<p>We keep most of our documents in another location in a fireproof cabinet. Hadn’t thought about bleach but that is good.
We do have wildfires but like Washdad I think the biggest disaster would be an earthquake. That would put the whole city and area out of commission. With fire it is unlikely that the entire area would burn so there is always somewhere to go.
I don’t have much I could not live without as long as my family is safe. It does remind me that my photos are all over the place. I need to really spend some quality time going through them and having them be in one place. Also more recent photos are on a desktop computer. Need to copy those to a CD.</p>
<p>It is interesting what some people take. I spoke with a good friend who is evucuated. She packed up her china, her shoes and her favorite clothes. They filled 6 cars with stuff. I think I would just take the essentials and leave.
The visitor is family and you know how that can go. She means well and the message delivered from anyone else would be better received.
Do those of you who live in earthquake country have all the emergency supplies in a dedicated place including the food and water?</p>
<p>My now deceased aunt and uncle lived in Northridge, and have lived through some doozy earthquakes in their day. The latest one (1994) left them without water and gas for cooking for some time (electricity came back pretty early on). They lived a spartan existence until everything could be hooked up and checked out. They were NOT going to leave their homes (looters?)</p>
<p>The weird thing is that they could have gotten in their car and driven to Long Beach or Orange County or San Diego and had a normal existence in a hotel or with family. 20 miles down the road can make a big difference.</p>
<p>What a timely topic. Several years ago we waited to get info from news or FD and ended up lucky to get out with the kids. Latest fire evacuation was much more orderly. We took turns watching news/emergency website and found that neither was particularly up-to-date. A neighbor had a direct connection to someone in the fire dept and he passed along information. Reverse 911 did not call us although several neighbors got a call. Lesson there is you don’t have to wait for an evacuation order. If you feel uncomfortable – especially if members of your family are not very mobile – its ok to go. </p>
<p>Before we left the 2nd time we moved everything flamable away from the house (bbq propane tanks, eg) and made sure every window and door was closed tight (amazing what damage smoke and ash can do). Each kid was responsible for collecting all of their schoolbooks (school was in session) and selecting x number of things that were special. I FORGOT to pack up my address book and my box of recipes. Next time I will.</p>
<p>Things are looking better. Many of our friends are now able to go back to their homes. At least for now the weather is favorable.
Mikasauntie- I am adding address book to my list. I am also amazed at how hard it is to get accurate up to date information. We have found this time the radio has done the best job. In the past we have also had an inside source who worked for the county but she has moved on to another job. When we needed to leave quickly about 15 yrs ago she was the one who got us on the phone and told us to get out quick. She knew we didn’t have a TV and probably weren’t listening to the radio. That was a quick moving fire.</p>
<p>The new LED flashlights that you wind up for power are awesome. Also have cell phone chargers that you wind to power your cell phone. We have these two items in all our cars.</p>
<p>As for fires there is only one plan. Full tank of gas and leave.</p>
<p>For information stuff – address book, photos, etc. – store it online or email it to yourself at the office or to a Web email address (yahoo, hotmail, etc.). Most internet accounts come with free web space; use it for things that are non-confidential. Take pictures of every room in the house, of your possessions, with a digital camera and email the photos to yourself (again, to either the office email or your own web email address), and put them on CD and store it at a friend’s or relative’s house. You may need such documentation for insurance purposes should a disaster occur.</p>
<p>If you don’t have a spare cell phone charger, get one. I have one at work and one in my car; H has one in his car and we have one at home (unless he is away on travel, as he is now). </p>
<p>and put it where anyone in the house can find it. I keep one (a flat one, not that model) in the kitchen where it’s readily accessible, as we lose power frequently. That flashlight is then used to gather the other flashlights and, if needed, candles. We have a Coleman lantern for camping that gives okay light by which to read and work if necessary. (When Hurricane Isabelle came through, I was without power for a week. The weather was mild and the water heater is gas, so I was quite okay. Had a laptop I could recharge at friends’ or at work, a lantern by which to see after nightfall, a phone line for dial-up internet access, a portable CD player with external speakers, and a wind-up radio.)</p>
<p>Have working fire extinguishers, not to battle wildfires, of course, but because every house should have them.</p>
<p>mom60, I hope you and yours stay safe; good luck!</p>
<p>Glad things are improving in your neck of the woods, mom60. And Binx, glad the horn will be safe!</p>
<p>If you have room for things like a hat, sunglasses, bug spray or suntan lotion, they might be helpful if you have to be outside for any length of time.
