[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Hi everybody. As Tim said, I'm Brandon
Hurley. I'm a firefighter at the Air Fire Department. I've been a part of the full-time staff there for 5 years and before that I was a call firefighter for 10 years. Uh I'm also a paramedic and I spend the bulk of my time on the ambulance. So, uh, tonight what we're going to talk about mostly is weather related
emergencies because that's the bulk of what we deal with for, you know, disasters that you're able to really prepare for are going to be the power outages due to any sort of weather, uh, blizzards, floods, uh, things like that. And to a lesser degree, obviously, you can be prepared for earthquakes and
things like that, but we don't see them as frequently, thankfully. Um, so weather is does play a large role in what we're going to chat about tonight. Um, so we're going to talk about kind of five basic things. Uh, we're going to talk about having a household emergency
plan. Uh, different ways you can receive information before, during, and after disasters. Uh, household emergency kit. That's going to be the bulk of what we're going to talk about are those three items. Uh, and then we're going to touch on the shelters that are available in emergencies in this area. And, uh, we're going to have a little brief chat
on generator safety as well. So, um, a household emergency plan, there's some different components to it. Uh, meeting places, point of a designated point of contact for your family. Um, having a communication plan, a plan if you have to evacuate, a plan if you have to shelter in place, uh, anticipating all
the needs of your different family members, and then practicing your your plan, uh, putting it all together and actually trying it and finding the kinks in it. Um, so meeting places, MIMA and FEMA recommend having two, one being closer
to home. So within, you know, the town you live in or the the immediate surrounding area, and one further away, perhaps a relative's house, uh, you know, a county away or out of state in case there's, you know, a large blizzard or um, an ice storm or some other catastrophic event that power and services won't be restored to a large
area for a week or a long period of time. Um, so they recommend having two and that's kind of what's a matter of what's convenient for you and your family where you have uh friends, relatives, places you can go. Uh, some people might be able to stay at work for a night or two depending on their
circumstances. Um, but have two uh, and a single point of contact. Uh, this should be somebody that does not live in the area. There should be ideally somebody out of state so that if the entire state is you know under a foot of snow or um you know has no
power. Uh think about like the ice storm of08 where you know the entire county was basically out of power and telephone communication. Um this should be somebody that once you you can just check in with uh for me for my family my my in-laws live in Maryland. So for us it would be hey we're going to call my mother-in-law and everybody's going to
check in with Cindy and say hey I'm well I'm you know warm and dry someplace. I'm just uh you can't get a hold of me cuz my phone's going to die. Um so particularly if you have children or if you have uh you know older family members, make sure everybody has the
full name of that point of contact. It's hard for me to help call somebody on a child's behalf if they know them as like Auntie Non and their real name is, you know, nothing like that. When when I was a kid, one of my mom's best friends was named Willa and we called her auntie Lala for more years than I care to admit
publicly. But that would not have helped anybody find her in an emergency. So making sure you know and this could be a case of if you have young children reviewing with them, you know, shortly before a large anticipated storm. Okay. And you know what's what's grandma's real name? Cuz grandma doesn't help me
as a responder. What's grandma and grandpa's, you know, real names? And just just going over that in a kind of a almost a nonchalant way with them and they'll go, "Oh." And hopefully be able to recall that. Uh we do 911 practice with the second graders as part of our
safe program in the schools and every year I would say probably about a quarter of the kids don't know their not only their address but don't know what street they live on. So they get a homework assignment to go home and learn their address and they come back the following week and and know it. But um so going over that with them gives them that little chip to hold on to to
