North Wildwood’s Emergency Preparedness website

Backups to Cell phone communications

Ever wonder what you would do if your cell phone and your family member’s cell phones didn’t work?  This is one of the things that Emergency Management personnel ponder when considering emergency operations plans. Do you have a communications backup plan? If you don’t have one you might want to consider creating one. All plans start with a discussion, in which you explore what you have now, what you will lose, and how to replace it, even temporarily. Losing your cell phone in today’s ever-technological society you are losing something that is more than used only for phone calls. Cell phones are your primary contact mechanism for two-factor identification that you will need to get into most websites. Do you have a backup plan to pass the two-factor identification prompt without your cell phone?

First here are some suggestions for backup communications. The simplest communication method is radio, but what radio will be heard by others? The most inexpensive system is FRS (Family Radio Service) which is a series of channels (frequencies) on the UHF band. Using radios on the FRS frequencies does not need an FCC license. The drawback is the radios are low power so you only get a limited distance. These are great radios for family outings where every family member has a radio and can keep in contact. You just have to remember that anyone else with an FRS radio can hear what you are saying. Next is GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) to use these radios you are required to have an FCC license, however, there is no test to get the license, and with GMRS one member of the family only needs to get a license and all family members can operate with that license. The GMRS Radios operate on UHF and they share some of the FRS frequencies. The big advantage of GMRS over FRS is the amount of power you can use which will allow further distance transmissions with less interference. In some areas, GMRS has a lot of activity so you will have no problem talking to others. Lastly, and the one recommended the most is Amateur Radio. Amateur radio, which is sometimes known as HAM Radio, is an FCC Licensed service that requires passing a written test. Amateur Radio has three license classes starting with Technician, then General, and Extra class, each with different permissions and frequencies. The Technician, entry-level license, most people will have no problem passing the test after reading the study manual. In fact, in some areas, they have same-day testing after attending a few-hour classroom. Amateur Radio is used by Emergency Management as part of RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service). In some areas, licensed amateurs in emergencies can contact emergency management to request assistance.

Now for the back-up to all important two-factor identification. First and simplest is having the two-factor identification send a voice message to your home phone number with the number that you use to identify yourself. This will only work if you have a home phone other than your cell phone. The one that many use is a hardware authentication device such as YubiKey. An item that resembles a thumb drive that when requested you put in the computer’s USB port and press a button on the key and you are authenticated. Of course, you would have to set up to use the key beforehand on the website’s two-factor identification page. It is recommended to get two keys and register both and keep one on your key ring and the other in a safe secure space as backup.

Exploring all the “what ifs” is part of preparedness. Many times you will find there are simple solutions to the problems created by a storm, an outage, or whatever event that may occur.

Winter is almost here . . . are you ready?

As we start seeing cooler weather and the publication of early winter forecasts by several weather outlets it’s time to think about winter. These early predictions are calling for a warmer and dryer for most of the Mid-Atlantic area and this is mostly due to a La Nińa climate phenomenon that is predicted to emerge in September – November of this year. However, after checking the Internet for additional 2024-25 winter forecasts on the Internet you can almost find one to fit the weather that you wish for whether you be a snow person or a warm winter person. So what should one do to be prepared? The good thing for us, being near the ocean, is that the winter temperatures aren’t usually too low which allows one to get away with layers of clothing rather than specific cold weather wear. What about snow? During the past several years we have not gotten any significant snow, but many of us remember the times we have had substantial amounts of snow and not that far ago the ice storm in 2010 when electricity was out for many for over a week. How should we prepare? As we have suggested many times look for the common things that you need to prepare for the various weather situations and focus on them first. For example, the waterproof boots you wear when it floods will work with heavy socks in snow, the same goes for using an unlined raincoat over a sweatshirt or jacket when it is snowing. Keep it simple and no worries about clothing matching as there are no fashion rules in surviving outdoors in the winter. If you have supplies for sheltering in place for a few days you should be okay during a heavy snow storm. The major concern is losing electricity. Fortunately, unless we have an ice storm the outages are usually short and isolated in the area. Most solutions to give you a backup to electricity outages usually require a substantial investment. With all the solar on many houses, you would think that would be helpful in a power outage, unfortunately, if there is a power outage most panels are part of a grid-tied system and will automatically shut down for safety reasons when the grid goes down, so you can’t count on that solar. However, if you install separate solar panels that charge batteries and you have an inverter, you will then have limited power to keep the heat running or the refrigerator cold. There are smaller units marketed as “solar generators” which are essentially a solar panel that hooks to a unit that contains batteries and a built-in inverter to convert the solar panel voltage to house voltage. Like a generator, you simply plug your cord into the “solar generator” to get power. These units are good for a limited amount of time and a limited current draw.   An intermediate solution is a portable generator that runs on propane or gasoline.   Portable generators require routine maintenance and the storage of highly flammable fuel, something not everyone would want to do.  Lastly, you have the whole home generator that runs on natural gas or propane.  These units supply electricity to your entire house and automatically check readiness by starting up and running for a little while every week.     Unfortunately, these require a substantial investment that many cannot afford.    Whatever you decide to fill the electric outage gap in your home preparedness plan take time to thoroughly investigate all your options and look for something that is low maintenance, easy to operate, and fits your budget.

