Category: CERT

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!

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.

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

Where and how?

“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!)

_______

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 One of a series aimed at neighborhood or workplace teams)

An often-overlooked threat

Read before you toss as junk mail!

The word “disaster” usually makes people think about natural disasters like tornado, flood, or earthquake.  You’ve probably already talked in your group about how to prepare for these threats.

But unless we’re reminded by notices from our local utility we may never even think about the gas lines that run under or near our homes or places of business.

And if we take the time to learn even more, we will discover that any gas line could be a leaking gas line! Moreover, a big enough gas leak can be deadly.

Time for your group to be asking: Where are the gas lines around us?

Finding out where the gas lines run in your neighborhood will take some effort.

In the years that we’ve been studying our own community we have run up against resistance from a number of sources. As can be expected, cities and gas line operators are concerned about sabotage and/or terrorist activities. They protect the details of their systems from everyone, including residents.

Moreover, a leaking gas line may or may not be repaired even though it has been noted. As you can imagine,  a utility company really doesn’t want you looking over their shoulder when it comes to their maintenance policies!

Still, a good emergency response group wants to understand its community’s risks, and so the group perseveres . . .!

Three places to start your research.

1-The National Pipeline Mapping System (NPMS) is an online map provided by the Department of Transportation. As a member of the public you can search by your State and COUNTY to get an idea of where gas transmission and hazardous gas pipelines are located.

I say “get an idea” because the public viewer is good only to +/- 500 ft.  (If you are actually going to dig, then you need to contact your local pipeline operator – or call 811 – to find out exactly where the pipes are.)

Here’s the link to the map (“Public Map Viewer”):  https://www.npms.phmsa.dot.gov/Default.aspx

2-Your local gas company

Here in California we have two of the largest public utilities in the country, and our local utility provides a map showing transmission and distribution lines. Once again, the authors of the map stress that the maps are accurate only to +/- 500 ft. Still, we can easily identify the “hazardous liquid” line running along the railroad tracks very near our home.

My research on other utility companies shows that there is no consistency. Many of the utility company websites simply refer readers to the National Pipeline Mapping System.

3-Your local pipeline operator

The pipeline operator is not necessarily the same as the utility.

Keep your eye open for pipeline signs. They are not required, nor are they necessarily placed in the same way every time. What they seem to have in common is the gold color.

The round warning sign will tell you who the pipeline operator is. (You’ll see a round sign on the brochure in the image above, too.) Write down the name and emergency phone number. You may be able to get further information about that particular pipeline and what it carries from the operator.

Kinder Morgan is the largest pipeline operator in the country. Its website says it transports nearly 40% of all piped natural gas, refined petroleum products, crude oil, carbon dioxide (CO2) and more. I found this map at their website. It shows just their biggest pipes. As you might expect, Kinder Morgan has a number of competitors.

The point of all this is that with some digging (bad joke!) you can discover a lot about where pipelines are in your community and who is responsible for them.

How we got information about our own community.

This Advisory is meant to give you an idea of where to start. Different members of our neighborhood emergency response group took on different tasks in researching our gas pipelines.

• I tracked down online maps like the ones shown in this Advisory.
• One member hiked along the nearby railroad tracks and photographed a construction project. His photos show the size and exact location of gas lines.
• One member went to city hall to get the original construction drawings for our community. These drawings show not only the location but also the size of the various pipes in the network, plus shut-off valves.
• As a group we queried the management of our community regarding make-up and maintenance of our local system.
• Our group invited the fire department, the police department and our local utility to special meetings on gas safety. (You will not be surprised to learn that they don’t always agree on where the lines are, what information to share or how to respond in an emergency!)

OK, so we now have an idea of where the pipelines are and what they are carrying.

And we found that gas is leaking from all these systems all the time!

With over 200,000 miles of pipelines, and many of them decades old, it’s to be expected that there will be leaks. In fact, distribution companies track something called “lost and unaccounted for” product.  One report has their measurements ranging from under 1% to over 4%!  (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-much-natural-gas-leaks/)

What causes the leaks? Common causes are simple deterioration, overgrown and over-stressed systems, defective equipment, incorrect hookups, code violations, faulty manufacturing of tanks and/or appliances — and natural ground shifts due to floods, earthquakes, etc.

Most of the time gas that escapes isn’t even noticed (except by the atmosphere, of course, since methane – the main component of natural gas – is 30 times more potent as a heat trapping gas than CO2.)  But any time there’s a leaking gas line, there’s a potential for explosion or fire.

