Category: General

It’s a rare business that doesn’t host a meeting once in a while. While businesses are shut down as a result of the pandemic, this list may not apply! But as soon as you get back to face-to-face meetings, it will. So hang on to it!

Your meeting might be for marketing or educational purposes, or maybe to celebrate a holiday or having reached a company milestone.

Whatever the purpose, if you are the meeting planner, you have a long to-do list to be sure everything goes as planned. Even the simplest meeting needs decisions made about date and time, venue, food, invitations, theme and decorations, sign-in procedures, advertising and publicity, entertainment, audio-visual, vendors, etc.  

Our question for today:

Does your meeting to-do list include planning for emergencies?

If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know that we are constantly on the lookout for good emergency preparedness resources. And we look not just for ideas for family planning, but also for small business and, in particular, for neighborhood teams.

This Advisory will be useful for all three groups. But it is particularly vital for businesses, because . . .

If something goes badly wrong at your business meeting, and you could have prepared for it, you will be blamed. And you may be sued.

Please note: we are not attorneys, and this Advisory is not meant to give legal advice. Please consult with qualified professionals for detailed recommendations for your business and your meeting.

As you get ready to meet with those professionals, being ready with questions will save time and money. Here are some questions to start with.

1 – Is there a law that we must have a disaster preparedness plan for every meeting?

At Emergency Plan Guide we have never found a legal requirement on emergency preparedness for meeting planners. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t one!  Your professional advisers may have found it. Ask.

But at the same time we have read enough horror stories to know that people sue no matter what! 

They may claim that you should have let them know in advance that it was a dangerous neighborhood, that the venue was open to access from outside, that there was no internet security, that a storm was threatened, that medical aid was not immediately available, etc., etc. They will claim you were negligent.

2 – How do we protect ourselves if there is no clear-cut law?

Recent well-known lawsuits seem to have revolved around the legal concept of “Duty of Care.” The Legal Dictionary at Law.com defines Duty of Care this way: “a requirement that a person act toward others and the public with the watchfulness, attention, caution and prudence that a reasonable person in the circumstances would use. “

There’s a second legal term we also see connected with this same topic: “Standard of Care.” It is closely tied to “Duty of Care.” 

Basically, this is the “standard” that a reasonable person with the same qualifications would follow in a similar circumstance. As you might imagine, a professional would have a higher standard than a non-professional.

Here’s the challenge. Law.com adds:  “The problem is that the “standard” is often a subjective issue upon which reasonable people can differ.”

Not too helpful! 

Still, we already know that it just makes sense to prepare for emergencies to the best level you can.

3 – So what does a reasonable person do when planning a meeting?

These are my recommendations. They are similar to preparing for emergencies in your own home or business.

I see these as basic steps:

• Evaluate your OWN level of preparedness. Who from your company will be there, what skills do they have, how ready will they be to respond to an emergency? What gaps do you find?
• Identify risks for this particular event: geographic location and specific room or building, threats from weather and/or people (attendees or outsiders), security issues, availability of emergency medical personnel, cyber-security policies, firearms policies, alcohol policies, etc.
• For each risk, confer with your business partners and then decide on who will respond and how. Make it clear who is responsible for what. Will any of the partners need to budget for additional personnel or equipment? List whom to call and all names and numbers. Decide who will interact with the news media or other officials, etc.
• Confirm appropriate insurance coverages, yours and your meeting business partners.  
• Write down and update your plan. Document your planning meetings. Share your decisions as appropriate in your marketing materials, since attendees deserve to know you have considered their safety in your planning. Document how everything went at the meeting.

This written document shows that you were attentive, prudent and thorough. This can be your very best protection against claims of negligence.

More resources on emergency preparedness for meeting planners

A while ago I attended a 2-hour training session sponsored by Meetings Today. The title was: Risk Management – Best Practices for Meetings and Events. The presenter, Brenda Rivers, also put out a 30-minute podcast on the Duty of Care. You may be able to find the podcast here: https://www.meetingstoday.com/magazines/article-details/articleid/32549/title/duty-of-care-keeping-safe

Meetings Today has also published a comprehensive template for meeting planners. If you have any responsibility for planning meetings, you may wish to download it for future reference. Here’s the link: https://www.meetingstoday.com/newsevents/industrynews/industrynewsdetails/articleid/31923/title/emergency-response-plan-template-for-planners

If you consider yourself to be a professional meeting planner, or just an enthusiastic meeting planner, please find out more about this topic!

Best of luck,

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. Joe and I consider ourselves “enthusiastic meeting planners.”  Together, we have been responsible for literally hundreds of meetings for professional associations, Rotary International, neighborhood outreach for energy efficiency, and, of course, our local emergency response group. You can find one of our neighborhood group meeting planning Advisories here, recently updated.

