Pt. 2: Emergency Preparedness

This is the second of a two part series

So disaster strikes and you’re in the moment. I have been in that situation more than one time. And I’m your real estate agent, your broker that you call for vendors that you need, homes that you want to buy and sell, places that you want to rent out. But today I’m talking to you as a trusted friend, that’s been in those shoes. And I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen and what you need to do so you can get through it as best you can.

So the first instance that I had, I was a 16 year old. The tree next to my parent’s house was struck by lightning and at that exact moment, a large bow hit the rain gutter. The electricity went all the way down to the end of the rain gutter and where it stopped, that’s where the fire started. It happened to be right in front of my parents’ master bedroom window. Thank God. My dad happened to have been enough awake that he saw something orange in his line of sight as he was drifting back off to sleep, and realized that orange is not a normal color in the middle of the night.

And he woke up and he walked around and opened up the attic door. Mind you, we had smoke detectors, but for whatever reason, they hadn’t gone off. And he realized the attic was filled with smoke. He closed the door, he knocked on my door. And he said, “Bet, get up. Take the dog, run down to the neighbors, and call 9-1-1, the house is on fire.” And from there, what followed was an eight-month journey of watching my parents, and as a teenager going through that I can tell you that it’s challenging. I was a typical teenager. I took my dog, I took my favorite stuffed animal, and I took my geometry book. It was the class I was taking in summer school and moved forward. But for those next five or six hours, it was a surreal experience watching my parents, who I honored and loved and trusted, need me. They needed me to be strong because they were really struggling. They were watching their entire work.

A lot of the things that they had really set as goals. They had just finished paying off their house and they were watching it go up and they weren’t sure if they were going to be able to salvage anything. You fast forward to 25 years later, I had to listen this time on television, while a home that we had recently moved from went up in flames in the Cedar Fires. And fast forward after that another three or four years, and we had a fire that was barreling towards us at gusts that were going up to 55, even 70 miles an hour, coming in from Ramona towards the West. And we had to get out of harm’s way. And I’m bringing these things to not to be fear-mongering, but so that you are prepared for that moment when disaster does strike, that you know what to do first, and then next, and then next.

If you’ve done the preparedness items that I suggested, which are pretty minor. They’re a lot less than if you go to readySanDiego.org, but they are the things that you’re going to need for insurance and the things to pick your life back up again. When that moment strikes, you need to first make sure that you get out of the house with the pets, the kids, the extra food, the medication lists, all of those things that you need. If you have two cars, take both cars. Do whatever you can to get out of harm’s way with your vehicles, your pets, your kids, everything out the door. Because other than that, there isn’t pretty much anything you can’t replace. There’ll be things you’ll be sad about, but you can replace all the rest and get on down the street and get out of harm’s way.

And as you’re doing that, you want to remember to one, turn off the gas. We live in a place that has a lot of liquid gas for heating. And if you’re out in the country, backcountry, you’ve got propane, make sure that you turn off that gas and make sure you leave a note on your front door. If you have evacuation orders, it’s a federal emergency, leave a note to the fire department letting them know everyone’s cleared out. So they’re not hunting for people that are in your house. Okay? And head on down the road. And at some times like that, you just have to trust in it.

I know it’s hard, but you’re going to have to rely on the authorities that are in place and Cal Fire to do what they do best. And that is to protect your belongings and for you to be out of harm’s way and let them do that. So you’re probably going to go to the Red Cross shelter, if you need to, especially if you have pets and you don’t have a place to go. Once you’ve checked in and the waiting game has begun, it’s time for you to make sure that you have downloaded the San Diego County emergency apps. So you can keep track of what neighborhoods are being evacuated, any updates they’re giving you. Make sure you’ve touched base with all of your neighbors and let them know that you’re out. And also, so that you can let them know what shelter you’re in or where you are versus where they are, in case somebody gets to go back in before some of the others and people can check on each other’s things to make sure homes are as safe as they’re going to be.

And also obviously, to call loved ones that live at a distance. We had, I don’t know how many phone calls when we had to leave our house during the Witch Fires and head out of here. It was a week that we were out of our home. And our friends and family that were back East thought for sure that everything in California was ablaze and we needed to let them know that actually we were safe and that we were just waiting things out. And the National Guard was protecting the homes in our area and everything was going to be okay. So while we’re doing that, and while you were doing that, you need to make sure you have something for the kids to be entertained. So I know you’re going to take the iPad or you’re going to take an iPhone or whatever you have for them, as well as books and a game or two.

But you might want to think about taking emergency battery backups, things you can do to charge because you may not have them. Make sure if you have a family member that uses his C-PAP, that that’s one of the first things packed. Just do what you need to do to get on down the road and realize that when the adrenaline wanes, you’re going to be anxious to want to figure out what you can do to fix things. And that’s the time that you’re going to have to remember to be patient and wait for authorities to let you back in. Don’t try and go back early. Don’t try and go back and check on others. You’ve got to wait it out patiently and let them do their thing. And don’t get in harm’s way again. And don’t let another family member or friend or neighbor do the same thing.

At the end of the day when you get to go back in, while you’re waiting, you can call… If you know that you’ve lost your house, or you know you’ve had damage to your property, you can start by calling your insurance, start by placing the claim. You can start doing those things that are going to be in the days and weeks to follow. So that emergency adrenaline rush, holy cow, what do I do? That’s going to last for that day or maybe that week. And by the end of that, you’re going to have to have at least a short term plan. I’m going to talk about that in our next video, but for now, I want you to make sure that you’ve thought through that and taken some of the things that you may need to really make sure you take care of yourself. If that means taking some headphones, so you can take some soothing music with you. If that means making sure that you have a favorite fiction book that you read when you get really stressed out, whatever that one thing is, take it with you if you can because you’re going to need it. If you’re listening to this video, you’re the one that’s going to be helping the rest of your family through that. And I want you to be prepared and ready. I look forward to talking to you next time.