The key is to keep gas from building up until it reaches the level where it can explode — that is, to where it makes up between 5 and 15% of the atmosphere. A whiff of gas won’t explode.  A mix that is too rich won’t explode. There is a 10% window in which it can ignite.

Good to know!

In Part Two we’ll share what we have learned about finding leaks!

Click here to move right on to Part Two.

Virginia Nicols
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

Wildfires are now a year-round threat

We used to consider “fire season” to be summer into fall, and then winter rains came along. These days, wildfire season seems to be year round!  So we should be taking steps for wildfire prevention year round, too.

Here are 5 Action Items for wildfire prevention. Let’s look at them right now, even while cold January rain is falling outside my window . . .

Wildfire prevention on your own property

I hope that you are pretty familiar with what to do for your own property. Action item #1: Confirm you’re following these basics of wildfire prevention.

1–Maintain defensible space. Maintain an area around the home cleared of brush, dead tree limbs, and flammable plants. In the areas close to your home, chose fire-resistant plants and keep all plants properly irrigated. The image below, showing different defensible zones, comes from the CalFire website: http://www.readyforwildfire.org/Defensible-Space/ .

State law in California requires properties in wildfire areas to maintain a 100 ft. defensible space. In 2015, The Los Angeles’ Brush Clearance Program set more specific – and more stringent — standards for clearance:

• 10 feet of roadways
• 10 feet of combustible fences
• 200 feet of structures

2–Use fire-resistant building materials. Use brick or stone for walls and garden borders. Build decks of noncombustible materials. Re-roofing? Choose fire-retardant shingles. Obviously, you might not be able to make dramatic changes immediately. But at least be aware of changes you should plan for.

3–Block embers. Most fires start from embers that catch on the house, not from a wall of fire! Install screens over vents and block access to eaves and under decks, etc.

This is only a partial list! 

I’m in California, where fire danger is particularly high. You may be in a less vulnerable location, or have different issues. So, Action item #2: Check with your own fire department for recommendations or programs for your neighborhood.

For another good overview resource, get this pamphlet from Farmers Insurance. https://www.farmers.com/content/dam/falcon/pdf/catastrophe-brochures/wildfire.pdf

And while we’re on insurance, be aware that your premium may reflect what you’ve done for fire prevention. Some companies may even offer a discount for defensible space and/or fire retardant building.

Action item #3: Talk with your insurance agent about your personal fire insurance coverage.

Wildfire prevention in your neighborhood

It’s one thing to take steps to protect your individual home.  After all, by law you are responsible for it.

But what if you live in a neighborhood of closely spaced homes, condos, or in a mobile home park? What about nearby community buildings? Local schools?  Parks? If they catch fire, you may be threatened, too.

Action item #4: Find out who is responsible for neighborhood properties. Do they know best practices for fire prevention, and are they following them?

You may need to contact a city or tribal agency, a property manager, or a neighborhood association. Once you have a contact, put on your leadership hat.

Are you on or can you attend a governing board that hires landscapers and/or gardeners? Make sure that your board and the landscapers are aware of basic fire prevention techniques for their site. Do they know what to plant, what to clear, what to trim – and do they do it? (Your fire department will surely be happy to send an expert to one of your board meetings.)

Your own HOA or emergency response team can help individual families understand the safest way to maintain private patios and gardens. Hold a meeting. Draft a notice to include with the rental invoice. Train a couple of your team members as “consultants” for people who have questions or don’t seem to get with the program.

Of course, even with well-maintained defensible space, a property can still burn. But if there’s a choice for fire fighters to protect a prepared space vs. an overgrown and unprepared space, which do you think they will choose?

Consider a community project for wildfire prevention

Since 2013, The National Fire Protection Association® (NFPA) and State Farm Insurance have been sponsoring Wildfire Community Preparedness Day.

This is a national campaign that encourages people to come together ON A SINGLE DAY to reduce wildfire risk. This year, Wildfire Community Preparedness Day is on May 4, 2019.

The idea is to get a group to work together on a project or event. Their efforts may be supported by $500 grants from State Farm.

Here’s what some groups have done in the past:

• 20 volunteers from the Red Cross, AmeriCorps and the tribe prepared a defensible space around the residences of 3 tribal elders in San Diego County.
• The local fire department and a youth organizations spent 3 days clearing out dead trees and underbrush from Colorado Mountain Zoo.
• An elementary school created a “Firewise garden” in front of their school.
• Boy scouts and local residents worked together on a clean-up day, cleaning roofs and gutters, removing vegetation and debris.
• Four towns in Colorado banded together to rent equipment to remove 66 truckloads of slash from home sites!

