten. Your smart phone may be great for directing you to a specific address — as long as you HAVE a specific address. In an emergency you may not have an address. You may be trying to understand a much bigger picture, see all the options for getting around a barrier, a compromised bridge, etc.

There are many maps available, from state to region to city. Two major publishers are Rand McNally, and Delorme. Maps are harder to find than they used to be, so start your search now!

And the single most important supply of all:
A full or almost full tank of gas.

With plenty of fuel you avoid emergency #1 above altogether. You can turn the motor on to keep the car warm and check the news. You can drive the LONG way around the riot or the accident without worrying if you have enough fuel.

Should I carry or try to “borrow” extra gas?

It’s not a good idea to carry extra gasoline. In fact, it may be illegal. If you are determined to carry extra fuel, you’ll want to buy appropriate gas cans, fill them properly, and install a frame on the back of the car where they can be locked down for transport. (Be sure you have competent help with this.)

What about siphoning gas from another car? Newer model cars have a valve that blocks the gas tank from leaking if the car tips over. It will block you from siphoning in the old-fashioned way, too.

So an item for your “additional survival gear list” might be a siphon kit that uses a hand-pump instead of your mouth – lots easier and certainly safer. You’ll have to know what you are doing – attach the hose the right way, understand how gravity works to place the source and the container, etc. If you are shopping online, read all the reader comments!

The siphon above looks to be one of the best moderately priced siphon kits on the market. (Based on comments, the cheap versions don’t seem so reliable.)  Click on the image to get to Amazon.

The upshot: extra gas is hard to get.

So make it a new preparedness habit to stop frequently to top up your gas tank.  All it will cost is a little extra time.  But when you need that extra gas, the payback will be huge!

Wait, you’re not quite finished!

Now, back to our first four questions: How many cars do you have in your family? Which car do YOU take when you head out? How many people usually ride with you? How far from home do you get on a regular basis?

If you are stuck in the car, you want that car to have an emergency kit. But what if you discover this car has the wrong kit?

If you commute to work, and always in the same car, then you can pretty much review this Advisory, pack up what makes sense for you, and you’re set. (Of course, if you use a company car for travel during the day, then you’ll want to transfer your kit to that car for every trip!)

If one of your tasks is to haul the children locally to and from school and sports and whatever else, then THIS car needs a totally different kit. It needs to have a lot more clothing, more food, more water, etc. because “locally” may mean 30 or more miles in any direction!

In fact, you may want to pack one “family” bag for this car and then a small bag for each family member — including one for the pet that always rides along!

Get Home Bags are pretty easy to assemble, don’t cost much, and they will make life a lot easier if you’re ever stuck in the car. Put Get Home Bags on your To-Do list for next weekend!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. I expect you’ve been thinking of yourself and your family as you read this. But if you are a business owner or manager, stop right now and consider — are your EMPLOYEES prepared with Get Home Bags? Chances are just as good that an emergency will happen during their workday as when they are at home.

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How would you rate your everyday survival habits?

It’s such fun to get caught up in whether your next knife should be full tang or folding, or maybe assisted folding. Whether you need a sleeping bag that has synthetic insulation or goose down. Whether to buy last year’s model hand-held radio (to save a lot) or splurge on the very latest version.

These are fun decisions and here at Emergency Plan Guide we engage with them just like you do.

But these decisions are one-time. What we want to talk about today are:

Simple survival habits as second nature.

As you know, we are part of a neighborhood emergency preparedness group. A lot of what we do is aimed at getting other neighbors to take even their FIRST step toward preparedness!

Actually, we work on at least a dozen survival habits, trying to turn them into second nature to improve the readiness and resilience of the whole community.

Below is a recent list of survival habits we’re trying to instill in everyone around us. As you look through the list, ask yourself.

• How well do you measure up?
• What steps would you add for your neighborhood group?
• How will you share the list with them?

20 Easy and Smart Automatic Survival Habits

1 – Heading to the grocery store? Buy just one or two extra cans of food for your emergency supplies. You don’t have to stockpile everything all at once!

2 – Adding to your emergency food supplies? Be sure to get things you like and eat regularly. That way, you can eat from the front of the shelf and replace at the back.

3 – Building a better emergency kit for your car? You may be able to get a used backpack or tote bag at Goodwill – cheap, serviceable, and unnoticeable.

4 – Keep your car half full of gas all the time. (I keep mine 3/4 full!) Nothing worse than being caught in a traffic jam, watching that gas gauge go down and down!

