Author: Volunteer

Today is September 1. Today, in Japan, hundreds of thousands of people are taking place in a disaster drill on the anniversary of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. And this year, they are being encouraged to stockpile toilet paper.

Japan’s disaster planning may have started in earnest in 1923, when 140,000 people were killed in Tokyo alone. And planning has intensified as a result of the 2011 Fukushima tsunami and resulting atomic power plant catastrophe.

But why a campaign to . . .

Stockpile toilet paper?

It turns out that some 40% of all toilet paper in Japan comes from one region – a region that is earthquake prone. According to government reports, within a month after the 2011 earthquake, toilet paper shortages began.

“Along with food and water, toilet paper was among the first items to disappear from store shelves,” said Toshiyuki Hashimoto, an industry ministry official in charge of paper products.

As part of this year’s campaign, paper manufacturers have come up with a special, 500 ft. roll of tightly compacted toilet paper. Price? Around $5 for a six-pack, that should last a family of four for a month.

No toilet paper in your house?

And in the U.S.? What do you do when you run out of toilet paper?

Most people reach for a tissue.

The problem? Kleenex, or tissue paper, is designed to hold together when wet – so it can block your toilet (if you are lucky enough in an emergency to have workable plumbing).

What about baby-wipes?

These are great for your baby, and for your emergency kit – soft, strong. But again, unless they are specifically labeled as “flushable,” they too will clog the system . . . and really mess up a septic tank.

And even the flushable variety is creating problems in many systems, because they take too long to disintegrate.

Anything else at hand?

We’ve heard of people using other items as toilet paper in an emergency: paper towels, newspaper, the Yellow Pages (Who has a phone directory anymore?), Sears and Roebuck catalog (stopped being published in 1993) and even corn husks.  (Corn husks?)

The point is, consider how much toilet paper (or wipes) your family would need in an emergency. Flatten rolls so they will take up less room. This is something you really don’t want to run out of.

If you’re interested in buying something specifically for your emergency supplies, try Amazon for “compact” toilet paper.

Oh, and to get back to the . . .

Three P’s of what to flush?

Whether it’s every day, or in an emergency, the answer is the same: pee, poop and (toilet) paper.  Period.

Your Emergency Plan Guide Team — Virginia Nicols

Dear Parent,

Welcome to another exciting school year. Before we allow your child to come to school, we need to know that s/he knows what to do in an emergency.

We don’t have time to fit this information into the regular school curriculum. So if your child is to have a good chance of survival, it’s up to you.

Please sign and return this note so we know your child is properly prepared.

Sincerely,  Your School Administrator

Wow! What if you got this letter from YOUR child’s school? How would you react?

I bet you’d have . . .

Questions for that “School Administrator!”

Here are a few of them:

1. What should my child know about responding to an emergency at school?

2. What emergencies are we talking about?

3. What plans does the school have for protecting my child?

4. Has my child’s teacher received disaster training?

5. What do you expect of me if an emergency happens during the school day?

The sad truth is, many parents do NOT know the answers to these questions. And I wonder, how many school administrators could answer for their school and their teachers?! it’s worth some effort to find out more.

I was inspired to write this post by three things.

• My friend Russell sent me a copy of a booklet passed out at his kids’ school. You’ll see it in the picture. It is packed with valuable information, pulled from a variety of sources. Because it IS so packed, though, no child would ever start reading it. Even a parent would be hard pressed to get through it. The booklet could answer questions 1 and 2 above.

• For the past six weeks, the LinkedIn Group that I participate in has been discussing disaster preparedness in the schools. These are professional trainers and consultants. Their reluctant conclusion? With rare exceptions, schools ignore basic survival skills for students. Some schools would be able to answer questions 3 & 4 above.

• Are schools required to be able to answer our questions? In June 2013 the White House released a guide  for developing emergency operations plans for elementary schools. The guide “incorporates lessons learned from recent incidents, and responds to the needs and concerns voiced by stakeholders following the recent shootings in Newtown and Oak Creek and the recent tornadoes in Oklahoma.”