remember. Uh making sure everybody has the primary and a secondary phone number for that contact is important. uh their email address and their social media info because again it doesn't matter how you check in with that person. If you check in with them on you know Facebook or Twitter or uh by email or by phone or
by text it doesn't particularly matter. Um it is helpful to know to make sure that point of contact maybe has a list of any you know special requirements or needs anybody has. If anybody has, you know, medical oxygen or complex medical needs, uh, you know, if somebody in your family needs dialysis, it would be handy
if that person knew that so that they could try to coordinate that from afar if necessary. Um, it's also handy to list them in your cell phone contacts as ICE or in case of emergency. Either one is fine. But what that does is it enables me to um, if I'm looking through
your contacts on your behalf, uh, find them more more readily. Um, so communication, you want to make sure that all family members, I mean, children under a certain age being exempt, but uh, all family members should have either a mobile phone or at minimum a prepaid calling card. I at
this point wouldn't know how to use a prepaid calling card, but I think they still are a thing that works. Um, make sure they know how to use whatever device they have. Um, teach all everybody how to send and receive text messages. I think kids are now born with this knowledge, but um certainly older
family members um may need a little bit of practice or some some instruction and that may be a good way to um have you know younger children communicate with grandparents because it'll be beneficial to both um because the kids are going to be pretty good at it already and it will maybe help the grandparents learn in a
you know a less annoying way if you're talking to a grandchild. Um, so have everybody practice texting so that it it's an easy way to te to communicate rather and even if phone networks are down uh texts can often be sent over Wi-Fi. So uh you still could be able to
communicate from a hot spot at a you know at an emergency shelter where we could maybe set up a Wi-Fi hotspot but not have uh actual phone communication. Um learn to use social media. Um, Facebook and some of the other ones offer a check-in, mark yourself safe in the the blizzard of 78 type thing. You
can you can mark yourself safe in a disaster that's occurring in your area. Uh, if you don't have social media profiles, the American Red Cross offers a cool service called Safe and Well, uh, on their website. If you Google American Red Cross safe and well, or if you just go on their website and search for it, it comes up. Uh, I believe it's
safeandwell.com. I think they own safewell.com. Um, and you can just say check myself in and you just put, you know, I'm Brendan Hurley and I am safe in this location at this time. And then anybody else in the country can search for you and just go and they can see, oh, has Brennon Hurley
checked in safe? Uh, yeah, it would appear that he's okay. Um, so that you don't need a social media profile or an email address or anything. You can just log on as as any human being with a computer and say that I me right now I'm safe and well at this location for this incident.
Um, so an evacuation plan, you want to have a couple different routes to where you're going to try to get to. Uh, for your local one, that's probably easy, especially if you lived in the area for a while. Um, you probably know multiple ways to get around or you could figure them out pretty readily if you know if 2A is blocked, I can take 119, uh,
whatever the case might be. for a further away. Um, you know, if we were going to my in-laws house and we couldn't use the 95 corridor and, you know, say there was a huge blizzard, um, that would be a bit of a challenge for us. Um, so for us, we would use ways. I don't know if everybody's familiar with
the ways uh, navigation app. Uh, it's a smartphone app. It's on some, uh, some of the new navigation systems and cars are using it as well. But what it does is it's smart technology. it it knows through user reports uh when there's traffic, when there's unfavorable road
conditions, if roads are closed. So, it will route you around those things automatically. So, if if you know like I can tell you exactly how we drive to Maryland every time it's the Pike to 84 to the Merit Parkway to 95 and then we just all the way down. Well, if I can't if if the George Washington Bridge is
closed, I don't even want to hit Connecticut. But it's going to know that and it's going to take me out the pike to, you know, 81 or whatever is on the other side of Albany there and straight down. Um, and it's going to do that automatically without me having to select a different route because it's going to know that there's some sort of