5 – Keep your car locked when it’s parked, even at home. An unlocked car is an invitation a passerby might not be able to resist.

6 – Whenever you go into a building – theater, store, school – get in the habit of noting the location of other exits. In an emergency you may want to avoid the way you came in. This survival habit may save your life in an active shooter situation.

7 – Update the emergency info on your refrigerator at least twice a year, when the time changes. Have there been changes in your medications? The phone numbers of your emergency contacts?

8 – Don’t have the Vial of Life info on your refrigerator? Here’s what we did with our group.

9 – Need help? Can’t call loudly enough to be heard outside your home? Consider adding a simple whistle to your key ring or someplace else where you can reach it in an emergency.

10 – Flying? Keep your shoes on for the first 3 minutes after take-off. That’s the most dangerous time, and if you have to evacuate you don’t want to do it bare-footed!

11 – Teach your grandchildren their first name and last name. Absolutely necessary if they get separated from their parents.

12 – When you’re planning for emergencies, start your planning with the most likely emergencies, not the most severe. For most people, the most likely emergency is a power outage. Not too hard to plan for! All you need right away is emergency lighting and a way to keep warm.

13 – Heat wave and no A/C? Don’t try to tough it out! Put up shades to block the sun coming in the windows. Take a cold bath. Drape yourself with wet washcloths and towels.

14 – Power out during cold weather? Pick a small room, hang or tape blankets over the windows and door, get into bed with blankets.

15 – Best emergency lighting? Inflatable solar lanterns and/or battery-powered lanterns. It should go without saying that you have a flashlight in every room, with extra batteries handy.

16 – After a couple of days of eating out of cans, you’ll really appreciate having condiments to spruce up the taste! When you are out, collect packets of BBQ sauce, honey, jelly, soy sauce, ketchup, syrup, etc. for your emergency food stash.

17 – Canned meat may not taste so good, but it will give you the same protein as fresh meat – and will last for years. Add canned chicken, tuna in oil, and spam to your supplies.

18 – Don’t forget to refresh your first aid kit. Throw out dried up bottles or anything that’s gotten wet. You may want to add liquid skin as a new way to treat scrapes and cuts.

19 – Be sure to store an old pair of shoes, comfortable for walking, in your car. Heels or flip-flops won’t work if you have to hike for help!

20 – If you haven’t done it yet, freeze some plastic containers filled with water. (Leave space at the top for the water to expand.) Use the containers to keep your freezer fully packed. Saves energy when you have electricity, provides emergency water when you don’t!

Do all these ideas sound familiar?

Have you taken any of these steps and/or practiced them more than once? Have they become automatic survival habits?

I hope the answer is yes!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. Here’s something that you may find it interesting in light of the things we’ve talked about lately.

It turns out that Amazon (where we are Associates) has a service called PRIME PANTRY where you can buy everyday first aid, household, cereals, packaged items, etc. – what they call “everyday essentials” – and have them delivered for free. You don’t have to buy huge quantities, either.

Click on the ad to find out more. This may be a convenient way for your group to stock up on some of the things you want for your survival kits.

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Are you ready for these unusual threats?

Before we get to our specialty first aid kit discussion, here are a couple of safety rules to live by:

Do not allow a large knife to fall handle first into the garbage disposal while the disposal is running.

What you will discover, if all the stars are aligned, is that that knife will fly out of the disposal and scythe its way through the kitchen, slicing anybody in its path.

In our case, the person in the way was Joe. Specifically, the back of his right hand. (Do not ask for more details.)

And here’s another rule based on personal experience plus a LinkedIn post I read earlier this week:

Assume that, as you set up for an important business presentation, the hinge of a piece of equipment will strike back, gouging a nice chunk out of a finger.

Not exactly everyday accidents, but not unheard of, either! Certainly, breaking the first rule, and then reading about the second rule, made us rethink our own first aid kits — and consider at least one specialty first aid kit as our next project.

Have you considered the state of your own first aid kits?

Where are they?

If you are at home when the wayward knife strikes, your first aid kit is probably in the bathroom. So before you head there to get it, you grab a clean dish towel or a handful of paper towels, and tell the injured person to “apply pressure” to keep more blood off the floor.

If you are in the conference room of a client when the equipment attacks, you may have NO first aid kit handy!

 You certainly don’t have a dish towel and probably don’t have paper towels, either!  (Maybe there will be some napkins over on the table with the coffee.) You grip your bleeding hand with the other hand, getting both of them covered with blood.