What about your emergency response group taking the lead on a project?

A community project might be a great way to motivate your group! At the same time you could help promote wildfire safety and strengthen relationships among residents, local fire department,  community leaders and elected officials.

To get one of the 150 awards being made by State Farm, you’ll have to submit a plan for your project by March 1.

Action item #5: get all the info about Wildfire Community Preparedness Day, including the application for the grant, at this website:  https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Campaigns/National-Wildfire-Community-Preparedness-Day

With the government shutdown still ongoing this week, the whole concept of reducing fire risks seems particularly important. Why? Because thousands of agency employees are not able to do the cleanup and training they would normally be involved in.

Time for us to step up ourselves. Even starting in the rain!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. This Advisory focuses on preparations you can make BEFORE a fire threatens. Evacuating and fighting fires are separate topics in themselves.

The Constant Challenge

I write often about CERT – the Community Emergency Response Team – and the great training that CERT provides.

People who become CERT graduates are almost always up to speed on what’s going on with the weather. CERT grads have basic emergency equipment including radios and walkie-talkies. They are people you can count on when things go wrong.

But CERT grads just aren’t enough to help most neighborhoods prepare or get through a major disaster because there aren’t enough of them!

So when the disaster hits, you’re going to be counting not on First Responders, not on CERT grads, but on your neighbors – trained or untrained!

Here in my neighborhood, we’ve built a neighborhood emergency response  team with the help of CERT grads – but we’re constantly trying to strengthen neighborhood resilience just by getting more neighbors involved in planning for disaster.

Earlier this month I wrote an article on the issue for our neighborhood newsletter. I tried to make the message a friendly one – not just about emergencies and disasters!

I’ve received some positive feedback so I thought I’d share my article here. Maybe you can cut and paste and use some of it for YOUR neighborhood? Can you pull out a couple of the suggestions as the basis for a meeting?

Do with it what you will!

I just hope it will be useful to help your neighborhood prepare for disaster!

Here’s the article.

Won’t you be my neighbor?

Over the past year we’ve witnessed so many tragedies and none worse than what’s still happening now in Northern California – thousands of homes destroyed, dozens of people dead, and 3 still missing more than a month after the start of the Camp fire.

We’ve heard great stories of neighbors helping neighbors in disaster situations.

Some of the stories are awe-inspiring.

• The Cajun Navy towed their private boats from Louisiana to Florida and launched them to help pluck hurricane victims from floodwaters.
• Neighbors with chain saws worked hour after hour to clear roads after devastation caused by Hurricane Florence.
• A food truck owner drove 50 miles into a disaster area and fed everyone as long as the food lasted.
• People spontaneously added clothing to a pile in a Walmart parking lot to create a place where displaced families could collect necessities.

There are many stories just like these – stories of ordinary people finding the will to step up in a disaster.

At the same time right here at home we’re lucky to have stories of neighborhood volunteers who help out all the time!

Here in our neighborhood we see residents who are willing to give time and energy to make a difference for our community throughout the year. We can look back and count dozens of activities, groups meetings, special events – all organized for us by caring volunteers.

But here’s The Constant Challenge. . .

This group of dedicated volunteers is reaching fewer and fewer people – partly because we lose community members, and partly because new residents are not being integrated. And as always, because no disaster has actually hit us, people find it easy to postpone taking any preparedness steps.

For the New Year, our homeowners association has made a commitment to build an even stronger neighborhood.

Building a stronger neighborhood starts with knowing your neighbors.

This means knowing names, having the name and phone number of a neighbor’s emergency contact or family member, maybe exchanging emergency keys. It means keeping a watch out for water leaks, escaped pets, etc.

When you know your neighbors . . .

• You know who “belongs” in the neighborhood and who might be an intruder – and if you should call the police.
• You notice when you haven’t seen a neighbor for several days, so you can do a quick check or make a call to a family member.
• If a neighbor is having a problem getting around, you are ready to add a few items to your shopping list to help them out.
• You have someone to call if you can’t get home to care for your pet.
• In a major emergency, you know you won’t be overlooked or forgotten even if you don’t get an official “alert”  – because your neighbors know you are there!

Here’s the first step:

Just introduce yourself and learn the names of at least a half dozen of the people who live around you!

For the next step:

Exchange a simple form that lists names and contact information.

