26 Nov
Severe Weather & Floods

Why Planning NOW for Extreme Winter Weather is Crucial

Do you need to prepare for extreme winter weather?

For those of us living in tamer micro-climates like the ones found in Victoria, BC, the idea of extreme winter weather might seem ridiculous. But for many of our neighbours, just a little further north and a little further east, winter can be a battle.

If you live in regions with winters that are impossible to mistake for spring, then it’s necessary to take the cold season seriously. And even if you think you’re a safe distance, it’s best to be prepared.

Recently, hurricane Patricia ushered in the first major storm of this winter, in Toronto. While a mild winter is predicted in some parts of Canada, ice storms and “classic winter weather” are being predicted for Eastern Canada, including the Maritimes. It’s always a good idea to be up-to-date on the weather warnings and forecasts. And it’s best to be prepared for power outages and storms, no matter where you live.

Here are some steps you can take to prepare:

  1. First things first, store up water! If it’s cold enough, or if the building you are living in is old enough, your water pipes may burst or freeze over. Check out our water filtration and storage systems here!

  2. And don’t forget about food! During storms and power outages, grocery stores sometimes get picked clean and are left with empty shelves. That or their power fails as well, and they are left inaccessible to the hungry community. So calculate how much food you and your household will need to survive for two weeks and stock accordingly.
  3. If you haven’t already, make friends in your town or city. If you lose power, you may need to live at a friend’s house for a while.
  4. If possible, purchase a back-up generator for your home. Or make sure that your apartment building has one.
  5. If you ever leave your house during the winter, bring an emergency kit with you. Or better yet, keep one in your vehicle!
  6. Of course, having the right tools is not enough. Knowing how to use them is essential too! In particular, it’s critical to know what to do if your vehicle gets stuck in the snow.
  7. When you’re planning, make sure you include your family members—both the ones you live with and the ones further away—so that everyone is on the same page.
  8. Remember your pets!

No matter what region you live in, you are susceptible to some form of winter storm. And being prepared is never a waste. Who knows when you might need the knowledge and supplies that you’ve stored up? So please, do some research, tune into the weather channels and be a part of collecting and sharing knowledge that will keep you and your community safe!

 

Article contributed by Sophie Wooding – Avid gardener and cyclist in Victoria, BC and Content Writer for Frontier.io

19 Nov
Electronics

How to Prepare for the Winter Darkness

As we sink from autumn into winter, sometimes the length of daylight can change noticeably even between one day and the next. And for those of us living in regions where Daylight Savings is in effect, the days can feel even shorter! You leave your home in the dark and you return home in the dark. And sometimes it feels like the darkness will go on forever.

That’s when the magic and science of light comes in so wonderfully handy. Even when you’re not in a state of emergency, light is a great comfort. When you’re fumbling with the lock on your door, your hands numb from the cold, light from your cell phone screen can be enough to get you inside quickly.

When a blackout occurs, light is not only a comfort but an essential.  

  • Light can enable you to read instructions.
  • Light can enable you to apply first aid.
  • Light can allow you to cook safely.
  • Light can boost your feeling of optimism and well-being, which is truly important for survival.

A light like our Hybrid Solar Charger Lantern is one that will spread a warm glow throughout an entire room for 6 hours. You can charge it with sunlight and reuse it again and again.

Remember, if a storm or a blackout lasts long enough, your battery-powered lights will eventually run out of juice. You may start off with a few different sources and you’re right to use them wisely, conserving as much energy as possible—but eventually you will run out of options, unless you prepare properly.

Though you may have alternatively-powered light sources in your home, it’s best to keep these lights in a specific location and only use them in the case of an emergency. Check that they still work, once every 6 months, but other than that, try to leave them untouched. That way, they will be there when you need them.

Light is crucial for human existence. Don’t be caught in the dark! Visit our site for more options and get prepared, today!

