Time to make everyone mad again...

[drop bear]

We were still training during our little cyclone we just had. Well I wasn't. I took the week off.

 

[JP3]

Do you have a fire extinguisher?

* Yep, both at home and at office.

Do you know how to evacuate your home, have you practiced it?

* Yes, and nope. House design is open and simple. Stand up (or crawl) to the nearest door and out.

The whole family?

* Nope, no true need. But I get the point. Different house floorplan and we definitely would.

Have you given assignments to family members, who gets the baby, who gets the cat, who gets the photo albums?

* No baby and no cat any longer. Dogs now, and the dogs follow where we go without being asked, so that's handled.

When to abandon attempts to protect non-living or non-human things and just skedaddle?

* When it is Critical that you leave right damn now, we don't pick "things" up. Time to plan, sure. If not, go and buy another one.

How about a rally point, where all the human occupants can meet up, so that no one mistakenly goes back into a flooded or burning house to retrieve someone who is actually safe, but standing somewhere else?

* Front yard.

For those interested in more long-range things - do you have a way to quickly replace ID, credit cards, access your bank accounts that is NOT in your house that just flooded or burned down?

* Redundant access available at my office to everything.

Do you even have your account numbers, PIN numbers, phone numbers to call to begin that process?

*Yep, same answer as previous.

How about a Will, Living or otherwise? Durable power of attorney on file with your attorney, mailed to relatives who don't live near you, etc? DNR's or other requirements that you'd like honored?

* All, yep.

How about your medications? If you wear glasses or contacts, how about spares?

* I know how to get an emergency refill due to loss/destruction. (Had a bottle of BP meds drop in the ocean once. Fun, that was.)

Can you treat a wound?

* After the paramedic years, sure can. Can teach it, too, though my lady doesn't want to learn. She goes "Ewww..."

Can you find a doctor in an emergency?

* Urgent care units literally all over where we live. No idea how they stay in business.

Do you have access to antibiotics?

* Nope.

Can you make clean water when tap water becomes contaminated?

* If I've got access to a fire, yep.

How about clean socks? Good boots? Another pair of good boots? More clean socks?

* Boots and socks, check.

Do you have general as well as specific plans? "If the whole city floods, we will leave as early as possible and travel by car to X location, where we already have spoken to our relatives and they will put us up if need by, and we'll do the same for them."

* For both Hurricanes Rita and Ike, we left in tune to this principle. For Harvey, we didn't leave as the target was south of Corpus Christi. It was all right, as the highest wind I think we experienced were a couple of gusts in the 40 mph range, but we DID get our annual rainfall amount in 4 days, so that was a problem for the city.

When the roads make driving impassible, do you have a backup plan?

* It's called sit tight.

Can you spot bad weather coming by cloud formations and other natural signs? Ever take a weather spotting class offered free by the federal government?

* Never been able to do that well at all. I Can tell when it's about to rain, but that's a feeling int he air, not a visual thing.

Do you listen to radio and TV warnings and pay attention to them and take them seriously?

* Sure do.

Seems an awful lot of people don't. They all seem to want to wait until the threat is clear and present and THEN take action, when it is of course too late oftentimes.

* if you're referring to Harvey in specific, the main issue was that all of the weather pros said it's going to hit Corpus and we're going to get some rain. We started to get "some rain" on Friday night. The problem was... some rain turned into a crapton of rain, all of which (the initial flooding) took place overnight. The heavy stuff started in after 9:00 p.m. when lots of people had already turned in for the night. People went to sleep with a steady rainfall coming down, no surprise at all in Houston, and woke up either in the middle of the night, or the next morning, to find themselves flooded in, i.e. no way to get out of their neighborhoods. It's a real problem with not a lot of good ideas of how to fix it. Can't raise the elevation of every single roadway in Greater Houston, can we?

How about insurance? If you own your home, did you know that your homeowner's insurance (in the USA) typically does NOT cover backed-up sewer line flooding unless you specifically request it and pay a very small yearly fee?

* I didn't know about that exclusion, so I'm calling my agent on Tuesday, as they're still not in the office today, and Monday is Labor Day.

Same for floods; the government sells national flood insurance, but fewer than 20% of residents in Houston have it. Do you have it? Oh, you live outside a 100 year flood plain? Well good luck with that, sport. So did many Houstonians.

