Sheltering In Place

January 21, 2010 by KerryAnn Foster.

I was born and raised in Pensacola, FL, where hurricanes and their resultant tornadoes are an expected part of each summer.  We stayed home for them all and prepared for the potential flooding, damage and power outages that come with the territory, no mater their severity, realizing that it was just part of choosing to live in Florida. One of my earliest memories is getting out during the eye of a hurricane with my parents in the short period of time that it was sunny with no rain, to go check on an elderly neighbor since the phones were down.  The eye of the storm came up so quickly from the severe weather we were having that the calm was startling to me.

Currently living in the Appalachian Mountains, we don’t worry about the severe winds and surging tide from a hurricane, but we do worry about flash flooding taking out roads or ice storms and severe winds bringing down power, damaging the house and making our very steep road impassable.  We also have to give consideration to the nearby river in case it floods.  Several years ago, flooding from the remnants of a hurricane that came up through the Gulf of Mexico devastated this area and some roads are still not repaired.   Right before Christmas we had a snowstorm that brought in 15 inches of snow and had three trees fall on the house due to the ice that occurred after the storm.  We went without power for several days in severe (for this area) cold, and it was several days longer before our curvy and steep road was cleared of multiple downed trees and the road was plowed so we could get out.

Sometimes when disaster strikes, you have to stay where you are.  If you are unable to leave your home or you choose to stay during a disaster, it is called sheltering in place.  There are a number of things you can do in order to make sheltering in place a more pleasant experience.  Being prepared ahead of time for a potential loss of power, water and essential services can make life much easier for your entire family while you wait for things to return to normal.

What you should have on hand for sheltering in place depends largely on the type of crisis you could face.  Think about where you live.  Are you located near a river or body of water that could flood?   What roads cross that river and can you get around without them?  Don’t let the 100-year flood plain fool you, that 100 year flood has to happen sometime.  Anyone in weather, geology or urban planning can tell you that two one-hundred year floods can occur back to back.  Are hurricanes or earthquakes a possibility?  Tornadoes or severe weather that could take out power for a week?  What about forest fires, a flood or a train wreck taking out a road you need to reach town?  Maybe you still have power, but you can’t get to a store or easily get to medical treatment. Read the rest of this entry »

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