How to Prepare for a Volcanic EruptionGo to a Random Article Protecting your family in the event of a volcanic eruption can mean the difference between life and death. More likely, it will help you protect your health and property from volcanic ash, rocks that can spread for many miles.[1] However, knowing how to prepare for a volcanic eruption can be confusing without the right information. Organizing a plan of attack is key to proper preparation, and educating everyone in your family or household will help to better ensure their safety and well being when disaster erupts. Steps Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 1.jpg 1Know beforehand where the active volcanoes are in your area. Find out whether theyre likely to affect you where youre living. If so, be prepared at all times. If you run a business located in the area of volcanoes, create a business continuity plan for ensuring that staff can get to safety and for protecting stock, equipment, and any other business essentials. A volcano can cause severe property damage. Review and if necessary purchase insurance to make sure you have the right kinds and amounts of coverage.[2] Method One of Four: Preparation for those living in a volcano area Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 2.jpg 1Put together an emergency supply kit. This kit is something that anyone living in a volcano zone should have prepared at all times. The kit should include such items as a first aid kit, food and water supplies, a mask to protect against ash such as one used when mowing lawns, a manual can opener, a flashlight with extra batteries or preferably a crank model, any necessary medications, sturdy shoes, goggles or other eye protection, and a battery-powered radio. Ensure that everyone in your family knows where the emergency supplies that you prepared are located. A flashlight, phone charger, and radio combined as one, that runs on both solar power and hand cranking is the ideal item to have ready in your house for any natural disaster event. Pack this if you have one. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 3.jpg 2Buy proper respiratory protection. Purchase an air purifying respirator, also referred to as an N-95 disposable respirator. This can be bought at your local hardware store. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 4.jpg 3Have the necessary communication devices ready. Use your radio or television at home to listen for volcano updates or evacuation notices. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 5.jpg 4Be aware of what your local disaster sirens sound like. When a volcanic eruption occurs, youll need to listen for those to go off. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 6.jpg 5Set an emergency evacuation plan with your family. Review it in depth with them, so that each person knows what to do in the event of an eruption, how to find one another if youre apart, and how to contact neighbors and/or emergency services if you cannot get away from the property using your own transportation. If anyone has disabilities, these need to be taken account of in the plan. Include pets and livestock in the plan. Discuss with your family what you will do if there are warnings to evacuate and any of you dont want to leave. Bear in mind that it is not fair to other family members if some of you choose to stay behind in spite of evacuation warnings, and precautions should always be taken to ensure that those family members who want to leave can do so. Know how to switch off all utilities and ensure that every family member old enough to be responsible for turning off utilities knows how to do so. Talking to children about the possibility of a disaster and what to do in the event is better than pretending it may never happen. If children are aware that everything is planned should something go wrong, their fear and anxiety will be reduced in the event of a disaster because theyll know how to respond. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 7.jpg 6Create an emergency kit specifically for your car. It should include maps, tools, a first aid kit if you havent already packed one with your other emergency supplies, a fire extinguisher, flares, additional non-perishable food, booster cables, sleeping bags and/or emergency blankets, and a flashlight. Method Two of Four: At the time of an actual evacuation Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 8.jpg 1Listen for advice and instructions. Check your pre-prepared emergency gear and have it ready to go. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 9.jpg 2Prepare the car or other vehicle. Check that you have a full tank of gas and keep all vehicles under cover until ready to leave (ash can prevent the engines from working). Make transportation arrangements with other families or friends if you do not have a vehicle of your own. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 10.jpg 3Attend to livestock and pets. In the event that your house and property are directly impacted by the volcano, your animals will not be able to escape. Do what you can within reason to ensure their safety. Place your livestock in an enclosed area or make arrangements to transport them as far offsite as possible. Make transportation plans for your family pets. Be aware that most emergency shelters will be unable to accommodate them. If keeping your pets with you, youll need to be sure that you have planned ahead for enough food and water for them. Alternatively, leave messages on social networking sites such as Twitter asking for people who are available in the area who can board your pets temporarily until the disaster is over. You are bound to get a lot of kind offers. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 11.jpg 4Evacuate as instructed. Take your prepared kit with you, and make sure that your car emergency kit is in the car. Turn off the electric, gas, heating oil, and water in your home if time allows. It is recommended that you dont turn off the gas unless you suspect a leak or youre instructed to do so, as it can be weeks before a professional can get to you to turn it back on after a disaster event. Disconnect the appliances in your home if time allows. Take the designated evacuation routes, and prepare yourself for delays. Other routes may be blocked, so you want to ensure that you are taking the route suggested by authorities. