Category: Resources

What I really meant: Summer Water Shortage Storage

Here in California, we’ve had drought conditions for 4 years. Throughout the state, people have cut back about 25% on water usage – sometimes voluntarily, mostly as a result of cost pressure.

But using less water for the landscape doesn’t mean we should drop storing water for an emergency!

So again, I want to promote . . .

The best water storage solution: the 4-item 55-gallon water barrel kit.

The kit has four components. You need all four!

You can buy them separately or all together, at Amazon, Walmart or at Costco or wherever you find the best price. In doing my research today I found that by shopping carefully I could get the same four items for a low of about $100 to a high of about $150.

The image shows a kit with the four items that need to be on your shopping list — the barrel, the bung wrench, the pump and the water preserver. You can click on the kit image — or any of the images below — and go directly to Amazon. But before you go there, learn more about each of the components so you know what you’re looking for.

1 – The 55 gallon water barrel

What you want is a standard blue polyethylene plastic food grade water storage barrel with a sealed top. (I’d want a new one. Even if it’s brand new, give it a good rinse with a diluted chlorine-bleach solution – one part bleach to 10 parts water. Of course, use non-scented bleach that contains no soap.)

What to watch out for:

When it’s full, your barrel will weigh 440 pounds so you won’t be able to move it by hand!  Pick the spot where you want to store it, lay down some boards or pieces of wood to keep it up off the ground or the floor, and set it in place. (Make sure your floor can hold this weight.)

2 – A “Bung wrench” to open the plugs in the top of the barrel

The stopper in a barrel is called a “bung” and you’ll need a special wrench to remove it. You can get a metal or plastic wrench like the red one in the photo to the right. Often, the wrench will be designed for a second function, like being able to turn off gas at your meter. Bung wrenches seem to go missing on a regular basis. You may want to fasten it to your barrel (tape?).

3 – A Pump to get the water out of the barrel

 These water barrels are designed with openings only at the top, so to get the water out you need to insert a pipe down through one of the bung holes and then pump the water up and out. Since this is for emergency use, you need a pump that operates by hand! Be sure your pump is BPA free since your drinking water will be flowing through it.

What to watch out for:

An inexpensive siphon hose can work but may take a lot of effort to get started. Other hand siphon pumps have a hand-operated sliding action and larger tubes, and are more efficient. The image shows the “vertical manual action” of the pump shown in the kit.

Once you get a siphon pump flowing, it will continue to flow until you stop it, so be sure you know how to start AND stop the flow. (Hint – you unscrew the cap at the top to break the vacuum.)

Here’s a great video from Robert Canning that shows just how to install and use a hand siphon pump.

There are also hand pumps with a lever that pump a certain amount with each press of the lever – best if you want to remove just a small amount of water.

4 – Water preserver liquid

We have written before about using 1/8 cup of plain bleach in your barrel full of water to keep the water clean for long-term (i.e. year-long) storage. You can also use a water preserver concentrate that will keep water clean for up to 5 years. Follow the directions on the bottle to get the right amount into your barrel.

And now, the question we overlooked . . .

How to get the water INTO the barrel? Three options.

If you’re like me, I want the barrel tucked out of the way, so it turns out not to be close to a faucet. So how do I fill the barrel?

Naturally, you’ll think about using the garden hose. But wait. That hose has probably been sitting around for who knows how long, getting dirt on it, spraying pesticides or soap, and gradually disintegrating. I wouldn’t want to use it to fill MY barrel!

So what are other options?

One way is to use new bottles of water or simply carry water from the kitchen in a clean container and pour it into the barrel. Works fine, takes many trips!

The other option is to purchase the right length of food grade, white plastic drinking water hose at an RV supply store and run it from the tap.

And finally, store the barrel properly.

Some hints:

• Label the barrel with the contents and the date you fill it, so you’ll know when it’s time to empty, refresh and refill.
• Store in a cool dark place, out of sunlight; keep it clean.
• Camouflage the barrel to prevent someone from stealing your water. Cover it with a tarp or canvas, turn it into a workbench, whatever.

This water can keep you alive in a crisis, so consider this big purchase as a gift to the family for the summer!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. You will likely want to have smaller containers of water, too, so you can store them more easily, move them, pour out just a glass of water, etc. Here are a two more articles from Emergency Plan Guide you may find useful as you consider how to store the water YOU need:

• Collapsible Water Bottles are a great way to store water when you have some advance warning. Folded, they take up very little room; filled, you can carry them to where you need them. Here’s the link:   https://emergencyplanguide.org/collapsible-water-bottles-indispensable-to-survive-a-disaster/
• Plastic water bottles are everywhere. Check out this article with particular attention to the discussion of HYGIENE!   https://emergencyplanguide.org/storing-water-in-plastic-bottles/

Many companies are being forced to set up or beef up their emergency employee communications plans. Those that don’t may be courting liability.

