Prepare Now for Disasters / Emergencies, and the Unforeseen 2024
By Christina Reed
The Hired Pen
Eastern Sierra, CA—You can never be too prepared! You can’t predict Mother Nature (fully), earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, avalanches, rock slides, floods, or wildfires. But, you can prepare for them. They’re going to happen whether you like it or not.
September is National Preparedness Month-Check these resources. Are you ready?
National Preparedness Month
https://www.ready.gov September
https://alpinecountyca.gov emergency
These websites provide: Build a Kit; disasters and emergencies; Make a Plan; Free publications; earthquakes, and National Preparedness Month information. They are FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) approved, which is the agency which will assist homeowners in the event of a disaster with re-payable loans for disaster rebuilding and other infrastructures. FEMA supports first responders and citizens to promote “that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.”
Shelter, food, water, first aid kit, shovel, and a toilet
Start getting your basics in order. If you travel a lot or camp, you should have these in order, at all times, with you. Don’t forget the shovel!! Shelter (tent / tarps), food (freeze dried / no refrigeration), water (ONE gallon per person per day), a good first aid kit and your medications (pets included), and a toilet or some safe, sanitary way to dispose of human pee / poop. If you are careless with your sanitation, you will have the “runs,” (diarrhea) and maybe worse. Plan now. Get it on the shopping list.
Ace High Country Lumber in Bishop and Mammoth Lakes, CA, have these basic emergency supplies, and the staff have experience with real-life uses of these emergency preparedness scenarios. These hardware stores and others carry emergency tools, like a wrench, pliers, hammer, screwdriver, and duct tape. Weather radios. Five-gallon plastic buckets can be used with trash bags, as toilets, tool storage, and hand-cleaning water. Ice chests can hold medications, ice packs, and baby formula (it’s hard to breast feed when you’re in a disaster / running or evacuating from your home for a wildfire!). Remember the babies, elderly, disabled, mentally challenged, and small children. Plan and prepare for them. Flashlights, and a first aid kit are a must. Brush up on your first aid skill sets, and take a CPR / First Aid course (Hint Hint: our local hospitals / healthcare districts could offer FREE CPR / First Aid courses / how to use an AED (an automated external defibrillator) to the public. The AEDs are in most major places up here, but no one really knows what to do with them, or even what they are?). Get fire extinguishers in the major rooms in your home / cabin / camper / RV, and know how to use them (Hint Hint: our local fire departments could offer FREE demonstrations on the proper uses of fire extinguishers / fire blankets to the public / emergency shut off tools / and where to start. Fire extinguishers are in most schools, public buildings, hospitals, grocery stores, mobile home parks, but no one ever shows the kids / adults how to use them properly). How to use smoke detectors / Carbon Monoxide / CO2 detectors, and wrenches to turn off propane / gas / water. Not everyone has had instructions! Propane companies seldom inform homeowners on the proper turn-off procedures for the propane tanks, in the event of a rural fire / earthquake / gas leaks, outside of the volunteer fire departments’ range, and many times when you can’t get the propane companies out during an emergency. Our local citizens become more powerful disaster / emergency helpers with the FREE assistance / education / certification of our local emergency outlets / hospitals / healthcare districts / fire stations / police stations / sheriffs stations. These are vitally important services which are not offered at this time in any of the three eastern Sierra counties, to date. Yes, we do have some, limited CERTs (Community Emergency Response Teams) in the region. CERT courses typically are 56 hours of lecture, plus hands-on demonstrations and evaluations. And, they need to be renewed every two years, with a minimum of 16 hours of training. Could our rural healthcare districts help with this? Yes. Could our local law enforcement agencies help with this? Yes. Could our local fire departments help with this. Yes. Could our counties, council members, supervisors, and state representatives during National Preparedness Month help with this? Yes. Let’s get it together (as in take some first aid classes or CPR courses, or learn how to properly discharge a fire extinguisher, as neighbors, families, visitors, together), and do better for each other. And, have a bucket with gloves, tools, beanie hats, and cold weather gear, ready. Winter’s coming….
¡Enhorabuena!