Here in California, other resources are available through the State Department of Education. As far as requirements, all I could find is that regular fire and earthquake drills are mandatory. Still, a school that takes advantage of the guides and resources mentioned would, in fact, be able to answer all the questions above.

So where does YOUR kid’s school fit? Which of the questions can your school answer? Which CAN’T it answer?

It’s September. Back to School Month PLUS National Preparedness Month. Could there be any better time to find out more?

Virginia Nicols
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

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Remember 1982? E.T. had a problem! He’d been accidentally left behind by his family of extra-terrestrials. In the film, he built a communicator that magically reached them through space, and he was able to “go home.”

Today, you won’t have to invent a new device on the spot if communications go down at your business.

VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) has some magical features you may be able to plug into immediately.

Imagine this scenario.

Your business is located in the center of an area where a severe storm has crippled communications. Phone lines are down, cell towers are down, electricity is out.

Your business is “dead in the water!” How long can it survive if customers, suppliers or the bank can’t get through?

VOIP may mean they WILL get through!

Because it is based on the cloud, if you or one of your employees can access the internet from anywhere, you can still conduct business. With VOIP, all you have to do is get online to your account and reprogram your service to allow employees to work from home or from any remote location. For example, with VOIP you can:

• If possible, physically take your phones with you when you evacuate the office and plug them in at a new location.
• Forward the office main line to ring to your personal home or mobile phone.
• Forward lines to home computers to handle voicemail and for softphone (internet) calls.
• Add temporary extra lines to handle a higher volume of emergency calls.
• Add new greetings to let callers know office hours have changed.
• Set up conference or teleconference calls.

Get set up before the emergency.

Naturally, you need to have your plan in advance for re-programming the system in an emergency. And everyone needs to know how to use all the features of the system.

(Consider having everyone work from home from time to time – maybe just a half-day? – to practice.)

There are a number of VOIP services; prices start at 10/mo.; most are around $25/mo. and depend on features, number of lines, number of minutes you need, whether you call internationally, etc. You can check some of them out here: http://voip-service-review.toptenreviews.com/

VOIP has become an important option to consider for business communications and continuity. Check it out for YOUR business.

Virginia Nicols
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

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At about 4:30 p.m. last Saturday, with temperatures hovering around 92 degrees, I was working at my desk when WHAM!, the power went off.

Before I could even get up from the chair a few things happened:

• My computer battery back-up started beeping.
• Our home alarm system started beeping.
• All our emergency wall lights went on.  (See the photo!)

I went into Emergency Response mode.

Step One: Size up the situation

1. My home assessment: nothing damaged, no danger.
2. I checked on the neighborhood: outage in all directions for several blocks; community gates automatically locked in open position; some traffic lights blinking red, others out altogether. Sounds of sirens in the distance.
3. I tested: cell phones were working, but not all home phones. (If people answered the phone, we could talk, but if there was no answer I was unable to leave a message.)

Step Two: Shift to full Community Emergency Response Team mode

1. As Division Leader I got on the radio and maintained walkie-talkie contact with our other local CERT divisions, shifting to Central Command frequency to make reports.
2. I reported the outage to the power company on their automated phone system; later, we got an automated report on that same number.
3. Joe monitored official city emergency response on his HAM radio. (Four of us have HAM radio licenses and radios.)
4. We kept neighborhood CERT members up-dated.
5. We contacted neighbors with news and recommendations, by phone and by face-to-face visit.

As it turned out, a fire in an electrical substation took out power for some 27,000 residents. (The fire engines we heard were responding to the fire itself.) Power was restored in phases; we got ours back about 7:30 p.m., others got theirs as late as midnight.

So here’s what we learned from the outage.

Something as simple as a power outage creates excitement.

At first, people were annoyed because they missed their air conditioning.

Then, they realized that they shouldn’t be opening their refrigerator if power was going to be off for several hours.

Then, some figured the thing to do was to go out for dinner – not realizing that traffic was jammed in nearly every direction.

Finally, as evening fell, people realized they had better come up with a flashlight or lantern because after dark they’d have no way to get around! Some of these people then decided to get into the car and drive somewhere to find batteries . . .

