North Wildwood’s Emergency Preparedness website

Spring Weather equals Severe Weather

If you follow the weather closely it is no surprise that Spring Weather, with the clashing of the Cold and Warm fronts, will bring Severe Weather.  That is why this is the time of the year when Tornado Alley is active.  I am sure anyone watching the news or weather reports can see that the weather has become increasingly more severe, from heavy rain and winds to rivers flooding over their banks.  What can we do?  There are many different views on what causes the increase in severe weather and what we can do.   Rather than get bogged down on differing opinions it is best to focus on what we can do to survive the weather.   While the latter discussion is necessary one can not attempt to fix the causes if they don’t first survive, so our focus is on how to survive.

The path to survivability is first planning for the severe weather, second being alerted that severe weather is on its way, and then executing the plan to survive.   We have written about planning before and have plenty of resource links on our website – it is something as simple as having boots and a raincoat available and knowing where to move your car when it floods.   We also like to have items that can be used for multiple different events,  for example,  un-insulated boots that can be worn in the summer and again can be worn in the winter with heavy socks.  Same with a raincoat, get one big enough to wear several layers of clothing under it in cold weather.   Next is being alerted – this can not be any simpler with today’s smartphone technology.  Sign up for the FEMA app and a weather app of your choice to get emergency alerts.   To learn more about the applications search the past posts, to get there ” click here for archive notices” Next scroll to the April 14th,  2022 Post to see recommendations.   Lastly, is the execution of the plan.  You know what you need to do and have the resources, you heard the weather alert now follow through.   Don’t hesitate until it’s too late to do something.

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.