When You Must “Abandon Ship”: Emergency Preparedness Tips

My neighbors laughed when I told them what I intended to do with the rope I bought.

“You have a wild imagination,” one of them said.

This picture by Lyn Rillon published in Philippine Daily
Inquirer during the 2011 Bulacan flooding inspired me to
come up with emergency/disaster plan for my pets.

I wondered how they could not see the brilliance of it. “Disasters can happen anytime. I don’t want to be caught unprepared,” I retorted.

It was a few months after Ondoy — that flash flood that inundated Metro Manila in September 2009. My apartment was among the thousands of houses and establishments that were submerged during the flood. My father, my then three-year-old nephew who was vacationing in my place, and I had to swim neck-deep floodwater to get to safety. Since that experience, I had become more safety and preparedness obsessed.

I say “more” because I have always been safety conscious. Compared to many, I tend to be better prepared for eventualities such as disasters. However, I realized during Ondoy that I was not as prepared as I wanted to be. So immediately after that great flood, I began devising escape plans and procuring things I may need to get myself—and hopefully others—to safety in case of emergency. Hence, the rope and the other “escape tools” I had bought since then.

I have two door accesses in my apartment, so maybe I’m pretty safe in case of fire. But I have a third possible exit, the window. The only problem is that, as my apartment is on the second floor, I will have to jump off and probably sustain fractures in order to escape. Realizing this, I bought a rope I could use in case my only exit left is the window.

Wild imagination? Maybe. But could you say that when disaster strikes and all you need to get to safety is a few meters of rope and realize you don’t have it?

I am not one who wouldn’t do my part and then blame the government for lack of preparedness. I believe that disaster preparedness is a function of families and individuals. Making sure that our place is safe is our responsibility, not the government’s. Moreover, sometimes, during emergency, the only way we could help in rescue efforts is by getting ourselves to safety on our own, so that rescue workers could focus on others who may be in worse situation.

Now, more than ever, we should be taking disaster preparedness more seriously. The typhoons that visit and the floods that inundate our country are stronger and more frequent. Fires are a regular part of our evening news. We can never be too prepared.

That said, let me share with you some emergency preparedness tips I practice.


1.  Do preventive measures. Doing preventive measures is the best preparation for any emergency. A strong storm has been forecasted? Ensure that your house is safe, and the tree in your backyard has been trimmed to reduce the possibility of it getting uprooted, or at least minimize the damage it would cause in case it does get uprooted. Buy your groceries beforehand so you wouldn’t have to go out amidst strong rains and howling winds and put yourself in danger.

Do preventive maintenance even when no actual forecast has been made. Remember, many disasters are preventable. During summer, have your roofs and walls and your electric wirings checked. Many fire breakouts are caused by faulty electrical wiring. When your electrician recommends that you re-wire your house, do it. Immediately.
 
2.  Put your “Escape Docs” in a Ready-to-Grab Bag. Simply put, have your important documents (passports, contracts, IDs, etc.) in a ready-to-grab bag (preferably waterproof) and let everyone in the house know that it is the first thing to be secured in case of emergency — that is, if there is still ample time to grab it and run to safety.

This is one of my brother’s idea and it has been our practice for years now. During Ondoy, our “Escape Docs” was one of the things that I secured and brought with me when we decided to abandon the house.

It again worked to my advantage in 2011 during a fire scare. A house two blocks away caught fire. Because the things I needed to bring out were properly identified beforehand and were ready-to-grab, I was able to add a few more clothes for me and my brother in my “escape kit.” In 10 minutes, I was ready to leave the house. (My preparation could have been a lot faster if I wasn’t writing when the fire broke out. Since I was — and because I noticed I still had plenty of time before the fire would reach the house next to mine — I decided to shut down my laptop properly first and secure it as well). Fortunately, the fire was put out by my neighbors before it spread.

3.  Prepare emergency kits (clothes, extra IDs,) in ready-to-grab box. This is so that in case of emergency, you wouldn’t waste time thinking of what things to pack, and actually pack them. With your basic things ready, you will have more time to think of other things you need to bring with you, or in case there is no more time, to just grab your kit and run to safety.

4.  Have a disaster/rescue plan for your pets. When I saw in Philippine Daily Inquirer a picture of pets left behind by their owners during the Bulacan flooding in 2011, it hit me that I don’t have the heart to leave my pets behind if the same thing happened to me. So I thought of ways in which I could save my pets and myself. The solution I thought of? A carrier that could contain them all and which I can easily carry along with my other things. It’s bulky, true, and it occupies a big portion of my closet-turned-stock-area. But that is the only way I think I can get them all out in case of emergency (instead of using one basket for each and possibly fail to secure one or two of them in the process).

5.  If you are not in your place (say you’re in a hotel, workplace, etc), always take note of emergency exits and where the fire extinguishers are. And it would be great also to discuss with your companions, especially children, your escape plans in case of emergency — where to meet each other or where to go to should you lose each other during the emergency and the chaos that might ensue.

6.  Don’t panic. Tips 2-5 would be useless if you panic during actual emergency. In times of disaster, the only way you could increase your likelihood of escape is by not losing your mind. When you lose your mind during emergency, you not only put yourself but also others to more danger.