 

Article contributed by Sophie Wooding – Avid gardener and cyclist in Victoria, BC and Content Writer for Frontier.io

10 Nov
Food

Meal Preparation for an Emergency

MealPreparationforanEmergency With Christmas on it’s way, it’s a season of getting together with our loved ones and eating good food together. It’s a time of year when those of us who aren’t usually gourmet cooks may try our hand at new, decadent, recipes and create too much food for each occasion because leftovers are arguably the best part of the holiday.

This kind of extravagance may seem like a necessity to those of us who are accustomed to the tradition. But it might be wise to take a page from the book of those who have learned to ration their food every day, out of necessity for survival. We may not need to learn how to ration for everyday purposes, but it’s a good idea to practice the simple math and think ahead about how much each person in your household actually needs, and how much space that would take up in your storage.

In order to be efficient, it’s best to buy in bulk, in cases that are already acting as space-saving agents. To get started, you may want to try our 120 Serving Breakfast Bucket, paired with our 120 Serving Entrée Bucket.

Pre-Rationing Best Practices:

  1. Prioritize food that will provide the most energy and nutrition to get you through the day. It’s also wise to choose freeze-dried meals that are lightweight, in case you’re on-the-go. All of our options at Total Prepare cover these basics.
  2. Plan for at least two weeks of self-sufficiency.
  3. If you’re counting on 3 meals per day, for 14 days, that’s 42 meals (14 breakfast entrees and 28 lunch or dinner entrees) per person.
  4. Next, tally the total number of people in your household.
  5. If it’s 4 people, you’ll need to have 168 meals (56 breakfast entrees and 112 lunch or dinner entrees) (see this handy chart for more calculations)

Once you’re caught in the midst of an emergency, your time is up for purchasing the ideal foods, so act now! When the situation arises, you will be extremely grateful and your process of rationing will yield much more hope for life-preservation.

If you’d like to know more about how to ration when you’re in the middle of a crisis, have a look at our article on The Difference Food Makes. Or check out this article included in Off the Grid News for further tips on how best to maximize the supply of food you have.

 

Article contributed by Sophie Wooding – Avid gardener and cyclist in Victoria, BC and Content Writer for Frontier.io

05 Nov
Water

How to Stock Water for an Emergency

HowtoStockWaterforanEmergency A week ago, we talked about the necessity of being prepared to fight flooding as winter descends across Canada. Of course, flooding is not the only natural disaster that is common in our country. Blizzards and earthquakes are also risks we need to prepare for, among others.

With the temperatures dropping, and the rain and snow setting in, it’s such a wonderful time of year to be cozy indoors. Isn’t it amazing to have a warm home to come home to after a long day at work, or running errands in the rain?

If you’re getting ready for hibernation mode and spending more time cuddled up in your favourite chair with your favourite tea and your favourite book or tv show, perhaps consider spending some of this free time going over your stock of supplies—and water particularly.

Water is top priority when it comes to preparing for emergencies.

  • If flooding occurs in your home, your water could become contaminated.
  • If a blizzard or severe storm occurs and you’re unable to leave your home, you might be trapped with frozen water pipes.
  • If an earthquake occurs, you might have to survive without running water.

Humans can only survive 2 or 3 days without water.

In order to survive for two weeks without running water, you’ll need 28 litres (7 gallons) of water just to stay hydrated and alive. It is recommended that you have 56 litres (14 gallons) because you may need just as much water as you drink, to cook and clean. And that’s just for one person! If you have a family to think about, why not purchase one of our Super Tankers or other water storage containers? This way, you know you’re all covered. By adding a water preserver like Aerobic Oxygen, the water stays potable for up to 5 years, meaning you don’t have to worry about rotating it out as often.

As extra insurance for your family, you may also want to purchase a LifeStraw Family 1.0 if you have a fresh water source nearby. Can you imagine how relieved you’d be if an emergency caught you by surprise and you were able to reassure your loved ones, because you’d thought ahead about their safety?

When you plan ahead for an emergency, you are showing that you know how lucky you are, for what you have, and you want to protect it! For more information on LifeStraw, their products, and what they’re doing to bring clean, safe drinking water to the places that need it most, please check out their new website!

