Problems To Solve
1 How do you get help in?
2 How do you get people out?
3 How will tourists and tourism be affected?
4-9 How soon should you start preparing?
Answers
1a) A government or charity or UN relief can fly your helpers to the affected area in advance.
b) Take supplies to high ground. Or bury them where the water will not flood. Or fly them nearby.
2 Get everybody out in advance.
Otherwise:
Your airport is closed.
The boats in harbour are thrown into each other and damaged.
The airlines have no seats; or they raise the seat prices.
3 Secure windows from looters and flying glass. Duct tape is not enough. You need corrugated metal sheeting and/ or wooden fence panelling or x shape wood reinforcements to support glass. A DIY store will advise and sell supplies.
4 Yesterday.
5 Group Action
a) Power lines and phone lines underground may be safer from winds and weather than above ground.
b) Campaign to stop homes and schools and public buildings being built on flood plains. In America I visited a ski resort where I was told that local people campaigned and stopped a school being built on the main road around the mountains underneath a steep incline known to be an avalanche risk. (I presume from the type of terrain and previous lesser incidents.)
6 Campaign for schools to teach children to swim.
7 Adults who can swim should learn life saving. You can't drag somebody else along underwater. Their head needs to be held out of the water. They will instinctively put their arms around your neck to hang on and pull you under. You must learn the latest method. (Last time I looked it was swimming on your back pulling the person being rescued horizontally with their face up. You would have to be able to swim on your back and manoeuvre the person into position. This takes practice. There must be an easier way and quicker to learn.)
6 Personal Action
Learn to swim.
7 Make sure your spouse and children can swim. When I knew I was pregnant I insisted that my husband who could not swim should take swimming lessons. You can even teach toddlers to swim. I've watched the videos.
8 Always keep your phone charged and your car full of petrol. Saves a last minute panic when the electricity is off and the garage is closed. (A garage is UK. In the USA and other parts of the world it is also called a petrol station or a gas station.)
9 LEARN
Finally, learn how to light a fire, boy scout style, to provide a camp fire to keep away animals, provide heat, light and cooking.
Learn how to operate the built in flashlight in your mobile phone and teach everybody you know and meet.
Have a phone charger and power storage device kept with your phone.
Learn CPR.
In emergencies, whether on a plane, out walking or at home in a severe storm, have vital items such as a cereal bar and credit card and ID attached to your body, eg in a zipped pocket or waistband.
Consider investing in:
Travel outfits such as a ski jacket with a wearer location device which signals.
Pickpocket proof clothing with double fastening, an inner zip, which also stops items falling out of pockets.
Insulated water bottles.
Insulated lunch box in rucksack or rucksack with built in insulated food compartment.
Swimmer's waterproof pouch.
Waterproof or underwater camera.
Snorkel.
Check which useful camping gear you already have in your house, attic, shed and store buildings.
Plan to improvise. For example, a yogurt carton with handle for carrying food, or to use as an emergency children's potty.
ORGANISE
Teach everybody how to get out of a submerged car.
Know your emergency shelter. If none, plan one: a church (religious buildings are often on hilltops); school; hotel; conference centre; gym; large house, empty building (if safe), supermarket.
Have a rescue and rebuilding team ready, with a motivation leader and an action organiser. Who to ask?
Who to learn from? Online. See how the Amish instead of having insurance gather together to rebuild or build a house.
Check on tents, prefabs, Oriental homes built with no nails - can be taken apart and carried off and reassembled; also igloos and yurts, and tiny houses.
Check out the methods used by the family who built a protective water filled wall around their home so they were the only people whose home was not flooded.
I used to be emailed by a survivalist newsletter which tried to sell all sort of items from guns to chemical toilets to army rations for when you are trekking or on the move. I thought they were far-fetched. However, when you know you are in a zone likely to experience an earthquake or flood a little preparation for emergencies could be reassuring and handy.
EXITS
Plan escape from vehicles, homes, cities, coutnries.
Give family a meeting place or contact person, such as a relative in the next city or overseas.
More Information From Websites
Hurricane and Flood Troubles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Irma
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4858858/Princess-Juliana-Airport-destroyed-Hurricane-Irma.html
Flood Solutions
Prevention
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4855706/Houston-family-s-home-saved-flooding-thanks-dam.html
Floodproof air brick (commercial site)
http://www.flood-products.co.uk/smart-air-bricks
Clearing Up
http://time.com/4919355/can-flood-water-make-you-sick/
UK National Health Service Government Health Advice
http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/How-do-I-get-rid-of-damp-and-mould.
UK Commercial Solution
https://www.idealresponse.co.uk/water-flood-damage-cleanup/?campaign
Teaching babies to swim:
FYI. Please check if this is safe and what it will cost you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOLTCiEHfdw
Tiny homes for homeless:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/charity-creates-tiny-houses-homeless-6967389
I'll be adding more websites later. You may wish to print this list of tips and website or photocopy it on your mobile and add your own. You will find several more websites on the above subjects which are specific to your country or appropriate worldwide. If you have any useful tips or links, please contact me.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my previous post on hurricanes. Please share links to your favourite posts.