Read on.

In today’s news, we learn from a simple press release that “The Boston Globe is making customized comprehensive safety guidelines available to all employees via a mobile app.” (That’s my emphasis.)

What does this have to do with YOUR company?

Start with these questions:

• What has your company done about emergency response and emergency communications? Does it have a plan?
• Is your company keeping up with what others are doing?
• Is it meeting its legal responsibilities?

 

Managing emergency communications is an ongoing challenge.

 

1 – You face threats today that may never have been threats in the past.

Again, recent news stories tell of oil train explosions, once-in-a-lifetime flooding, live shooter events and cyberattacks that can cripple entire enterprises.

Is your workplace communications system set up to respond to “new” disasters as well as the usual ones? When did you last do a “risk analysis?”

2 – New technology means the world may hear about your emergency before your front office does.

What’s your procedure for making sure employees get instructions and the public – including suppliers and customers – gets factual information that will staunch rumors?

As Paul Barton, a business communications specialist says, “Rumours are created for a specific reason: they fill in the information void. If an organization does not tell staff what is going on, they will make up their own story.”

And today, that “story” will be out via YouTube and Twitter before the smoke has a chance to clear!

In the past, companies usually assigned one person to be the spokesperson in an emergency. Today, every employee can instantly reach a huge audience. You can’t stop that, but you can train employees in how to communicate.

3 – Employee turnover means your “communications plan” must be continually updated and employees must be regularly trained or they won’t be able to use it.

Not only does your workforce change, but the company premises themselves change. You may change your phone system, switch to a different internet provider or IT set-up, add a new website or a new office, invest in mobile devices for the whole staff, etc.

All these give the business and employees new communications options that must be considered in the emergency communications plan.

4 – Don’t overlook the families.

You may expect your employees to be ready to step up to protect the business and pitch in to get it back on its feet in an emergency.

Guess what. You may be wrong.

Over and over again in disasters, employees – even First Responders! – have abandoned their posts because they were desperate to find out if their families were safe.

If you can reassure employees about their families, your business continuity plan has a much better chance of working.

What this means is your emergency communications plan has to put family communications right up at the top. It must ask and help answer questions like:

• How will the company communicate with employee family members regarding the status of the business and the employee?
• What plan does the family have to get in touch with each other in an emergency?
• Does the family have an out-of-state family contact person?
• Has the family designated a place to go if they get separated and/or they can’t get back to their home?

 

5 – What responsibility does the company really have?

The “Prudent Man Rule” (now probably referred to as the “Prudent Person’s Rule”) has been around in the financial world for nearly 200 years. It says that someone responsible for another’s interests should exercise the same care, skill and judgment that other “prudent men” in that position would exercise.

When articles like the one about The Boston Globe appear in the daily news, you must ask yourself,

“If others are setting up new ways of communicating with employees during emergencies, could we be found deficient or even negligent if we haven’t updated our own plans?”

Here at Emergency Plan Guide we’re not offering legal advice. But we do know that businesses and particularly owners get sued. We believe they can improve their chances of coming through the legal system safely by demonstrating that their decisions with regards to emergency response planning are consistent with good practice.

Two more resources.

Action Item:  If your company’s emergency response plan needs updating, take a look at these for inspiration.

• Small Business Hit By Disaster – Is the Owner Liable? http://EzineArticles.com/8521016

This article reviews the different groups that may sue you after a disaster, and suggests three steps you can take immediately to protect yourself from legal fallout.

• Security at the Front Door https://emergencyplanguide.org/security-at-the-front-door/

If you haven’t thought about physical security, this article will list some “prudent steps” that other companies are taking in this regard.

Once again, this isn’t legal advice, but I hope it falls into the category of “good business” advice.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

 

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We have written before about the shadowy world of nuclear power plants. In last week’s news I found another of the disconcerting developments connected with plants that have been shut down and that are going through the “decommissioning process.”

This news comes from Vermont.

Briefly, the purpose of decommissioning is to remove and dispose of contaminated materials so that the property may be released for other uses. Since decommissioning can be a long and complicated. the plant owner is required during the plant’s lifetime to set money aside for that purpose.

Naturally, once the plant stops producing power, owners want to shut it down as quickly and as inexpensively as possible.

One of the steps they take is to petition to have the “emergency zone” around the plant reduced. We have written before about the 50-mile-zone vs. the 10-mile-zone; you can check that Advisory by clicking here.

It turns out that Entergy, owner of Vermont Yankee, has successfully petitioned the NRC not only to stop supporting planning in the 50-mile zone, but also planning in the 10-mile zone. In fact, it has petitioned to eliminate ALL its responsibility to the 18 towns around the plant.