And if you’re serious about putting on a successful meeting, check out this book from Alex Genadinik. There are a number of books available about planning events, of course, including those on starting a business as an event planner. I recommend this one because of Genadinik’s marketing emphasis.

Yesterday morning our neighborhood emergency response team was asked to set up cones and direct traffic for a drive-through food-distribution program scheduled for next Monday. It’s an important event in our community.

Of course, our team members are all senior citizens, so the first thing I did was to check the weather forecast. (The last time we were asked to help it was pouring rain!)

And here’s the danger that popped out at me immediately, from The Weather Service:

EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING for Southwestern California Friday 11 a.m. through Monday 9 p.m.

That means a heat wave will be starting at just about the time this Advisory arrives in your email box on Friday! And it will continue right through the mid-day Monday hours that the food distribution program was scheduled for!

What’s the news about heat-related deaths?

Now, earlier this week I read an interesting article that suggested that heat-related deaths in the U.S. are down because of the Coronavirus!  Why?  People are staying inside more! Today, however, coronavirus just wasn’t on my mind. I was worried about the danger of extremely high temperatures.

You may recall that I wrote about summer heat just a couple of weeks ago. This week, I was obliged to dig a bit deeper. Here are the highlights of what I found – and what I will be sharing later today with my neighbors!

Heat danger is clear for senior citizens.

• Heat deaths in the U.S. are generally trending down, because more people are getting air conditioning.
• On average, though, heat is the leading cause of death from natural weather or environmental events — between 700 and 1,000 deaths a year. (“On average” doesn’t mean “everywhere.”)
• The people most at risk? You might have guessed this: crop workers in California, Arizona and Texas, athletes (and fans) who insist on performing even in the heat, and people over 65.

Well, that last one was what I was looking for.

If you are over 65, or if you know someone over 65, here are steps to take to protect yourself from the danger of extreme heat.

I hope this is all review for you! But it may not be for some of your older friends or family members, so please read it with them in mind.

Level 1. (You should already know these.)

• Wear light clothing.
• Stay out of the sun. If you must go out, wear sunscreen, a hat, and dark glasses.
• Pace yourself; avoid strenuous activity altogether.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Keep the house dark; close curtains, reflect sunlight.
• Eat light meals. (Save on electricity, too, by not cooking.)

Level 2. (These should sound at least familiar if you read that earlier Advisory.)

• If you don’t have air conditioning in your home, do some research now to find a heat-relief center. If necessary, head for the library or even a mall for a few hours.
• Know the symptoms of heat exhaustion: heavy sweating, headache, dizziness, nausea, rapid heartbeat, skin that feels cool and moist, and muscle cramps. If you experience them, take action immediately to cool off: get into the shade, apply cool wet clothes, drink cool water.
• Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke, which can be deadly. If the victim vomits or can’t drink, call 911. Other symptoms of heat stroke: the skin is dry and hot (no sweat); victim is confused, may see double. Have the person lie down; try to cool them down.

 Level 3. For people with medical conditions.

• If you are on water pills, find out from your doctor how much water you can drink when it’s hot.
• Avoid alcoholic drinks and very cold drinks. Alcohol is dehydrating; cold can cause stomach cramps.
• If you are on a low salt diet, have diabetes, high blood pressure or kidney disease, check with your doctor before drinking sports drinks. (They replace important lost electrolytes, but they are high in sugar and salt.)
• Some common medicines can INCREASE the risk of heat-related death because they interfere with sweating! They include antipsychotics, major tranquilizers, antidepressants, antihistamines, drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease and some over-the-counter sleep medications.  Check with your doctor!

One last bit of information concerns the use of fans.

As you know, fans are cheaper to run than air conditioners, and they can make a significant difference in your comfort as long as the air temperature is still reasonable.

(Here’s a random but current illustration of a situation where fans won’t make much of a difference.  Two weeks ago (July 28), temperatures in Baghdad (Iraq) hit 125.2. It was the 4^th day in a row they had topped 120 degrees!)

So, to sum up, before you experience extraordinary hot weather . . .

Check your home to close off leaks and figure out how to keep the sun out. Stock up on water. Postpone errands. Find out where a cooling shelter is located if you need it.

Consider getting a fan. A fan can make the air feel 4 degrees cooler just by evaporating your sweat!

The tiny 3 inch “personal” fans, while convenient, really don’t have much cooling power. But you can move a simple 8 in. table fan like the one pictured below with you from room to room. (It has to be blowing ON you, of course!) If you have air conditioning, you may want to get an 18-20 inch floor fan, often labeled “industrial.” Run in conjunction with the air conditioning, it can have a major cooling effect. (We have an old fan, very powerful. When the A/C goes on, we use that fan to spread cool air from the floor vents. Really works . . . but it is super noisy.)