So once again, an “incident” serves as a reminder that emergencies WILL happen. This one didn’t develop into any kind of a disaster, but. . .

If it had continued for 24 hours

. . . imagine what would have taken place!

• People would have spent a night in the dark.
• Food in refrigerators would have started to spoil; after 24 hours some food would have spoiled completely.
• Frozen food would likely have thawed and had to be thrown out.
• Most cell phones would have run out of battery.
• Most computers would have run out of battery. Internet would have been unavailable anyway, since home networks were all down.
• Motorized wheelchairs might have run out of battery power.
• Back-up plans would have to be implemented for people using breathing apparatus, sleeping machines or dialysis equipment.
• The water supply may have become compromised. (See last week’s blog post on Boil Water Alert.)

Our U.S. grid is aging (like everything else) and while attempts go on to get the right balance between public and private ownership, the grid is increasingly outdated and increasingly vulnerable. Ever-growing demand and climate change add even more stress to the system.

So power outages are not rare, and their frequency is growing. They can last for a few minutes or for days, depending on the cause. A serious solar flare episode could cause whole sections of the grid to fail and be down for 60 to 90 days!

Quick poll:

1. Have YOU experienced a power outage in the past 12 months?
2. How long did it last?
3. What was the cause?
4. What did you take away from the experience?

Let us know. We’re all in this together, so the more we know, the better off we’ll all be!

Virginia Nicols
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

Boil water alert! 

The minute water mains break anywhere, the water coming into your home stands the chance of being contaminated.  And mains break regularly. I did a quick search online and found multiple Boil Water Alerts listed over just a short two-week period – in locales as different as Portland (OR), New Brunswick (NJ) and Tampa (FL).

What are your sources of water in an emergency?

If you heard a Boil Water Alert, what sources of clean water would you turn to?

It goes without saying that water in bottles or properly-treated water from barrels would be your first choice. You wouldn’t even have to boil that water.

Rain water could also be a source if you could capture it directly from the sky.

But I’ve been asked . . .

What about using water from a swimming pool?

I’m not a chemist or a health worker, so I recommend you do your own research on this topic.  But this is what I have found out that seems to make sense.

Do not plan to use swimming pool water to drink or cook unless you are able to treat it.

In a long-term water outage, here are some guidelines:

1. Pool water could be used as is to wash feet and body; murky is better than nothing!
2. Do you have sunshine? Letting pool water sit in sunlight for a full day will cause chlorine to dissipate and the sun’s UV rays will kill organisms. At the end of its sunshine treatment that water will be cleaner than when you started.
3. Filter water (through layers of clean cloth) then boil it (one full minute after it reaches a rolling boil) for drinking and cooking.  (Boiling will kill bacteria and viruses. Chemicals and metals would not be removed.)

Only a commercial filter will remove all contaminants.

I asked the LifeStraw people specifically about swimming pool water, and they said that LifeStraw was NOT meant to handle pool water.

Then I went further, seeking out an expert in one of my LinkedIn groups.  Here’s info I got from Bob Hess of Tealbrook Supplies. The Outback portable filter is typically used in regions where there is no piped water supply. You pour water into the top bucket, it goes through four different filters, producing 100 gallons of pure water a day. This model costs less than $200. You can see more at www.tealbrook.com.

So in conclusion — yes, pool water may be useful for SOME things, but converting it to safe, pure water will take effort.

All this reinforces ongoing Emergency Plan Guide message – the most important item you can store for emergencies is water. The recommended amount: 1 gallon per person per day (plus more for pets) for at least 10 days!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. Do you have more information about the topic of using pool water in an emergency? Please share it by leaving a comment below!

Macaroni and Cheese, American favorite

Following our own advice . . .

We recommend, “For emergencies, store food you normally eat, and rotate your supplies.” But some people ask me about buying “official commercially-prepared emergency food” from the various vendors, so I finally broke down and bought a couple of sample items to test.

