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Published on 03/30/1998 All articles from this issue

Emergency preparedness: 'Know your neighbors'

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue

Town Crier Staff Writer

Margaret Masdeo believes in keeping it simple. This longtime Los Altos resident, who is chairwoman of the city's emergency preparedness committee, doesn't think being prepared needs to be complicated.

"Get to know your neighbors, and the rest will fall in place. If you know your neighbors, you'll check on them," she said.

Consider what Ted Roumbanis has done. This retired microwave physicist said he'd been looking into emergency preparedness for a couple of years.

He decided that his street, the one-block long Jay Street in Los Altos where he has lived since 1958, "was the ideal place to get some things started."

He went door-to-door, he organized a party last September, and said he's been "stirring, trying to get things going since." He gathered everyone's thoughts, recruited two block captains, is creating a list of people on his street, their special medicines, special needs and getting that information to the block captains.

Word of his activities spread. He has helped a friend of a Jay Street neighbor begin emergency preparedness in another neighborhood.

Now Roumbanis is working on getting a communication link going by studying for his ham radio license. He said he's "getting plans made for a party this summer," and working with PG&E for information on shutting off the gas that he can share with his neighbors.

His advice: "Do the rounds yourself. Things don't happen by themselves."

In recognition of April as Emergency Preparedness month, because of the San Francisco quake of 1906 that was April 18, members of the Los Altos Emergency Preparedness Committee, at their April 1 meeting, suggested 10 tips to residents to help with preparedness.

1. Store water. "That's the key thing," Masdeo said. "You can go without food for a month. But three to four days is the most you can go without water." Sealed, commercially packaged water, stored in a dark, cool place can last up to five years.

2. Buy a fire extinguisher.

3. Strap your water heater. "That's a major source of water if it stays upright," said Tom Cascone, a member of the committee and Disaster Services Coordinator for the American Red Cross. "Or it's the cause of fires if it falls over."

4. Keep water, food, clothes in your car trunk. "You may not be home when an emergency arises," said committee member Ann Paull.

5. Keep comfortable shoes with the trunk supplies. "You may have to walk five miles down a freeway that is all broken up," Paull said.

6. Bolt your house to its foundation. "If a house comes off its foundation, it gets red-tagged," committee member Dave Marin said. In the '89 Loma Prieta quake, several homes in south Los Altos homes did slide off their foundations.

7. Store food supplies in a trash can with a tight fitting lid.

8. Have extra medications.

9. Designate a common meeting place for family members.

10. Request a copy of the yellow manual, "Los Altos Emergency Preparedness," at 948-1491 Ext. 488.

"People feel getting ready for an earthquake is a low priority," Masdeo said. But she wants people to know they will probably be on their own for the first 72 hours, with no fire department, no hospital. "Except for their neighbors," she said.

The committee hopes to recruit a new volunteer to be a liaison between the committee and the community. For more information, call 948-1491, ext. 488.