Many things went through my mind when I heard about and read about the gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno
"I don't know where my father is, I don't know where my husband is, I don't know where to go," Have a plan, practice the plan. Make sure you have a backup system to check on each other. At our house the number one meeting place is at the garden fence. (I expect the reasons we'd need to meet is a fire in the house!) We are required to stay at the house and property if the situation is not in our area. Besides meeting at the garden fence, there is a sign-in board if you aren't staying. The sign-in board is located on a metal post in a metal box. You put in your name and information where you are going if you are leaving. You are supposed to go to the safe place on the property, which is Place 2. If the entire property is unsafe then we go to a certain relatives house which is Place 3. If that isn't possible then it's Place 4. Place 4 is our mountain property. We hope it never gets to Place 4. As you can see, this is in a code so others who don't need to know where we are won't know where we are! We also have phone numbers to call to check in. There are two numbers we have memorized. One is an out of state relative, the other an in state relative. In the gas explosion yesterday about one-half square mile was affected. That's it. Nobody should be making a statement that they don't know where to go or they don't know where their relative is, unless the relative died.
He said the blast took out the entire water system, forcing firefighters to pump water from more than two miles away. It takes a while to put in a two mile hose lay. Fire engines and trucks can empty their stored water in 30 seconds if their hoses are fully charged. Even bringing in water tankers won't help. There aren't enough to go around. During several of the Santa Barbara fires I had my brother's family put up a big sign in the front and back of their house…"40,000 gallon swimming pool available for drafting." That's a guarantee that they'll have an engine available at their home.
"I have nothing. Everything is gone. We're homeless." In times like these you need to have copies of important papers someplace else. I have copies of my sister's important papers and she has copies of mine. We live six hours apart. If the entire state fell apart it would be difficult to get to each other quickly but if it's a small area disaster then this works. Another thing to do with important papers is scan them and put them on a little thumb drive. Keep that in your pack! Then you will just need someone's computer to download what you need. My sister and I also have copies of our computer files. So many things like pictures and such are stored this way now. People pay for electronic backup at some offsite company. Call me old-fashioned but I have a problem with paying a stranger to keep a copy of my computer files. Sure they say they are safe...Most likely you will lose everything in a local disaster such as this rather than in a TEOTWAWKI situation. Have insurance on your main place of residence. Even if you can't get insurance on the structure get it on your stuff. It's cheap peace of mind if you can't afford to just go out and replace things. Always have a pack with you or at your house by the door so you can get it on the way out. Include cash!
"Everybody grabbed their children and ran and put their children in their cars," "It was very clear something awful had happened." Several minutes later, ### (person's name removed) was near the fire scene. Lady, you are an idiot! You had your family with you and you went back to the scene to do what? Become a statistic? If it was me, we'd be somewhere else for the night. If the kids were home, that would be a different story if they weren't able to reach me by phone and I knew they were home. I certainly wouldn't bring any other kids back into that scene. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to be like the family from the movie Blast from the Past where the family built a bomb shelter in their backyard. During the Cuban missile crisis they were loading things into the shelter when a plane crashed on top of their home. They stayed in the shelter for 20 years without realizing they didn't need to!
### (names removed) were walking down a hill away from the flames with a makeshift wagon carrying important documents, medication and three cats. Good move!
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