Here’s my first taste test – between EasyMac (which I am sure most of you are familiar with, even if you don’t eat it regularly), and a package of Macaroni and Cheese from MyFoodStorage, located in Riverton, Utah.

Let me be clear. This was a TASTE test, and not an official comparison of preservatives, genetically modified ingredients, price per calorie, or recommended shelf life. Once you make a decision to purchase emergency food supplies, you can find detailed analyses of all these online.

Again, I was following my own advice, trying to find something I knew I would want to eat in an emergency, particularly for that key 10-day period after the disaster when life will be topsy-turvy and store shelves will be empty.

Here’s the taste test, step by step.

1. Follow directions. I made each bowl of macaroni following the instructions. EasyMac required the microwave. MyFoodStorage required (a lot of) boiling water. OK, I have to assume that the power will be off after the earthquake, but I DO have my camp stove, so boiling water is possible.

2. Time to cook. The EasyMac was done in four minutes. It took more like 15 minutes to make the MyFoodStorage macaroni. First I was worried that the clumps of flavoring wouldn’t break up, but by the end of the time, with constant stirring, they did.

Midway in the cooking process

3. End result. EasyMac was pale yellow, sticky and a little chewy — just how I like it. MyFoodStorage macaroni was orange and creamy.

4. Taste. EasyMac was what you expect: powdered cheese and macaroni. MyFoodStorage mac was – wow, flavorful! I checked – it has powdered carrots and tomatoes in there, and their flavor (and color) came through.

5. Nutritional values. Now, being a normal consumer, I DO compare labels on a basic level. So, per the labels, one serving has the following:

EasyMac

• Calories – 230
• Fat – 4 grams
• Sodium – 540 mg.
• Carbohydrate – 42 g.
• Protein – 7 grams

MyFoodStorage

• Calories — 320
• Fat – 5 grams
• Sodium – 580 mg
• .Carbohydrate – 51 g.
• Protein – 8 grams

They look pretty similar to me.

Was there a winner? Well, it all depends.

If I had a crowd to feed, individual servings of EasyMac would be a real nuisance to have to cook. Cooking ANY individual servings would be a nuisance.

The big package of MyFoodStorage macaroni says it would feed 5 people. In my estimation it would feed even more than that. (I have leftovers in the fridge right now, enough for at least two more meals. I don’t think we’ll be able to use it all.)

If the test was on taste alone, MyFoodStorage was tastier. But would your kids eat it?

As for cost, it’s difficult to compare. I got the MyFoodStorage bucket (with six different meals) on a special trial offer online (just under $40).  I bought my EasyMac at discount superstore Costco. So you’d have to do your own shopping and cost comparisons.

What’s your take?

Ready to eat!

Here are some of my “conclusions.”  Do they make sense?

Remember, no microwave. So, my stores of popcorn, instant rice, etc. will be useless. I need to be sure I have plenty of food that doesn’t need to be cooked at all. Stove, pot, lid, potholder, water, dish soap, etc. — way too much trouble in a disaster setting!   It will be a heck of a lot easier to open a can and eat directly out of it!

This means, of course, that my canned food supplies must be tasty and sufficiently nutritious. Right now, for example, the bottom shelf of my pantry looks full thanks to a case of canned corn. I love corn, but it’s not going to be enough to carry me for 10-14 days. (I have other stuff too.)

Since I will be using my camp stove to do any heating of water or other cooking, I need to double check that I have fuel and a starter for my camping stove, plus appropriate pots and pans. My regular kitchen ware is way too heavy for the camping stove burners.

Finally, we get back to the most important item of all: water. Gotta have water for drinking, for cooking, and, in the case of dried emergency food, for washing up.

OK, that’s it for today. Rest assured, this isn’t the last you’ll hear about food supplies, because I have another sample to test (potato soup) plus I really want to try some freeze dried food.

Let’s hear from you! Do you have emergency food supplies? “Official” or regular menu items? Have you tested any emergency food products? With what results?

Let’s hear your story!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

Real life emergency stories, from real people.

Setting: In the rental office, talking to the woman behind the desk.