Apparently the funds set aside for decommissioning have also been “used for other purposes.” Lawsuits are being filed, hearings held. It’s not clear what the outcome will be.

But this brings up the whole issue of emergency planning around nuclear power plants.

Can you answer these questions about living near a nuclear power plant?

1. How far away is the closest nuclear plant?

There are about 100 operating nuclear plants in the U.S., and most tend to have a low profile. So if you don’t really know where the nearest reactor is located, here’s a link to a map from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC):  http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactor/  *There’s a lot more info behind each pin on the map at the site.

2. In an emergency, how will you be affected?

The NRC defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: 1) a “plume exposure” zone with a radius of 10 miles, where airborne radioactive material would directly impact people, and 2) a second zone with a radius of 50 miles where contaminated food and water could be ingested by people within the zone.

(As a side note, Japanese authorities set a 20 km “exclusion zone” around the destroyed Fukushima Daishi power plant. That zone continues to be adjusted as radiation levels change as the result of government clean-up efforts and new weather events.)

3. What preparations can you make to protect yourself from a nuclear accident?

If you live near an operating plant, it’s likely that the first you’ll know of an emergency is when you hear a siren. (3-5 minute blast, repeated) Immediately tune to your local FM radio station or TV station, or to one of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) stations.

• Plan to shelter in place. The major hazard in the plume area is direct exposure to the radiation cloud – through breathing, touching particles on the ground, or eating materials that have been contaminated.
• Go indoors and stay there. Close doors and windows and shut off furnaces, fireplaces and air conditioners. Keep pets inside. If you’re in your car, close the windows and vents.
• Keep listening for updates!

4. What will the authorities be doing?

• An evacuation may be called. Grab your survival kit/evacuation kit and follow instructions. Hopefully your car’s gas tank is at least half full.
• You may be advised to take potassium iodide (KI). KI is a nonprescription medication that blocks uptake of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland. It is FDA-approved and readily available, coming in 65 and 130 mg tablets and liquid form; children need half or even a quarter of the dose for adults, so follow directions carefully. KI is effective for about 24 hours and you need to have enough to last every member of the family for several days or until you can get out of the affected zone. (See purchase info at the bottom of this article.)
• You’ll be notified when it’s safe to return. (How can you be sure it’s safe? See “More resources,” below.)

5. What about the threat of a closed plant?

Here in Southern California, the San Onofre plant ceased operations in 2013 after a history of maintenance problems. The owner of the plant is just now putting final touches on its “decommissioning plan.” Spent fuel is being stored in one of the closed reactor containers — just hundreds of yards from the Pacific ocean (risk of tsunami?).  Since the 2010 U.S. census counts over 8 million people living within 50 miles of the plant, ANY emergency here will have a big impact!

Clearly, the chances of a nuclear disaster are far less for a plant that is no longer running, but as long as radioactive fuel is still being stored on site a certain threat remains, whether from a weather event (like what happened and continues to happen in Japan) or a terrorist event.

So it’s back to you and your emergency planning team, whether that’s your family, your local neighborhood emergency response team or your workplace leaders:

• Are you near a nuclear plant?
• Is it operating at full or reduced capacity?
• Is it shut down or scheduled to be shut down?
• What is the emergency plan for the site?

As an active and concerned citizen, it’s up to you to learn more. I hope this article can be the impetus. We’ll continue to share what we learn . . .

Virginia Nicols
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

More resources:

Buy KI tablets. As you are shopping, consider the make-up of your family, and whether it would be easier for you to have smaller tablets (adults take two, child takes one) or even liquid (would have to be mixed with something). This is an inexpensive item so get a big enough supply that you don’t have to worry about running out. This particular item often goes on sale at Amazon — note its expiry date! (Click on image or link to get current price details.)

IOSAT Potassium Iodide Tablets USP, 130 mg, 14 Count

 

For more understanding of your circumstances, consider a Geiger Counter. You can learn more about them at this Advisory and take a look at two versions here:

SOEKS 01M Plus Generation 2 Geiger Counter Radiation Detector Dosimeter (NEW Model replaces SOEKS 01M)

GCA-07W Professional Geiger Counter Nuclear Radiation Detection Monitor with Digital Meter and External Wand Probe – NRC Certification Ready- 0.001 mR/hr Resolution — 1000 mR/hr Range

 

There are less expensive options, including this app that works with your phone. Its  low cost makes it attractive for people living or working in areas of moderate risk, or for people who want a backup unit to carry on the road.. . .

Smart Geiger Counter Nuclear Radiation Dosimeter “X-Ray” and “Gamma” Detector Smartphone Android iOS with App

 

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“What could possibly go wrong?”

When asked that question about their business . . .

Most people think first about natural disasters.

Here in California, everyone is concerned about earthquakes or (some years) El Niño. Along the coasts, popular threats are hurricanes and, occasionally, tsunamis. That leaves tornados and storms for the rest of the country.

