During emergencies, it is essential to build a home setup that fosters communication and safety while maintaining comfort. To start, stay updated with the emergency alert system through text messages, social media, or dedicated apps. Accordingly, make some modifications, such as installing sensors, sealing doors, waterproofing, and more.
It is also important to prepare an emergency kit that includes food, water, clothing, and first aid items. Natural disasters often accompany days of power outages and blackouts. To keep your essentials running, you need a reliable solar generator. Jackery Solar Generators stand out for their portability, efficiency, and ability to keep your appliances up and running.
Key Takeaways
- An emergency alert system is a national public warning issued by the authorities against any emergency information.
- The government partners with various agencies to send alerts to the cell towers, which are passed on to the public through text messages.
- You must build an emergency kit and install monitoring sensors, a communication system, construction features, and more to stay safe during emergencies.
- The size of the generator you need for emergencies depends on the appliances you have and the overall power needed.
What is an Emergency Alert System?
According to the Federal Communications Commission, an Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national public warning issued by state and national authorities. Its purpose is to deliver emergency information, such as weather alerts or public health crises, to local communities and minimize harm. The typical means of communication for such alerts include radio, television, and mobile phones.
How the Emergency Alert System works
The government partners with various authorities, including local and public safety agencies, the FCC, FEMA, the National Weather Service, and the Department of Homeland Security. Whenever the authorities receive information, their emergency alert system generator sends an alert to the cell towers in the affected areas. The phones connected to the towers receive alerts in the form of text messages, which usually have less than 90 characters.
How to Build a Home With Emergency Alert System for Natural Disasters
To build a disaster-ready home, gather a basic survival kit, incorporate monitoring sensors, communication systems, and construction features, and prepare yourself. With natural disasters becoming more common, it’s wise to prepare your home now. This way, you can keep your family safe and minimize damage. Here are the detailed steps to make your homes better protected against these:
Step 1: Gather a Basic Survival Kit
Put together a set of items to survive for at least two days without any power or other necessities. These include food, a first aid kit, water, batteries, and reliable power solutions, such as Jackery Solar Generators for power outages.
Shelter and Comfort: When things turn sour, staying comfortable at night is crucial. To stay warm, you can pack blankets, sleeping bags, a tarp for temporary shelter, pillows, and warm clothing.
Food & Water: Pack foods with carbohydrates, fats, and proteins to sustain energy levels and ensure extended use. Avoid any freeze-dried foods, as they don’t stay fresh for long. Also, keep a water filter to eliminate harmful bacteria and stay hydrated.
Flashlight: It will be helpful to find directions you’re benighted. You can also use it to signal if you’re injured or stranded.
Hygiene and First Aid: When preparing for a hurricane, tornado, or other natural disaster, maintaining good hygiene is crucial, while first aid items help manage injuries. You can include a first aid kit, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, a battery-powered radio, and soap.
Essentials: The essentials might include a satellite phone, cables, lights, utensils, important documents, and pet supplies. You must also carry a portable power station, such as a Jackery Solar Generator, to keep your electrical appliances charged.
Step 2: Install Monitoring Sensors
Being stuck in a natural disaster is never good news. Thankfully, installing IoT sensors can be a savior. These sensors detect environmental conditions such as vibration, temperature, displacement, movement, pressure, and air quality. You can use this data to detect any impending disasters and prepare accordingly. For example, ultrasonic, pressure, or microwave sensors can predict flash floods and tsunamis.
Step 3: Communication System
Preparing a home communication system in the wake of an emergency alert is crucial. Here are some of its key components:
- Communication Plan: Reach out to someone you think can help during such emergencies. That is, they can reach out to your local friends or family. Provide them with your contact details and details of your safety hideouts.
- Communication Devices: Ensure your family has a fully-charged cell phone with updated emergency contact numbers. Keep a battery-powered radio or a satellite phone if the cell phone tower goes down.
- Backup Communication Methods: Keep a written list of emergency phone numbers, make copies, and provide them to your family members.