“Do you have some food for if you were trapped here in the office in an emergency?”
“Well, no. I thought that was the job of the Red Cross.”

Setting: Talking to a featured speaker at my recent Las Vegas conference.

“You’re living on the beach in North Carolina, right? Do you have emergency food set aside for when the next hurricane hits?”
“Well, not exactly. But I did unplug the freezer so I don’t have to throw all the spoiled food out, like I did last time. That cost me $300!”
“But what about food supplies for after the storm?”
“We eat only healthy, fresh food, so there’s no way I can store anything . . .”

Setting: Video snippet from a recent training held here in our neighborhood. The TV camera is trained on a hysterical woman in New Jersey, after Sandy:

“Where’s the government!? We’ve been waiting three whole days . . .!”

What’s your survival kit story?

If you and I were to meet on the street, and I posed these questions to you, how would you respond?

• How many 3-day survival kits do you need for your family?
• Where does each kit need to be? At your home, in the car, at the office?
• How many kits have you actually put together?

As I’ve mentioned before, our local fire department has told us flat out:
“When the big one hits, you’re going to be way down on our list.”

All this points to our having to manage by ourselves for the first 72 hours.

You know that we have done a lot of research on pre-made kits, and generally find them lacking when it comes to quality and quantity.

Worse, having a pre-made kit may give you a false sense of security.

So our recommendation has been, and remains:

Build your own customized 3-day survival kit.

Here’s a link to an updated list of our favorite starter items : Top 10 Survival Kit Items

It may take you a few days to a week to assemble all the items for your kits. Turn kit-making into a family “pick and pack” activity!

Three days.

Easy enough to get through when you’ve got the basics: food, water, light, communications.

Really tough when you have nothing . . .

Virginia Nicols
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

Sometime you just gotta shake your head in disbelief.

After all the years of educating . . .

I attended a great conference this weekend. It was held in Las Vegas. Temperatures outside were about 105 degrees while inside the AC was set to 68 degrees. Impossible to be comfortable anywhere.

After years of trying to educate folks on the value of energy efficiency, all I can say is, this just seems stupid.

Allow me to continue with that theme in the world of emergency preparedness,with some examples of

Disaster Warnings

What does this mean to you?

Hurricane season started this week.

I have never experienced one here in Southern California, but certainly we’ve all seen plenty of hurricanes on the news.

And have you also noticed the number of TV newscasters who seem to feel the need to STAND RIGHT OUT IN THE WIND AND WATER, threatened every moment by debris, while telling viewers to take shelter?

Tornados – some 339 of them already in 2014!

How about the local citizen/amateur filmmaker, “getting great footage” of the approaching funnel cloud, who is dragged down into the shelter at the last possible minute by his screaming children?

California wildfires pushed westward by “Santa Ana” winds.

Newscaster: “Why didn’t you follow the evacuation order from the Fire Department?”
Homeowner: “I can’t pack up all my pets, so I guess I’ll just have to die with them. . .”

(This is a true quote.)

High surf advisory issued through Wednesday.

Oh, goodie. Let’s grab the children and head down to the beach and stand on the rocks and watch the giant waves come in. Even better, let’s get out there on our surfboards . . .

Is my cynicism showing?!

Thank goodness for this blog. It gives me the chance to unload my frustrations on you, my loyal reader. The next post will be more uplifting, I promise!

In the meanwhile, if you see something as ahem, “unwise” as any of the above, please point it out the the people and particularly to the newscasters who model or perpetuate such behavior. What are they thinking?!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

Please pass this along to friends, and urge them to subscribe to all our Advisories.  Most of ’em are pretty positive!

My daughter’s long commute by car.

One of my daughters is an executive and works in Beverly Hills, California. With no real public transit available she is forced to drive over 100 miles to and from work, spending a total of almost four hours on the road every day. Every morning she sets out in her executive clothing and footwear and with a list of business phone calls to make along the way.

With two children in separate schools and on different schedules, her chances of a speedy reunion with family following a major earthquake are slim. Roads and freeways could be restricted for use by emergency vehicles responding to calls . . . or even possibly blocked by collapsed bridges and overpasses. At the very least, if the earthquake happens during the workday, roads will be massively congested with people trying to reach home.