 

Article contributed by Sophie Wooding – Avid gardener and cyclist in Victoria, BC and Content Writer for Frontier.io

29 Oct
News

8 Tips to Stay Safe and Prevent Emergencies on Halloween

The best parts of Halloween are the anticipation throughout the day and the evening full of family and community fun. Kids dress up in adorable costumes and there is a festive chill in the air as everyone gets hopped up on sugar and adrenaline.

The worst part of Halloween is the risk of dark streets and backyards. If you or your kids are planning on hitting the sidewalk in costume (or out) this year, make yourself visible with hardy lightsticks and carry a bright flashlight with you to make sure you’re visible after the sun sets.

8 Tips for Staying Safe

8TipstoStaySafeandPreventEmergenciesonHalloween Because Halloween night often boasts increased traffic along suburban streets and an increased trust in pseudo-strangers, it’s best to follow these 8 tips for staying safe:

  1. Use bright colours for costumes. Or, if the costume must be dark, include reflective tape, tags or buttons.
  2. Ensure that the costumes are durable, so that everyone survives and enjoys the whole evening!
  3. Be seen! As mentioned above, take along as many lights as possible! There’s no such thing as being too visible.
  4. See! As well as being visible, it’s important to make sure that your eyes remain uncovered, so that you can watch out for traffic and keep your wits about you.
  5. Never enter a stranger’s house. Ever.
  6. Even if children are older, or are being accompanied, they should know the route and the time they need to be home.
  7. Consider using walkie-talkies!
  8. Children should bring candy home before consuming, so that parents can check it over to make sure it’s all safe.

Just like a family meeting is important for emergency planning, so is a family meeting before trick-or-treating to make sure that all children are safe. It’s best to go over all of the potential hazards in your area and plan for as many outcomes as you can think of!

But above all, have fun! Enjoy meeting your neighbours and seeing all the fun, creative costumes the children are no doubt wearing with pride.

 

Article contributed by Sophie Wooding – Avid gardener and cyclist in Victoria, BC and Content Writer for Frontier.io

27 Oct
Earthquakes

The Great ShakeOut Results

You may have heard that individuals, schools and businesses in provinces all across Canada participated in the big ShakeOut event earlier this month. As the largest earthquake drill in the world, British Columbia, Quebec and the Yukon all participated in wisely preparing for the likelihood of an earthquake emergency.

In BC, “The Big One” is not just a story to scare people. It’s the eventual result of tension building up over time. That’s why it is a good idea to stay aware of your local news, keep communication channels open and perhaps even purchase a Quake Alarm Earthquake Detector for your house! It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.

It was exciting to see a record number of British Columbians participating in the drill, amounting to a total of 785,000 people. An earthquake doesn’t necessarily have to be the end of life as we know it, and by practicing our survival skills, we are much more likely to not only to pull through, but to help others make it out the other end as well.

In Quebec, participation results were also high, and across Canada other communities took part even though their provinces weren’t officially participating in the event.

In Yukon, over 9,000 participants registered for their event which took place on October 22nd.

The ShakeOut, wherever it’s held, is a great reminder for people to get prepared. That means being ready to be self-sufficient for at least a few days. If you live in British Columbia—and especially closer to the coast—it’s highly recommended to plan for at least two weeks of self-sufficiency.

Perhaps try out a basic earthquake kit, such as this one week kit, and build it from there. Or, because it’s designed for 4 people, you can turn it into a 2 person, 2 week kit!

Most importantly, read up on the risk in your area and find out what the best plan of action is for your household. If you missed out on ShakeOut this year, then don’t forget to register for next year! You can also plan your own earthquake drill for your office. There’s no such thing as being over-prepared – you’ll thank yourself later.

 

Article contributed by Sophie Wooding – Avid gardener and cyclist in Victoria, BC and Content Writer for Frontier.io

20 Oct
Severe Weather & Floods

How to Prepare for a Flooding Emergency


As the days get shorter and darker, it’s easy to enjoy the coziness of spending evenings indoors, especially after days spent out in the brisk cold. But it’s less enjoyable to deal with complications, as the rainy season descends and floods become all too common.