Now, if you’ve been through a CERT course, you may have a first aid kit in your car, which is about 2 blocks away in a parking structure. In this case, 2 blocks away is too far away!

How about adding a specialty first aid kit?

Since experts seem to agree that the kitchen and the bathroom are the two most dangerous rooms in the house, why not have kits in each room?

A kitchen kit

In the kitchen, cuts and burns are probably your most likely emergencies.  Your kitchen kit has to have the necessary to respond for all sizes of each.

In our case, a simple band aid wasn’t adequate for the cut on Joe’s hand. And the cut seemed too deep for that handy liquid skin.  We needed to stop the bleeding and close the cut. So, we used folded gauze and several strips of tape, cut to fit. (Which means we had to have scissors, too.)

So, our new kitchen kit will include all those, plus band aids and burn spray.

Traveling kit for business meetings

Our event planning list always has a tool box (for larger events) and a first aid kit. But that’s when we expected a team to be in action.

Now even our smaller meetings – at least, those with presentations! – will contain a specialty first aid kit for pinches, gouges and scrapes! It needs to be small enough to fit into a tote or briefcase.

I picture a ziploc bag with essentials: gauze, tape, band aids, antiseptic cream.  And from the LinkedIn post that I mentioned, this great idea: a RED washcloth to absorb and/or wipe up blood and make it less noticeable!

Your “master” first aid kit — that one in the bathroom — can have dozens of items, depending on your location, your skill level, etc. The list below has suggestions for one of the simpler specialty first aid kits described here.

What do you need for YOUR kits?

Of course, by now you may have thought of a specialty first aid kit that YOU need – like for the kids’ sporting events, or for the woodshop, etc. Each kit might need other items, but you can start with the list below, and have them assembled and IN PLACE with little delay. Click on the image to go to Amazon where you’ll find other styles and sizes.

1-A selection of band aids. These are fabric, which I think holds better than paper.

2-Liquid skin is great stuff. (Some people use crazy glue, but I prefer the “official” item!) Use when a bandaid will get in the way, get dirty, or can’t cover the scrape. This is a pack of two.

3-Gauze pads for cleaning, absorbing. They come in sterile and in non-sterile packs.

4--Antibacterial cream. You probably already have a tube or two of your favorite cream. This one is ours.

5-Spray for burns. Comes in a pressurized can, like this, or in a pump version. If you’re building a specialized first aid kit that will be traveling a lot, you might prefer the pump version.

6-First aid tape comes in different widths, made of different materials, can be self-adhesive, etc. This one is basic, breathable and works pretty well for any use.

7-You may already have scissors at home, too. For your traveling kit you’d want a small, slim pair like these.

I don’t always show prices, but in this case I was trying to show that with a relatively modest outlay you can have WHAT YOU NEED – in the kitchen and in your briefcase — to stop the bleeding, relieve pain, and take the first steps to get the situation back to normal.

If you already have a good supply of everything you need, just divide things up and you’ll be set! Otherwise, grab a couple of the missing items and complete each specialty first aid kit on your list. It will be worth it!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

Update from March 7. Following my own advice from last month, I went out last week and added a can of first aid disinfectant spray to my new kitchen first aid kit. I have already used it twice when I grabbed a hot pot handle with bare fingers. You can also get mini-sized sprayers, perfect for your purse or key ring. Click on one of these recommendations from Amazon and shop there to see what might fit your kitchen needs.

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(Part Three of a series aimed at neighborhood or workplace teams)

“OMG, I smell gas!”

In the first two segments of this special article we talked about where gas lines run, why they leak and how to recognize a leak. Now, let’s talk about what to do if you actually discover a gas line leak!

What to do depends in large part where you find the leak.

When you discover a gas line leak in the home

Don’t forget Rule #1. If you detect a STRONG smell of gas in your home, leave the house immediately. Do not do not switch on or switch off lights or appliances. Do not make a telephone call from within the house.  Do not start the car.  When you are at a safe distance, now call 911 and/or your utility to report the smell.    

What’s most likely, though, is that you will get a weak smell of gas. In that case, remain calm. Think.

You may be able to solve this problem yourself and safely.

Possibility #1. Pilot light

Nearly every home has a couple of pilot lights – usually in the gas furnace or water heater, gas stove or oven. The pilot light is really a “starter” flame. When you turn on the appliance, the pilot light ignites the gas coming out of the main burner.