We’ll come up with a sample form in our next article, so watch for it. In the meanwhile, get out there and meet that first new neighbor!

* * * * * *

OK, that’s the first article in the series I’m intending to write for my community. The next article will have that little emergency contact form I mention. It will also have a place for people to list pets, medical conditions, etc. But sharing that kind of info doesn’t happen at the first meeting. It requires trust – so we’ll start with just introductions.

I’ll let you know how things go here.  Please let us know what steps you’ve taken in your community to help involve neighbors!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. If you’re new here, you may not realize that our main emphasis at Emergency Plan Guide is on what we call “wholistic” planning! We believe that the impact of every big emergency extends well beyond your family. We are all in this together — and the more we work together, the safer we all will be. Does this sound like something you agree with?  If so, take a look at our Neighborhood Disaster Survival guidebooks. Each offers a path to organizing an emergency response team within your neighborhood,whether it’s made up of apartments, mobile homes or single family homes.

The number of threats can be overwhelming.

In just the past 2 weeks we have been bombarded with stories of threats that turned into disasters and near disasters.  I’m sure you’ll remember these:

October 10, 2018 –Michael makes landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in the Florida panhandle. 50 people dead, billions in losses.

October 15, 2018 – 60,000 without power as PG&E shuts down lines over more wildfire fears.

October 24, 2018– Police intercepted suspected pipe bombs sent to high-profile Democrats, in what New York officials described as an act of terrorism.

October 29, 2018 – Eleven people were killed and six others were injured on Saturday when a gunman opened fire in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

October 29, 2018 –Boeing jetliner crashes after take-off in Indonesia, all 189 aboard presumed lost.

This is just a short list. There were more. And throughout the country people suffered from local tragedies that didn’t make the national news.

How can we do a realistic job of preparing for so many threats?

Consider a systematic approach.

1-Start with a written list of threats.

In writing our Neighborhood Disaster Survival Series we found ourselves assembling multiple lists of potential threats. Ultimately we put together one list for homes and a different and considerably longer list for businesses.

You can build your own list. Get your team together in front of a BIG white board or easel (plenty of pages of paper) and brainstorm all the threats that you could possibly face. We have done this a number of times in our group, and we usually come up with 20-40 threats. (This is a great exercise to get people engaged. )

2-Narrow it down to threats that are realistic for you and your community.

Go back over your massive list (!) and start paring it down by removing threats that may be POSSIBLE but really aren’t PROBABLE.

Usually it’s simply a matter of replacing emotional response with common sense and some history.

For example, here’s a short list of threats with some thoughts that can get you started on the paring down process.

• Every day challenges like power outages – the most frequent disaster in the U.S. (and increasing in frequency). In our local neighborhood we have to include water main breaks and gas line breaks and/or shut-offs, because of the age and quality of our infrastructure.
• Potential localized dangers to your neighborhood, like transportation accidents – particularly high risk in industrial areas. If you live or work near an airport or beside train tracks, near chemical plants or certain industrial processing installations, threats of accident might be high; otherwise, you could probably take these threats off your list.
• Natural disasters like floods or storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, and wildfires – likely tied to your geographic location. These are always first on everybody’s list, and their likelihood is pretty easy to evaluate.
• Mass shootings and workplace violence – nearly always the result of personal motives and/or mental illness issues. Very difficult to anticipate or prepare for, but you could be blamed for negligence if you ignore the possibility.
• Attacks with weapons of mass destruction – suddenly appearing on our list after decades of being absent. We’re talking here about the threat of nuclear explosion or biological or chemical attacks. If you live and work in a major metropolitan area, particularly a government center, your risk would be higher.
• Cyber attacks – almost 3.25 billion data records were compromised in the U.S. during the first half of 2018; new vulnerabilities are being exploited as data moves to the cloud. As you read this, attacks ranging from simple virus infections to ransom claims are happening to individuals and businesses around the world.
• Lawsuits – becoming more frequent but one of the easiest threats to protect against.
• Terrorism – Whether international or domestic, terrorism results in dramatic news coverage. It is still relatively rare in the U.S., but the number of incidents has been rising.

3-Begin preparing for these selected threats.

Pick the most likely threats and start with those. What can you do to find out about the threat in advance? Can you mitigate (lessen) the impact by making changes NOW? What processes, tools and people might you need to recover once the threat has materialized? What’s the plan for assembling these resources, training, etc.?

Warning: Don’t let your emotional reaction prejudice your efforts.