Floods are Canada’s most frequent natural disaster. As much as they can happen any time of year, the risk increases during times of heavy and consistent rainfall.

There are also a few other contributing factors:

  • rapid melting of thick snow pack
  • ice jams
  • the failure of a natural or man-made dam

To prevent as much damage as possible, try the following:

  • Put weather protection sealant around basement windows and the base of ground level doors.
  • Purchase flood barriers like Quick Dam’s sandless sandbags or flood barriers, which will absorb up to 32 pounds of freshwater in 5 minutes by forming a gel that blocks water.  
  • If you have a basement, it’s best to install a sump pump.
  • Call your electricity or fuel supplier, and get their advice on how to proceed in the case of a flood.

Plan a to-do list for when a flood is in the forecast, because time will be of the essence!

Make sure you create your own list, based on your living situation, but feel free to use these tips as a starting guideline:

  • Turn off basement furnaces.
  • Turn off outside gas valves.
  • Protect your heating equipment.
  • Move furniture and electrical appliances to an upper floor.
  • Remove toxic materials from the area to avoid pollution.
  • Disconnect eavestroughs if they are attached to the house sewer.
  • Plug basement sewer drains and toilet connections with wooden stoppers.
  • If it’s necessary to evacuate your home, make sure you only return to it once the authorities have said it’s safe to do so.

For more information on what to do once the flood is upon you, read up on safety procedures here!

 

Article contributed by Sophie Wooding – Avid gardener and cyclist in Victoria, BC and Content Writer for Frontier.io

13 Oct
Earthquakes

The Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills

 

Have you Heard of The Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills, officially recognized on October 15th worldwide? If you haven’t, it might be a good idea to get the word out around your school or office! It’s a day when people of all ages will practice how to react in the event of an earthquake.

Drills are taking place at 10:15am, preparing people for earthquakes so that they can rest easy, with the latest knowledge on how best to survive and recover afterwards.

You can register for the drills online, here!

 

Below, we’ve included some of the basics that will also be covered on the 15th:

 

 

  1. Most of us are familiar with these famous instructions: drop, cover and hold on!
  2. The idea is that you hit the floor before you fall down. Then you scramble under a sturdy desk or table to protect yourself from broken window panes or falling debris. Last but not least, you cover your head and neck, and hold on to the sturdy desk or table until the shaking stops.
  3. It’s crucial that you find the closest protection and get to it immediately. Earthquakes give no warning and may be very violent.

 

 

Once the earthquake is over, it’s important to be cautious as buildings may have lost their structural integrity, and aftershocks can be just as big, if not bigger, than the initial quake. You won’t be able to move around during the actual quake, but once it’s over and you’re assessing injuries and damage, it will be a huge relief if you have access to a survival kit, wherever you are.

Here are a few tips on what not to do during an earthquake:

  1. Do NOT stand in a doorway. The fact that doorways USED to be the safest place to be during an earthquake is simply no longer true. Modern building design has changed drastically over the years, and so doorways are not a safer place to be. The major downside to them is that they can’t protect you from falling objects. It really is best to get under a desk or table.
  2. Do NOT engage in the “triangle of life” theory. It is potentially life-threatening, leaving you vulnerable, and is not nearly as safe as the drop, cover, and hold on theory, which has been researched time and again by experts.
  3. Do NOT flee the building you are in! First of all, running itself is dangerous during an earthquake because of all the movement. And also, outside there will most likely be a lot more falling debris.

For more wonderful resources from ShakeOut, click here.

Over 14.5 million participants worldwide have registered in this year’s ShakeOut event. Don’t miss out. Get in the know, and be prepared.