In older appliances, the pilot light burns 24/7. In newer ones, it is turned on when needed by an electronic igniter. (You may hear a clicking sound as it activates.) Fortunately, when the pilot light goes out, it triggers an automatic shutoff valve to the gas supply. So you won’t usually smell a gas leak from this source.

However, in older systems, your pilot light could go out from something as simple as a draft or spill. If the system doesn’t have an automatic shut-off valve you would smell leaking gas.

In this case, you can attempt to relight the pilot light yourself by following instructions on the appliance. They are likely to be something like this:

1. Turn off the appliance and wait at least 5 minutes for any leaked gas to dissipate.
2. Be sure you know where the pilot flame is located. (It may not be near the on/off knob.)
3. Turn the knob from OFF to PILOT.
4. Hold down the reset button (could be the knob itself) and light the pilot light with a long match.
5. Keep holding the reset button until the flame is burning steadily, maybe a minute.
6. Turn the knob to ON.

If the light doesn’t stay lit, try again. If it still doesn’t work after a couple of tries, quit and call for professional help.

Tip: You can’t light an electronic pilot system using a match! If the electronic system isn’t working, be sure the appliance is turned off and call for professional help.

Action item: Check all your home appliances now, before there is any leak!  See where you have pilot lights.  Are they ever-burning or do they have electronic ignition?

OK, so much for pilot lights. You’ve checked, they are working, and you still smell gas.

Possibility #2.  Appliance connection

Most often, if it’s not the pilot light, when you discover a gas leak in your home it will be from an appliance with poorly designed, faulty or damaged connection.

• Sniff to see if you can detect where the rotten egg smell of leaking gas is coming from.
• Coat a questionable pipe or connection with soapy water. Bubbles will appear where the leak is located.
• Look at the color of the flame on the appliance. Is it blue (good) or orange (not so good, could suggest a leak)?
• Check the outside of the appliance for soot or scorch marks.
• Do you have excessive condensation on the inside of your windows?

In these cases, if you identify the culprit appliance, get assistance from a qualified expert – probably your gas company. You may be advised to shut off the gas to the appliance, or even to the whole house. In either case that expert will have to re-set the system once the leak is repaired.

Action item: Do any of your appliances have shut-off valves? Look for them when you’re looking for pilot lights. Usually the shut-off is a handle that turns 90 degrees.

When you discover a gas line leak in a larger pipe or larger system

If you discover a gas leak in a larger pipeline or facility, move to a safe distance and notify your gas system operator or property owner and/or 911. (Review signs of a major pipeline leak in Part 2 of this series.)

Do not attempt to find the exact location of the leak, to shut off the pipeline or to fight any gas main fire. Dealing with a large pipeline leak is the business of professionals.

However, in a BIG disaster . . .

You may be called upon to shut down an entire system to protect against fire or the spread of fire.

The more you know about where gas lines run and the shut-offs on those lines, the more options you will have.

1-Building or home shut-off. In an emergency, shutting off the gas to the building likely means shutting it off at the meter. To do this, you’ll need to know where the meter is. You will also need a wrench and an understanding of the ON vs. the OFF position of the valve. Here’s a sample of what a typical home shut-off valve looks like. The shut-off consists of a rectangular piece sticking out of a round valve.

And here’s an illustration showing the ON (open) and OFF (closed) positions of the valve.

You can turn a shut-off valve using a regular crescent wrench. Or you can use a non-rusting tool specially designed for the purpose, like the one shown on the ground in the photo or the one below. (Click the image or the link to go to Amazon, where you can buy this tool — less than $15. As always, full disclosure: We are Amazon Associates and may get a commission.)  In either case, you must store the tool near the valve. And you may need to stand on the wrench to get the valve to turn!

SurvivalKitsOnline 515100 On-Duty Emergency Gas and Water Shutoff 4-in-1 Tool for Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Fires, Floods, Disasters and Emergencies

Action item: Find your home and building shut-offs and place a wrench at each location. Figure out a way to attach the wrench nearby to keep it from disappearing.  Suggestion: Consider a bulk purchase of shut-off wrenches for members of your neighborhood group. It’s an easy and valuable way to recognize their volunteer efforts. And it means they will be better prepared to help neighbors in an emergency.

2-Automatic valves. Some valves, such as seismic gas shut-off valves, operate automatically. They aren’t required, and many professionals don’t trust them – but you may have them on your system. Action item: Find out if any automatic valves are installed on gas lines leading to your home or in your place of work.

