A Few Ideas That Might Help You Through the Weekend
We chat with a survival expert, a fire chief and a weatherman.
If you lived on the Gulf, you'd probably be a little more relaxed about storms, like this guy here. Make sure you read his last few paragraphs.
On the other hand, if you wanted a really comprehensive "go-bag," one of our contributors did work one up for you.
But if you want to find a sensible middle ground for preparing (for almost any urgent situation), we urge you to listen to this show. You'll hear Geoff Fox get pretty worked up about the storm, but you also hear, from our experts, some dos and don'ts that are pretty easy to follow.
Earlier this week, when our building shook during an earthquake, my first instinct was to get myself and everybody else out of the building.
Send to friend
Printer-friendly version
Comments
That is not necessarily so.
That is not necessarily so. The "cable" telephone systems use a terminal adapter at the house to interface with the telephones in the house. They usually have a limited battery backup which will allow an "old fashioned" phone to operate until the terminal batteries die, in contrast to a powered phone which would be useless the moment the power failed. Like copper based systems, if a cable breaks between the customer premises and the central office, then the service is lost. Unlike the copper based systems (which supply power from the central office, coaxial or fiber systems need (local) power to operate, and usually are only configured for 12 hours or so of operation during a power failure.
You are correct about
You are correct about installed generators. Today we were discussing only portable generators that use extension cords to directly supply things such as refrigerators, etc., and would never be connected to the household wiring.
E-mail from Evelyn
Colin, House alarms have batteries with limited life. When the power comes back the alarm the alarm will go off.
E-mail from Paul
You should mention that generators should be set up professionally. If not it’s possible to feed power back out of the house to lines that others might presume to be dead.
E-mail From Dave
Most of the new systems offered by the cable companies and AT & T are not copper back to the phone company office. Therefore, having an old fashion phone will not work.