Honeywell HT-900 TurboForce Air Circulator Fan Black

If you have friends over 65, plan to check on them every day during a heat wave, and not just once. Older people’s bodies don’t respond to extremes. As mentioned above, they may take medicines that interact negatively with heat. And if they live alone, they may simply not notice changes that are taking place until it’s too late. Check on them!

Oh, to go back to the very first part of the story? We postponed the drive-thru food pick-up to avoid the possible danger for our volunteers — and to protect our senior neighbors from coming out, too. And our team members will be checking on them.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. What with all the changes going on with policing, the deliberate delays in postal service, and, of course, the pandemic, some of our neighbors are feeling less secure. Our next Advisory will be addressing the topic of home security. (Be sure to sign up so you don’t miss it.)

When you are lucky enough to enjoy a few days of vacation, or if you’re in the mood to CHANGE your mood, consider spending some time with some survival entertainment!

Read for escape and pleasure!

If you are a hard-core reader like I am, you’ll demand a certain level of quality in your survival books.  Or magazines, as the case may be. I found the article from Popular Mechanics, shown above, to be a treat!   (Have you heard of the Swedish fire? You break apart one block of wood, wrap it loosely with wire to keep it all held together and upright, build your fire on top of the center splits so the fire falls down into the cracks. Burns for several hours! Love it!)

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I managed to discover and read something totally different – a survival novel that takes place in a nearly ruined America of the not-so-distant future.

I have reviewed that book — Lighthouse Island — and a half-dozen other outstanding survival books and magazines at our companion website, Emergency Preparedness Books.

If you’re looking for some different survival themes, different levels of intensity and even survival excitement, please head over there and take a look. Several of the books are “How to” on survival; a couple are novels with plenty of accurate survival imagery, and a couple are written for young people – and young at heart like me! I’ll be adding more.

Of course, in addition to books there are . . .

Movies for thrills and excitement!

It’s the day after Christmas as I write this Advisory. Yesterday we watched the obligatory re-run of Die Hard. Not a classic wilderness survival movie – but certainly an epic survival story! (Hans Gruber, so very smooth and sinisterly multi-lingual!)

Which brings me to some more of the “Best Survival Movies Ever Made.”  Here’s a short list. Which of these have you seen?  Would you watch them again?

• Most recent disaster film, which you’ve surely heard of if you haven’t seen it: San Andreas! Sure, it’s not the most scientifically accurate disaster movie. (Savvy preppers here in California find it pretty easy to pick out the faults – a pun!) But what special effects! And Dwayne Johnson!
• The Martian – science fiction full of well — science mixed with humor!  I read the book a few years ago, and I loved it. (Made me laugh out loud even though the hero was stranded on Mars and had to survive on practically nothing but his brains until he could be rescued! The thinking man’s survival skills on display . . .!) Of course any movie with Matt Damon deserves a Golden Globe nearly sight unseen.
• Just the next year a traditional survival film actually won an Oscar – in fact, many, many other awards, for that matter. It is The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The scene: western frontier wilderness in the early 1800s. The challenge: winter weather, grizzly bear and other wildlife, plus some treacherous travel companions. Hollywood loved this film, and movie-goers turned it into a blockbuster.

Now, there have been survival movies for years, well before the three described above which you’ve probably at least seen ads for.

How about some survival movie classics?

• Into the Wild came out in 2007, directed by Sean Penn. It’s an absorbing story of a young man who leaves his comfortable life to test his survival skills in Alaska. I saw this film myself several years ago – every spectacularly beautiful and excruciating minute of it. This is more drama than adventure. And it’s good!
• Volcano, starring Tommy Lee Jones (another must-see actor) as an emergency manager. It came out in 1997 and is available on Netflix. Set in L.A., this one line describes it all – “Hot on entertainment!”
• Twister was the second highest grossing film of 1996! It followed storm-chasers across Oklahoma. A Rotten Tomatoes review cites the film’s “visceral thrills” and again, special effects.

Learn some good stuff via documentaries and semi-documentaries.

In no particular order, here are some films that captured the interest of professional members of the Emergency Management group on LinkedIn. I’ll be checking these films off my own holiday viewing list. (One or the other might be appropriate for showing at a neighborhood meeting.)

• Fire in Paradise, which aired on Frontline, covers the 2018 wildfire that basically destroyed the town of Paradise in California. It’s a 39 minute documentary with interviews of people who went through the ordeal. You’ll learn a lot about evacuations.
• Dirty War is a docu-drama first broadcast in 2004 by the BBC and made available in the U.S. through HBO. The situation:  A radioactive “dirty” bomb detonates outside a subway station in London. At that time, this was a thriller. Today, it’s become too real.
• American Blackout is now top of my own list. Produced by National Geographic, the 90-minute docu-drama “reveals in gritty detail the impact of what happens when a cyber-attack on the U.S. takes down the power grid.” The power shut-downs earlier this year gave us a taste . . .

