Get ready! Water woes inspire advice from West Seattle Be Prepared

October is Disaster Preparedness Month in our state, and how timely; regional water woes – this morning’s Delridge pipe break, and the recent Mercer Island scare – are a reminder that you need to have an emergency supply of water on hand. From West Seattle Be Prepared:

The recent challenges to our normal water supply reflect the importance of being prepared for emergencies. Sometimes an emergency can be small, like a day where the water is shut off, or bigger in scale, with complete disruption or like the recent “boil water” notice on Mercer Island. Stores in Mercer Island quickly sold out of bottled water and residents were dragging out pots to boil water. This would have been a perfect time for those residents to dig into their 3-day (or more) stash of water set aside for emergencies, as part of their emergency preparedness kit. Using that water, while waiting for normal service to return, would have prevented panicked searches for bottled water supplies at the stores or the inconvenience of boiling water for multiple days. The additional benefit is that once you used your supply up, in the Mercer Island case, the stores would have received new shipments AND you can replace your stored water with a fresh supply, and your emergency-kit water is now good to go for another 6 months before normal cycling.

So what should you do to secure that water stash? We covered that during our special preparedness reports last year – check it out here.

10 Replies to "Get ready! Water woes inspire advice from West Seattle Be Prepared"

  • Jay October 2, 2014 (7:52 am)

    Relatedly, Tuesday’s fire in Fremont is a reminder that we should be ready to shelter in place at our homes. Imagine if we had a fire on one of the big freighters or at the tank farm at Harbor Island. Yuck.

    • WSB October 2, 2014 (7:59 am)

      REALLY important point. And depending on which way the wind was blowing, if something happened on Harbor Island, a bridge closure wouldn’t be out of the question.

  • sc October 2, 2014 (8:26 am)

    The loss of electricity to 4000+ the other day should also get everyone checking their emergency supplies. Are your flashlights working? Do you have fresh extra batteries for them?
    Be sure to have items to eat that don’t require heating: energy bars, dried fruit, juice packs, etc.
    Also without electricity ATM machines and gas pumps do not work. Keep some cash (small bills) in your emergency supplies and try not to leave your gas tank on empty.

  • ocean October 2, 2014 (8:40 am)

    Please, please, please, Cindi Barker from West Seattle Be Prepared– would you do a rerun of the
    special preparedness reports that you did last year?
    Please?!

    (Sure, I could go back to last year’s WSB daily run of it but I’m lazy. And, if it’s on WSB each day again maybe it’ll encourage others to be prepared too.)

    Thank you!

    P.S.- Tracy, if Cindi Barker asks you to rerun the special preparedness reports, please do!
    = )

    • WSB October 2, 2014 (9:06 am)

      Probably the best thing I could do would be what I never wound up getting to do last year — a story with links to all the installments.

  • Chris October 2, 2014 (10:18 am)

    How do you suggest modifying a “go bag”-emergency kit for the office? There is always a chance we will be at work when a sudden storm or earthquake hits. I imagine myself walking home somehow (if the bridge is ok) to my full stash of emergency food and water. But what should I have in my limited space/cubicle? I didn’t see anything specific to a secondary location on the Be Prepared website.

  • kg October 2, 2014 (12:34 pm)

    Great article!

    @chris
    Throw some broken in, all weather, walking/hiking footwear in your get home bag with your food and water. A headlamp as well.

  • wsn00b October 2, 2014 (1:28 pm)

    @Chris: Our (large) company keeps shelter-in-place emergency supplies/kits in each copy/print room. Your workplace could try and do the same.

  • Cindi Barker October 2, 2014 (4:22 pm)

    Hi Chris, the City of Seattle has a list for work/school at
    http://www.seattle.gov/emergency/library/publiceducation/supplieskit/work%20school%20kit-link.pdf

    Key items to have:
    Water
    High-protein, high-energy food
    First-aid supplies
    Flashlight/batteries
    Radio/batteries
    Basic sanitation supplies
    Warm clothing
    Sturdy shoes or boots

    Additional Work/School Kit Items:
    Photo of family, pets or loved ones
    Note from family or loved ones
    Extra set of car keys
    Photocopy of Drivers License or ID
    Whistle
    Prescription medication
    Contact lens case/solution or spare eyeglasses

  • Cindi Barker October 2, 2014 (4:25 pm)

    @ocean, thanks for the vote! I will talk with TR. What we wanted to do last year was end with people sending in pictures of the kits that had built during the preceding 30 days. But my timing was bad, it ended on Oct 31, so the many Halloween pictures flooded in and it was just not the right day to ask people to proudly send in their kit pics. So maybe we will do it again, just time differently.

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