There’s no big storm coming. Streets aren’t flooded. Heavy snow’s not in the forecast, and there aren’t massive power outages. Those things might happen, and, if you’ve been drawing breath for a few years, you know they already have. Do Irene, Sandy and last winter ring any bells? About 40,000 Philadelphians were without electric power, some for several days, last winter.
You might as well be primed to deal with problems like these at home or equipped to hit the road to avoid them. That’s Joan Przybylowicz’s point when she talks to people about preparing themselves and their families for trouble.
“The intent is not to scare people,” she said during a meeting sponsored by the Frankford Neighborhood Advisory Committee at the Campbell AME Church on Kinsey Street. “We want to prepare people.”
You’ve got to think ahead, said Przybylowicz, deputy director for external affairs for the Office of Emergency Management.
You should have a “go bag” ready if you have to leave your home in a hurry because of extreme weather, or, more likely, fire.
Przybylowicz suggested that bag should have some clothing, cash, a flashlight, batteries, a battery-operated or hand-crank radio, water, food bars, toilet paper, sanitary napkins, extra keys, a first aid kit, copies of personal documents like licenses, passports, mortgages, insurance policies, emergency contact info and medicine for you, your family and your pets. That’s just the short list. For more suggestions, go to www.phila.gov/ready
Another suggestion for the bag is keeping a list of medications and dosages you and your family members use. Also on that city website are evacuation routes out of the city.
Families should put together evacuation plans that include meeting places outside their homes. During emergencies, the city will provide shelters. Where those shelters will be, she added, will be announced 48–72 hours before an event, like a hurricane. Local schools will be used, but which ones depend on what kind of trouble is coming.
Families also should be ready to stay at home, or “shelter in place,” because of some kind of biohazard emergency or because police believe there are dangerous people in your vicinity, Przybylowicz said. Pick a room that you can live in for a few days. Have water and food ready there. Learn how to use plastic sheeting and duct tape to seal off that room’s windows if the air outside is dangerous, she said.
Sign up for email notifications of problems at readynotifypa.org, she said.
Detective Joe Rovnan of the police department’s Homeland Security Unit said city residents should also keep minds on trouble that might be right next door.
“We have to prepare for terrorism,” he said, and report what we see as “absurd or unusual” to police.
Do you see a neighbor’s fan going when it’s cold outside? Explosives have to be kept at constant temperatures, the detective said. Do you smell acetone? That’s nail polish remover, he said, and most people can identify the odor. It’s also used in making explosives, he said, and if you get a heavy whiff of it, you should report it. “Things that tickle us,” Rovnan said, should be reported. ••