nightmare ahead. So, yep. Can you spell me out? Uh, w A Z. Uh, Google Maps does kind of the same thing. It's the two are I think owned by the same parent. I think Ways is a Google property. Ways is more um up
to the minute. Google Maps will know if there's any major closures and things like that and we'll send you around, but ways is uh faster. Um, so identify your available methods of transportation. If you uh if you drive, obviously your car is one, but uh do you have multiple vehicles in your
family? Is one better suited to certain climates or environments than the other? Like we have my I have a pickup truck. My wife has a a RAV 4. If we're going to go somewhere in heavy snow, we're going to take the pickup truck with four-wheel drive. Um, if we're going to go somewhere we're going to be stuck in regular traffic, we're probably going to
take the RAV 4. So, figure out your modes of transportation. Um, if you don't have transportation or you're not sure, if you don't like to drive at night or in, you know, stormy weather, make arrangements with friends, neighbors, family members, you know, in advance like, "Hey, if there was ever a
situation where I needed to get to a shelter or or get out of here, could I count on you for a ride if you're around?" Um, just having that conversation in advance is is a kind of a good thing because then it's in the back of everybody's mind. Now, if you know you're going to require assistance, uh, or you know, you know
somebody in your family that's going to require assistance that, uh, has mobility problems, can't get around, like if they're going to go somewhere they have to, you know, rely on a MAR van or a chair van service or something like that. Um, if there's going to be a large storm coming up or even if there's not, contact the emergency management
agency, which in error is just the fire department. um in advance so that we know about you. Uh if we don't know about you, you're not on our radar. If you're on our radar, we're kind of aware like, okay, well, the person at 123 Main Street is at baseline is immobile and can't get around well. So, if there's an
evacuation, that's somebody that we need to check on and make sure that we devote some resources to. Um but if we don't know about you, um we're not going to be pre-planned for you. Um so, you should have a plan for sheltering in place in your home. Uh so you want to designate the safest rooms
in your house. Um ideally these are going to be rooms with the fewest windows and the fewest exterior doors. Um most houses don't have any rooms that have no exterior windows and no exterior doors. But um the so the best ones might be an interior hallway, might be a large
closet. Um ideally you want to have at minimum um electricity. Ideally also you'd have some form of a communications access uh excuse me with with Wi-Fi and hotspots and cell phones. Now, we can usually take that anywhere, though. Um,
if you think you may have to shelter in place, if we're anticipating that, you know, that big blizzard 3-ft snowstorm and everything's going to be socked in for a while, check on this your supplies in your house and your emergency kit. You know, they always say got to get the bread and milk. Uh, so we're going to talk about what supplies uh and to have and what kind of emergency kit things to
have a little bit later on, but so double check those items. And if you receive any sort of in-home treatments, if you receive inhome dialysis or visiting nurse services or anything like that, any any sort of complex medical care, you're going to want to contact that provider prior to the storm and
say, "Hey, what's the plan? We're supposed to get 7 ft of snow tomorrow night. How am I getting my dialysis on Tuesday?" Um, don't wait until it's past the time and you go, "Oh, hey, they didn't show up." Um, and you know, you don't want to put yourself in a situation where you may have a medical emergency. So, plan that out in advance.
um with that provider and they should have a plan in place. Um so anticipate the needs of everybody in your household. Um especially if you have anybody that doesn't normally live with you that may come to shelter at your house during a storm, you may condense aunts and uncles and grandparents and family members kind of
into one spot. Uh which is not a bad idea, but um especially consider anybody with any special unique medical needs or other needs. Uh senior citizens, children, and pets. Don't forget to remember your pets in these situations.
