Emergency Preparedness

By Eben Haber

Like many of you, the 2007 fire in Stevens Canyon really brought home to me the need for better emergency preparedness.  Since then, I've been working on it and can share some ideas.  Living where we do, there's no shortage of risks: fire, earthquake, floods, and slides — not to mention the more general threats of terrorism or pandemic flu.  Yet we also have many resources that folks in the valley lack: our own water supplies and storage, back-up power, and a more closely knit community.

Preparedness is a job you can do a lot or a little, but every bit helps.  Here are a few things to think about; I could go on for pages, but this is a good place to start:

Prevention:

♦Keep up your property to make it more resistant to fire ( maintain landscaping, clean up property, repairs to houses, etc.).  The pictures from Santa Barbara two months ago show some houses spared, others gone.  You can make the difference.

♦You can't prevent the next earthquake, but you can prevent stuff from falling on you.  Bolt bookshelves and dressers to the wall.  Half the injuries during the '94 quake were from falling furniture. Also bolt water heaters.

Prepare the basics:

♦Food and water.   What if pandemic flu or a terrorist attack kept you from leaving your house for several weeks?  Figure out what you'd do for food and water.

♦Evacuation route.  If you are given 10 minutes before a fire reaches your house, be prepared to grab the most important medicines, documents, clothes, and anything else you can remember and carry.

♦Fire safety.  Have enough water storage, and keep fire extinguishers on hand and fully charged.

Learn more, and become an asset for your community:

♦First aid.  Knowing the basics, such as how to stop bleeding or open an airway, can save a life.

♦Cupertino offers free classes in preparedness (http://www.cupertino.org/index.aspx?page=534)

oPEP,  a three-hour, one-day class covering all the basics of preparedness

oCERT, three hours/week for five weeks.  Learn enough to be an asset and be able to assist the fire department in an emergency.  The course covers in-depth preparedness, fire safety, emergency first aid, and light search and rescue.  Best of all, being a member of CERT gives you access to free refresher courses every month or so.

When a disaster strikes, emergency services in the mountains and valley will be stretched very thin.  It’s up to all of us to prepare in order to help ourselves and our community.

Earthquake Emergency Preparedness

Links to sites for more info: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2005/15/

                            

                                                 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/prepare/

                                                 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/prepare.html

Publications: Living with Earthquakes in California: A Survivor’s Guide by Robert S. Yeats ( ISBN: 0870714937)

Homeowners Guide to Earthquake Safety by the California seismic Safety Commission

                                                  http;//www.seismic.ca.gov/hog.htm