Would you believe that initially, most people overlook the most common natural disaster?!

According to the experts, the most common natural disaster – accounting for about 30% of all disasters in the U.S. — is flood!

But let’s take a broader look at threats.

What about threats that are man-made?

This list will be a lot longer. Here are some more threats to business (or to any community), in no particular order:

• Unplanned IT and communications outages
• Cyber attack
• Data breach or loss (accidental or deliberate from disgruntled employee; loss of mobile device)
• Power outage
• Water main break
• Fire
• Security breach (including theft)
• Health emergency (chemical leak or spill)
• Safety problem (accident, train wreck, explosion)
• Terrorist act
• Regulatory change
• Lawsuit: personal injury, employment practice
• Loss of key personnel
• Civil unrest (might depend on your neighbors and/or neighborhood)
• Supply chain interruption
• and the list goes on!

 

STEP ONE. What threats does YOUR business face?

One of the first steps in preparing for emergencies in your business or community is to take a look at the threats you are facing. The easiest way is to gather together key people and simply brainstorm, writing down everything you can think of.

For example, your list could start by looking like this:

STEP TWO. What’s the likelihood of the threat actually happening?

The next step in your analysis is to rate all the threats you’ve come up with as to their probability of taking place. An easy way to do that is simply give each threat a score from 1-5.

1. = rare
2. = unlikely
3. = possible
4. = probable
5. = almost certain

Here’s our sample list with the threats rated.

 

STEP THREE. What would be the impact of the threat?

There’s a second side to every threat, too. That’s the impact that it would have on your business. For example, some common threats (for example, a break in a water line) might be serious but would probably not threaten the health of the whole organization.

Other threats, like a direct hit from a tornado, might completely destroy the business.

So your threat analysis needs to consider impact.  Again, one way to help direct your preparedness efforts is to add a second score to your list of threats.

The impact score could also be 1 – 5, from lowest to highest impact. For example . . .

STEP FOUR. So which threats do we need to look at first?

By completing the list, you can get an idea of the priorities for your preparedness efforts. Here’s our sample, completed:

Create the total score by adding probability and impact.

The higher the total score, the more attention you probably want to place on preparing for that event.

Caution: Danger of Threat Analysis Paralysis

Analyzing your threats can become complicated. In fact, in the wrong hands it can get WAY too complicated!

You don’t have to do it the way this report suggests.

But it IS important to get past that first quick assumption about natural disasters, and take a look at the other threats facing your business. The risks associated with the threats might be reduced by better procedures, better insurance coverage, or simply more awareness.

Completing even a simplified risk analysis will give you a more realistic picture of what could happen and how to protect and prepare for it.

Joe and Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

P.S. If you are serious about analyzing the risks to your business, consider purchasing this book. It has a significant security focus, but defines all types of threats and lays out a process to help you make decisions regarding mitigation.  Threat Assessment and Risk Analysis: An Applied Approach. The book is available in hardcover or soft at Amazon, where we’re affiliates, as you know.

 

 

 

 

 

Radios — The Most Popular Piece of Emergency Gear

More of our readers “invest” in emergency radios than in any other one piece of emergency equipment. (Makes sense, of course. Without a reliable emergency radio, when disaster hits you could be completely cut off. Without a good emergency radio, you may not even know that a disaster is COMING!)

Because of this interest, we continually comment on what to look for when you’re shopping for a radio. And we regularly update our Best Emergency Radios review page to be sure the radios listed there are still available.

So it’s time for yet another radio update.

Status of our long-time favorite emergency radio

The Ambient Weather Adventurer, original cost around $30, has been our favorite for a while. We own more than one, and many of our readers have them, too. It’s a great radio to tuck into your pack or simply have on the kitchen counter.

Bad news! This model seems to have been discontinued. Here and there online you can find one for sale, but their prices make no sense! I saw one yesterday at $281!

So we aren’t recommending this model anymore. (Maybe you want to try to sell yours for a profit???)

New favorite, the Eton FRX5

Eton makes several different radios, and the brand carries a number of labels including one from the American Red Cross.

The FRX3 costs about $10 more than the original Ambient Weather, and has most of the very same features.

The one we’re recommending today, though, is the Model FRX5.  It costs nearly twice as much, but for that you get double the power, more lighting options, the ability to charge a smart phone, capture localized emergency alerts, etc.

Here’s a link to the radio: Eton FRX5 Hand Crank Emergency Weather Radio with SAME Alerts

And here’s what it looks like:

This is a very compact radio, just over 7 inches tall and a couple of inches wide. It operates on battery, AC, solar and crank. In fact, this radio earned the best score in a recent test measuring how much listen time was created by 2 minutes of cranking. (In this case, something like 10-12 minutes.)