Step 4: Construction Features
When designing your home with emergency preparedness in mind, certain features are vital. You must include evacuation routes, signage, fire safety systems, and first aid facilities.
- Evacuation Routes: Provide wide, well-lit, and marked pathways to exits. Avoid multiple exit points, and provide family members with a house map for easy exits.
- Fire Safety Systems: Irrespective of the emergency type, the risk of catching a fire is always high. So, integrate automatic fire detection and alarm systems and keep the fire extinguishers ready and well-maintained.
- Reinforced Walls and Roof: Use concrete or steel framing in the house to help it withstand strong winds and earthquakes.
Step 5: Plan an Escape
When a national emergency alert system sends a disaster warning, planning your safety spots and keeping emergency contacts ready is pivotal. Look around to find a place you can hide or run to when the disaster hits. Ensure it’s easy to reach, has the necessary amenities, and is close to the emergency services.
Emergency Alert System for Flash Flood Warning
If you’re stuck in an area where authorities have generated official flash flood warnings, it’s crucial to start preparing. However, before you gather the necessary kit, prepare your house first. Seal the basement walls and floors with waterproofing compounds, install a sump pump, seal windows and doors, and inspect for cracks. Now that the house is ready, get the following:
- Food: Pack canned foods, granola bars, dried fruits, and other non-perishable snacks.
- Water: Water can get scarce, so keep a gallon of water per person for drinking and sanitation purposes.
- First Aid Kit: Take a first aid kit with items like bandages, antiseptic wipes, pain relievers, and more.
- Emergency Light: Keep an emergency light or flashlight with extra batteries to navigate in darkened areas.
Emergency Alert System for Tornado Warning
Tornadoes are columns of spinning areas that move across the land and take the people or houses that come in the way. It’s therefore crucial to prepare for a tornado by gathering some essential items, which are as follows:
- Water: At least one gallon of water per person per day.
- Medications: Keep both prescribed and non-prescribed medications in your survival kit.
- First-Aid Kit: Items like bandages, antiseptic cleansers, pain relievers, etc.
- Food: Food packed with nutrients that won’t spoil and a can opener.
- Communication: Battery-powered radio as cell towers might be down.
- Essentials: Keep cash or credit cards, copies of important documents, emergency contacts, a flashlight, and a cell phone charger.
Emergency Alert System for Hurricane
Hurricane season starts on May 15 in the North Pacific and June 1 in the Atlantic and Caribbean, and ends on November 30. It affects not only the people on the coast but also those living hundreds of miles away. So, here’s how to prepare for a hurricane at home:
- Write down the emergency phone numbers and keep the copies at every corner of your house.
- Prepare an emergency supply kit that contains food, water, medication, a first-aid kit, and a backup power source, such as Jackery Solar Generators.
- Locate the safe shelters nearest your home and the routes to reach there. If you have pets, you can look out for local animal shelters to keep them safe.
Emergency Alert System for Winter Storm
When you receive an emergency alert regarding a winter storm, prepare yourself and your home for the harshest possible conditions. There are many ways you can accomplish that. To start, store your food and water, load emergency supplies, and more. Here are some of the critical ways to prepare for a winter storm:
- When temperatures reach around 20 degrees outside, your home water pipes can freeze and even burst. Let out the cold water from the faucets to decrease the likelihood.
- Keep your windows and doors sealed with an insulation kit to prevent the cold weather from entering your home.
- Locate the nearest winter evacuation shelter and prepare your vehicle to reach there.
What Size Generator Do I Need For Emergency Alert System
The generator size you need during emergencies ultimately depends on your appliances and the power required. Every appliance has a different running and starting wattage, which means the power requirement for each varies.
Step 1: List the appliances you want your generator to power and note their starting and running wattage. This information is imprinted on the product user guide or an application wattage chart online. If you can’t find the wattage value, use the formula Watts = Amps × Volts.
Step 2: Now, calculate the total wattage of appliances using the formula: Total surge wattage needed = Running wattage of appliances + Single highest watts out of the items you want to use.