um and what their needs are going to be. And then practice this plan a couple times a year. Um you're already hopefully changing your smoke detector batteries when you change your clocks in the spring and the fall. That might be a good time to take an hour or two and dust the plan off and at least go through and make sure that the
communications plan is still in place. You know, check that, oh gez, we have Aunt Doris listed as our emergency contact and she moved to Florida 3 years ago and doesn't have this phone number anymore. Uh dust that off. Make sure it's still current and up to date. Um, practice those evacuation routes if you have if you have them the time or you're
headed in that general direction, check it out. Make sure there's not, you know, major construction projects planned. Oh, they're closing that bridge for 2 years to replace it. Um, and every time you update it, you'll probably, or every time you practice it rather, you'll probably find some element that needs to be modified or tweaked. Um, and also familiarize
yourself with the emergency plans that might exist at your job, your school, um, anywhere you spend a significant amount of time. If you volunteer somewhere, uh learn what the emergency plans are at those places. Most most, uh businesses and places have some sort of a plan available and in place. Um and
sometimes by asking, you may find that they they may discover that their employees don't perhaps know it as well as they should and they should review it with them as well. Um so receiving information, uh there's, you know, we we live in a technologydriven world. There's multiple
ways to receive information. Um, being signed up to receive good information beforehand is helpful. Um, Noah and the National Weather Service, uh, both offer excellent forecasting tools, especially when there's going to be, uh, a large storm that's going to impact, you know,
a significant area. Um, it's not going to be as specific as the weather that you grab on channel 5 in the morning where they're telling you community to community what the snowfall amounts are going to be. Um, but for, you know, hurricanes, uh, tornadoes, heat waves, major, you know, major issues, those are going to be your kind of go-to ones for
really destructive weather patterns. Um, MIMA is a good, uh, resource as well. They're going to have local updates as far as state or countywide, uh, issues. Uh locally we have a service called Code Red, which is kind of a um has anybody
got a reverse 911 call from the police when there's going to be uh you know a closure or something like that. So Code Red is kind of just another service we can use to push information out to people. Uh signup sheets for that are at the fire station and I believe the police station. They're definitely in the lobby of the fire station though. Uh it's a free service that you would
receive, I think, a text message or a phone call. I'm not sure. I honestly am not super familiar with it. It's not my program, but uh it is something that we do use. Uh, and then the town social media. So, the fire department, the police department, the town itself um are all going to attempt to put out useful
information uh in the event of an emergency or leading up to one at least. Um, I do have to reiterate, don't try to report an emergency on those. Um, like I manage the one for the fire department pretty much alone. So, if I'm out, you know, like the ice storm, I was out cutting up trees for 12 hours. So, I
would not have looked at Facebook for 12 hours. So, if somebody was trying to report like, "Oh, well, there's there's wires down and arcing in my driveway." So, still call 911 for sure. Um, but these are good ways to receive information, particularly as things start to open back up. This will be good for what's closed and what has started
to reopen. Um, and then you can always dial 211. I think all of the 11 numbers are owned by the federal government. uh like I know one of them's dig Safe whatever but 211 is going to give you information locally on shelters services that are available closures of roads
facilities programs uh transportation issues and then other disaster restrictions like when they tell you not to travel unless you're an essential employee and things like that. Um, so the more things that you're signed up for that you're already seeing on your, you know, your newsfeed on social media or, uh, that you have
access to, the better off you're going to be, uh, the more informed you'll be. Um, so the home emergency kit, um, couple things before we kind of get into the meat of it. So, you're going to want to make a checklist because we're going to go through a few slides here. So,
make a checklist of the items. Um, keep them together or at least readily accessible where you know where everything is. Um, and when you practice that emergency plan once or twice or half a time a year, just take a look at the items in that kit, make sure that
you know things haven't expired or uh batteries haven't corroded in their packaging, things like that. Um, so the first thing on here is water. Uh, water is something we all take for granted. We have city water and air and you turn on the tap and water is there. There's no, uh, nobody in air that I
know of uses a well. Um, so you should have some water put aside though in case there is uh some sort of an issue where you can't get fresh water from the tap as normal. Uh, they recommend one gallon per person per day for at least 3 days. Um, I would include
an extra gallon per per pet per day as well. Not that your pet is necessarily going to go through a gallon of water a day. Now, a great Dane might. My cat might go through a gallon of water in two weeks, but uh, the more you you'll be better off having more than less, for sure. Uh and that one gallon per person
per day includes drinking, cooking, and washing. So if you think, you know, if you're a big water drinker, you're and you know you're going to use more than that, you know, feel free to up that number. That's the bare minimum. Uh also, you can consider water purification methods. So there's commercially available products there.
There's water purification tablets that you can add to, you know, a bottle of water and after 10 minutes it is safe to drink. Don't usually taste great, but they're safe. Um there's also some cool filters on the market. Uh there's one in particular called the LifeStraw. It's about twice the size of this remote. It costs $20 and it'll purify like 10,000
gallons of water. You just drink through it like a straw and it filters out uh any particullet and bacteria and everything else in it. You could drink out of a mud puddle with it. Uh you can get them at any outdoor store, so like Eastern Mountain Sports, REI, the camping section of Walmart and Target.
