With 10 Minutes to Pack and Evacuate Ahead of a Simulated Emergency, Here’s What the Participants Learned
Press release from PG&E:
The key to making sure that you and your family safely and successfully respond to a natural disaster or emergency is to prepare before it happens. That’s the reason September’s National Preparedness Month exists, and that’s why Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) teamed up with the Placer Hills Fire Department to put one local family to the test.
In this video, released in 2021 and just as relevant today, a Sierra foothills family is put through a simulated wildfire evacuation to demonstrate how being prepared can help bring calm to the chaos.
“You think you’re ready, but are you? It’s scary,” said Michelle Childers, who participated in the disaster readiness drill with her husband Justin and their two children.
PG&E urges all our customers to assess how prepared your family, home and community are for a natural disaster or other emergency, and to take the necessary actions to be ready.
In addition to the video, PG&E’s Safety Action Center website puts valuable resources at your fingertips. You can:
- Take a quiz to find out if you know what to pack in an emergency kit
- Learn how to prepare a kit with six easy steps
- Create an emergency plan
- Learn how to create defensible space around your home
- Watch a special video series: 7 Saturdays to a more fire resistant home
An ‘Eye-Opening’ Experience
For the Childers family, firefighters gave them just 10 minutes to get what they would need, as is often the case in a real evacuation, and leave their home.
“My first instinct was birth certificates, passports, IDs, keys, wallets, because those are the things we’re going to need immediately (if evacuated) to get a hotel, to rebuild. My second initial response was mementos, pictures,” said Justin.
“I’ve never experienced this, I know what I was thinking, but I paused,” said Michelle, describing the first seconds after the knock at the door. “I got a couple of changes of clothes for each of us, got some snacks that I know the kids would eat, and some mementos.”
Although the family did not have go-bags ready during the drill, they grabbed essentials: important documents, changes of clothes and some food.
“I thought they did a really good job,” said Battalion Chief Matt Slusher with the Placer Hills Fire Department. “They worked well together. But what if one of you was not home at the time of an evacuation? What would you prioritize? For example, the kids—if you had to be away for 72 hours, their homework, the things that are important to them because their lives are going to be turned upside down, how do you maintain a level of normalcy?”
“I was motionless,” said Michelle, who is an elementary school teacher. “You need to have a go-bag, container with food and water for 72 hours. This was eye-opening.”
“This life-like emergency drill was a great reminder for all of us to plan what we would do before any kind of natural disaster or other emergency, and to practice how we would respond. It’s muscle memory. You have to practice it to perfect it,” said Joe Wilson, PG&E’s Vice President, North Valley & Sierra Region.
How Customers Can Prepare
Here are some simple guidelines to prepare for an emergency.
- Build or restock your emergency kit with flashlights, fresh batteries, first-aid supplies and cash. Keep face masks and hand sanitizer in your emergency kit.
- Identify backup charging methods for phones and keep printed copies of emergency numbers.
- Plan for medical needs like medications that require refrigeration or devices that need power.
- Keep in mind family members who are elderly, younger children and pets.
- Update your contact information online or by calling PG&E at 1-866-743-6589 during normal business hours so you can receive Public Safety Power Shutoff alerts.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit pge.com and pge.com/news.
You can read about PG&E’s data privacy practices here or at PGE.com/privacy.
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Hmm… wouldn’t it be nice if a to go kit only needed you to get personal items like medications, cell phones and documents because- ta da- you government would have put stockpiles of food, water, bedding, first aid kits, pet food, etc at strategic locations around the country so that they could be provided to people called to evacuate in designated shelters? Wow! Impossible you say! But guess what? Government used to do that and maintain it.
I know this because for some reason my father got some stockpiled water drums/barrels that securely store water when their expiration dates passed and they were replaced. Written on the sides were instructions on how to covert them to latrines if needed. They have floated around various members of my family for decades because they were so useful and durable. I have one but somewhere I misplaced its secure lid. From 60 years ago. Looks as good as the day it was made.
My father, who was person who always “knew someone”, also had some military ration kits from when they were replaced too. Not many but dang we took them on a road trip once and they were great. Came with canned fruit, canned sandwiches, utens, even napkins and the kits included little can openers just in case you didn’t have one. Imagine that- a government who planned and prepared for the care of their citizens in times of trouble.. Now officials sort of tell people how to take care of themselves. Much cheaper for the government than all that wasted food and water that was only rarely needed. And keeping organized seems to be a lost art in government anyway .
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_defense_in_the_United_States
A mistrust of government and view that “the government” is something other than the people has been successfully instituted by corporations. Now we do not trust the government enough to regulate the corporations, and they (corporations) have used their capital power to make sure that indeed the government is, to a great extent, no longer worthy of trust.
The invisible hand (fist) of the free market inevitability finds it way right up your backside.
How did corporatiins do that?
MONEY.
Everybody should have a ‘bug-out’ bag. Someday the ‘subduction’ zone earthquake is going to hit the North West corner of the USA. It will happen with no warning… day or night, and good or bad weather. Unlike a ‘localized’ earthquake, this will probably hit the entire coastline for hundreds of miles.
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If that happens, don’t count on emergency services, they may be non-existent for awhile. Be prepared to take care of yourself for a day or two.
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Plastic Mylar shelter, rain-proof poncho, bit of water, emergency snacks, headlight/flashlight, stocking cap, whistle, gloves, heavy socks. Kids packs should have phone numbers and relative addresses and instructions. For adults, add waterproof matches and a knife to the kit.
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Hopefully somebody will read this and be prepared.
Your second paragraph needs editing. Change “if” to “when”.
A small metal pot or can of some kind. You can pack other supplies in it but no amount of plastic can replace it.
Isn’t this special. They want to insure residents know the ins and outs of evacuation before they burn down the next town . This from the company—uh no, how about the cabal of thieves and their cohorts on the P.U.C and the so called regulatory and oversight bureaucrats who insure our electrical prices remain the highest in the Nation.
Thanks for bringing this to attention. I didn’t even think of it this way.
What you just said brings me to the tubbs fire the paradise fire and now Maui!
? Again thanks!
When growing up my dad always had a bug out kit. He said it’s better to have one and not need it then not have one and need it.
I am all for having what you need and being ready for anything. This world is crazy and you need to be prepared!
Great advice from everyone here!
It’s sad that people should have to worry about things like ID, credit cards, and food.
Food, shelter, and replacing documents are things that should be provided to victims.
People should only have to focus on things that are irreplaceable.
Half of humboldt county couldn’t find their stash and roll a doobie in 10 minutes. How about say half n hour?