Preparedness
An everyday task for everyday life...
Being prepared for emergencies is crucial at home, school, work and in your community.
Disaster can strike quickly and without warning. It can force you to evacuate your neighborhood, workplace or school or can confine you to your home. What would you do if basic services – water, gas, electricity or telephones – were cut off?
Following a major catastrophic disaster, you may be forced to leave the comfort of your residence as it may be unsafe for your inhabitance. This means that you you may be forced to stay outdoors at a local park or field and survive without the modern conveniences of your home such as food, water, shelter, electricity, or plumbing.
Local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster, but they cannot reach everyone right away. The best way to make you and your family safer is to be prepared before disaster strikes. We encourage you to:
- Get a Kit
- Make a Plan
- Be Informed
First aid kit and essential medications.
Download Forms (Word Formats): Household
Download Forms (Word Formats): CCERT
Canned food and can opener.
At least three gallons of water per person.
Protective clothing, rainwear, and bedding or sleeping bags.
Battery-powered radio, flashlight, and extra batteries.
Special items for infant, elderly, or disabled family members.
Written instructions for how to turn off gas, electricity, and water if authorities advise you to do so. (Remember, you'll need a professional to turn natural gas service back on.)
Keeping essentials, such as a flashlight and sturdy shoes, by your bedside.
Earthquake
Prepare a Home Earthquake Plan
Know What to Do When the Shaking Begins
- Choose a safe place in every room--under a sturdy table or desk or against an inside wall where nothing can fall on you.
- Practice DROP, COVER AND HOLD ON at least twice a year. Drop under a sturdy desk or table, hold on, and protect your eyes by pressing your face against your arm. If there's no table or desk nearby, sit on the floor against an interior wall away from windows, bookcases, or tall furniture that could fall on you.
- Teach children to DROP, COVER, AND HOLD ON!
- Choose an out-of-town family contact.
- Consult a professional to find out additional ways you can protect your home, such as bolting the house to its foundation and other structural mitigation techniques.
- Take a first aid class. Keep your training current.
- Get training in how to use a fire extinguisher from your local fire department.
- Inform babysitters and caregivers of your plan.
- Eliminate Hazards
- Bolt bookcases, china cabinets and other tall furniture to wall studs.
- Install strong latches on cupboards.
- Strap the water heater to wall studs.
- Prepare a Disaster Supplies Kit For Home and Car
DROP, COVER, AND HOLD ON!
- Move only a few steps to a nearby safe place.
- Stay indoors until the shaking stops and you're sure it's safe to exit.
- Stay away from windows.
- In a high-rise building, expect the fire alarms and sprinklers to go off during a quake.
- If you are in bed, hold on and stay there, protecting your head with a pillow.
- If you are outdoors, find a clear spot away from buildings, trees, and power lines. Drop to the ground.
- If you are in a car, slow down and drive to a clear place (as described above). Stay in the car until the shaking stops.
- Identify What to Do After the Shaking Stops
- Check yourself for injuries.
- Protect yourself from further danger by putting on long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, sturdy shoes, and work gloves.
- Check others for injuries.
- Give first aid for serious injuries.
- Look for and extinguish small fires.
- Eliminate fire hazards. Turn off the gas if you smell gas or think it's leaking. (Remember, only a professional should turn it back on.)
- Listen to the radio for instructions.
- Expect aftershocks. Each time you feel one, DROP, COVER, AND HOLD ON!
- Inspect your home for damage. Get everyone out if your home is unsafe.
- Use the telephone only to report life-threatening emergencies.
TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
1) Almost everyone who simply 'ducks and covers' when buildings collapse ARE CRUSHED TO DEATH. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.
2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. This position helps you survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.
3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs . Concrete slab buildings are the most dangerous during an earthquake.
4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.
5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.
6) Almost everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!
7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different 'moment of frequency; they swing separately from the main part of the building. The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads ? horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by
fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.
8) Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or Outside Of Them If Possible - It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.
9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and lying in the fetal position next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars
that had columns fall directly across them.
10) It was also discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.
If You Need To Evacuate
- Listen to a battery powered radio for the location of emergency shelters.
- Follow instructions of local officials.
- Wear protective clothing and sturdy shoes.
- Take your "Disaster Supplies Kit".
- Lock your house.
- Use travel routes specified by local officials
If you are sure you have time ...
- Shut off water, gas and electricity, if instructed to do so.
- Let others know when you left and where you are going.
- Make arrangements for pets. Animals may not be allowed in public shelters.
*Disclaimer: C.E.R.T. (Cove Emergency Response Team) is not in-full or in-part an associate entity ofCove Apartments/Sequoia Equities.
EMERGENCY INFORMATION
Download Forms (Word Formats): Household
Download Forms (Word Formats): CCERT
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VOICE MAIL RECORDING
At a recent Emergency Preparedness Conference, this helpful tip was passed on. Should there be a large local emergency, chances are that the cellular phone system would be clogged with calls, making it impossible for you to reach family members. You may only be able to get to their voice mail box.
If an event like this should happen, change your voice mail greeting to give the time, your location, plans for travel, and any other information that you need to pass on. Anyone who calls you, and hears’ your voice mail greeting, will know you are OK, and what your plans are.
Pass this information on to the other members of your family, and friends, so they can be aware of it too.
NOTICE: Operating Fireplace - Check Before You Burn!
1-877-4NO-BURN (1-877-466-2876)
Bay Area Air Quality Management District: www.baaqmd.gov
Get your daily air quality forecast here.
