Helping Customers Prepare: We Gave a Real Family 10 Minutes to Pack and Evacuate Ahead of a Simulated Emergency. Here’s What They Learned.
September 15 2021 - 1:46PM
Business Wire
PG&E
Teams Up with Placer Hills Fire Department for Simulation
Drill—Part of National Preparedness Month Public Education
Efforts
Are you ready for the next emergency?
As part of its public education efforts during National
Preparedness Month in September, Pacific Gas and Electric Company
(PG&E) teamed up with the Placer Hills Fire Department to put
one local family to the test.
In a video released today on PG&E’s Safety Action Center
website, the Sierra foothills family is put through a simulated
wildfire evacuation to demonstrate how being prepared can help
bring calm to the chaos.
“You think you’re ready, but are you? It’s scary,” said Michelle
Childers of Foresthill, who participated in the disaster readiness
drill with her husband Justin and their two children.
PG&E is urging all of the customers and communities it
serves to assess how prepared your family, home and community are
for a natural disaster or other emergency, and to take action to be
ready.
In addition to the new video, PG&E’s Safety Action Center
puts valuable resources at your fingertips. You can:
- Take a quiz to find out if you know what to pack in an
emergency kit
- Learn how to prepare a kit with six easy steps
- Create an emergency plan
- Learn how to create defensible space around your home
- Watch a special video series: 7 Saturdays to a more fire
resistant home
‘This Was Eye-Opening’
For the Childers family, firefighters gave them just 10 minutes
to get what they would need, as is often the case in a real
evacuation, and leave their home.
“My first instinct was birth certificates, passports, IDs, keys,
wallets, because those are the things we’re going to need
immediately (if evacuated) to get a hotel, to rebuild. My second
initial response was mementos, pictures,” said Justin.
“I’ve never experienced this, I know what I was thinking, but I
paused,” said an emotional Michelle, describing the first seconds
after the knock at the door. “I got a couple of changes of clothes
for each of us, got some snacks that I know the kids would eat, and
some mementos.”
While the family did not have go-bags ready during the drill,
they grabbed essentials: important documents, changes of clothes
and some food.
“I thought they did a really good job,” said Battalion Chief
Matt Slusher with the Placer Hills Fire Department. “They worked
well together. But what if one of you was not home at the time of
an evacuation. What would you prioritize? For example the kids, if
you had to be away for 72 hours, their homework, the things that
are important to them because their lives are going to be turned
upside down, how do you maintain a level of normalcy.”
“I was motionless,” said Michelle, who is an elementary school
teacher. “You need to have a go-bag, container with food and water
for 72 hours. This was eye-opening.”
“We really appreciate the Childers family and the Placer Hills
Fire Department participating in this life-like emergency drill.
It’s a great reminder for all of us to plan what we would do in any
kind of natural disaster or other emergency, and also to practice
how we would respond. It’s muscle memory. You have to practice it
to perfect it,” said Joe Wilson, PG&E’s Vice President, North
Valley & Sierra Region.
How Customers Can Prepare
Here are some simple guidelines to prepare for an emergency.
- Build or restock your emergency kit with flashlights, fresh
batteries, first-aid supplies and cash. Keep face masks and hand
sanitizer in your emergency kit.
- Identify backup charging methods for phones and keep printed
copies of emergency numbers.
- Plan for medical needs like medications that require
refrigeration or devices that need power.
- Keep in mind family members who are elderly, younger children
and pets.
- Update your contact information online or by calling PG&E
at 1-866-743-6589 during normal business hours so you can receive
Public Safety Power Shutoff alerts.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric
utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square
miles in Northern and Central California. For more information,
visit www.pge.com/ and http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/.
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