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 12.jpg 5Stay put if you are instructed by the authorities to do so. Run extra water in the sinks, bathtubs, and other containers as an emergency supply for cleaning (use as little as possible) or purifying and drinking. You can also get emergency drinking water from a water heater. Dont use the toilet if there is no running water. It will make the house smell terrible. Instead, construct if necessary and use an emergency makeshift toilet as described in the article Prepare for a Hurricane. Close and secure all of the windows and any doors that lead to the outside. Make sure that your heater, air conditioner and all fans are turned off. Make sure that your fireplace damper is closed. Continue to listen to the TV or radio for announcements and news. Place your family into a room on ground level that does not have windows in it. Method Three of Four: Preparing for ash fall The most likely hazard during a volcanic eruption is ash fall. Knowing how to deal with it is important whether youre remaining in place or youre traveling.[3] Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 13.jpg 1Stay indoors. Close all windows and doors; some may need to be sealed with tape or similar (damp towels work well). Stopper up any vents to outside if possible. Avoid using anything that sucks in air from outside or changes circulation patterns by heating or exhausting air, such as air conditioning or dryers. Bring all pets indoors. If you have livestock, bring them into sheds, barns, or other shelters. Even the garage will do as a temporary shelter. Ensure that livestock have enough food and water. Fill your bath and other containers with water.[4] This may become a very important water source if ash impacts local water supplies. Protect sensitive electronics until the ash fall has well and truly ceased; only uncover them when the environment is totally ash-free. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 14.jpg 2Keep your car, trucks, and any machinery under cover. If you cannot park your vehicles somewhere inside, cover them with a car cover or tarpaulin. Avoid driving unless you have no choice. Protect all machinery from volcanic ash by covering in tarpaulins. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 15.jpg 3If you can, disconnect drainpipes from rain gutters (eaves troughs) from downspouts or drainpipes. Doing this can help to prevent your drains clogging. Disconnect the rainwater supply channel to any rainwater tanks to protect your stored water and cover up any gaps on the tank. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 16.jpg 4Wear protective gear if you need to move around outside. If you have them, wear safety goggles to protect your eyes, and a respirator to protect your lungs, and cover the rest of your body, including your head and hands, as much as possible. Improvise a shemagh (Arab wraparound headscarf) to keep grit off your head and out of your eyes and lungs.[5] Even swimming goggles and clothing can be used to protect your eyes and breathing if thats all you have.[6] When entering a building after being outside under ash, remove your outer layer of clothing. The ash is difficult to remove from anything it falls on.[7] Remove contact lenses if going outside and wear glasses instead. If the ash gets in behind contact lenses, it can cut into your eye, causing corneal abrasions. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 17.jpg 5After the ash fall, stay indoors and follow the radio instructions. When you do go outside, keep away from ash falls and build-up of ash and continue to wear protective clothing. Dont drive through ash fall. It will clog your cars engine severely and cause serious abrasion damage to the car. Keep children, pets, and animals indoors. If pets and animals have ash on their fur, hoofs, or paws, wash it away to prevent them from ingesting it and give them plenty of water to drink. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 18.jpg 6Try to remove ash fall from your roof. It looks like snow, but its heavy like sand and abrasive to breathe. If the amount of ash fall is too heavy, your roof is in danger of collapsing: four inches (100mm) can collapse weaker roofs.[8]. No need to get it all off; leaving a thin layer is fine and sweeping it off would make a lot of dust. Moisten ash using a sprinkler or spray hose to dampen it before cleaning. Make sure youre wearing a protective mask and clothing. Dont fall off your roof! It will be difficult for rescuers to notice or reach you after a volcano. Unless you have special equipment, dont even try it on a sloped roof more than one story up, or over hard or dangerous surfaces. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 19.jpg 7Check for property damage. Make notes and take photographs so that you can make your insurance claim. Edit Method Four of Four: Preparing for lava flows If your home or property is in the path of a lava flow, pyroclastic flow, surge, or lahar, it is important to be ready to evacuate immediately when local authorities ask you to. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 20.jpg 1Follow the evacuation procedure outlined above. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 21.jpg 2Continue listening to the radio advice when you reach a destination of safety. Prepare for a Volcanic Eruption Step 22.jpg 3Return home only when you are informed by authorities that it is safe to do so. Tips Ideally have a landline telephone in the room in which you will be holding up. This can be used to let your emergency contact know to keep their phone line available in case you need to let them know about any life-threatening problems or issues. 39 Hooray! 7 If you must go outside during the ash fall, try to put something over your mouth and wear a gas mask. 40 Thanks! 9 Check on friends and neighbors. This is especially important if you know they may need assistance, or have special needs. 38 Wondrous 9 Only use the phone lines for emergency calls to avoid clogging the communications systems. 32 Cheers 12 Report broken utility lines to authorities if you see any. 32 Great! 15 Be alert ,do not panic and stay calm during volcanic eruption... Warnings Avoid sightseeing! Not only do you endanger your own life but natural disaster sightseers are becoming a frequent problem for emergency services workers and can hamper rescue work. At all times stay out of designated restricted zones. Volcanic ash is a respiratory health hazard. It impacts all people but especially those with such respiratory problems as asthma and bronchitis. Edit Things Youll Need Emergency kit and car kit Maps Communications devices (telephone, radio) Flashlight Towels, etc., for sealing up house cracks Transportation for early evacuation Pet carriers and animal transportation Car keys Food and drink
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 08:07:55 +0000
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