Um and the other thing you can do is you can always boil water. Uh, obviously if there's a power outage or another emergency like that, you may not have the ability to boil water. That's why it's not on here. But, um, food, you want to have a 3-day
supply of food that's non-p perishable, doesn't require cooking. Um, so at at minimum, something that isn't going to make you sick if you eat it. It doesn't have, you know, Chef Boy RD isn't that great if you don't heat it up, but it's not going to make you unwell. Um, and ideally you want things that don't
require water to prepare or if you do have things like um dehydrated meals or anything like that, like Backpackers Pantry makes some pretty tasty um freeze-dried meals, but they take, you know, a couple quarts of water to make. So, make sure if you're using that type of a product that you uh add extra water
to your supply um because you're going to go through preparing those meals. Um same thing with like cup of soup or ramen type things. Um not that those have any nutritional value. Uh and the other option is you can if you are so inclined you can purchase M
style uh food. They have an extremely long shelf life of like several years, 5 years or some insane thing like that. They don't really take any water to prepare. They come with their own heating pouches um they're pricey um for
you know for per meal cost is high um but they last forever and they're kind of indestructible. So, but they do they are an option. Um, some tools you want to have kind of at hand, maybe all in one spot are a manual can opener,
uh, a nonelectric radio. So, battery or hand crank powered. A hand crank one has the advantage of you will never find two corroded, destroyed del batteries in the bottom of a hand cranked radio. Um, if you, you know, batteries that have been left in the same device forever will eventually fail and corrode. So,
uh, I would recommend a hand crank powered one if possible or one that uses a battery for something that you're going to use regularly. Um, you know, a removable rechargeable battery. Uh, you definitely want to have flashlights, extra batteries, and you probably want a
flashlight for every household member. Um, and extra batteries for each one. Uh, for your cell phones and your USB devices like iPads and things like that, you're going to want to maybe pick up some of those battery bank chargers. They're usually about the size of a of a
smartphone. Um, and they can recharge your phone, you know, anywhere from three to seven times depending on what model you get. Um, you want to make sure you have extra cell phone charger cords, uh, and plugs in there. And just have access to basic household tools. Uh,
wrenches, wrenches, pliers, and screwdrivers will enable you to turn off most of the things in your home if you need to. Uh, faucets, natural gas, um, etc. So, those will allow you to do any repairs or shut offs that you need to do hopefully.
Um, personal items. So, prescription medications, you want to have at least two weeks worth. So, if a storm's coming and you're on your, you know, your last couple blood pressure pills, make sure you get that prescription refilled and topped off. Um, if anybody is on medical oxygen, you want to make sure you have some extra cylinders. Everybody now has the condensers, which are awesome,
except when there's no electricity. Um, we do not keep a large supply of extra oxygen cylinders at the fire station. We have, you know, we have a few, but we don't have a ton to loan out and we really don't have a lot of regulators. So, if anybody's on medical oxygen, making sure they have a few of those big
tall E-siz cylinders that'll last for 12 to 18 hours, depending on how much oxygen they're using. Um, it's a good idea to have at least a few of them around. Um, and that those can be obtained through whatever company services that oxygen
condenser. Um, in addition to medications, you want to make sure you have your hygiene items. Um, maybe a few extras of whatever it is that you might need. Eyeglasses and contact lenses. Uh, make sure that you know where they are if you know, especially if you, you know, you
normally wear contacts, but, uh, make sure you have a spare pair of glasses. Um, an extra pair put away with all this stuff. Uh, make sure you grab dentures if you wear them. Uh, batteries and any supplies that go with any home medical equipment. So, if you use a CPAP or anything like that, um, if it has an
emergency battery for power outage, make sure that it's charged and you know where it is. If there's spare batteries, make sure those are charged and you know where they are and altogether. Um, changes of clothing appropriate for whatever the expected weather is going to be. So, even if it's summertime, if we're expecting a violent storm like a hurricane, you're still going to want to
have long pants, uh, sturdy shoes, which is my next item, because especially in summertime, you know, we're all prone to run around in boat shoes and flip-flops all the time, which are useless when you're trying to scramble down a driveway full of tree branches or whatever other material. Um, so a good pair of uh, you know, hiking boots or