During the “threat analysis” exercise you may find that people’s individual biases and emotional reactions are likely to emerge. Their experiences may make it tough for them to think dispassionately about a given threat.

Moreover, research has shown that most people seem to find man-made disasters more frightening and rate them as more severe than natural disasters. Terrorism tops the list for emotional reaction, even though it is very low on the probability list.

Try not to let these biases get in the way of making good decisions as to which disasters you actually prepare for!

Reminder: Plan to repeat.

Analyzing threats is something you’ll want to do more than once, because circumstances change. Build a repeat look at threats into your plan!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. We were hit this week by another of those “local” disasters. It had to do with a Windows 10 update. Our entire network just threw up its hands and quit.  So while I would normally have offered you our list of over 80 threats to business, I just haven’t been able to make it happen!  If you can’t wait, please just buy a copy of Emergency Preparedness for Small Business and you’ll find that list in the Appendix, along with a multi-page Risk Analysis Worksheet that can help you set priorities!  I’ll report in later about how we recover!

The following is a . . .

Special Report from North Carolina

It’s from one of our readers in North Carolina. Sparky Wilson was a guest author a Emergency Plan Guide a couple of years ago, so when Florence hit I knew he was in the affected area. I wrote and was gratified (and pretty amazed!) to get back this detailed assessment of what he and his fellow CERT members have been going through.

I’ve attached some of his photos from the area, too.

You will see that the report suggests a number of ideas for building your team. I’’ll be developing some of them in future Advisories.

In the meanwhile, read on . . .!

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Virginia, here’s some hurricane news from the Sandhills of central North Carolina!   My wife and I live in Carolina Trace, a gated community of 3,000+ people living in 1,750+ homes, situated on 2,500 acres of heavily forested rolling hills with a 330-acre lake in the middle of the community.  It is both beautiful and a challenge when disasters hit – like hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, chemical spills, heavy rains, and snow and ice storms.

Hurricane Florence is the second hurricane our CERT has been involved with.  Two years ago, we were activated for Hurricane Matthew – high winds, heavy rain, over 500 downed trees and some damaged homes.  We learned a lot from the Matthew experience and identified areas where we could improve performance.

I would like to share some of the lessons we have learned.

I am convinced CERT should . . .

Create Emergency Operations Plans for their neighborhood(s) and coordinate them with key players.  The key players include, but are not limited to: the emergency services office, fire department, ambulance service, local shelter, HOA/POA(s), power, water and sewage connection points, and the agency charged with evacuating residents.

Coordinate frequently with the organization directing your team.  Our team reports to the Director of Emergency Services.  Learn who else will be out there responding and what can they do for you and vice versa.  There are many organizations in your community that will be operating during a disaster response – EMS, fire departments, Red Cross, law enforcement, neighborhood security forces, transportation agencies, Baptist Men’s Group, and the list goes on.  You’re going to see them all when the disaster strikes – get to know them now.

Good radio communication is extremely important and never seems to go the way you want.  Carolina Trace CERT issues a MURS radio (short-distance Multi-Use Radio Service, limited to 2 watts power) to every team member.  It’s our go-to radio for intra-team operations because they are relatively inexpensive, we can add more powerful antennas for increased range and there is no licensing requirement.  We encourage our CERT volunteers to become Amateur “Ham” radio operators.  Ham radios are great when it comes to reaching out to others in an emergency.

(Note though that Amateur Radio Operation requires licensed operators so plan ahead.  We are fortunate in that we have a narrow-band digital radio that allows us to communicate directly with the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and our fire department wherever they are in the County.)

Know your team’s strengths and weaknesses.  We have learned a lot about our strengths and weaknesses during exercises and especially during Hurricane Matthew.  We have worked hard since Matthew to improve our capabilities in those areas where we found weaknesses while maintaining proficiency where we were already to standard.   Our field exercises have garnered recognition from our first responders and has led to more training with and from them, thus creating good communications and a better understanding of roles and capabilities for us and them.

We were prepared when the cone of uncertainty indicated we were at risk. Florence brought us tropical storm force winds and fifteen to twenty inches of rain (depending on where you lived in the County).  Some homes were damaged, many trees were toppled and several roads are still impassable due to flooding.  We offered support to the county shelter and checked on neighbors when it was safe to venture out.  We also provided damage assessments to the fire department and the county Emergency Operations Center.

