In case you're along the East Coast of the United States: Emergency Instructions

[songquake]

This post is not intended to substitute for instructions by local governmental officials, nor is it any sort of professional advice. Please use common sense.

11:29pm I started working on this a couple of hours ago, as my mom and I were talking about evacuation plans in NYC and what I needed to be responsible for making sure we had together in the house while she's at work. There's a lot of information, and some of it is contradictory, some of it is confusing. I've tried to assemble and assess the best of what's out there, and put together a handy-dandy guide in case anyone I love is running around trying to get information from the hundreds of sites that are trying to give information to us. My mom doesn't know I'm writing this; don't hold her liable. And of course, everyone should use their own judgment and pay attention to the specific warnings and instructions given for their areas. I'm giving a bit more NYC-specific info because, well, I live here and I'm compulsive about projects once I start them.


8:40pm Okay, so all of Cape May County in NJ has been evacuated (that's 750k residents), and 5 hospitals in NYC are beginning evacuation with a deadline to be cleared of patients by 8pm tomorrow. In NC, Hyde County has been evacuated already.

I'm imagining that folks in the Carolinas (Hurricane Irene is hitting there first, right?) have their information, but generally speaking you can find information about preparing for a hurricane here. I suggest looking at local news sites to learn more about whether evacuations are happening in your area. cnn.com has Open Story: Hurricane Irene, which may be a good place to look if you have no idea where else to start.

If you are in NYC, Mayor Mike has issued this statement about preparations in the area.

Also important in the city is the map of evacuation zones and evacuation centers. Mayor Mike says the evac order decision will be made by 8am Saturday.

La Mamacita is going to be at the Office of Emergency Management command center all weekend—she expects to be leaving for work in the morning and not coming home until the end of the storm (though technically they'll be on 12-hour shifts, she doesn't think she'll be able to get between the command center and our home safely).

If you live in Zone A, find somewhere to go that's not an evac center, just in case. Please. Those places will NOT be conducive to anyone's mental health. Tell your neighbors. If you can get further inland, please do. I think all of you are well-enough connected to find places to stay in the city, but if not, email or text me. Same for LI; I'm not sure where all of you live out there, but please, please PLEASE stay safe.

NYC Evac centers open at 4pm tomorrow, though NYC's coastal homes won't be in "danger" until Saturday evening, it looks like.

If you might need to evacuate, make sure your Go Back is packed now, before you need to get out. A Go Bag should include:

- Personal documents (ID's, birth certificates, Social Security cards, passports, immigration documents, driver's licenses if you don't usually carry those on your person, insurance cards) in a waterproof container. Ziploc bag will do in a pinch.
- Extra car and house keys.
- $50-$100 in cash, small bills. Copies of debit/credit card(s).
- Enough meds for a week and a list of all members of your household with what medicines they regularly take and why. Also include a list of all your doctors' phone numbers.
- If you or a member of your family has a medical condition that needs special maintenance (home respirator/oxygen tanks, weekly dialysis, mental health issues likely to erupt in a crisis, cognitive disabilities that require constant supervision), there are special Evacuation Centers for you. You can call 311 to find out where the closest one is. Doctors and nurses staff them. If your family members don't have those sorts of needs, don't use them. I have pretty brittle type 1 diabetes. I'm not high-enough need (by my and my mom's assessment, and those are the centers she's in charge of) to require one. Even if only one member of your household needs that sort of attention, the whole household can go, since your family member will still need more help than the center can provide. Basically, this means if my Uncle Paul needed to evacuate (he won't, thank God), his home health aide could go with him. If he were staying with us, we'd want to send a couple of folks there to help him use the bathroom, etc.
- Spare set of clothes (esp. underwear, socks) for each member of the family.
- Flashlight
- Battery-operated AM/FM radio (if you've got one - sheesh!)
- Bottled water and snacks (they recommend granola/energy bars, but whatever works for your dietary needs, because granola and energy bars sure aren't safe for me!).
- Simple first aid kit.
- Contact information and meeting plan for members of your family.
- Child care supplies/other special needs items (think diapers, bottles, formula, etc.).

Don't wait until the last minute to evacuate. Don't think you're going to be safe driving over a bridge, or through a tunnel, if there is a hurricane.

Home emergency supplies should include:

- Candles and means of lighting them.
- Flashlights with working batteries and extra batteries.
- Cigarettes if you smoke (you think I'm kidding? You really want our smoking friends to be having nic fits during an emergency?), any other substances you're dependent on.
- Meds for a week (see Go Bag list)
- A gallon of water per day per person in your household. In our house, we're getting together a 3 gallon Brita and filling all our pitchers and bottles.
- If you're using the reserved water, you're not going to be able to wash probably. Have some Purell/hand sanitizer around.
- Non-perishable, ready-to-eat food and a can opener.
- First-aid kit
- Battery-operated AM/FM radio with batteries.
- Phone that does not rely on electricity. This may be your cell phone if it's fully charged, but more reliable is a phone that plugs into the phone jack and nothing else. These days, that sort is pretty antique; the only reason our house has one of those is because it was the only thing that worked during the Blackout of 2003. If you don't have one, PLUG IN YOUR CELL PHONES NOW.
- Child care and special needs supplies
- Iodine tablets, bleach, and an eyedropper to be used only as instructed by authorities in the event of water contamination.

As for cell phones: during regional emergencies it's a bitch and a half to get through to anyone. If you need to check in with loved ones and all of you have cell phones, for heaven's sake, text them instead. This will be less frustrating, take less time, and (most importantly) keep the waves free for emergency calls to get through to 911.

Use 911 only if there's an emergency in which life or limb is endangered. Call 311 about the downed tree on your street unless it's collapsed on a human.

If you're in a high-rise, you might need to evacuate even if you're outside the flood zones. NYC officials are recommending that folks pay attention to evacuation orders for their buildings. It may be that folks housed above the 10th floor will need to be evacuated to lower floors of their buildings. Pay attention to local announcements.

On Twitter, NYC information can be followed by following these:

@NotifyNYC (NYC OEM)
@MikeBloomberg
@NYCMayorsOffice
@MTAInsider
@NYC_DOT

This post will not be F-Locked (as soon as I've got it posted), so be careful what you say in the comments, okay friends? Keep it on-topic. I'm leaving it open so I can refer friends on Twitter here.

And everybody, stay safe. I'm almost certainly being overly dramatic about this, but hey, it's how I am sometimes.

Comments

[songquake.livejournal.com]

Oh good, because you were the friends I was most worried about. Nearly directed a comment at you and everything (okay, there was a list of LJ friends who were gonna get pointed comments), as if you weren't Responsible Adults and all. *hugs*

Because, yanno, I worry.

And then I tried to tell my brother it would be a bad idea to use his bicycle as primary transportation this weekend. *headdesk* Though, it might be more reliable than the MTA...