What I like is the SAME Alert feature — stands for Specific Area Message Encoding. You enter in your county and the radio will automatically send alerts for that area.  (Seems to me this would be essential in Tornado Alley of the U.S.!)

When you click the link above, you’ll go directly to Amazon. Scroll down to the bottom of the Amazon page for a full description of this radio, with several more photos.

First time radio purchaser? Get answers to 7 important questions.

If you haven’t yet added a radio to your survival supplies, check out the Eton model above. Just click on the blue link to get started.

If you have NEVER shopped for an emergency radio before, go first to our Best Emergency Radio Reviews page because you’ll find there the 7 questions you need to consider before adding a radio to your pack, or to the survival kit of any of your family members. And you’ll see a number of other radios that we have reviewed and recommend.

The radio we would upgrade to if we were flush

I’ve mentioned before that we have an old Panasonic shortwave radio. (Joe’s had it ever since we’ve been together, and that’s over 33 years now, so its age is something older than that!) That’s the radio in the picture at the top of this page. Joe was changing the batteries, which explains the red ribbons at the bottom.

We have hauled this radio from coast to coast and back again, and Joe loves it.

Yesterday Joe handed me a spec sheet for the radio he would LIKE to have. It’s also available at Amazon, and also made by Eton. As far as I am concerned, it certainly looks a lot like the old Panasonic (!), but . . .Joe assures me that it’s “the ultimate” in radio receivers. It gets AM, FM, Aircraft, Longwave and Shortwave bands, has a rotating antenna plus you can tune-in stations by keying them in or searching for them. You can actually store 1000 stations!

If you’re really serious about emergency radios, check this one out.

Alert – Prices for the SAME RADIO vary considerably. Shop carefully to get the best deal!

Eton Grundig Satellit 750 Ultimate AM/FM Stereo also Receives Shortwave, Longwave and Aircraft Bands – Black (NGSAT750B)

And doesn’t it look a LOT like the Panasonic collector item above?

You need at least one emergency radio, and probably several. The good thing about radios is you can select the features you need (for each use or each person) and not have to buy features you don’t want, and you’ll save by choosing carefully.

Do you already have an emergency radio? Would you recommend it?  Let us know in the comments!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

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Today I stuffed 20 or so plastic bags into one, so I can take them back to the store to be recycled. It’s amazing how many accumulate in just a couple of weeks – and we carry reusable shopping bags!

Be that as it may, I always keep some bags handy for emergency use! Here are 20 ways they can come in handy or even save the day!

And the best part? You can collect these bags and add them to your kit for free. (Or at least you MAY get them for free. A new law was just passed in California to ban free plastic bags . . .)

Keep out moisture

1. Use a plastic bag to line your Bug Out Bag, to help keep it water proof.
2. Use zip-lock bags for storing food, small items, cosmetics, etc. in your bag.
3. Put a plastic bag OVER a backpack to keep out the rain.
4. Turn a large plastic bag – like a trash can liner – into a rain poncho. Just make a slit along the seams for your head and arms.
5. Use bags inside your boots to keep your feet dry.
6. “Wear” underneath your clothes for extra insulation.

Protect from dirt

1. Pull a plastic bag over your hand before picking up something dirty. Then just turn the bag inside out and dispose of it.
2. Tie a bag over your face to keep out blowing dirt or sand. (Of course, don’t use thin plastic that clings for this!)
3. A plastic bag can work as a diaper. (Why, I remember the earliest plastic diapers that I used on my daughter really weren’t much different!)
4. Water out of order? Use plastic compactor bags in the toilet to capture waste. (These won’t likely be bags that are reused. But having a supply is essential for your emergency stash.)

Aid for First Aid

1. Use zip-lock bags to store different first-aid supplies, keeping them clean and dry. You can pack full small bags into a larger bag for easier and more efficient access. (For example, pack gauze in one bag, band aids in another, tape and scissors in a third; put them all in one larger bag.)
2. Fill a bag with ice and apply over an injury to keep swelling down.
3. Turn a plastic bag into a sling.
4. Tie a bag over a bandaged wound to help keep it dry.
5. Somebody sick? Use a bag to catch vomit or diarrhea. Yukky, but better than having it spread all over the car or your living area.

Other smart uses

1. A bag with no holes can be a temporary carrier for water, snow, berries, etc.
2. Twist a bag or two together and use them as a belt or a carrying strap.
3. Fasten a number of bags together end to end to use as rope. Braid several strands for more strength.
4. Use a white bag as a signal or strips of bag to mark the trail.
5. If an emergency keeps you trapped in the house, use trash bags – for trash! You can always dispose of it later.

As you’re packing your Survival Kit, use a few extra bags as padding, to cushion the sharp corners on tools, keep shoes separate, etc. That way you’ll always have some at the ready.

