12,000 – Evacuation – Where Would You Go?
June 22, 2011, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
(Reuters) Authorities in the North Dakota city of Minot told up to 12,000 residents on Wednesday to evacuate immediately because the rising Souris River is about to overflow flood levees.
A chain reaction which began further up north in Canada, is now cascading its way south through the US while waters overflow levees which are desperately being patched to add precious time for evacuees to escape.
(Rueters) Heavy rains over the past six weeks have swelled Canadian reservoirs in the Souris River basin, forcing unprecedented water releases. In turn, U.S. officials must release water from the Lake Darling Dam above Minot at a rate more than double what the recently fortified protections can bear.
To put a positive spin on the disaster that is unfolding in North Dakota, we can all learn a lesson from what is happening. That is, ask yourself, ‘Where would I go if I were told to evacuate?’ ‘What would I take with me in the time that I have, and what is my plan?’
I’ll bet that the people of Minot, North Dakota didn’t think that this would happen to them. Now I wonder how many of the 12,000 had a plan of action.
Here’s an exercise, and let’s make it easy. Let’s say that you knew that you had 24 hours to ‘get out of Dodge’ because of an unfolding local or regional disaster. What would you do, and in what order?
Here are a few ideas off the top of my head…
1. Determine where you will go. Knowing the approximate radius of the disaster and how far away may be ‘safe’, call a friend or family in the safe-zone if this is your preference, and if you believe that it will be OK with them. Otherwise, as quick as you can, reserve a hotel room somewhere – before everyone else books everything solid. If you wait too long, you will have to travel further for lodging.
2. Contact and gather all household members to coordinate the evacuation.
3. Immediately go out and fill your vehicles with gasoline (spare gas cans won’t hurt either) and return home to plan and pack.
4. Depending on how many vehicles will participate in your caravan, determine the space you will have to bring items with you.
5. Determine a priority plan for the items that you will take. This will depend on whether or not you expect your home to be damaged or destroyed (flood, hurricane, etc…). What you take with you will be personal decisions based on available space, survival, and monetary/sentimental value. Even though you expect to have access to food and water outside the danger zone, you should always pack some with you. Enough for a 72-hour excursion is a good rule-of-thumb for a vehicle kit. Having a roof carrier is a valuable preparedness item to have on hand ahead-of-time.
6. Pack efficiently. Put things inside of things if there are air gaps or spaces in the ‘thing’.
7. Shut off your electricity and gas to the house.
8. Beat the crowds and get out early if you can (If you have already ran this scenario and documented a plan, you will certainly be ahead of the pack).
Covering more detail about an evacuation plan could easily consume thousands of words, or even a small book! However the key here is to use this news story to inspire you to think about these types of things ahead of time.
Have a ready-made plan. If you already know where you would likely go during a given disaster scenario or evacuation, you will beat everyone else to the reservation, and to the streets!
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I don’t know if all states follow the same natural gas rules, but our state recommends NOT turning off natural gas, because they only want professionals turning gas on, so they’d have to wait for someone to turn their gas back on (while possibly not having any electricity too). Instead, how about turning off each gas appliance’s turn-off valve (hopefully all the appliances have the turn-off valves).
@ Shreela. When I lived in earthquake country we were all told to have a special wrench to turn off the gas after a really big earthquake. I guess there were more concerned about the out of control fires after a large quake that would occur if the gas lines were still on to homes rather than worrying about having a professional turn the gas back on. Had that wrench out by the gas meter for a long time till someone stole it
I have one of those gas shut-off wrenches sitting on top of my gas meter at this very moment.
Interesting that it seems different areas with different disasters have what seems like opposing rules regarding natural gas. Never having lived in an earthquake zone, I did not know. I wonder how many from earthquake areas move to hurricane areas and did not know the rules differed so much, since I didn’t know it the other way around?
So much deep snow, hot weather expected in a few days, high sun angle, all equals much worst flooding for everyone down river. Talking about evacuations they just had about a hour ago a 6.7 earthquake in Japan. If this continues they are going to be getting millions out of Toyko when the Fukushima disaster gets worse, if that is possible. It seems like evacuations are part of the future all over the place doesn’t it?
This is a priority for me and I always keep my ear to the rails. Why? Because I live on an island that is connected to two larger more populated areas by one interstate. Yep. One way on, one way off. East or West are my only options and west may make sense but most likely it’s over to the east I would go.
I have a get outta dodge backpack that has three days of food so I can go meet up with friends elsewhere and band together if needed. One has a very large place out in the middle of nowhere.
There is a great lesson here. The flooding problem is not new in this city. Most people living there probablyt could have told you back in January that the spring flood would be really bad. So what stumps me is why they just sat there and waited for it. Wouldn’t YOU have rented a trailer or U-hual weeks ago and moved most or all of your stuff to someplace safe? Even if you had to make the trips in your car you could move everything but larger pieces of furniture that would seem like the prudent thing to do.
In my opinion this is all the fault of the permitting authorities. You should not be allowed to build a home, business or nuclear power plant in a flood plain.
Actually this is the second time they are being evacuated this year. The people in the affected zones in Minot were evacuated earlier in late May for the spring flood. They were allowed back a short time ago and then the picture has changed once again and they have to leave a second time. This is not a normal spring flood. There are going to be a series of crests right into July and high water in many areas well into August.
I agree with you on the building regulations. But then it has always been thus. People and cities should not build in low lying areas but they have historically……….. just as they insist in building on ocean front in areas that get hammered by hurricanes every year. You can educate the ignorant, but you can’t fix stupid.
I think it was after Ike that Houston, or our county (Harris) made new rules about building in certain areas that were low, or blocked drainage. Apparently the new rules were strict enough to scare off potential clients from buying the properties; one family sued because their buyer backed out once the new rules kicked in, saying their once valuable land was worth a lot less now. So I’m guessing other major cities at risk of flooding might run into similar situations when it comes to making new rules about building in flood zones.
Another thing affecting my area is a new “drainage tax”. Based off of Google Map type aerial photos, they somehow figure out how much drainage we’re blocking with our house, sheds/barns and driveways (and other cemented over areas). Whatever percentage the non-draining areas of our properties totals is plugged into some kind of drainage formula for our yearly drainage taxes.
Meanwhile, for the past few decades or so, big developers have managed to get out of paying their flood/drainage requirements, at least on the south side of Houston. The nearby neighborhood I used to work in got real organized with their local newspaper, and found out all sorts of discretions between how much developers were supposed to do, vs how much they actually did, as far as drainage rules. Too bad the local newspaper doesn’t post their archives on the net.
But now the citizens get to make up for the difference. If it actually prevents, or even slows flooding, it’s better than having water in our homes.
@ GoneWithTheWind. I so much agree with you over never allowing any type of building in a flood plain. There is a place in town here that is at the bottom of a V shaped valley that has lots of drainage ditches everywhere, but if those drainage areas fail there could easily be 15 feet of water for the residents of this street. Flood plains should ONLY be developed for recreation parks, dumps, whatever is easily recoverable when there is a flood, or what they were meant for, DRAINAGE.
My family has been planning for disasters and gathering supplies for years. Unfortunately we live close to a city. We are now looking for survival communities in rural areas who are also looking to have others join them.
We can offer supplies and skills (nursing, teaching, and building).
A sort of level three planning. A just in case we have to leave the city plan. Any suggestions such as forums or websites we can use in our search?
Boots