trail shoes or at least rain boots. Um, and obviously in the winter you want warm items that are going to keep you insulated as well as give you traction and and protection from wind and whatever other unfortunate conditions. Um, so pets,
everybody wants to take their pets. People, you know, you hear about it every time there's a hurricane. People won't evacuate unless they can take their pets. And I don't blame them. Um, we have a cat and I am confident that my wife would die for that cat. Um, and that's fine. But if you're going to take them with you, especially if you need to
evacuate, they need to have a collar and a leash or harness, whatever they wear. Um, and a crate or carrier is important as well. Uh, when we talk about when we open a shelter, it's usually a high school gymnasium. So, if we have 10 or 12 dogs, even if they're all well behaved dogs, before long, that's going
to be 10 or 12 dogs that are playing in the high school gymnasium and running around. Um, so the crater carrier is really important so that we don't have dogs that are having fun that are now knocking people over and being disruptive to other people who are having a bad day. Uh, make sure you
bring food for them and their food and water bowls. Um, a current photo, which I if you guys are anything like me, there's probably like 300 current photos in your phone if you have a pet. Um, and then if it's a dog with a dog license, make sure you bring that dog license.
And then any medical info, just have access to that. Um, you know, if particularly with dogs like rabies shots, things like that, um, they may ask at the shelter if they're up to date on all their shots. Um, depending on how organized the shelter is when you arrive. Um,
some documents you want to have access to, uh, insurance policies for sure. Um, I have all mine on my I have apps for my insurance company, so I have everything on my phone, but paper documents are fine as well. Um, make sure you have access to your bank account information with you. Um, identification cards,
maybe a passport if you're looking for a second form of identification. Um, and then any medical information that you might have. Um, so there's a couple ways you can do that. There's these little file of life cards that we have at the fire station that you can fill out with your name and address and they're great
to stick on your fridge and if we if you ever need the ambulance, if we see this, we immediately know that it's somebody's medical information. Um, the other thing you can do is on your smartphone, uh, the if you if you manage to not open this
thing with your fingerprint, if you fail a couple times, it gives you this emergency at the bottom. If you click on this, one of the options is medical ID. And if you click on this, you can list your name, name, date of birth, whether or not you're an organ donor, any medical conditions you have, medications that you take, allergies you
have, height and weight, emergency contacts, all that kind of stuff. And I can view that without ever having to access the other parts of your phone. So I can view that if I just push your your home button on an Apple device twice, I can get to that medical ID thing without having access to any of your other
information. Just it's just whatever you want there. and that can be edited in the health app on a Apple device. I don't know about Android, I apologize. Um, so having but having access to your medical information, knowing all the
medications you take and the doses uh is important. Um, not just if you have an emergency, but it may be a case of like, hey, this is going to be a prolonged incident. You may need to refill a prescription at an unfamiliar pharmacy or something like that. So, it's a good starting point to have.
Um, money, cash is king. Uh, MIMA still recommends travelers checks. I have not used a traveler's check since 2002, but um, cash is king and after a major disaster, the networks that operate ATMs and point of sale systems at most of your
retailers are probably not going to be the first things to be restored. So, having some cash available will be helpful uh, in, you know, the the days following a disaster. Um, if you have a baby or young children in your in your emergency evacuation
party, um, be sure to remember that diaper bag because you're going to need diapers and wipes and formula, baby food, whatever other supplies um, might be specific to your child. And for toddlers and young kids, especially if they're at like potty training age, if you have to evacuate your home, it's probably going to be a stressful event.
They may have a little regression. So, make sure you grab either diapers or pull-ups or pampers um because it may not be a great time for them to continue with the exact uh track of potty training that they've been on. And also, if they have a favorite toy, a favorite book, bring both. Um because there's
once you get to a shelter, there's really not a ton of things for them to do. Uh so, something to keep them occupied, an iPad, whatever the case might be. Uh something to help keep them occupied and not in panic mode is going to be helpful to you and everyone.
