Bel-Air's Emergency Preparedness Update
Message and reminders from BAA’s Mark Goodman MD, Chairperson for Emergency Preparedness:
Dear Bel-Air Community:
As scary as the shaking is, we all recognize we live in an earthquake--and unfortunately severe fire--zone. Fires are often the biggest problem after an earthquake from broken gas lines and other electric-generated incidents.
In yesterday's post, we mentioned that shaking today was to be expected, as it is for at least the next several days, related to this distant fault system alone. We are told by Caltech and the USGS that these earthquakes about 150 miles away do not increase or decrease the likelihood of earthquakes on the fault systems near and under us, including those from the San Andreas fault.
These emphasize our need to be prepared however; the BAA has held two recent community meetings regarding disaster preparedness, the most recent of which--attended by 160 of us but advertised and open to all--was with Caltech, the LAPD, the LAFD, the City, and vendors that sold on site disaster kits and water... all specifically for earthquake education and preparation.
After that program, on the website and linked below tonight as a reminder are summaries of educational points for both fire and earthquake preparation....what to do before, during and after these events. Please review these and prepare !! The resources are there.
After the BAA's program, we deepened our community's HAM radio connectivity to outside point of contact. Our own internal community communication system relies on a large network of radios because of the handheld radio range limitation....we are working aggressively to build that network but still need participation so we have reliable point to point contact. We haver tested regions of this system already and are still eager to have volunteers to have it be more robust. When we have the critical mass so it is a system on which you could rely, we will have it available. Many of these radios are already in your neighbors' hands, and they have been educated at separate meetings about how to use them. Should you wish to volunteer, please contact us.
In the meantime, please don't panic but prepare as we continue to roll the next few days, and hope that a more substantial incident does not occur. The BAA will continue to work beside you to keep you informed and connected as we did in the Skirball fire, and will continue to provide Emergency oriented education and resources.
MARK GOODMAN MD
Link to BAA’s November 18, 2018 “Community Emergency Preparedness Meeting: Minutes, Distributed Materials and Links”
DO YOU KNOW HOW TO TURN OFF YOUR UTILITIES IN AN EMERGENCY? Information on how to handle utilities during a natural disaster:
Utilities Shut-off Procedures (water, electrical, gas)
SoCalGas “How to Shut-off Gas in an Emergency (ONLY IF YOU SMELL GAS!)
LINKS AND DISTRIBUTED MATERIALS:
How prepared are you? Take the EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS QUIZ
Earthquake Country Alliance interactive website - with interactive faultline map, etc.
Earthquake Country Alliance PDF '“Staying Safe Where The Earth Shakes”
LAPD “Lock It! Hide It! Keep It!”
Sign-up for Alerts with the LA Notification System
Before an Evacuation - readiness tips
SOS SURVIVAL PRODUCTS literature:
SOS Survival website at https://www.sosproducts.com