* Flood insurance is mandatory within... I think it's 40 miles of the Gulf. I'd have to check the specifics of that number. Yep, we've got it so if we were to leave we'd be allright except for the irritation and displacement.

I'm not overly worried about a nuclear attack on our nation.

* Me neither.

I am worried about tornadoes, floods, and other natural disasters which I can do something to prepare for.

* I'm not worried about them. I've thought about them, and made plans. Utilized those plans in the past, too. Plans generally work.

 

[Brian King]

Nice thread Bill,
JP3 hope that things dry out. Every news cast catches my attention. Have to say that your communities seem to be working together and are impressing the world and me. Hat tip sir.

Back to thread-
An area not mentioned is community and mental health. I have a built in advantage in the form of our Pyr and the need to walk her three + times a day. We know nearly everyone within a good half mile around our home and most have seen us walking. The children are hypnotized by a large friendly looking dog and folks are willing to say hello, wave, and hold some conversations. One of our neighbors B is in his 90’s and still walks the neighborhood every day. Most in the neighborhood do not like him as he used to have the habit of using his neighbor’s yard bird baths for an occasional ‘sit down’ waste disposal. He is a neighbor I would check out during situations, as he was a submariner in the Second World War and gets a pass for bad neighbor antics. L and K across the street are good folks and L is great with a chain saw and has a large pick up and boat. W the neighbor next to him is a good person and along with his wife are raising a bunch of youngsters. W my next-door neighbor in a jerk, but also a retired engineer, has a boat, small dog, and we get along well with his wife and can tolerate him LOL. The lady in the big red house behind me is in her 80’s and lives alone. She used to be harshly beaten but he passed ten or fifteen years ago and her life has been much easier, I would check on her during situations. About a year ago we had some drugged idiots trying to break into a couple of homes. Cops were dispatched and a few neighbors came out and checked on other neighbors and their homes. I could go on and on but the point is get to know your neighbors. What does getting to know your neighbors have to do with mental health, well, during an emergency a tried and true method for staying calm and healthy is to find someone worse off than yourself and then help them. The sense of trauma is markedly lower when there is a sense of circumstances not being helpless and finding meaning/mission greater than yourself. By helping others, you are also helping yourself. How cool is that? Don’t have a dog, get out and walk around the neighborhood and be friendly. Say hello, talk about the weather, the garden, their dog… Live in apt or condo get out and meet folks, attend building events or hold them.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Here's the 411 on the insurance most people don't have but should:

What is "Sewer Backup"?

What is "Sewer Backup"?
While floods are probably best known for causing extensive water damage to homes and businesses, they can also cause sewage from sanitary sewer lines to back up into houses through drain pipes. These backups not only cause damage that is difficult and expensive to repair, but also create health hazards.

Most homeowner and business insurance policies do not cover sewer backup unless specific sewer backup coverage is added to the policy, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.). “Obtaining an insurance rider on a homeowners or business policy would cover such damage if it occurs,” said Loretta Worters, vice president, I.I.I.

“Sewer backup coverage is available from most insurers for a nominal cost, usually $40-$50 on an annual insurance policy,” she said.

 

[Tames D]

Bensalem woman dies after running back into house fire to rescue her dog

I would do this in a heartbeat. No question about it.

 

[marques]

Great point.

My ex self-defence school was focusing on a different point: health. Which is also an aspect of self-defence. Everything we do may affect our survival, or at least, our wellbeing. It was quite like "we are our first and biggest enemy, so don't bother only with mad men".

PS: Not many hurricanes or floodings there, fortunately.

 

[BuckerooBonzai]

"Yes. As both of us are ex military we have plans in place. As a Guide leader I have plans in place for the meeting halls we have our units in, in fact we have a badge for the Guides ( all ages) which involves them setting out plans for home in case of fire etc. as well as who to contact, where to go and what to do. I have a long habit of risk assessing any building I'm in, comes fro my career choices."


What type of Guiding do you do?

My wife became a member of the Baden-Powell Scouting Association this last spring and she just loves it. She did a week of training on Brownsea Island this summer which was pretty intense.

 

[BuckerooBonzai]

Sorry Tez3. Somehow my response appears in your quoted area of text above!