And one last note about the “secret ingredient”

Many of the ideas above would work a lot better if, in addition to the right sized bag, you have DUCT TAPE. (That’s an old roll in the image, above. Recognize it now?)

Use duct tape to close gaps, make sure the bags stay put, and even to seal them up when they’re full of waste.

These two essentials – plastic bags and duct tape — should be in every one of your kits. And the good news? They’re practically free!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

 

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Worried about someone lurking in the shadows?

We’re known as the “Survival People” on our block, so it’s not uncommon for people to stop and ask for our opinions about anything connected to survival, which seems to include security.

Last week we got asked TWICE:

“What outdoor lighting do you recommend for security?”

We’ve written about this topic before, but the questions pushed us to do more research and ask our own questions, so before we give any answer, here’s more of what we’ve learned.

Question 1. Do bad guys prefer to operate in the dark?

According to all the stories we’ve read, and we’ve read a lot of them, the simple answer is, “No.”

In fact, there are many reports of cities or neighborhoods in both the U.S. and other countries where street lighting was turned off – to save money, usually – and street crime went DOWN.  Why?  Apparently bad guys don’t like tripping over things in the dark any more than you do.

And when they use a flashlight, it’s immediately noticeable.

Question 2. So does outdoor lighting actually encourage bad guys?

That depends. Lights that are on all the time give bad guys the ability to see what they are doing and get it done more easily.

However, if someone is watching the premises, and sees suspicious activity and acts quickly to stop it, then the lighting is useful. The key is to have that alert human presence.

At your house or business, who is keeping watch at night? Are they watching all night?

Question 3. What about motion activated lights?

Now we are getting somewhere.  A light on all the time is predictable and becomes unremarkable. When a light goes on suddenly, it is startling – and noticeable. Anyone within sight of the light is going to look to see what set it off.

So from a security standpoint, motion activated lights are the obvious choice.

Here’s what we have at home.

Now at our house, we actually DO have a light that burns all night. It’s on the porch and is designed to light the steps for us and for visitors. It’s a hardwired fixture with energy-efficient LED bulb, and we have checked to be sure our neighbors aren’t bothered by it. The bulb has lasted for years.

We have hardwired motion sensor lights where we park the car. They make it easy for us to get to and from the backdoor and into and out of the car.

Finally, behind the house, we have solar powered motion-activated lights. When they come on at night, we are awakened instantly and are able to look out to see what may have set them off. (Usually we can’t tell! Perhaps it’s a bird flying by. Occasionally we suspect an animal like a possum or raccoon. We haven’t seen any people crossing the backyard, yet.)

One of these lights actually has an audible alarm that can be turned on or off, too.

If you’re shopping for lights, here are some recommendations and suggestions about what to look for.

Recommendations for Solar Powered Lights

We started years ago with simple battery-operated lights. While they were easy to install, they seemed always to be dim and dying. So, we quickly turned to hard-wired lights. They work great but you need a ladder, patience and some handy-man smarts to install them.

When solar powered lights came on the scene, we were thrilled.  Particularly since we live in Southern California!

Solar lights are either one self-contained unit (solar panel + storage battery + light itself) or have separate components: solar panel (that must be mounted where it gets sun) connected via a thin wire to the actual battery + lighting fixture.

Whether you select the self-contained unit or the component unit depends on where you’re installing the light and where the sun is.

Over the years we have tried small, inexpensive solar-powered lights and moderately priced ones and have concluded that you pretty much get what you pay for. You can get great deals at Amazon, where, as you know, we are affiliates.

Here are two lights that we really like. Click on the images to get all details.

This Litom Bright 60 LED Solar Powered Security Light seems to be top of the line in its price range (around $40). We have found it to be as bright as we need, and some of the reviewers at Amazon say that it is brighter than any others they have tried! This light is also waterproof, essential for an outdoor fixture.

The best part is how adjustable the light is. You can set it for dim or strong, set it for always-on or motion-activated, and you can adjust the “activation” area as well as the “lighting” area. Really, it ought to work for whatever you need!

Read the reviews at Amazon, and they will give you more ideas about installing and using the light. (If you want a white finish, take a look at the Sunforce 82080 80-LED Solar Motion Light model. It costs within a dollar of the Litom model.)

The second recommendation is for a light made by the same company. The Litom 20 Big LED Solar Sensor Powered Wall Light is smaller, more compact, and even brighter! (And less expensive — around $25.) Many of the Amazon reviewers say that they got several in order to cover different areas of their property. Last time I looked, you could purchase packs of 4 for a discounted price.

As I wrote this, Litom was offering some special deals on Amazon. (Scroll down on the page below the photos.) And different sellers were charging quite different prices!  So take the time to shop!

To get details and current prices, click on the images.

To summarize.

