The roof...is on fire

Tonight's installment from our North Las Vegas Hometown Emergency Planner wheel is [drum roll]:
HOW TO PREPARE: FIRE
1. Install smoke alarms.
2. Create an escape plan that includes two escape routes from every room in the house (easier said than done) and walk through the routes with your entire family.
3. Clean out storage areas. (to have less flammable stuff around)
4. Check the electrical wiring and extension cords.
5. Never use gasoline indoors.
6. Teach children fire safety.
7. Install fire extinguishers.
8. Know how to shut off power and gas.
9. Pay attention when cooking.
10. Don't smoke in bed. (As Mammaw says: Never ever smoke in bed/or else you might wake up dead.)

And now...
HOW TO ACT: FIRE
1. Use water or a fire extinguisher to put out small fires.
2. Do not try to put out a fire that is getting out of control.
3. Never use water on an electrical fire. Only use fire extinguishers approved for electrical fires.
4. Smother oil and grease fires with baking soda or salt. If it is in a pan, cover the pan.
IF FIRE IS SPREADING:
1. Get out!
2. Once outside, do not try to go back in.
3. Stay low to the ground, under the smoke.
4. Use the back of your hand to check the top of the door, doorknob, and the crack between the door and the door frame before trying to open a closed door.
5. If you are trapped, hang a white or light colored sheet, towel, or shirt out a window to alert firefighters to where you are.
6. Use stairs - never take an elevator.
7. If your clothes catch on fire, stop drop and roll.

Oh, and at some point you should have called 911. Probably near the beginning, as soon as you noticed the fire.

My post is late tonight because I've been on Pinterest. Instead of making a "practical life skills" powerpoint for my students, since tomorrow is our last full day of school, I ripped off a bunch of pinterest images and pasted them into a presentation which is perfectly legal because I am not giving it for profit.

Power to the People

This post is timely to the Super Bowl, which means it's...not timely at all. I would have talked about the power outage issue on Tuesday, if I hadn't been so excited about Shiloh's album release.

This post is also about a little company in my hometown called NIPSCO and the manner in which they perennially ruin my summer vacation. Nine years of living in the desert have made me eager each July to witness a really rockin' summer thunderstorm, and I usually get to. Problem being that five minutes in, the lights flicker. Then, seven minutes in, the lights go out and the house mobilizes to first try to prevent, and then try to bail out, the water that inevitably rises in the basement because there is no power to pump it away from the interior. Every. Single. Summer. The power goes out just like it did at the Super Bowl.

Now, thanks to my North Las Vegas Hometown Emergency Planner wheel, I know not only how to prepare for this annual event, but how to act when it takes place. You may remember my first mention of the wheel back in January. Now you get to see what it looks like.

And here we go again with the centered text. Someday I'll learn how to format, but that day is not today. 

What follows is transcription, not writing, and is actually available on the above-linked website. That, however, is not as fun as the actual wheel, or as fun as supporting your 2nd-favorite blogger. You have already heard most of the power outage information, but here it is stated in a slightly different way, and as we are all aware, repetition is the key to knowledge. 

HOW TO PREPARE FOR A POWER OUTAGE:

- Be prepared to be independent for 72 hours or longer.

- Store at least a 72-hour supply of food, drinking water and other supplies.

- One gallon of water per person per day and food that won't spoil

- Keep flashlights or light sticks, portable radios, and extra batteries on hand.

- If you own a generator, learn its safe and proper operation - use only outdoors.

- Be sure that you have at least one telephone that does not depend on electricity - cordless phones will not work in a power outage. 

- Keep cell phones charged.

- Know how to start or connect a backup power supply for essential medical equipment.

- Know how to manually release and open any electric doors, ie garage doors.

- Keep cash and coins on hand.

- Keep vehicle gas tanks at least half full.

- Conserve electricity during peak energy periods.

HOW TO ACT:

- If your power goes out, check your home's circuit breakers or fuses first. 

- See if the lights in your neighborhood are off. 

- Contact the power company for information or to report an outage.

- If you see any downed power lines, stay at least 10 feet away from them. 

- Protect appliances from possible power surges. 

- Unplug appliances and computers and turn off lights. 

- Leave one low wattage incandescent light on so you know when power is restored. 

(Editorial comment/question: Do you think leaving a light on is really necessary? In my experience EVERY SUMMER because thanks a lot, NIPSCO, there is a white-noisy hum that announces that power is back.)

- Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible. 

- Add dry or block ice to the freezer to help keep food frozen. 

- Discontinue non-essential water usage. 

- Do not drink cloudy or dirty water. 

- Don't be alarmed if chlorine level is higher than normal. 

- Notify water officials of low or no water pressure. 

- Try to stay as cool as possible by staying inside on the lowest floor out of the sunshine.

- If you use a generator, never plug it into any electrical outlet in your home. 

- Plug appliances directly into the generator using heavy-duty extension cords. 

- Place generator outdoors and away from windows, household exhaust fans or dryer vents. 

- If you use candles for lighting, place them on a fireproof surface. 

- In an area-wide outage, traffic signals may be out - remember intersections become 4-way stops. 

- Anticipate long traffic delays while the power is out. 

- Check on neighbors with special needs: the elderly, mobility-impaired, medically dependent, or children who are home alone. 

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT! Now, you remember what to do. I suggest getting your own handy wheel for your locality, so that you can read it with your trusty headlamp when things go awry. Mine has a list of important phone numbers such as fire, police, and poison control, which means that my planning activity for this week is already done! Good job, North Las Vegas. My love/hate relationship with North Las Vegas will never get old. 

It's too bad NIPSCO is so good at letting the power go out now, when power outages back in the 80's were a rare thing. As an adult, power outages suck, but as a kid they are fun because of the playing rummy by candlelight. I suppose that if we wanted to, we could play rummy by candlelight anyway, just for funsies. 

And now, without further ado, the world's most delicious sandwich awaits. Enjoy your weekend!

Disaster of the Day

This post takes its title from Anna Nalick's 15 minutes of fame back in the early 2000s, and also of course from the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER, which just keeps on giving!

Miss Gokey gave me some resources from inside and outside of our own community that will be useful for disaster prep, namely a book entitled 31 Days to Survival which I look forward to starting at the start of the next 31-day month.

Also, the Southern Nevada Health District's 2013 Emergency Preparedness Calendar.

Bad news, kids. We're behind schedule. It's January 15th (Happy MLK Day, everyone), so we already missed two supply-buying runs and two planning activities. Also, my blog page has just now defaulted to centering the text. Sorry about that. Hopefully it'll fix itself for next time. 

Okay. I hope you already have a gallon of water, a can of meat (or soup, if you're me), a manual can opener, safety pins and 2 pairs of latex gloves. These are the things we were supposed to have purchased. I have all of these things except the two pairs of latex gloves. 

For our planning activities, we were supposed to have made a family emergency plan and designated out of town emergency contacts. So, now we're up to date. 

Don't you hate it when, on the news, they say, "Will your favorite brand of peanut butter kill you? Tune in later..." Well, that's exactly what I'm going to say about the stuff from the City of North Las Vegas. I have a radio show to listen to. 

I! LOVE! THE INTERNET!

And if you're reading this, then you do, too. Have fun shopping. Perhaps I'll run into you at the Craig and Nellis Wal-Mart. I hope not, but...perhaps.