There’s plenty more survival entertainment where these came from!

These movies are available at Amazon and other streaming services. Most are available for purchase at Amazon, too, if that’s how you want to enjoy them. Click away here!

Of course, not all survival fiction may be award-worthy.

But today we’re talking about a vacation change of pace! If necessary, you can always pick out the totally unrealistic moments and describe to your family members what it REALLY would be like. (They may not appreciate the interruption, so maybe save those criticisms until afterwards!?)

At the very least, a book or movie can start a conversation at home to inspire new interest in emergency preparedness and response. Maybe you’ll get ideas for a family adventure tour, or some cool gifts.

Who knows what might happen?! We’re talking survival entertainment here! Hope you enjoy some of these!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

P.S. Of course you have your own survival entertainment favorites! Let us know what they are!

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So many disasters happening this week! Where’s the positive progress???

My attention has been drawn from the incredible wildfires here in California to political blowups in Washington D.C. to the aftermath of a monster tornado hit in Texas. I’ve read about home solar battery explosions, the threat of Boeing’s 737 MAX, vaping addiction and deaths among high-schoolers, and tonight, to ever-wider PSPS’s . . .there’s just more happening than I can keep up with!

(Oh yes, PSPS is the newest acronym, standing for Public Safety Power Shut-offs. That’s the deliberate shut-down of power by the utility companies here in California in an attempt to avoid more fires during this hot, dry, and windy weather.)

So I decided to turn away from all the bad news and focus on some good news.

And I’m starting with a note from one of our readers that was positive progress personified!

Here’s what I received earlier this week from Suzi.

Hi Virginia! On my birthday in September I asked my family to lend me a hand to create a dedicated emergency supplies cupboard. We emptied a cupboard, built some shelves, and stocked it with all of our Go bags, a big first aid kit, an emergency radio, lanterns, gloves, etc. Nearby is a closet where we store sleeping bags, a tent, and canned food. I’m a CERT/CMAP member and I feel like I’ve finally made good progress on my preparedness to-do list. I enjoy reading your advisories and I continue to learn about how to react in an emergency. If you’d like, I can send you a snapshot of my new cupboard. Thank you!

Well naturally I responded to her invitation with an enthusiastic “Yes, please!’

So she wrote: Here is the dedicated cupboard! It’s a space we made under the stairs. On the door you can see the list of phone numbers for family members. We also have an extensive notebook with pertinent financial info, birth certificates, etc. One of the best items in this cupboard is an Icon Lifesaver Jerrycan which allows us to filter any questionable water (lake, pool, tap water under a boil water order). https://iconlifesaver.com/product/lifesaver-jerrycan-starter-pack/

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Suzi’s note and photo have inspired a lot of questions and comments.

Such a good idea – finding useful storage space where there wasn’t any before!

Stairs and staircases are a perfect example of “lost” space that can be recovered.  Two-story homes often have whole strange-shaped rooms under stairs, perfect for storage. Any home with a porch may have space underneath that can be converted to emergency storage. Some of our neighbors have storage bins fastened to the roof in their garage (over the garage door tracks). We even use part of our Public Storage unit for storing emergency supplies. (The facility is located within walking distance of our home.)

Sometimes you have to create storage space if you want to make positive progress. What’s been YOUR most original and/or useful discovery?

What stands out for me in the photo of Suzi’s supply cabinet?

• The list of important phone numbers and contact information fastened to the inside of the door! It looks as if it could easily be removed and stuffed into a Go-Bag, too, if necessary. (Joe and I have so many bits of “important information” that we have had to scan and store them on flash drives. But since we likely won’t have computers in an emergency, we have to have them on paper, too. The trick is to know exactly where they are.)
• Items in see-through containers. This cupboard is awfully neat; as it fills up, as it is bound to do, having items in see-through plastic holders will make it so much easier to find what you’re looking for. I remember finding see-through soft zippered suitcase packing cubes at Amazon that might stack wonderfully on these irregularly-shaped shelves.
• Duct tape. No need to comment about that except to be happy to see it! Do you have scissors and a knife? Not everyone can tear it easily. (This comment applies to all tools. Only collect and store tools that work and tools that you or family members can use safely.)
• Icon Lifesaver Jerrycan for purifying water. I can’t identify it in the picture –  Is it hidden deep in one of the shelves? — but the more I hear about long-lasting outages, the more sensible a water purifying system sounds. (As you know from reading my Advisories, I have a number of small water purifying devices from LifeStraw, and have read good things about the family-size Berkey purifier.)
• The full-sized First Aid Kit. One of my neighbors opened the trunk of her car today to get out a shopping bag, and I saw a small first aid kit fastened near the wheel well. I didn’t say anything but I wondered . . . How long had it been there – in the heat and cold? How much useful stuff could possibly be inside such a small box? I think we’re often too casual with our first aid supplies.
• The LED light. That’s a great one – so compact!  (Here we have to be ready for an earthquake so we have a flashlight or lantern in every single room including one on each side of the bed.)

