Why Prepare for Evacuation?
With over a hundred fires currently burning in the West and over 5 million Acres consumed by fire according to the New York Times, there is reason to be taking action for your home and business. With millions of Acres being described by the CNN report and small cities such as Paradise California earlier this year and Detroit Oregon Destroyed just this week destroyed completely by fire. It is important for every family to have a plan. Currently over 500,000 are under evacuation orders near Portland alone. Everyone is connected to someone or somewhere that the fires have affected. The quality of the air has made it very difficult and dangerous for people all across the West. With all this to worry about, the possibility for evacuation could touch any of us.
So what would you do if you had to evacuate. If you have time to think about it you might come up with a good list of what you would need. If you had time to pack some things and leave it would help, but
What if you only had 1 hour, or what if you only had 10 minutes?
Well that would definitely change things. So – What is Important?
The CDC has got their list of things that you should collect to be ready in order to evacuate.
Center For Disease Control – Emergency Preparedness
https://emergency.cdc.gov/planning/index.asp
CalFire has a Preparedness List at:
https://www.readyforwildfire.org/prepare-for-wildfire/get-set/emergency-supply-kit/
Likewise Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the power supplier for most of California, has a Safety Action Center that has some very useful information.
Pacific Gas and Electric Safety Action Center
https://www.safetyactioncenter.pge.com/articles/31-prepare-emergency-kit-six-easy-steps
Additionally some counties have got their own lists here’s one from Madera County.
Firewise from Madera County is an extensive resource.
https://firewisemaderacounty.org/prepare-to-evacuate/
Here is a list from Washoe County Nevada for Those near Lake Tahoe
Nevada – Washoe County Preparedness List
https://www.washoecounty.us/em/preparedness/AssembleKit.php
Prepare for Evacuation
Now with all these lists it’s important that you consider where you live are you very rural are you in a suburb or are you in an apartment. The way you think of things and the preparation you make could vary for each of these. If you have animals they must be considered. anyway you look at it there’s preparation that needs to be done even if you end up untouched in the long run. Please consider what steps you can take to be as safe as possible. At our home, my sister-in-law, who lives in our house, suggested that we have an evacuation drill, to see how fast we could react. To see what could we do if we had to leave in 10 minutes. We really need the grill and learned many things that only came to us after our review of our performance. Having done the drill, it is very enlightening/ you can see what it might take or how you might be affected if you had to evacuate. Take care of everyone, be safe, examine and study the lists, Talk about what you and your family needs and be ready.
These days who knows what the future brings.