3-Gas main. When it comes to shutting off gas at a larger line, the shut-off may be a larger version of the wrench turn off, or it may operate with a large wheel and gear. It may be locked. Often, these valves are painted red. Action item for your group: locate the pipes and the shut-offs leading to your building or community. Larger line shut-offs may be marked with a sign like the yellow one at the start of this article. Or they may not be marked!

What procedures are in place for shutting off the gas?

As we have emphasized, shutting off the gas is a major event to be taken only with due deliberation. It will require professional assistance to get the gas turned back on again. It may take days for all gas service to be restored.

You or your group may have to make decisions about shutting off the gas. In our case, members of our community actually took official training in how to shut off the main valve. All residents have been shown how to shut off the gas to their own homes.

Questions you need to have answers to BEFORE something happens

• Who is authorized to shut off the gas?
• Which valves are they authorized to shut off?
• What training and tools do these authorized people need? Do they have what they need?
• How likely is it that authorized and trained people will be on hand in an emergency, when immediate action may be required?

With this info, you will be far more prepared in case of an emergency.

Getting even more answers

Over the years we have found that “the authorities” are loathe to share gas line information. However, as we have built up our own skills and knowledge, we have better luck at getting more. Above all, we have a better understanding of just what our role should/could be in an emergency.

One of our most effective guest speakers was a representative from the Fire Department who talked about the various gas lines in our neighborhood. (We have the usual mains and feeder lines PLUS a high-octane aviation fuel line running beside our community.) Action item: Get a speaker on natural gas safety from your own fire department or local utility. Prepare some questions in advance and send them to the speaker.

Your invitation will cause that fire official to update his or her knowledge about your neighborhood or building, as well as remind your neighbors and/or co-workers to be more alert. (In our case, the fire department speaker was NOT up to speed on gas mains that had recently been installed near us as part of a construction project!)

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We started this 3-part series with the question, “Are you sitting on a gas leak right now?” The question still is pertinent. We hope that by now you have a better idea of how to respond!

And one last disclaimer. We are not professionally trained experts on gas main construction, maintenance or procedures. We offer this special series for informational purposes only. Any time you consider messing with your gas supply or gas lines, we recommend that you do it with the assistance or under the supervision of professionals. Gas is inherently dangerous so treat it with all due caution.

But as emergency responders, you can’t ignore it!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

Here are the three parts of this special series. Please read all three parts.

Part One: Are you sitting on top of a leaking gas line?

Part Two: Detecting a gas line leak

Part Three: What to do when you discover a gas line leak

 

(Part Two of a series aimed at neighborhood or workplace teams)

“Do you smell gas?”

If you are concerned about the potential for a gas line leak, you probably want to start by finding the location of gas lines in your neighborhood. You will discover that this takes some time and effort!

Still, using the online resources and your local utility, as described in Part One of this series, you can usually get a good start.

You will note that there are three main types of gas lines:

1. Transmission lines — Long-distance lines, typically more than 10” in diameter (can be as big as 42”), move large amounts of gas under high pressure (200 – 1,200 psi).
2. Distribution or main lines –- These lines operate at intermediate pressure (up to 200 psi) and are 2″ to 24″ in diameter.
3. Feeder or service lines – These are the lines that actually connect to your home. They are not so easy to track once they disappear underground. Typically they are less than 2” in diameter, and they carry odorized gas at low pressures, below 6 psi.

For a local emergency response group, your feeder or service lines are probably what you’ll be looking for. But we have to repeat, utility companies are concerned about vandalism and sabotage or even terrorism, so they don’t publicize the location of these lines. Think persistence and relationships!  We were actually able to get the construction drawings showing location and sizes of the gas lines for our community.

Action item: create a map of your neighborhood, showing the different gas lines as you identify them. If possible, note the location of shut-off valves.

Should we assume we’ll experience a local gas line leak?

Yes!

The gas distribution system is made up of thousands of miles of pipelines, and they operate safely most of the time. Still, all of the time, the system is under one or another source of stress.

Stresses include:

• Built-in weaknesses from poor connections, bad welds or incorrectly installed equipment
• Corrosion or wear from aging
• Weather-related shifts (winter freeze-thaw cycles) Think of the extreme weather events we’ve experienced in the past couple of years!
• Seismic shifts or earthquakes

And, of course, there are construction accidents where a hand shovel or large piece of equipment punctures a line.

Just to give you an idea, I cut this out of the news yesterday.  There are notices like this every day!