Suzi, your picture inspires one additional planning piece . . .

Just in studying the picture and in writing about all these emergency supplies I realize that at some point you may have to add another piece of paper to the door: a diagram listing everything in the cupboard and showing where it is located! 

As you know, I love lists and use them for just about everything, but I must admit to one challenge I haven’t solved. And that’s a good way to pack/store/keep track of my CERT duffel bags. We have a variety of them on the floor in a closet, and unfortunately I pull one or the other out for a different purpose – demonstration, first aid exercise, actual turnout to look for a missing person — add just what I want for that day, and then put the bag back at the end of the day. The next time I can’t remember what’s in which bag and find myself sorting through them all . . .  

Dear Reader, what’s your best suggestion for keeping track of my stuff in duffel bags?

So hasn’t this been an Advisory of a different style!? Thanks to Suzi for getting us all started in taking another look at our emergency supplies and how and where we have them stored. Again, please share your own positive progress stories. They help us all!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. Another cool thing about Suzi’s cupboard is that when it’s closed the valuable items inside are hidden from the casual observer. It’s important to be discrete about preparedness supplies so as not to draw uninvited attention.

P.P.S. I invite you to add to this conversation. The more positive progress we share, the more we’ll all be rewarded with good ideas! Drop me a line via the CONTACT form and we’ll see how to package your suggestions for everyone’s benefit.

During the summer I wrote a couple of times about the earthquakes we experienced on the 4^th and 5^th of July. If you recall, those quakes, a 6.4 magnitude followed the next day by a 7.1, were centered in Ridgecrest, a town of about 30,000 located north of Los Angeles. (I added the approximate location to the map above.)

At the time, we saw news videos of homes on fire, store shelves emptying onto the floor, and images of cracks in local highways.

Ridgecrest faded from the front page of the news, but suddenly it’s right there again because there have been over 110,000 aftershocks in the web of interconnected faults in the Ridgecrest area. And as a result:

A once dormant fault has been awakened! And it’s a major one!

Look just below the red Ridgecrest label on the map to see the Garlock Fault. For well over 500 years the fault, running in an east-west direction for nearly 200 miles, has been silent.

But since the Ridgecrest quakes, that major earthquake fault has begun to move. Garlock has been reported as capable of producing a magnitude 8 earthquake!

Here are the questions I’ve had, and the answers I’ve found.

Is the Garlock Fault actually part of the Ridgecrest network?

No. The Ridgecrest network of smaller quakes stopped a few miles from the Garlock. But their activity destabilized the Garlock fault, which is a major fault. And as you can see on the map, the Garlock fault DOES connect to the San Andreas fault.

What kind of movement does the Garlock show?

The Garlock fault is just creeping at a slow pace, without any shaking going on. No one living in that area has really noticed it. But satellite imagery is so precise that it can measure the movement. Add the satellite info to measurements taken from seismometers and scientists now have an accurate picture of what’s happening. The fault has crept about .8 of an inch since July.

Doesn’t creeping lessen the strain on the faults?

Apparently not. Sometimes creeping can reduce the strain on the faults, but it could also trigger an earthquake.

Does all this mean that a major quake is more likely?

All the reports that I read said the same thing: “We just don’t know. The chances of ‘The Big One’ hitting are the same as they have been for years. It could arrive at any minute.”

What should we be doing as a result of this discovery?

Let’s review. When a major earthquake hits, buildings and roads collapse, cutting off communications and transportation and causing injury.  However, most injuries are not from falling buildings. Rather, they are from items flying across a room or falling from shelves. Preparing in advance can reduce these dangers.

The good news is if you haven’t started preparing yet, you can start today using the step-by-step list below! (Find more to-do lists at BusinessInsider and also at Earthquake Country Alliance.)

Do a few things every day. Any preparations we make give us a better chance of making it through.

Step 1: Secure your house and where you work.

Just stand in the middle of a room and slowly turn around, and you’ll see what needs to be done to protect yourself from falling or moving items!

• Fasten down heavy pieces of furniture (refrigerator, bookcases, computer stands) using earthquake straps.
• Anchor light fixtures to the ceiling.
• Hang heavy items using brackets and screws and special earthquake hangers (monitors, mirrors, pictures).
• Remove heavy books and decorative items from high shelves and move to bottom shelves.
• Put small items into cupboards or use Museum putty to stick them to shelves (vases, collectibles).
• Store glass food containers in closed cabinets with latches.

