Preparedness for when

Rummer

kidcat wrote: »

I thought several people had said they would be checking -

I meant that quite a few people had said they would check on their neighbours

craigywv

replied again pm BYATT xxx

prepareathome

Due to the religion of the school mine went to sadly bomb threats were a reality in 1990's and we all knew where children were taken if they got a warning. Every parent was made to read and sign that they had read the security details to ensure there would be no panic when there was such an alert.

In a way I was lucky I was able to be proactive as during one particular year tensions were very high and school called in armed security who were on the roof mainly but also hidden in the grounds and parents and those that could took turns on security detail, just armed with walkie talkie no guns for us. We had to guard each entrance watching up for anything unusual, we had army and security people in to train us.

We still sent our children to school as alternative was to either homeschool which although I was doing with youngest older two refused to consider or move them to another school which again they refused to consider.

Fuddle you panic now at the thought, but if reality like that hit you would soon find you get the 'bu**ers are not going to beat me mentality and carry on like people did during the war.

This was before mobile phones were mainstream so when a bomb alert was given there were was a net work of people set up. School would phone a couple who would phone another couple each and amazing all parents in Primary and Highschool were informed in a very short time and we knew to go to where we had been told to collect our children rather than school.

Maybe during open evenings teacher could hand out again (as well as beginning of term) a copy of the emergency procedure and ask parents to read it and sign they had. Then any parent not sent back a signed form is chased up. I know some will not bother signing and most likely they will be the ones trying to knock down the school gates with their cars in emergency to get to children that are not there.

Beetlemama

How long are we planning to be without services? We watched a US show about people getting ready for the real StoHTF and they had two YEARS worth of stuff put away, it made our meager plans look pathetically sad.

We'd be ok at any given moment for a few days of service-out simply because we have open fires, so that's the light, heat and cooking taken care of, we don't have cars to worry about (presumably there wouldn't be anywhere to go, though I'm sure work would expect us to book it as holiday even if there were zombies walking the streets!)

We have a big garden growing food (which of course only helps at certain times of the year) but we have chickens laying eggs daily, so if they randomly sealed off our house for two weeks and said "Get on with it" we'd be ok - but for anything over that we'd all be stuck I think.

There's plenty enough water around usually here so we wouldn't die, but in the long term, plans for baking bread and that are going to be eclipsed by not being able to buy flour - most of us have one or two or three loaves stuffed in the freezer somewhere so if it was a week of isolation we could just use those - I know it'll defrost, but it won't happen immediately. I think I have two bags of flour sitting in the cupboard but that wouldn't last long and pancakes would be a better idea to use the flour for since you can fill them with almost anything you randomly have in the cupboard, sweet or savory to make dinner, especially for kids (golden syrup, cheese, ends of meat that will go off without refrigeration, like sliced ham).

We'd have the bread but wouldn't have anything to put in it, lol, there's never anything exciting in our fridge. Egg sandwiches I spose....

I think a few good precautions for a powercut, like candles, batteries and torches, charged DS's and other kids games, spare phone batteries etc is a good idea, but I think getting upset about/preparing for the zombie apocalypse is a waste of time, we just don't have the space or money in this country to put away six thousand gallons of water.

We're ok with 100 tealights, a bunch of 11p noodles and what the house/garden can produce to sustain us a week or so. Thinking about cutting down the least productive tree to be fire wood once we've used all the fuel and chopped up the now un-needed computer desks is a long way from the more likely "asda is shut cos there was a flood/the national grid was taken down in a terrorist raid" scenario.

Keep calm and carry on!

Fruball

I called a friend of mine this evening who works at a famous/prestigious/private school where many parents live/work abroad and asked her what she knew of the school's plans of evacuation.

She told me that all children would be moved to the far playground... like that was a finite solution!

In no way criticising her but she had no idea what would happen after that - and she would be pretty much frontline in the event of emergency... When I asked her what would happen if the whole school needed moving she said they would have to rely on the police to direct them :eek:

She is going to check her paperwork and let me know, and I will post here when she does, but atm, she has no idea what to do unless the police/emergency services tell her - and there are a lot of schools/private schools and businesses in that area so how on earth would they get round to them all?

A bit worrying - I will def be talking to my school and if they don't have what I consider to be a good strategy then I will put in writing that in the event of a SHTF scenario, I WILL be collecting my kids from school, regardless of their protocol. IF they have suitable contingencies then obviously I will follow the advice given.

Northern_Lassy

I live about a mile from a nuclear power station (Heysham), very close to a village, the schools have drills for radiation leaks as they would for a fire alarm! It make you realise that these scenarios are not really so far fetched, no harm in being prepared x

grandma247

I remember watching the evacuation of three mile island. So not so far fetched at all.

skintscotslass

kidcat wrote: »

Asd@ sell foldable water carriers which fold really small, I think I may invest in several of those to sit in the back of the cupboard. Assuming we get some notice a few of those would be ideal for washing etc.

I was in Poundland today and they had some.

Pink-winged wrote: »

Food will last 24 hours after a power cut if the freezer isn't opened in that time.

Pink, stupid question time. Does it make a difference what the room temperature is? So if it was a really harsh winter and it was at least say, minus 6, would it still stay frozen? Or would you unpack the freezer and leave it in the kitchen?

meme30

Fuddle:- I have had a look at Durham council's emergency plans on line. Yes, it has pack a bag stuff but mainly it says tune into your local radio station. We have dozens! Local BBC is Newcastle I think and I'm not sure which of the many commercial stations they mean? I will phone them and will let you know.

Our school book says in case of fire everyone meets in the car park. There are no other details of evacuation procedures. I do know that the children have been practising fire drills, so they are used to being marshalled quickly. I would imagine most schools practise that. Our school has the emergency text system so hopefully we would not be totally in the dark.

If all the roads are going to be blocked with traffic I would imagine buses to evacuate schools would not get through. Therefore I think their plans must include walking them to nearby High Schools or Community Centres.

Byatt:- That solar charger is a good idea, a friend was affected by the recent floods and although they were not flooded out or evacuated they had no electricity for four days. So, all her phones stopped working, land line and eventually her mobile. This badly affected her business.
I had recommended an in-car charger to her, but that one would work for a lot of things. I have dug about in the large amount of [STRIKE]crap[/STRIKE]useful stuff we have not thrown away and found a mains phone that is not dependant on electricity. IE is not cordless! it works without electricity!

fuddle

thanks meme. Tell me about the local radio stations - in bad weather I'm sat with about 4 of them open on my computer screen to see if my schools are on there for closures. We really need to know and use one. Also DCC schools closure section isn't updated properly until mid morning and even then my closed school wasn't even on there last year.

Our community centre is next to the school so walking there would be pointless. In fact there are no larger buildings outside our small village. The kids would have to walk 6 miles to get to the next town. It's really interesting stuff.