Ready or Not the Hurricane won’t wait.

With various weather outlets using the term historic when talking about this year’s Atlantic Hurricane Season taking the time to be prepared might be a good idea. Being Prepared is the single thing that one can do to ensure survival. One good thing about hurricanes is that they are often monitored from the time they are thunderstorms off the Africa coast and continuously as they become tropical storms and hurricanes. Frequently this period is several weeks. With all that time to be prepared, one would think that there should be no causalities as everyone would be prepared. However, this is not true, people continue to need to be rescued in high water, need shelter, or need some sort of other assistance. The big question is WHY? Three reasons come to mind why people aren’t ready. They are (1) the notion that the weather forecasters get it wrong and that the storm always misses us; (2) I don’t have the time to prepare, or it takes too much effort to be prepared; and (3) Why should I prepared if government is there to take care of me. We will briefly address each one of these reasons and hopefully push you towards being more prepared.

(1) – “The weather forecasters get it wrong and the storm always misses us” – Weather forecasts are a prediction of what should happen when certain weather components meet. These predictions or forecasts are created by highly trained individuals consulting an incredible amount of weather data. The facts are the National Weather Service for the short-term forecast (0 to 3 days) has an average accuracy of 90% for temperature and 85% for precipitation. Then why does it always seem the storm misses us? A big part of this notion is probably due to the fact most of us do not follow the weather closely enough. Many check the weather only once or twice a day while the National Weather Service is constantly updating and posting their forecast many times a day. When it comes to Hurricanes we have been very lucky and have not seen a direct hit in years. But there were many times when the predictions had the path centered over Cape May County and several hours out the path changed. Does that mean the forecast was wrong? It would be best if you were prepared the same for a storm that will likely hit us, as a storm that is predicted to hit us. The bottom line is that it is better to prepare and not have the storm hit us rather than wait to see if the storm changes path and not be prepared when the storm does hit us.

(2) – “It’s too hard and costs too much money to prepare” – While it is true nothing in life is free, sometimes people tend to over-engineer things. Preparedness is simply being ready for what’s to come in the best possible way you can. Basically in any situation, there are two choices – evacuate or shelter-in-place. Evacuation is knowing what is important to take and where you are going to go, while shelter-in-place is having enough supplies to get you through a period, which can be several days. In some cases, you will not have electricity. A checklist works best for evacuation while pantry management will ensure you have enough supplies on hand for several days. There are items such as a generator or solar panels with a rechargeable power supply that would be nice but for some, they’re not necessary. One should do what one can within their resources. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend the best thing you can do is purchase a pencil and paper pad and write out a plan. A plan will save time, money, and worry and will ensure you are on the path to survival.

(3)– “The Government is there to take care of me, why should I prepare?” The reality is in a major storm there would not be enough first responders to handle all the calls for service if everyone relied on the local municipal services. First Responders are there for emergencies and to assist the most in-need individuals, i.e., those with special needs or those with no family to assist them. In a city with 46.5 percent of the population aged 65 years or older, we have a larger group that may need assistance. Taking a look at the first responders, the City relies on a core group of career firefighters and police officers, plus a group of volunteer firefighters. As property values go up there are less young people who live in town and want to volunteer. Also, as the population ages so do the volunteers and each year there are fewer and fewer to count on. With fewer resources calls for service will be prioritized, and response times will increase, leaving those able to care for themselves to be handled last. Lastly, the emergency infrastructure – high water vehicles and shelters have limited capacities. In a storm situation, the government works best as an alerting agency and guidance agency. Alerting you what’s coming and then guiding you, such as evacuation routes, sheltering in place, etc.

Everyone needs to make some sort of effort to be prepared. The minimal thing all should do is at least think about the “what ifs” – such as what do I do if it’s going to flood, what do I do if an evacuation order is issued, what do I do if flood water is expected to come in my house. After you have thought about what to do jot down some notes on what you need to do, now you have the basic plan. Plans don’t always have to be a formal written plan they can be a flow chart, checklist, or bulleted list.  Resources for preparedness can be found on North Wildwood’s Ready website HTTP://ready.northwildwood.com.