Step 2: Have supplies to carry you through.

After a major earthquake, you are likely to be on your own, with no immediate help, for hours or even days. (1) Build a 72-hour survival kit that you can grab if necessary. Have one for each person at home, at work and one in the car. (2) Store other supplies in convenient places so you’ll be able to shelter in place for at least 10 days.

Here are the 8 categories you’ll want to consider for both the kit and for the shelter-in-place supplies: water, food, shelter/warmth, health/safety, light, communications (assume no power), sanitation, and personal items. (You may also want to add tools to help you make repairs after the quake.) Here’s a link to our two complete lists with dozens of items to consider.

This is a lot of stuff to think about! Make your own customized list and start to pull things together day by day. Don’t forget pets.

Step 3. Make a disaster plan.

Decide on an out-of-town friend or relative as the contact person for your family. Be sure everyone knows the contact’s cell phone number! Teach everyone in your household how to text, because when communication lines are overloaded a text may get through when a voice message won’t.

Train family members on how to use emergency equipment that might be necessary after a major earthquake: emergency radio, fire extinguisher, gas turn-off wrench.

Step 4. Start now to protect yourself financially.

This can include reviewing insurance coverage, setting aside emergency funds, and organizing all important documents. (Many disaster victims can’t prove they own their home, don’t have car ownership documents, lose IDs showing eligibility for pensions, etc.) Scan important documents and store them on an easy-to-manage flash drive or “in the cloud.”

Step 5. Know what to do when the quake hits! 

There are many out-dated notions still floating around about standing in doorways, finding a “triangle of life,” etc. In a major earthquake you will NOT BE ABLE TO MOVE SAFELY. Try to keep away from glass windows and doors as you . . .

If you are outside, stay away from buildings, power lines, etc. that could fall.

Step 6. Organize your neighborhood for more resilience.

Recent disasters of all kinds have shown that neighbors can and will help, particularly if they know each other and have trained on what to do. (1) Get CERT training as a start. (2) Get one of Emergency Plan Guide’s Neighborhood Disaster Survival guides and use its suggestions to help your neighborhood get organized.

And something new if you are in California: the MyShake cellphone app.

Last Thursday was Great California Shake-Out Day. Over 10 million people participated! And Governor Gavin Newsom announced the launch of the nation’s first statewide earthquake early warning system.

The ShakeAlert system, developed by the University of California Berkeley and the Wire Emergency Alert system, has been available for schools, hospitals and other public agencies for a while. Now it has been made available to all citizens through a simple cellphone app – the MyShake app.

The MyShake app can be downloaded from Google Play (Android) and through iTunes from the Apple app store (iOS).

Basically, hundreds seismic sensors track ground movement, transmit it for analysis, and then if a quake of 4.5 magnitude or stronger is expected, the system sends an alert to selected grid locations. The alert message will be simple: “There is an earthquake. Drop, cover and hold on.”

(It all works because shaking waves travel at around .5 to 3 miles per second — but electronic transmissions are instantaneous. Want more details about ShakeAlert? Get this fact sheet from the US Geological Survey. )

What good will a few seconds warning do?

In a few seconds . . .

• You’ll be able to grab a child and huddle under a sturdy table or desk.
• You will have time to turn off the stove or blow out a candle.
• Doctors and dentists can lift the scalpel or drill.
• Officials can slow or stop trains.
• Elevators can be shut off.
• Automatic doors can be opened.
• Equipment can be shut off or set to safe mode.

What would YOU do right now to protect yourself if an earthquake were arriving in 5-10 seconds?

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. During the time I was working on this Advisory, two more quakes were felt in Northern California – 4.5 and a 4.7 magnitude. Earthquake activity is continuous. You can be prepared.

We have written regularly and determinedly about being prepared for a power outage – planned or unplanned — as the most common “emergency” in the country.

Our goal is to keep an inconvenience from becoming an emergency. Or perhaps, keep an emergency from becoming a disaster.

Inconveniences, emergencies and disasters are happening right now in Northern California because of a massive planned power outage.

PG&E, the country’s largest utility, is deliberately shutting down power during an anticipated high wind event to avoid possible forest fires from downed lines.

So far, about 500,000 people have been affected.  Further planned outages may impact as many as 1 million households — 2 million people!

It’s the most extensive planned power outage ever employed.

Some examples of how residents are coping – and struggling.

• Gas stations have long, long lines or are closed completely as people rush to fill their cars and buy fuel for generators.
• Stores have sold out of generators, water and batteries.
• Food stores without generators have packed some items into ice-filled containers or refrigerated trucks, trying to keep them cold for a few more hours. Other stores have already started disposing of ruined food.
• Some retail operations show emergency lighting, but are closed because they can’t operate cash registers.
• Traffic lights are blinking or out completely, creating dangerous intersections and traffic jams.
• Cell phones are running out of battery. “Community Resource Centers” have been opened, and can  provide residents with bathrooms, bottled water and power recharging – but apparently only during daylight hours. (Find list of open centers here.)
• People who need electric medical devices may be in real trouble unless they have made advance preparations for back-up or alternatives.