Um, a couple of other supplies to throw together. A small first aid kit, just a, you know, commercially available one with band-aids and tape and gauze and tweezers and things like that is a good always a good thing to have around the house. Um, a whistle, uh, waterproof mattress and a lighter, local area maps
or an atlas, and um, sleeping bags or warm bedding. So, when we set up a shelter, we basically have a trailer full of CS and like disposable blankets and pillows. So, if you want something better than that, which I assure you you do, um have either sleeping bags or some
other type of bedding that you can grab readily, uh that will be helpful to you and honestly to the shelter as well because uh we have a finite amount of supplies. So, everybody that shows up with their own stuff just helps us keep more supplies for people who don't. Um
the emergency shelters in this area, so the police station in air is our primary one, but it's uh like a light duty shelter. So, it had it's generator power, so it's always going to have heat or AC, but it's really only a warming and cooling center. So, when we have a heat emergency in the summer and it's 107°, uh they'll open it for people who
don't have adequate air conditioning. And they'll do the same thing in the winter if we have a power outage or a particularly cold spell. Uh they will open up, they have um the community room at the police station is accessible from the public entrance way without having to enter any secure parts of the building. It's very convenient for
everybody. You can go in, get warm, get cool, charge your phone, do whatever you need to do, uh, and come and go as you please. Um, if we need to open up a larger shelter, it's going to be either the high school or the middle school. Um, situationally or possibly both. Uh, situationally dependent on how many
people um, need evacuation. And, u, you know, if one school was isolated by down trees or power lines or something like that. Um, I think in the 15 years I've been on the fire department, I think we've opened one of the schools, I think once, maybe twice. I guess it would be
twice cuz I think we did in the the ice storm in '08 and the October nor easter in like 2011. But in 15 years, those are the only two times. Um, and it's always a little bit chaotic. We had probably probably 75 people in the October nor
easter and 11 at the Shirley Middle School. um it went well, but you know, getting it organized and actually making the decision to actually open the shelter was uh was interesting from our side. So, um but those are the shelters that we would use in this area. Um
and then uh just a a quick note on generator safety. If you have a generator to power your your home or components of your home, um those should always be at least 15 ft away from any home or building. 15 ft is an absolute minimum. If you can move it 50 ft away, that's even better. Uh cuz you don't
want to fill up your house with carbon monoxide. Because then when you call because your carbon monoxide alarm is going off, all the heat that you've built up inside your house is going to be released when you open all your windows and point a giant fan inside your door to blow in fresh air to remove the carbon monoxide. So the further away you can safely get that generator uh
without overt taxing the cords you have, the better. Uh make sure you use an appropriately rated cord. Um, so when you buy the generator, invest in that heavy duty cord that's going to be able to handle that that amperage and voltage to run whatever systems it is that you're planning to run off that. Um,
if you're going to invest in a generator, invest in a decent transfer switch and the the correct electrical equipment to run that machinery. Don't back feed it through your dryer plug. Have that stuff installed by an electrician, a licensed professional. And the way to do that really the best
thing to do is to call your electrician and have a chat with them about what systems you want to run in a power outage. Um, you know, it usually will not be everything single thing in your house. It's usually heat, the refrigerator, maybe the stove, maybe not. Uh, depends on how much, you know, how much you want to spend on a
generator and what's important to you. Um, but make sure that's always done by a licensed professional. And if you have a generator that runs on gasoline, you should run that at least every other month just to make sure that the fuel isn't um degrading in the fuel system, which will just cause damage. If you only start it the times you need it,
which here is probably once a year or less, um you will eventually have a problem where that fuel system won't work correctly due to fuel breakdown. Um and on that you should also always follow the manufacturer's recommendations for any fuel stabilizers, type of fuel, all that sort of stuff like you would with any small
engine. I think that's it. Anybody have questions? Questions, comments, concerns? [Applause]