Earlier today, at 10:20am on 10/20, the California-wide drill and annual event, The Great Shakeout, reminded all of us to have a home plan in the event of an earthquake and to remember to “drop, cover and hold on,” wherever you may be.
KX FM 104.7 FM partnered with The City of Laguna Beach to broadcast live during The Great ShakeOut and interview Emergency Operations Coordinator Jordan Villwock. Several Laguna Beach schools listened live on hand-crank radios during the broadcast as CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Members & KX FM 104.7 staff explained the importance of emergency preparedness and how crucial a resource KX would be in the event of disaster.
Listen to Tyler and Jordan’s full conversation here!
Here are some emergency preparedness guidelines we recommend you follow:
First, make a plan with your family/loved ones:
- Familiarize yourself with the evacuation route for your home
- Set a local meeting place and an out of town meeting place where you can meet up, someplace that you spend a lot of time together (e.g. a park, City hall, landmarks)
- Identify an out-of-state contact, another family member or friend, who can relay messages between you and your loved ones. If the cellular bandwidth is tied up, you will not be able to make local calls but can still communicate through your 3rd-party contact.
Jordan’s Top Five Important Emergency Supplies
1) Enough water for entire family
- 1 gallon per person per day, including pets
2) Enough food for entire family
- 3 day supply, preferably non-perishable/canned
3)Communication tools
- battery-powered/hand crank AM/FM/Weather radio and/or cell phone
4) Flashlight
- place batteries in backwards to conserve their power, turn them around when in use
5) Cash
- in small bills, as ATMs might be out of service
Other suggested emergency supplies:
Backup batteries
Cell phone charger
First aid kit
Mechanical can opener
Physical, paper map (don’t rely on your smart phone data)
Sanitary needs (toilettes, garbage bags, plastic ties)
Whistle (in case you get trapped)
Wrench/pliers to turn off utilities like water/gas
More tips:
- Text messaging uses lower bandwidth than calls, when network has availability it’ll send those texts/emails out first
- Register all your contacts (cell, texts, email) at AlertOC.com so that the City can readily communicate with you during emergency. If you have a landline, it’s already in the system
- Register with Nixle for traffic/emergency alerts by texting ‘92651’ to ‘888777’
A 25-hour series of FEMA-regulated CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) classes is being offered through the City, and will be held at the Suzy Q Center a couple mornings per week for 5 weeks, beginning January 9, 2017. Program graduates will learn about search and rescue, how to fight small fires, use first aid, and will be called on in the event of emergency to organize and help others in their neighborhoods. To register, fill out and submit an application that can be found on the City website.
