Disaster Preparedness Month, night 14: Car = storehouse

| Preparedness | Safety | West Seattle news

Quick tip tonight, as we approach the midpoint of Disaster Preparedness Month, with something new here every night to help you finish the month more prepared than you were when it started: Take five minutes to watch this video. The host shows what you could/should keep in your car in case you’re away from home – or need to leave in a hurry – when disaster strikes. (The non-freezing-fluid explanation alone is worth the investment of time.) Certainly there’s lots of advice out there about what to have in kits, but this goes a little further, and offers a few more ideas of practical items to store in your hatch or trunk. If you want to go back and review what we’ve talked about over the past two weeks, it’s all archived here (reverse chronological order). And we have to ask – have you taken the 3 to Get Ready Challenge (WSB sponsor) yet? Why not? Start here. Then make sure you’ve taken the extra steps we’re talking about here all month – know your Emergency Communications Hub (and make sure any family/friends you have in West Seattle know theirs too!) – review the rest of the West Seattle Be Prepared website – and join the WSBP group on Facebook!

SeattleSun April 15, 2010 (8:31 am)

Attended a presentation by a member of Seattle Office of Emergency Management recently. I asked about using the bathroom without water (can’t bucket flush if don’t have lots of extra water, and if you have water, you can flush normally or with a bucket.) She recommended emptying the toilet bowl, double lining it with trash bags, and then tying off bags separately (leave waste double bagged) and changing out as needed. I also purchased an inexpensive ($12) ‘luggable loo’ toilet seat and lid that snaps onto a homer bucket. Inside the bucket I have trash bags, kitty litter (sprinkle some over waste to minimize odor), and wet wipes, in case our home isn’t habitable or we need to use the bathroom outside. Here’s to never needing to use it!

WSB April 15, 2010 (8:59 am)

The same folks who made the video I linked above (wish I could have embedded it but they had embedding disabled on YTube, BOO) also have a video that seems to get into those specifics. Should be linked from the page where you can view the above-linked clip … Meantime, thanks for sharing the info! TR

homedk April 15, 2010 (12:20 pm)

The Office of Emergency Management’s SNAP classes are packed full of great info & ideas for getting prepared! The next one scheduled in West Seattle will be on June 8th, 6:30-7:45 PM, at the Delridge Library. Then, there is one scheduled on November 6th, 10:30-noon, at the SW Library.
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If those dates don’t work for you, you’ll find the entire schedule of classes linked here: http://www.seattle.gov/emergency/events/. Also, the OEM will schedule additional sessions of this class if you have a group of 20 people or more.

kg April 15, 2010 (9:18 pm)

Any truth to the rumor that SNAP was going to transform to CERT?

David Shawn April 20, 2010 (11:37 am)

Thanks for the great article and video. I don’t think people do enough to prepare themselves for any scenario. I found a couple of good articles on http://www.1800prepare.com that might prove useful to other readers.

homedk April 22, 2010 (10:47 pm)

@kg – I haven’t heard anything about SNAP transforming to CERT, but those of us on the West Seattle Emergency Preparedness Committee are volunteers & don’t work for the city…
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At the recent Community Preparedness Summit, covered in night 17 of the series, I don’t recall hearing Barb Graff (Director, Office of Emergency Management) say anything to indicate that being true. FYI, here’s a link to her presentation to the city council about the OEM 2010 Workplan: http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=2321001.

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