And I agree, the first thing that should be evacuated is that pesky houseguest!</p>
<p>It’s good to have a non-cordless telephone for when the electricity goes out. The only battery powered radios we have are the cars, but they’d do in a pinch.</p>
<p>Regarding photos I keep negatives in our safe deposit box, but haven’t made a DVD with the digital ones - probably should.</p>
<p>A co-worker just experienced this problem with her elderly mother. The Mom had her car in the garage with her cell phone in the car. Power goes out. Mom’s home phone needs electricity. D can not reach her mother. Mom’s area is being evacuated and my co-worker can not reach her Mom. Mom can not get her car out since the garage has no entrance aside from the garage door. The garage has no people door. Her Mom was able to get a ride out with a neighbor but as soon as the power went back on and her area went from mandatory to warning the car came out of the garage and is sitting in the driveway.
Not sure what anyone can do if their garage only has one opening. Not have an electric opener?
The real test is that now that the danger is passing making sure we are prepared for the next emergency.</p>
<p>mom60-
There s usually (or should I say there is supposed to be) an emergency “pull string” on the garage door opener that lets you manually open the garage door. It should “unlock” the metal arm at the top (it is on a hinge, usually) that then allows you to open the door. It would be an obvious safety issue without that.</p>
<p>jym626 You have to be able to get inside the garage to release the safety. She could not get inside her garage since it had no door aside from the large garage door.
Our first house had no door to the garage but it was not an issue since he garage door was manual.</p>
<p>Ahh-- I was under the impression that she was INSIDE the garage, and could get in/out of her house, just not get the car out fo the garage. I am guessing you are saying that it was a freestanding building not attached to the house. I was thinking of the times our power has gone out. I could get back in my house, but had trouble with the garage door for the car ( we have no “people” door to the outside of the garage from the garage either).</p>
<p>I get worried about DVDs degrading over time. Some of the higher-end photo sharing sites (I prefer SmugMug) make monthly backup tapes of your uploaded digital photos and keep them in multiple geographic locations. I pay $40 a year, and I’ve kept all our photos online since I got my camera. Wedding and honeymoon photos (full files, non-compressed) are up there, and I have the peace of mind of knowing that they won’t be lost to a disaster. We periodically burn DVDs of our laptop contents and keep them with passports and important docs in a fireproof safe.</p>
<p>I also use gmail as both an e-mail provider and as a searchable extension of my brain. All my address book items are in there somewhere.</p>
<p>Yay- a topic on my field of interest. A few things that haven’t been mentioned yet:</p>
<p>TEXT MESSAGE!!! This is the piece of information that I feel needs to be shared with everyone. Text messaging will often work in a disaster even if calling on your cell phone won’t work. You could text during September 11th, you could text during Hurricane Katrina. Since far less data is being sent, texts can get through when calls can’t. Everyone should at least know how to send and receive a simple text. I know I had to teach my parents in case of an emergency.</p>
<p>If you live in earthquake country (like me) be aware of the fact that emergency officials are now telling people to be ready for two weeks on their own, instead of the typical 3 days that were publicized earlier. Food, water, medication, medical supplies etc. The red cross has great information on making proper kits.</p>
<p>It seems that your co-worker should check into what it would cost to cut a door into that garage. Maybe there’s no code there requiring a door to be in the garage but as this illustrates, it’d be a good idea to have one. There are ‘extra skinny’ (24") doors available that should be fairly easy to install.
Otherwise, maybe she should either not use the opener and do it by hand (could be a problem for an elderly lady) or not use the garage. </p>
<p>Although openers are supposed to have the pull cord to manually disengage the door so the door can be manually pushed open, I think there are lots of people who have no idea about the cord and wouldn’t know how to use it. It’s a good thing to review. I’ve had to use mine several times when power’s gone out.</p>
<p>I’m also wondering if the co-workers mom is strong enough to pull the door open with the cord… (or tall enough).<br>
It does seem odd that there is no people door to that garage. There should be. In case of an emergency, you could get in the people door and get a neighbor or someone to pull the cord if need be.</p>