 

Article contributed by Sophie Wooding – Avid gardener and cyclist in Victoria, BC and Content Writer for Frontier.io

09 Oct
News

Thanksgiving & Communication

In Canada, thanksgiving is almost upon us. And isn’t thanksgiving all about communication? Expressing ourselves? For some of us, the reasons to be thankful are so abundant that we skip the first obvious few—a roof over our heads, our safe communities, our families, food and clothing—and try to get more creative with our expressions of thanks.

But what if I reminded you that good communication could be the reason for keeping these basics intact?

In the event of an emergency, whether it’s an earthquake, a flood or a blizzard, time will be of the essence, and so the more you’ve done to prepare ahead of time, the better off you’ll be.

A huge part of this preparation lies in communication.

  1. Before you even delve into the planning phase, find yourself a good radio—preferably with an alternative energy source—and make sure you know how to use it. Try our Weather Alert Flashlight Radio, for example. If you’re ever caught in a dangerous situation alone… Well, you won’t be alone!   
  2. Hold family or household meetings once every six months to make a plan, and then refresh your memories and update it. You may even want to convene more often than every six months, if circumstances within your home change.
  3. Write down the plan. Post it somewhere easy to access. Print off copies for each family or household member, and put these in your emergency kits.
  4. Don’t forget to talk about your plans to communicate during the event of an emergency. You want to prepare for every outcome. Knowing the natural disasters that are most common to your region is helpful. Take a look here for more information, if you aren’t sure.

The newness—and decay—of autumn is all around us. As we dig out our favorite toques and scarves and experience the fine counterpoint between the thanksgiving season and Halloween festivities, it’s up to us to create ongoing opportunities for ourselves to live—and to keep on living, even if the odds of nature turn against us.

 

Article contributed by Sophie Wooding – Avid gardener and cyclist in Victoria, BC and Content Writer for Frontier.io

08 Oct
Earthquakes

Affordable Seismic Retrofits for Your Home

We welcome Mike Ursel, President of QuakeSafe Retrofits, Construction Corp., and his guest contribution to our blog today. Thank you, Mike!

plates As much as we would rather not think about it, all of us in Victoria, Vancouver and the lower mainland of British Columbia live in an earthquake prone region – the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

As the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate subducts beneath the North American plate it pushes against the edge of the North American plate, generating stress and earthquakes both within the North American plate and within the subducted, or downgoing, portion of the Juan de Fuca plate.

The reality of an earthquake from the Cascadia Subduction Zone region draws nearer each day.

A great, plain language, description of this fault and the expected result when it releases was described by Chris Goldfinger in an article written by Kathryn Schulz and published in The New Yorker on July 20, 2015.

This article was so well received that it created a mini-tsunami of phone calls to our office that has not slowed in two months. It also prompted (in our opinion) an even more important follow up article published in The New Yorker On-Line a week later that focuses on the very tangible steps that we should all be doing now to prepare. We couldn’t have written it better ourselves. Of course it describes the necessary quake kit and emergency rations available at Total Prepare but it also speaks about the simple and inexpensive retrofits available that make you, your family and your home safer.
What we’ve been saying for almost five years! Proven, effective, and affordable seismic upgrades are available for your home. They will save lives and keep your house from collapsing. There is abundant evidence from the experiences in Northern California that these seismic retrofits work.

Yet after 5 years in the business and almost 50 homes remediated, our single biggest challenge remains getting the word out about how inexpensive upgrades can be. Though each home is analyzed on a case-by-case basis, most retrofits can be done for between $3,000 and $5,000. Think about that: For the price of a leather sofa, new granite counter-tops or a long weekend in Vegas, you can prevent your home from collapsing in an earthquake we all know is coming.  Lets hope The New Yorker articles do not just result in a blip in business but rather a trend to growing awareness of the opportunities and our responsibility to be prepared. Go to Vegas next year, but buy peace-of-mind today.

For the complete The New Yorker articles, more information on retrofits or to talk to us about your home and earthquake safety, please visit our website quakesafe.ca or visit our FB page.

 

Mike Ursel, P.Eng
President
QuakeSafe Retrofits Construction Corp.
Phone: 250-590-8544 | Fax: 250-479-4192
www.quakesafe.ca

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