Lighting alone will not deter a determined bad guy. But good lighting can make it safer for you and visitors, and motion-activated lighting can cause an unwanted visitor to change plans.

Let us know your experiences with lighting!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

We have full reviews of several popular emergency items. See all our product reviews and recommendations here.

 

 

 

 

“In a big emergency, FEMA will be there to help.”

You’d think that after what happened after Katrina, all of us would be tuned in to the role that FEMA plays to help with disaster recovery.

Apparently, we’re not.

Some recent headlines got my attention and prompted me to take a closer look at FEMA. Check these out:

• Louisiana: Some who sought FEMA assistance after Katrina being forced to pay back ‘debt’
• Iowa: ‘Serious Risk’ Federal Flood Protection Money Not Coming
• New Jersey: Hurricane Sandy Anniversary 2014: Billions Of Dollars In Federal Aid Still Unpaid

If you are counting on government money after a disaster, you’d better keep reading.

This article is not meant to give you legal or financial advice. You need to check with your own state’s emergency management agency for details. Still, the examples we’re providing raise some pertinent questions.

Question #1: Who gets FEMA money after an emergency?

FEMA money is meant to help two major groups: local governments and local citizens.

Before any money starts flowing after a disaster, though, there’s a procedure to follow. The FEMA website describes it this way:

1. Local Government Responds first, supplemented by neighboring communities and volunteer agencies. If overwhelmed, it turns to the state for assistance;
2. The State Responds with state resources, such as the National Guard and state agencies;
3. Damage Assessment by local, state, federal, and volunteer organizations determines losses and recovery needs;
4. A Major Disaster Declaration is requested by the governor. It describes the damage and agrees that the state will commit state funds and resources to the long-term recovery;
5. FEMA Evaluates the request and recommends action to the White House based on the disaster, the local community and the state’s ability to recover;
6. The President approves the request (or FEMA informs the governor it has been denied). This decision process could take a few hours or several weeks depending on the nature of the disaster.

So that’s the process. Disaster recovery is designed as a partnership between the state and the Federal Government. If the state doesn’t want to play, the government won’t play either.

And, even when a request goes through the process and is approved, that doesn’t seem to mean the funds always arrive as anticipated.

In 2014, for example, Congress authorized $73 million for flood protection for Cedar Rapids, IA (things like flood walls, levees and pump stations) but never appropriated the money.

Even though both New Jersey and New York suffered roughly the same amount of damage from Hurricane Sandy in late 2012, New York has received over $7 billion in assistance and New Jersey has received only $1.7 billion.

If you live in either of these places, you have to ask “Why?”

Question #2: What can FEMA money be used for?

First, FEMA money can be used for “public assistance,” which is money aimed as repairing a community’s infrastructure – roads, bridges, buildings, schools, etc. FEMA can pay for 75% of the costs; the state is required to come up with the rest of the money.

Individuals apply for – you guessed it – “individual assistance.”

Disaster aid to individuals generally falls into the following categories:

• Disaster Housing, available for up to 18 months, for people whose homes were damaged or destroyed. Funding also can be provided for housing repairs to make them habitable again.
• Disaster Grants can help replace personal property and provide money for transportation, medical, dental and funeral expenses.
• Low-Interest Disaster Loansare available after a disaster for homeowners and renters from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to cover uninsured property losses. Loans may cover repair or replacement of homes, cars, clothing or other damaged personal property. Loans are also available to businesses for property loss and economic injury.
• Other Disaster Aid Programs may supplement state or local help with counseling, unemployment assistance, legal aid and assistance with income tax, Social Security and Veteran’s benefits.
• Assistance Process– After you apply, your damaged property will be verified. If you are approved, you’ll get a grant for rental assistance. A loan application requires more information and it may take weeks for it to be approved.

The deadline for applying for most individual assistance programs is 60 days following the President’s major disaster declaration.

This leads us to question #3.

Question #3: Why would some people be forced to pay back FEMA money?

After FEMA funds have been approved and distributed, the program is audited. Through the audit, FEMA is looking to “recoup” funds that have been issued to the wrong people or used incorrectly.

First, FEMA is looking for duplicated payments. This is where the homeowner has received money from both their insurance company or from an SBA loan and from FEMA — for the same purpose.

Second, auditors look for ineligible uses. This is where the recipients of FEMA money have used it for unintended purposes. For example, a recipient got money to repair the home and used it, instead, to pay off the existing mortgage.

In some cases, months after the disaster and receipt of FEMA funds, residents receive letters seeking “recoupment.” These letters are reported to threaten legal action, negative reports to credit agencies, property liens, and impacts on residents’ future eligibility for federal disaster assistance if they fail to pay.

A couple of examples:

FEMA has so far determined that $34.7 million given to Floridians for recovery from the 2004 hurricanes was improperly spent and must be repaid,

And in 2014, over 1,000 New Jerseyans still displaced from superstorm Sandy started receiving letters from FEMA telling them they had received too much money and would have to pay it back.