It is the responsibility of the system operators to monitor and maintain the pipelines under their jurisdiction.

In some states legislation has been introduced to require the utilities and/or operators to report on leaks and on their progress in fixing them. As you can expect, the utilities oppose this legislation, saying that the number of leaks is exaggerated and that fixing more leaks faster would be too expensive. Find out about legislation in your own state!

Can we prevent a gas line leak in any of these pipelines?

No.

But you can do your community a service by finding out what sort of gas line maintenance takes place.

And, you may be able to prevent a disaster by detecting and reporting a leak!

How can we tell if there’s a leak?

1-Use your nose in and around the house!

The most common indication of a leak is SMELL. An odorizer called Mercaptan is added to feeder lines for the very purpose of making a leak noticeable.

What does Mercaptan smell like? Most people compare it to “rotten eggs.” In any case, it is distinctive and obvious.

If you just aren’t sure what natural gas smells like, spend a few dollars for some “scratch n’ sniff” samples! Makes a great addition to a meeting about gas leaks! Here’s a link to Amazon – 30 stickers like the one shown as the left, only $3.00 when I checked today!

Natural Gas Mercaptan Stickers

2- A gas sniffer will help pinpoint the leak.

If your environment may have more than one suspicious smell, or if you sense you might easily get used to a smell and stop noticing it, consider investing in a gas sniffer. This is a simple hand-held gadget that can identify a leak for sure. Some sniffers tell you what gas is leaking. They use a meter and/or an audio sound (“tic, tic”). As always, the more you pay for equipment, the more functions you get.

Our local emergency response groups own a couple of different ones. The “pen” model (less than $40) is used by one group to check around their emergency gas generator when they start it up.

The “tube” model (around $150) adjusts from broad to fine sensitivity in order to pinpoint the precise location and type of gas that is leaking. We have used this model with startling success, using it to identify a propane leak from a gas BBQ, among other leaks. (We also have a neighbor who insisted she smelled leaking gas. It turns out it was smoke from marijuana coming from a nearby shed. We didn’t pursue to see if its use was legal or illegal!)

 

Pen style

General Tools PNG2000A Natural Gas Detector Pen

 

Tube model

UEi Test Instruments CD100A Combustible Gas Leak Detector

Action item: If you suspect or are plagued with frequent leaks, you may want to add a gas sniffer or two to your collection of safety equipment. They are easy to operate and can add a degree of confidence to your suspicions. In a big emergency, a gas sniffer might make it easier to decide to shut off the gas entirely.

Be on the lookout for signs of leaks from larger pipelines.

You’re not likely to find yourself walking along the route of a larger underground pipeline, but a leak can show up anywhere. (We experienced a gas-line break right in front of our community. A back-hoe hit a line that according to the construction crew “wasn’t on the map.” )

Here are some ground-level signs you might notice:

• An unexpected hissing, roaring sound
• Dirt or dust blowing up from the ground
• Water bubbling or spraying
• A spot of dead or brown vegetation when it’s green everywhere else
• Flames coming from the ground

As a reminder, the gas in these larger pipes may have no odorants added.

What should we do when we discover a leak?

When you do identify a leak, you need to act quickly and decisively. Your goal is to avoid a build-up of gas around a leak or a build-up from gas “migrating” to a nearby area (such as a basement) – creating conditions for an explosion.

Your first response should be to get safely away from the area (hundreds of feet away!) and then CALL 911 or the gas line operator to GET THE GAS SHUT OFF.

As you move away, warn other people about the danger, too, and encourage them to move to safety.

Above all, DO NOT CREATE A SPARK by flipping a light switch, lighting a cigarette, starting an engine, turning on a battery-operated light, etc.

Action item: Discuss with your group where a break might logically occur in your neighborhood. Identify some ordinary actions that someone might take that could start a gas fire. In our community, starting up the car to “get away from the danger” is likely to be the most dangerous action possible. The catalytic converters of cars in a traffic jam can reach 1,600 degrees – plenty hot enough to start a fire if there is the right mixture of gas!

Is that all we can do? Shouldn’t we turn off the gas?

Calling 911 from a safe distance is the first and most important step. Not creating a spark is the second.

Every member of your family and of your workforce should know and be able to follow this rule.

However, as an emergency response group, there is more you should know and consider when it comes to getting the gas shut off.

We will address some of these options in Part Three of this series.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

Got any stories about gas line leaks or explosions? Feel free to share . . .! And don’t miss the first article in this series.