Next steps in our CERT response in Hurricane Florence

Carolina Trace clearly “dodged the bullet” when Florence dipped South and skirted us.  That said, our preparations through hands-on monthly training sessions and radio checks, field exercises and partnerships with the professionals have led our team members to feel confident in knowing how and what to do when disaster strikes.  They understand that If things don’t go well in training they are not likely to go well when it’s for real.  Our next step is to conduct a Hot Wash (AAR – After Action Report) to identify areas where we can do better and focus future training on those areas.

Virginia adds: You can see that Carolina Trace has a pretty well organized neighborhood CERT team, with a history of training, connections with local officials, current equipment, etc. Not every community has this level of neighborhood commitment and support, but it is something we can all aim for. A team of trained volunteers in our neighborhoods could make all the difference in how we get through any emergency.

Thanks to Sparky for this timely and valuable information. Please share it — and share YOUR story, too. This is how we know what’s really going on.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. If you liked this Advisory, sign up below to get one every week.  Disasters aren’t going to stop coming.

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 9, 2018.

Yes, it’s fun to pull together survival kits for yourself and family members. For some of us, getting more and better survival gear turns out to be a sort of addiction! (A healthy addiction, we believe.) And creating family plans is satisfying, even though they require constant updating.

But once your immediate household is organized, what then?

When the emergency hits, are your neighbors going to be knocking on your door, looking for help?

They may. And you may not want or be able to help them.

The only way to solve this problem is to encourage neighbors and co-workers to be as prepared as you are!

We have devoted a lot of our time over the past 15 years to helping our neighbors get prepared, trained and organized.  If you’ve been reading our Advisories, you know about some of what we’ve done.

Now we’re adding one more piece to the puzzle.

Building a Neighborhood Emergency Preparedness Team — getting more attention.

About 3 years ago, we started a whole new section on building a neighborhood group. Here’s how we started that section:

1. Step One was to pull together all our original material on team-building that we’ve created for Emergency Plan Guide readers. That list starts at the bottom of this post.
2. Step Two was to reach out to other organizations around the U.S. for their best ideas. In fact, many of our blog posts already link to others’ stories and skills, and we’ve added more and more.
3. Step Three was to solicit specific input for Emergency Plan Guide readers. We continue to do this, and you can help by referring us to people or sources you know, or by suggesting a topic you’d like to know more about. We’ll track down and share the best info we can find!

Let’s start with resources for those people who have already made the commitment to starting or building a neighborhood group.

We assume that as the leader, you will have found a way to get formal CERT training for yourself.  Not all members of your team may get training, but you need the framework and vocabulary of CERT so that your group can work effectively together and with local first responder teams.

So to start with Step One for building a neighborhood emergency preparedness team . . .

. . .here is a list of some original material from the Emergency Plan Guide collection. Most of this is ready for download as is, with the first couple of handbooks available for purchase.  We hope you’ll find what you need for YOUR group!

Comprehensive training manuals

• The Neighborhood Disaster Survival Series — our 4 books aimed at building groups in different kinds of neighborhoods. Each book is over 100 pages filled with specific steps and suggestions based on 15 years of growing our own group.  The books are at Amazon, in ebook (downloadable) or paperback.
• Meeting Ideas — A collection of meeting ideas, with a list of what you’ll need, how best to schedule the activities, what to watch out for, etc. $10 at Amazon. Get more details by clicking the link.

Stand-alone subjects for training or discussion

• UPDATED! How to Recruit Volunteers — We just updated this list. Download your copy now!
• How to Hold a Great Meeting — Event-planning basics that you’re probably familiar with, but that can help others on your team get up to speed. Since we started our own group, we’ve been able to provide a great overhead projection and sound system for our guest speakers.  That helps, as long as you have some skilled audio-visual people on hand!
• Finding Leaders — Every member of your team needs to be able to step up to lead. After all, when the emergency hits, you can’t be sure who will be on hand.
• Active Shooter Event — Worth a discussion, particularly given recent developments here and abroad.
• For more, just click on NEIGHBORHOOD in the category listing in the sidebar to the right.

Possible group investments

• Walkie-Talkies for Group Communications — We use our hand-held radios (walkie-talkies) every month and for many non-emergency events.
• Community Cache of Supplies — Read about our group’s decision in this regard.
• Financing Serious Emergency Equipment — These are items that take some real cash and consideration.

More to come! (Be sure to sign up to get our Advisories so you don’t miss anything!)

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

P.S. Step Two for Building a Neighborhood Emergency Preparedness Team is to reach out to other organizations. Just last week you saw the results of some of our outreach when we wrote about the Lamorinda California CERT team’s upcoming meeting. Please share what YOUR group is doing!