How long will the planned outage last?

Again, according to news reports, “Once the fire weather subsides, PG&E will inspect and test the grid both electronically and with on-site crews before restoring service. That could take up to five days.”

(Surely California can expect help from other states and/or utility companies, just as Florida and Georgia did during Hurricane Dorian.)

It’s not often that we experience a self-inflicted disaster.

PG&E Senior Vice President: “The safety of our customers and the communities we serve is our most important responsibility, which is why PG&E has decided to turn power off to customers during this widespread, severe wind event.”

As you can imagine, many citizens and citizen groups are outraged that the power line infrastructure has not been maintained to withstand high winds. Watch for more on this. In the meanwhile . . .

Check out these Emergency Plan Guide Resources.

• https://emergencyplanguide.org/power-outage-scheduled-for-next-week/  Electrical medical devices, food spoilage
• https://emergencyplanguide.org/power-outage-scheduled-for-next-week/ Do’s and Don’t’s for when the power goes out
• https://emergencyplanguide.org/power-outage-in-the-workplace/ Lots more can go wrong when the power goes out at work.
• https://emergencyplanguide.org/managing-medicines-in-an-emergency suggestions for managing medicines that need to be refrigerated
• https://emergencyplanguide.org/reviews/best-emergency-lanterns-for-power-outage/ How to buy the best emergency lighting for your needs, with our recommendations

Even if you aren’t in Northern California, an extended power outage could hit at any time. Please take simple steps to keep an outage from being a disaster for you and your household!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

There should be no controversy around emergency preparedness, right?

Wrong.

Even from my perspective as a “grass roots organizer,” I’m aware of several levels of controversy in the industry. For people who are serious about preparedness, it’s important to know about them. First of all, let’s look at . . .

Controversy at the individual family level

As you know, at Emergency Plan Guide we try to examine actions people can take that are mostly easily accomplished, not too expensive, and generally considered sensible. We count on most of our neighbors to be on the same wave length.

You can consider this approach as one side of the coin. If you spend any time online, you’ll be presented with the other side.

In contrast to the “neighborly” approach, this side is held by people who anticipate and make plans for significant societal upheavals, invest in self-defense including weapons and ammunition, and often don’t trust neighbors at all.

Where do you fit in this controversy?

Controversy at the First Responder level

We have always promoted the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training that is provided in many communities, at little or no cost. It gives citizens basic knowledge about how to protect themselves and their neighbors in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. Everyone who has taken CERT training has found it worthwhile and really appreciates the effort put into the training by the fire and police departments.

I hear from multiple sources, however (mostly online discussion groups, and some face-to-face conversations) that some trained First Responders wish the CERT people would just “get out of the way and leave us to do our job.” I have even heard recently of CERT budgets being raided by professional First Responders to meet their own departmental desires.

Controversy at the National level

Since the fiasco of Katrina under Mike Brown, FEMA has been headed up by people with actual emergency management background. But the agency hasn’t had a smooth ride over the past few years, with hundreds of declared emergencies. Brock Long, Administrator from June 2017 until February of this year, seemed to handle Hurricane Harvey pretty well, but FEMA’s response to Maria was widely criticized as slow and inadequate.

The latest development – two new Acting Administrators.

While FEMA leadership seems willing to deal with whatever hits the country next, we can’t count on it being effective, thanks to politics. President Trump delayed providing aid to victims of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico for a number of different political (and apparently some personal) reasons. When fires burst out in California in 2018, Trump incorrectly blamed the fires on “poor forest management” and threatened to withhold disaster relief. (He conveniently overlooked the fact that over half the forests in California are under federal land management.)

Because national leadership has suggested more than once that some Americans are worthy of response and relief, but OTHERS ARE NOT WORTHY, the entire federal emergency management program becomes suspect.

What is the answer?

From my perspective, all we can do is take on the responsibility for our own safety. We can all make an effort to become better prepared and better trained, build stronger relationships, and be ready to protect ourselves and our neighbors in an emergency.

That’s the posture Joe and I take, and that so many of our Emergency Plan Guide readers seem to take, too.

Depending on someone else may be ill-advised.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

Day 28 of Summer Vacation: A time for some shorter and lighter Advisories as a welcome change-of-pace!

It started with a hot smell and smoke from under the hood.

Over the past 2 weeks we’ve had serious trouble with our car. (That’s what kept me from writing yesterday’s Advisory.) It all started with a hot smell and suspicious puffs of smoke from under the hood, followed by a big leak SPLAT onto the driveway.