Not very tech savvy here!

 

[Tez3]

Sorry Tez3. Somehow my response appears in your quoted area of text above!

Not very tech savvy here!

No worries, I'm the same! I'm bashing my head at the moment with a new website Girl Guiding has set up here to replace an old one, there's problems their end because so many are trying to get on but I seem to have more problems than most, I've phoned up, thought it was sorted but it's not, can't login in, it doesn't want me sob sob. And they said it would make our lives easier huh!

 

[BuckerooBonzai]

No worries, I'm the same! I'm bashing my head at the moment with a new website Girl Guiding has set up here to replace an old one, there's problems their end because so many are trying to get on but I seem to have more problems than most, I've phoned up, thought it was sorted but it's not, can't login in, it doesn't want me sob sob. And they said it would make our lives easier huh!

Yes, someday these computery-things will make our lives easier, eh???

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I would do this in a heartbeat. No question about it.

I probably would, too. Sometimes, I'm not very practical.

 

[Tez3]

Yes, someday these computery-things will make our lives easier, eh???

This is us. Girlguiding | The Leading UK Charity for Girls & Young Women it's the internal part for leaders that's doolally at the moment not the main website.

 

[Buka]

I would do this in a heartbeat. No question about it.

I'm with you, bro. I would run into any fire to save a member of your family, or my dog, or your dog for that matter. Couldn't live with myself otherwise. Easy to say, sure, but I've been in fires. If it's too much, the fire just blows you back, not a damn thing you can do, no matter who you are. Period, end of story.

I'll do just about anything to save a dog. God, I hate to say, but maybe even more than a people.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I'm with you, bro. I would run into any fire to save a member of your family, or my dog, or your dog for that matter. Couldn't live with myself otherwise. Easy to say, sure, but I've been in fires. If it's too much, the fire just blows you back, not a damn thing you can do, no matter who you are. Period, end of story.

I'll do just about anything to save a dog. God, I hate to say, but maybe even more than a people.

And nothing against it. Just lost my boy two weeks ago, I'm gutted.

But it's not 'self-defense', speaking literally.

 

[Tez3]

In the area I live in everyone knows everyone plus all their relatives and everything that has happened to them or they've done for the past 100 years (actually probably longer). Doors are still unlocked, strangers would be noticed within seconds and everyone helps everyone else. they'll still gossip about you mind!. it is like this except the police don't say 'hello' no one does, the universal greeting is 'Na then'.
Let's move to Wensleydale, North Yorkshire

 

[oftheherd1]

And nothing against it. Just lost my boy two weeks ago, I'm gutted.

But it's not 'self-defense', speaking literally.

Sorry to hear that Bill, and to hear it still bothers you that way.

What more can be said.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Great thread Bill! Wish I could contribute more but unfortunately work only gives me a few minutes to post on here a day for a week or so more.

 

[Tez3]

People shouldn't make the mistake though that where we live is a pushover lol, most of us have shotguns and dogs, we have large gardens for veggies and chickens. There's plenty of game up in the hills. We have sheep farmers as well as a couple of dairy ones. Most of us can knit ( many of us can spin wool too) and sew as well having 'do it yourself' skills ( Yorkshire people will never pay for anything they can do themselves) we have fresh water springs as well as the river. We have horses and ponies for transport. Nothing like a Dales pony, you can use them for riding and pulling a cart (and plough) they are such a handsome breed too with a good temperament. Often in winter we are cut off so we do stock up well.

By the way if anyone fancies coming up here and running a pub there's one for sale in Swaledale. The Tan Hill Inn, Britain's highest pub, is up for sale - BBC News

 

[Kababayan]

I think the "legality" of self defense should be taught more. I teach knife personal protection and in my field I see way too many "knife instructors" teaching the "slash 'em up" method which will just get them arrested. The "he attacked me first so it was self defense" argument doesn't always work in the court of law.

 

[lklawson]

I think the "legality" of self defense should be taught more. I teach knife personal protection and in my field I see way too many "knife instructors" teaching the "slash 'em up" method which will just get them arrested. The "he attacked me first so it was self defense" argument doesn't always work in the court of law.

The 4 Pillars of Justifiable Deadly Force are required whether it is a firearm, a knife, or a tire iron.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk