By Ken Ross
The Kenneth Fire (note: ironically NOT named after me, thankfully) came far too close for comfort to my home. Confession: I had done absolutely nothing to prepare for a catastrophic emergency like these wildfires.
My guess is that YOU haven’t done any prep either, right? So, if you were not already directly affected by these wildfires, maybe you have still done nothing to prepare, right again? Wellllll, TIMES UP!!! Get your stick out of somewhere, roll up your sleeves and get prepared….NOW!!!
The startling reality of these unimaginable wildfires is that this can happen to anyone anywhere, at any time. So, how about starting with these few game plans? Firstly, if shocked into an immediate evacuation order, where would you go? Consider that a mass evacuation could result in abandoned cars on freeways, so should you risk taking a freeway? Literally depending on which way the wind is blowing, where would you go (if forced to move north, east, south or west)? Yes, it would be really nice if each LA City Council Member would clearly spell out all their council district’s options for us. So, maybe you should place a “polite request” for action by him/her after you finish reading this article, eh? How about a phone call to your local LAUSD Supervisor requesting a list of all LAUSD schools that would be opened as an evacuation center (if/when something like this happens again)? I can not think of any organization better equipped than LAUSD to handle masses of evacuated residents in a disaster, can you? It would also be nice if each possible evacuation site had ham radio capabilities just in case cell phone towers go down. Do all disaster preparedness handbooks suggest that necessity? I have no clue.
By the way, what if cell phone towers do go down and your family is separated when disaster strikes? Everyone in the family should know the pre-planned destination (with alternatives if those options are unavailable). That does actually mean calling for a family meeting to hash this all out (with a little brainstorming added, so you can show off). At such a meeting, it would help greatly if someone thought of things like putting double collars on each of your pets. If a collar breaks and you have a dog (or even a collared cat in cat carrier?) on a leash and it breaks, you need a re-attachment instantly, not later after the pet has bolted.
Next, are all your essential documents, “sufficient” cash at hand (note: you might not be able to get to an ATM or bank easily), priceless jewelry and keepsakes hidden away in a tote bag for rapid evacuation? Hopefully, you already camera-phone-copied all your irreplaceable family photos and sent them to “the cloud”…if not, get hoppin’.
And, if G_d forbid, you did get burned out, has a close friend or relative agreed to board you for “a while”?
And it might be too late, but are you eligible for fire and other disaster-type insurance? If you aren’t sure, wouldn’t it be a good idea to give your insurance agent a call today, eh?
Any of us who haven’t lost our homes, hopefully are going to immediately donate clothing, food and/or other essentials to local non-profit donation centers. We may have been lucky this time, but hopefully if we need such assistance in the future, karma will work in our favor. So, PLEEEAAASSSEEE do something to help our heart-broken neighbors who are in desperate need of our assistance now.
Lastly, if enough people write in with brilliant creative evacuation plan ideas (beyond those in online disaster handbooks, which we all should read), I might even write a follow-up to this. I am in no way an expert on the topic. Remember, I was as ill-prepared as you were. However, if this article just helps even a single family avoid a worsened catastrophe, then this was the most useful article I ever wrote.
Be thoughtful, be democratic, be of ken.
Ken Ross is a Northridge resident, a former dentist and Associate Professor of Dentistry at UCLA. He sits on the Northridge East Neighborhood Council, where he has been both Second Vice President and First Vice President. He can be reached at kenrossnenc@yahoo.com