I don’t want to go into it all. But we had a huge repair bill following hours and days spent peering at hard-to-recognize engine parts, calling towing services, hanging around in repair shops, transferring stuff into rental cars, signing contracts for loaner vehicles, you get the picture.

As of today, the car seems to be working OK. I am not holding my breath because it’s too hot to hold your breath, but I am still alert to every hick-up, stray sound, new odor and any smoke from under the hood.

Which brings me to today’s Advisory.

Now, be alert!

Change of direction!

We are no longer talking about a breakdown.

We’re switching to a popular SCAM that involves white smoke from under the hood!

I think it’s worth taking 1o minutes to learn more from the video below. After all, this is a scam that could create an emergency and could actually turn into a financial disaster for the people who fall for it.

(This video takes about 10 minutes to watch. You may have to click to get past an ad or two. And don’t waste your time reading any of the comments, which are inane.)

The white envelope on the seat notwithstanding, it’s the white smoke that caught my eye in this video. . . Watch for it.

The more we all know about all the types of scams out there, the safer we all will be.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

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Day 27 of Summer Vacation: A time for some shorter and lighter Advisories as a welcome change-of-pace!

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This isn’t a picture of me but the photo by iamSherise on Unsplash gives you an idea of how I felt yesterday . . .

After all the furor yesterday, at the end of day I received this notice from the Public Works department at the city about the now infamous planned power outage. (The notice came after I had spoken to two different city offices, leaving messages but never actually talking to this person who ultimately responded.)

Read carefully. The key word is in the second line . . .

Hello Virginia,

I contacted the utility regarding the planned outage and they have informed me there was an error in the notifications. The duration of the outage will not be 24 hours. Instead there will be two 30 minute outages affecting residential customers and one 8 hour outage overnight that will impact only commercial customers. They will be sending corrective notifications to customers regarding the planned outage.

Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

Can you believe it?!

Perhaps you can. In our experience, utility companies do not always operate efficiently. (Joe and I have worked with utility companies a lot, on the East Coast and on the West Coast!)

In this case, I had contacted 3 different utility representatives earlier in the day and each of them had a different answer to my questions. I hung up totally dissatisfied. That’s when I switched gears and aimed my calls at the city to “raise the level of awareness” a bit more!

Later, the city Public Works person told me, “We have a direct connection with the utility because we work with them all the time on infrastructure projects. So I just called my contact there and she got it straightened out.”

Moral of story: “You gotta know who to call!”

Second moral: “If you don’t know who to call, keep calling until you get to the right person!”

Thank you for giving me the chance to unload about this power outage “error.” It truly created upset and even panic among some of our neighbors. Now we have the job of reassuring everyone while reminding them that an extended outage could still happen and they need to take steps now to be ready!

Please consider your own level of preparedness for an outage. According to my trusted sources, a power outage — local or extended, planned or unplanned — is the most common emergency that businesses face — and that means all of us.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

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Day 19 of Summer Vacation: A time for some shorter and lighter Advisories as a welcome change-of-pace!

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“Have you heard? We’re expecting a power outage tomorrow night!”

That is, some of my neighbors have received notification. Some have heard nothing from the utility company — and that includes me.

Notifications are good. But the fact is, it pays to be ready at any time. With temperatures heating up for the summer, more people will be using air conditioning. Too much pressure on the system and it could shut down.

Like, what happened Saturday night in New York? Now THAT was massive. And dangerous.

Your local power outage doesn’t have to be dangerous as long as you are ready. Here are some quick DOs and DONTs as reminders.

Use as little electricity as you can when it’s hot. In fact, you can head to a cooling center and save on your own electricity. Just check with your local city office for locations.

If you have warning a power outage on its way . . .

1. DON’T leave the house if you are using appliances like your washing machine. What if the power goes out mid-cycle? A wet mess!!!
2. DON’T open the refrigerator if the power goes out. Dig out some snacks and make do.
3. DON’T pick up the phone and call your family to let them know. The phone probably won’t work anyway – unless it’s a cell phone.
4. DO have a pair of sturdy slip-on shoes next to the bed, with a flashlight right there too, so you can get up safely in the dark.
5. DO store some extra water – for your pet, too.
6. DO have some emergency lighting. I like the night lights we have that go on automatically when the power goes out.
7. DO remain calm. A power outage is not a disaster. It’s probably not even an emergency.

If you’re ready for it, a power outage is nothing more than an inconvenience!

(P.S. Please tell your nervous neighbors this. You may want to run down the list of reminders with them.)

Talk to you soon — as long as the power stays on!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

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Day 16 of Summer Vacation: A time for some shorter and lighter Advisories as a welcome change-of-pace!

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