Jackery For Emergency Alert System
Natural disasters, whether flash floods, hurricanes, or tornados often accompany blackouts and power outages that keep you in darkness for days. That said, you can invest in high-quality portable power stations, foldable solar panels, and solar generators to power your appliances for hours.
Jackery is a leading distributor of such products, and its solar generators can be carried in an RV or car when evacuating to a safer location. Even when sunlight is unavailable, you can use your car charger to power it up. It keeps all your essentials, including TVs, refrigerators, lamps, and cell phones powered for hours. So, whether you’re staying home or evacuating, Jackery Solar Generator keeps you connected.
Jackery Solar Generator 5000 Plus
The Jackery Solar Generator 5000 Plus has a large battery capacity that supports most household or outdoor essentials. Whether you need cooking equipment, refrigerators, lamps, or TVs, its capacity is enough to keep them running for hours. Also, despite its capacity, it has an ergonomic and portable design with handles and wheels, so you can pack it in an RV for evacuation.
Appliance Running Hours:
- TVs (200W): 20.2H
- Induction Cooktop (1100W): 3.7H
- Lights (10W): 403.2H
- CPAP (40W): 100.8H
- Smartphone (50W): 80.6H
Customer Review:
“It was delivered, and it was everything they promised, great quality, I just ordered an extra Battery and will order more products later.”- John R Post.
Jackery Solar Generator 2000 Plus
Jackery Solar Generator 2000 Plus is a reliable battery backup solution that can power most household appliances during power outages and blackouts. Its foldable handle and ergonomic design allow you to move it anywhere in your car. The battery capacity is enough to power essentials like refrigerators, lights, CPAP machines, and kitchen equipment. You can add multiple Jackery Battery Pack 2000 Plus to expand capacity and keep your appliances running longer.
Appliance Running Hours:
- TVs (200W): 8.2H
- Induction Cooktop (1100W): 1.5H
- Lights (10W): 163.4H
- CPAP (40W): 40.9H
- Smartphone (50W): 32.7H
Customer Review:
“It works great. No problems getting it charged and up and running. I would definitely recommend the Jackery systems that you have.”- Mario Contreras.
Tips to Build an Emergency Alert System
When an emergency strikes, national and state authorities send an alert on your smartphone. Also known as Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), ensure these aren’t affected by network congestion and check with wireless providers if needed. Here are a few tips to build an emergency alert system:
- Check your mobile device settings or user manual to verify if it can receive these alerts. If it does, and you still don’t receive an alert, contact your service provider to see if they can fix the issue.
- The authorities also send the Emergency Alert System (EAS) through broadcast TV and radio, wireless cable systems, and others, so keep checking them for updates.
- Listen to NOAA radio for official warnings, forecasts, or other hazard information 24 hours daily.
- You can download the FEMA app to receive real-time weather and emergency alerts from the National Weather Service.
FAQs for Emergency Alert System
What does it mean when your phone says emergency alert?
When your phone receives an emergency alert, you’ve received a critical message from a government authority regarding a nearby emergency. This can include severe weather, a missing person, or an evacuation order.
What are the 5 steps of evacuation?
The five evacuation steps include: decision to evacuate, warning, withdrawal, shelter, and return. Everyone must leave the building at once.
What are the risks of emergency alert systems?
Emergency alert systems have multiple risks, like false alerts, cybersecurity issues, and lack of public awareness.
What is the flood detection and warning system?
A flood detection and warning system monitors water levels and alerts people as to when flooding can occur. This system can potentially save lives and property damage.
Conclusion
Natural disasters can cause severe damage to people and property, which is often beyond repair. So, whenever you receive an Emergency alert system via text message or other sources, it’s time to start preparing. The steps outlined in the article can protect your family and property. Whether you’re facing power outages or evacuating to a safe location, stock up on emergency supplies. You can also consider investing in a portable power source like Jackery Solar generators to run essential appliances.
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