Last week we acknowledged that one of the difficult things about emergency plan making is that you really need to focus on the negative, considering all of the bad things that can happen.
The plus side of that is that you find there is a lot of overlap. Losing power due to a winter storm plays differently in some ways than a summer brown-out, but there is some common ground. As you prepare your 72-hour kits, you have a start on preparation, and part of the planning becomes adding more food, more water, and more sources of heat and light. Every specific event you learn about and prepare for (like earthquakes and fires) adds to your overall preparation. So, you can build your preparedness gradually, and this is good.
There is something else that is a pain, though, and it is crucial. You need to work out the logistics and communication aspects for various circumstances, and this is a pain because it involves dealing with other people.
It's unavoidable. Once your immediate safety is resolved, you will start worrying about those you care about. Okay, perhaps you can avoid this by not caring for anyone, but that's not a life worth living, so you need to have a plan, and this is where it gets complicated. How does everyone get home? How do different households get in contact?
I remember once I was discussing preparedness with a group of people, and one person was explaining that he had a life jacket and rope in his truck, because he was attending school on the East side of the river while living on the West side. If an earthquake struck while he was in school, the bridges would not be usable, and he knew that, but he was still going to get back to his family by swimming across.
This was a horrible idea. First of all, there could be a seiche, which is the river version of a tsunami. You don't have the sheer volume of the ocean, which helps, but it can mess up the shorelines pretty badly, and I would expect that water to be roiled and full of debris, especially if the bridges have collapsed rather than just being weakened.
At the same time, that he was thinking ahead, and that he knew that he would have a bridge problem was good. You just need to come up with realistic solutions. Sometimes that solution may be that you are not going to get home right away, and that is excruciating, but getting home four days after the event is superior than dying in your attempt to get there sooner.
Clearly, the first step to an emergency plan is to figure out who is where at what times, with work and school being the main ones, and thinking about church is not unreasonable. If there are other places you spend a lot of time at, it may be worth planning for. You can't necessarily foresee every circumstance, but home, school, and work covers a lot of your time.
Potential emergencies are one reason that I am grateful to be working from home, but when I was working downtown, I thought about it. If you had a severe enough earthquake to bring down public transportation, I was prepared to walk home. This brings us to one good point: if you tend to wear shoes that are not good for walking, it is a great idea to have some walking shoes stashed there as well. One of the items in a 9/11 exhibit was a pair of shoes given to a woman who had been walking barefoot after she could not make it down the steps of the World Trade Center in her high heels. She always has walking shoes in her desk now, and I think that's a great idea.
I am pretty much always wearing walking shoes, and I'm a good walker, so that part is not a problem. Walking home via my normal MAX and bus route would not be ideal, based on the terrain and likely disruption. It would make more sense to go North a little and hit a main road into Beaverton. Surfaces look different when you are in a car or on foot. Think about what comes between you and home.
If the disaster struck late in the day, especially in winter, it would probably be reasonable to camp downtown and wait until the next morning. That brings us back to that question of what if you can't get home? Can you sleep at your office? This could be a great reason to keep a 72 hour kit in the office or in your car. Do you have a friend nearby? This is another situation where you have to actually talk to people. Oh, I could crash with Ryan is only actually a plan if you have run it by Ryan and he has said okay.
Even if you have that place to stay, and some supplies, staying there is still frustrating. I would be frantic about my family, and they would be worried too. However, if I know that they know how to turn off the gas if necessary, and that the large furniture was secured, that helps. If they know that I would not be there until the next day, that helps them not to worry.
Maybe there are ways we can communicate with each other at the time, and we'll talk about communication more next week, but having the plan made in advance, and knowing that everybody knows the plan, means that even in the absence of communication we are not completely in the dark.
This means dealing with family members, including annoying ones. The holidays are coming up, so there should be many family gatherings, and chances to discuss this. I'm planning on having some discussions in about a week.
There is one point I want to make that doesn't affect me personally. Last week I mentioned checking with schools and workplaces on what their plans and procedures are, but I just want to point out that if you have children in day care, it is better to go with one close to work than close to home. If you can't get home, but you can get to your children, that will at least provide some peace of mind. Not being able to get to either would be a nightmare.
And I know, you can't make all of your decisions based on the emergency that may never happen, but it's one that's worth looking at.
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