If anyone tells you to count on FEMA as your disaster plan, you may want to pause before you believe it.

Aren’t you glad you read this far?!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

If you have any experiences with FEMA to share, good or bad, please do!

 

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On a daily basis we’re caught up in the excitement of whatever storm or heat wave is going on, or in the latest political maneuverings. Or maybe news from the sports world.

Here in California, though, there’s a background noise like the far-off rumble of a train. It is  . . .

The steady threat of an earthquake.

It’s tough to get people to think about and prepare for something they may never have experienced, no matter how dramatic you try to make it. Our neighborhood emergency planning group comes back to the subject of “the big one,” and earthquakes in general, again and again!

Here’s one of our best neighborhood emergency response group flyers.

How to use the flyer.

• Make copies and go over it at a neighborhood meeting. You will be surprised at the number of questions that will come up and the number of comments people will make about the supplies they have stored. Discuss the status of gas lines in your neighborhood and how to tell if there is a leak. Take a look around the room you are in and ask people what furniture they would get under if the earthquake happened right this minute! If your meeting takes place at night, find out how many people in the audience even have a flashlight with them! (Action item: Come prepared with a flashlight to give away as a door prize.)
• Make a few changes to the text and and use the flyer at work.
• Send to family members and out-of-town friends, too.

Emphasize the warning about NOT STARTING YOUR CAR if you suspect a gas leak. Cars backed up in traffic jams have started devastating fires in earlier quakes.

So you can make any changes, and fill in the box at the bottom of the flyer,

Click here to download the Microsoft Word document.

Let us know how your meeting goes. What questions came up that you weren’t expecting?

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

 

If you need more background for likely questions, here are some earlier Advisories that may be useful:

• How to recognize a gas leak
• Three ways to survive an earthquake
• Three ways to survive, continued

When it comes right down to it, having a simple phone plugged into a traditional landline simply makes sense. And when it costs so little . . .!

Five reasons to go out today and buy a corded phone.

 

1 – It works when other phones are knocked out or overwhelmed in an emergency.

How many times have we talked about what happens to regular phone communications in a widespread emergency? Power can disable cordless phones; cell phone towers can fall; systems can be overwhelmed. Ultimately, any device powered by a battery will stop working.

Landlines are the most reliable of all the options.

2 – Emergency Services will pinpoint where the call is coming from.

When you call 911 from a landline, emergency services know just where you are. When you call from a cell phone, they have to go through extra steps (using GPS) to find you. And if you’re on the tenth floor, and the only ID the emergency services get is the address of the building . . . When seconds count, a landline wins hands down.

3 – Your kids (visiting grandmother, babysitter) can operate a simple corded phone.

My granddaughters play with their parents’ cell phones all the time. That doesn’t mean they know how to actually turn a phone on, get past the password, find the phone app, and use the phone to make a call.

EVERY kid above the age of about 2 can be taught how to dial 911 from a simple phone.

Not every adult carries a phone, either. Consider elderly relatives. They, too, would easily be able to make an emergency call using a phone like the one in the photo.

4 – Yes, someone could tap the line – but not a random hacker.

Privacy is a concern whenever you’re using wireless communications. A landline is secure unless someone has actually installed wiretap equipment onto your line.

5 – You won’t misplace or lose it.

Your emergency phone is tethered to the wall. It will always be in that place so you will always be able to get to it immediately.

What will it cost?

A neighbor told me he’d bought a simple phone recently for “around $10.”

Frankly, I found that hard to believe. Still, when Joe went shopping for a phone yesterday, he came home from Walmart with the one in the photo. And it had cost him $5.95!

Naturally, you can get fancier ones, with a bigger price tag. (Check out our friends at Amazon. Use the search words: “corded phone.”) But we were looking for the simplest model possible.

Joe opened the box, pulled out the phone, and . . .

We plugged it into a wall jack — instant dial tone.

No registering, no passwords, no set-up, no waiting for a battery to charge, no software upgrades.

(What a relief after we had spent hours over the past week getting our over-the-air antenna to work with our TV and our Amazon Fire Stick. That’s another story, of course . . .)

Now, since the phone doesn’t store names or numbers, you’ll have to dig out an address book to go along with it. Or simply type up and print out a one-page sheet of emergency numbers as part of your family communications plan. (If you have children, you are likely to have this page already prepared for babysitters.)

Fasten this page to the phone itself, or tape it to the wall next to the phone, so it doesn’t get misplaced.

That’s it! It has taken me longer to write this Advisory than it did to get the phone set up.

Action Item: Do yourself a favor and get your own corded phone today.

You will definitely feel smarter and you and your family will definitely be safer!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

 

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