TWELVE

COMMUNICATION AND PREPAREDNESS FOLDER

Two hundred years ago, loud whistles signaled shift changes at factories, bells announced the hours of the day from church steeples, and letters held important business and personal news. Communication across vast distances was slow—the first transcontinental telegraph line wasn’t completed until 1861.

The Cascadia earthquake will thrust us out of our digital comfort zone back to a time when most information was shared face-to-face and mass communication in newspapers, books, or leaflets took considerable time to produce and distribute. Easy-to-understand signals—whistle sequences, colored flags, and symbols—were important tools for delivering simple messages.

EMERGENCY SIGNAL

Three loud, short blasts of sound from a whistle or horn means you need help. Wait a few seconds and repeat. Keep repeating until someone hears you. If you are trapped, calling for help may waste energy and increase the dust you’re breathing, so pound on whatever is near you in the distress pattern of three short knocks, followed by a break, then repeat three short raps. Continue until aid arrives. Rescuers will hear many sounds after the earthquake: a repeating, intentional pattern will signal that a person is generating the noise.

COMMUNICATION TOOLS

The tools you rely on today for communication—text, telephone, email, video conferencing—won’t be available after the earthquake. Instead, we’ll need to rely on megaphones, air horns, two-way radios or walkie-talkies, amateur (ham) radio, satellite phones, satellite radio in vehicles, and hand-written messages and signs.

At a time when we are most desperate to know what to expect, the lack of information will be painful. Predictably, a wave of rumor and speculation will rise to fill the void. Bad information can lead to bad decisions. Be cautious about what you believe: it will be safest to trust only official sources or reputable people who have directly seen whatever they are reporting on.

In earlier times, centrally located notice boards kept people informed of important events. After the earthquake, expect people to spontaneously create such locations to share news and ask for information. Existing gathering places such as coffee shops, schools, worship sites, community centers, libraries, police and fire stations, and hospitals are likely spots—even if they aren’t open. Some cities are identifying communication hubs to serve this function; check with your local emergency management agency.

For those who know Morse code or recognize common emergency signals, loud whistles or air horns can relay information as far as the sound will travel.

MORSE CODE

Morse code turns the letters of the alphabet into signals that can be sent by electric current, radio waves, visible light, or sound waves. If both the sender and receiver are experienced in translating the signals into letters and words, information can be conveyed quickly and accurately. If neither the sender or receiver is experienced, the time it takes to convey information and the risk of garbled signals is much higher.

Dots are the shortest signal. Dashes are three times the duration of a dot. Most people could roughly follow this pattern to send an SOS, or signal “fire.” However, the system also directs that the equivalent of three dots of space is left between each letter of a word. Words are separated by seven dots of space. Obviously, only experience allows this level of precision in using Morse code to convey longer messages.

THE MORSE CODE ALPHABET

LEARN MORSE CODE

Learning Morse code is like learning a secret language—which could also be valuable in an emergency. Turn learning it into a game by taking turns writing, tapping out, or saying words in code: whoever can guess the word first gets a point. This works either before the emergency or as a good activity to pass the time afterward.

PREPAREDNESS FOLDER

A preparedness folder gathers vital information in one easy-to-find place, providing a portable resource you can quickly take with you. As with other elements of preparedness, there are trade-offs as to how much information you include, where you store the folder, and whether you include abbreviated versions in your go-bag(s).

Your preparedness folder should include information you may need in the first weeks after a Cascadia earthquake. While house contents inventory or a video record may be important a month or more after the event, this folder includes the basic things you may need in the very beginning. Remember, any information you now depend on digital access or internet searches for will need to be on a hard copy if you want to use it after the earthquake.

The more information you include in the folder, the more useful it will be in other disasters such as a house fire, wildfire, or flood. Start at the beginning of the checklist at the end of this chapter (this page), and work through it. If you complete only the first few items, it will still be helpful in the case of a Cascadia earthquake. Remember, you may not have access to computerized records for some time. Having a hard-copy telephone, email, text, and/or address list allows you to connect when you finally have the opportunity.

Store your information in a notebook, large plastic portfolio envelope, cardboard portfolio, or zippered canvas or nylon portfolio. Remember that keeping your information dry could be difficult if you must evacuate, so store information in sealed plastic bags if your overall portfolio isn’t water resistant.

You want your folder in an easy-to-access location so you can grab it and go if you must evacuate. However, where you store it shouldn’t be obvious to a thief, since it will include personal information that could result in identify theft.

At a minimum, you’ll also want to include contact information for key people in your go-bag, along with your reunification plan. Decide whether duplicates of other copied information are safe where you’ve stashed them and whether they will be pertinent based on how likely it is that you’ll get home right away to your larger preparedness folder.

COMMUNICATION AND PREPAREDNESS CHECKLIST

COMMUNICATION: NECESSARY

□ 120-decibel emergency whistle for each adult and any child in your household you trust to use it correctly

□ Battery-operated megaphone for fire, evacuation, and other urgent alerts

□ Extra batteries for megaphone

□ Paper, pens, and/or markers for messages and signs

□ Plastic bags to protect messages and signs from weather

□ Tape or tacks to post messages to community notice boards

COMMUNICATION: NICE TO HAVE

□ Walkie-talkies or handheld radios

□ Satellite radio access in vehicle

□ Air horn(s) for signaling—look for 120 decibels, which can be heard up to a mile away

□ Amateur (ham) radio capability—look for low- or no-cost classes through employers, amateur radio groups, or a local emergency management agency

PREPAREDNESS FOLDER: NECESSARY

□ Written emergency and reunification plan for your household

□ For each family member:

□ Name and date of birth

□ Copy of birth certificate, driver’s license, and work or school identification badge

□ CCopy of important medical information, vaccination record, current medications, and blood type if known

□ Recent photograph

□ For each pet:

□ Name and photograph

□ Microchip information if applicable

□ Medical information and current medications

□ Vaccination record—when shelters open after a disaster to house people and pets, most will only allow animals who have proof of vaccination and refuse entry to those without this documentation

□ Paper maps of area

□ Location and description of emergency supplies—to help you find them quickly

□ Emergency instructions—how to turn off gas and water, generator information, medical device operation, etc.

□ Contact information—doctor(s), dentist, veterinarian, insurance agent, school, work, child-care facility or other care center, other critical service providers, family members, close friends

PREPAREDNESS FOLDER: NICE TO HAVE

□ Critical passwords and/or password manager information

□ Car title(s)

□ Insurance inventory of possessions

□ Mortgage, bank and other financial institution records and information (including bill autopay), and other relevant bills and account numbers

□ Credit and debit card numbers and cancellation information