If she had to walk to get home . . .

. . . she could. But 50 miles could conceivably take days.

Fortunately, she is conscientious and, of course, has me to help keep her on track!

What’s in her personal Commuter’s Go Bag?

In the trunk of her car she carries a Commuter’s Go Bag that we put together just for her. It has the usual Survival Kit items that you’d expect: walking clothes including comfortable shoes, a jacket, some energy bars and water, a portable radio, and a flashlight with extra batteries. There’s a notebook and pen. And because this is California, she has a space blanket AND an extra pair of sunglasses.

In addition, she carries extra prescriptions for a medical condition, and some cash (coins and small bills).

And because she is competent to deal with it, she has pepper spray.

Perhaps most important, she has paperwork: a list of contact numbers including some for family out of state, and maps that show her route and alternate ways to get home. (GPS may well be out.) She has teamed up with other employees who live in the same general area so they could travel in groups, and they have made note of “safe house” locations along the way where she — and any companions – can stop and rest.

She is good about keeping her car’s gas tank at least ¾ full at all times. If there is a general power outage that could last for days, neither ATMS, Credit Card Processors nor gas station pumps are likely to be operating, of course. I have suggested to her that a small, plastic, fuel canister and siphon hose that could siphon gas out of other stranded commuters’ cars may come in handy along the way! (She gets the concept, but hasn’t been ready to practice siphoning yet . . .!)

Finally, my grandchildren also have emergency supplies at home and know where to go and whom to call following a major emergency because neither mother nor dad is likely to get home any time soon.

Doesn’t it make sense for the commuters you know to have such a kit?

Putting together all the items mentioned above would cost about the same as a tank of gas. Naturally, you’ll have to complete your kit with more personal stuff.

Let us know how it goes!

Joe Krueger
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

P.S. We added an emergency kit to our granddaughter’s car too. Here’s the story!

I don’t have an answer yet.

But when you hear new zoning or new flood insurance requirements being debated, stop and find out what’s going on. Because YOU are likely paying the bill for repetitive disasters now, and you will be paying the bill when disaster strikes again!

Rebuilding in disaster-prone areas is a big issue.

Rick Moran, in American Thinker, said it well.

“Across the nation, tens of billions of tax dollars have been spent on subsidizing coastal reconstruction in the aftermath of storms, usually with little consideration of whether it actually makes sense to keep rebuilding in disaster-prone areas. If history is any guide, a large fraction of the federal money allotted to New York, New Jersey and other states recovering from Hurricane Sandy – an amount that could exceed $30 billion – will be used the same way.

Tax money will go toward putting things back as they were, essentially duplicating the vulnerability that existed before the hurricane.”

(To see the full article, click here.)

The problem is compounded by the current role of the Federal Government.

Many citizens want to, and do, look to government when disasters overcome a community. Even conservatives who fight for less government seem to support government aid when their communities are affected. But by helping local communities rebuild, federal programs have often created targets for the next natural disaster.

There are some efforts underway to break the build-devastate-rebuild cycle.

Some isolated and admittedly random examples from around the world:

• Alberta, Canada, is considering a plan to not cover damage costs in extreme floodways in future if people choose to rebuild there.

• In Nigeria, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has advised state governments to relocate citizens living in flood-prone areas.

• King County, Washington has bought a mobile home park that lies close to a flood-prone portion of the Cedar River and is planning to relocate current residents.

And as a follow up to Mr. Moran’s comments above, I read that:

• In New Jersey, $300 million in federal aid has been set aside for the Blue Acres program, which allows the state to buy up homes in repetitive flood-prone areas and convert the area to open space.

As far as I can tell, these examples of prevention are few and far between.

The American Citizen article has a quote from Robert S. Young, a North Carolina geologist, that seems to sum it up:

“We’re Americans, damn it.  Retreat is a dirty word.”

What are your thoughts about supporting rebuilding in disaster-prone areas using your tax dollars?