Making your home or apartment more secure in the event of disruptions from Y2k or other emergencies

"Shelter, Heat, Water, Toilet: It's January, and You Live in a Chicago High Rise"
http://www.garynorth.com/y2k/detail_.cfm/6088
                How long does the electricity have to be down before your pipes freeze? Ever see the aftermath of a broken pipe? It's not a pretty sight.

                Does your landlord know how to shut off the water in your building in the event of a prolonged power failure that turns off the furnace and cools down your building?  Do you know how to do it in your own house?  If you don't, a home handyman book will usually walk you through it. If you have a power failure that cuts out your sump pump and your basement floods easily, do you have things well-ordered and up on platforms so that you won't have an accident while blundering around in the dark?

                Do you have wired-in smoke detectors  or wired-in carbon monoxide detectors, rather than battery operated ones? If your detectors might not work in a power failure, consider getting a battery-operated backup for those times when more people will be using candles or other open flames. Do you have your fire extinguishers  fully charged?

                If you are in a rural area such as Ulster County, do you have your fire number prominantly displayed so that emergency services could easily find you  if necessary?

Do not use charcoal stoves inside!  Make sure all heating units are properly ventilated.

What Not to do in the Year 2000
http://www.garynorth.com/y2k/detail_.cfm/5721
                      Astute information  from self-sufficiency expert Mark Lindquist on safely heating with wood, using chainsaws, etc.

                      Do you have an emergency bag (sometimes known as the "bug-out bag")in case you ever have need to leave the house for an emergency?  This situation could include not only Y2k disruptions, but things such as floods, tornados, or sudden hospitalization. Pack your bag with any medications you need, changes of clothing, reading glasses, things to keep you entertained (book, pack of cards, needlework), snacks, toys for children, maybe some bedding if local shelters don't have supply it.

                      Have you planned adequately for emergency supplies of food and water?  Are you aware that the recommendations of a gallon of water a day per person does not include the considerable amount of water that is needed to flush a toilet full of a day's accumulated usage?
                    A local Y2k researcher decided  she needed some water to flush the toilet during the recent Hurricane Floyd 4-day power failure. She writes, "I decided to see if all this brave talk I'd indulged in about getting water from the stream really was practical. I have a bad back, so I can't just haul it up the steep wooded ravine where it runs below my house. I persuaded the three kids that this was going to be a jolly little adventure, and using a luggage cart we took a milk crate loaded with 5 empty Mott's apple juice bottles the half mile to where the stream intersects with a path at ground level. We lugged back the 35 pounds of water to the house,  the water making a rhythmic 'gunga-glug-SLUK!' as it sloshed. It took all of the water we had painstakingly gathered to flush the mound of ordure in the toilet, not to mention eating up almost an hour. I think carrying water up from the stream was a very sweetly romantic idea, but low in practical value in a prolonged emergency."

                  If you rent an apartment or house, do you have renter's insurance?  Does your renter's insurance cover damages at replacement value or at cost? Have you adequately documented your possessions by use of photos, videos, and serial numbers, for verification should you have to make a claim? And have you kept this verification off-premises so that you don't lose that vital proof too?

                  Beware of scams that ask for bank or credit card information ostensibly for fixing Y2k complications.

                  Prison: how well-prepared for Y2k is your local prison?  Is it an old-fashioned lock-up that can be run manually, or a high-tech facility that could run into problems from Y2k? Is there a chance that non-violent inmates can be released on parole in the event of Y2k disruptions or other emergencies, so that there is less strain on prison resources? What are the prison contingency plans for emergencies?  A Washington Post reporter in the South seems to have met prisoners who were given $100 and set loose in advance of Hurricane Floyd, though we have not seen follow-up or verification of this. We ask not only on behalf of the communities where prisons are located, but on behalf of the prisoners themselves. Many people have had friends, relatives, or neighbours who have run afoul of the law due to poor judgement, and we want prisoners to be looked after properly during any emergencies too.

                In the event of a prolonged power failure for any reason, people may be more willing to abandon their pets, feeling that they might fare better on the streets. It's a problem that is bad enough in good times, and in difficult times could become quite dangerous.  If the idea of packs of hungry feral dogs is a bit too "Mad Max" for you to accept, read "Buckshot's" articles for some  real-life experiences others have had facing  feral dog packs (Heloise's handy hint: take out both the alpha and the beta dogs if you need to, not just the alpha).

                  We do not advise that you withdraw large amounts of cash. There is not enough in the system for everyone to do that, and quite frankly if the system collapses to that extent, the paper you'd do better with large amounts of is Charmin. However, if you do have some spare change that you are hiding, give some thought to hiding it more creatively than most people do, and leave some stashes available in a more obvious place to hand over to any thugs.  We recognize that while peace and love is a good policy, sometimes a can of MACE and a cast-iron skillet have their places too. Deadly force in the hands of untrained people often hurts innocent people, but if you do have a gun, please make sure that it has a trigger lock so that children, burglers, or stressed out family members cannot have unauthorized access. Domestic violence rises in times of stress, and you are generally far more likely to face danger at the hands of  someone in your family who is over-stressed than a stranger. And for those monitoring Y2k preparedness sites for clues as to which communities are well-prepared and thus easier pickings for predators, we would remind you that at a local fair where we set up a Y2k awareness booth, our  staff was not nearly as numerous as that of the local rod and gun organization.

Cygnus emergency alert triangles (CERT)
http://www.CERTriangles.com/
                  Emergency needs reporting system. Put one of these folded in a window to indicate status, emergency needs, etc. Probably won't work if you don't have all in your neighborhood aware of the system, and the emergency services such as police, fire  and first aid also aware. That will take a whole lot of time and effort that you probably don't have available right now.  For rural areas such as those in Ulster County, it might be tough to use as so many houses are hidden from the road. But could we think about using the red component for emergency needs in case of a telephone problem?  We wouldn't need to necessarily use these triangles -- a red bandana on the mailbox or door handle, or even a red coffee cup or Grampa's red long-johns  would do. Anything red out of usual context could serve as an emergency indicator. Publicise around town with flyers (buy a quarter-yard of red bandana fabric to cut up into squares and staple to flyers to draw attention), discuss with state and local police, town officials, etc. In the event of a snowstorm, if nothing else you know that the snowplow drivers would be going along every road, so it would be good to alert them. Would be good to note for legal reasons that it is no guarantee of help coming, but as an informal way of asking for help is better than nothing.