1 How do you get help in?
2 How do you get people out?
3 How will tourists and tourism be affected?
4-9 How soon should you start preparing?
Answers
1a) A government or charity or UN relief can fly your helpers to the affected area in advance.
b) Take supplies to high ground. Or bury them where the water will not flood. Or fly them nearby.
2 Get everybody out in advance.
Otherwise:
Your airport is closed.
The boats in harbour are thrown into each other and damaged.
The airlines have no seats; or they raise the seat prices.
3 Secure windows from looters and flying glass. Duct tape is not enough. You need corrugated metal sheeting and/ or wooden fence panelling or x shape wood reinforcements to support glass. A DIY store will advise and sell supplies.
4 Yesterday.
5 Group Action
a) Power lines and phone lines underground may be safer from winds and weather than above ground.
b) Campaign to stop homes and schools and public buildings being built on flood plains. In America I visited a ski resort where I was told that local people campaigned and stopped a school being built on the main road around the mountains underneath a steep incline known to be an avalanche risk. (I presume from the type of terrain and previous lesser incidents.)
6 Campaign for schools to teach children to swim.
7 Adults who can swim should learn life saving. You can't drag somebody else along underwater. Their head needs to be held out of the water. They will instinctively put their arms around your neck to hang on and pull you under. You must learn the latest method. (Last time I looked it was swimming on your back pulling the person being rescued horizontally with their face up. You would have to be able to swim on your back and manoeuvre the person into position. This takes practice. There must be an easier way and quicker to learn.)
6 Personal Action
Learn to swim.
7 Make sure your spouse and children can swim. When I knew I was pregnant I insisted that my husband who could not swim should take swimming lessons. You can even teach toddlers to swim. I've watched the videos.
8 Always keep your phone charged and your car full of petrol. Saves a last minute panic when the electricity is off and the garage is closed. (A garage is UK. In the USA and other parts of the world it is also called a petrol station or a gas station.)
9 LEARN
Finally, learn how to light a fire, boy scout style, to provide a camp fire to keep away animals, provide heat, light and cooking.
Learn how to operate the built in flashlight in your mobile phone and teach everybody you know and meet.
Have a phone charger and power storage device kept with your phone.
Learn CPR.
In emergencies, whether on a plane, out walking or at home in a severe storm, have vital items such as a cereal bar and credit card and ID attached to your body, eg in a zipped pocket or waistband.
Consider investing in:
Travel outfits such as a ski jacket with a wearer location device which signals.
Pickpocket proof clothing with double fastening, an inner zip, which also stops items falling out of pockets.
Insulated water bottles.
Insulated lunch box in rucksack or rucksack with built in insulated food compartment.
Swimmer's waterproof pouch.
Waterproof or underwater camera.
Snorkel.
Check which useful camping gear you already have in your house, attic, shed and store buildings.
Plan to improvise. For example, a yogurt carton with handle for carrying food, or to use as an emergency children's potty.
ORGANISE
Teach everybody how to get out of a submerged car.
Know your emergency shelter. If none, plan one: a church (religious buildings are often on hilltops); school; hotel; conference centre; gym; large house, empty building (if safe), supermarket.
Have a rescue and rebuilding team ready, with a motivation leader and an action organiser. Who to ask?
Who to learn from? Online. See how the Amish instead of having insurance gather together to rebuild or build a house.
Check on tents, prefabs, Oriental homes built with no nails - can be taken apart and carried off and reassembled; also igloos and yurts, and tiny houses.
Check out the methods used by the family who built a protective water filled wall around their home so they were the only people whose home was not flooded.
I used to be emailed by a survivalist newsletter which tried to sell all sort of items from guns to chemical toilets to army rations for when you are trekking or on the move. I thought they were far-fetched. However, when you know you are in a zone likely to experience an earthquake or flood a little preparation for emergencies could be reassuring and handy.
EXITS
Plan escape from vehicles, homes, cities, coutnries.
Give family a meeting place or contact person, such as a relative in the next city or overseas.
More Information From Websites
Hurricane and Flood Troubles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Irma
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4858858/Princess-Juliana-Airport-destroyed-Hurricane-Irma.html
Flood Solutions
Prevention
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4855706/Houston-family-s-home-saved-flooding-thanks-dam.html
Floodproof air brick (commercial site)
http://www.flood-products.co.uk/smart-air-bricks
Clearing Up
http://time.com/4919355/can-flood-water-make-you-sick/
UK National Health Service Government Health Advice
http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/How-do-I-get-rid-of-damp-and-mould.
UK Commercial Solution
https://www.idealresponse.co.uk/water-flood-damage-cleanup/?campaign
Teaching babies to swim:
FYI. Please check if this is safe and what it will cost you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOLTCiEHfdw
Tiny homes for homeless:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/charity-creates-tiny-houses-homeless-6967389
I'll be adding more websites later. You may wish to print this list of tips and website or photocopy it on your mobile and add your own. You will find several more websites on the above subjects which are specific to your country or appropriate worldwide. If you have any useful tips or links, please contact me.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my previous post on hurricanes. Please share links to your favourite posts.
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