Getting home… It’s usually a special time where you can look forward to relaxing, playing with the kids or just sharing a quiet evening with that special someone. There you were in your car, navigating traffic and suddenly you are confronted with a local disaster:
- flooded streets from a water main break or rain-driven, flood waters
- fire engines blocking the streets to fight a major structure fire or a broken gas pipeline
- police barricades due to a multi-car accident, active shooter or hostage standoff
- utility trucks dealing with a huge sinkhole or emergency electrical transformer repairs
- downed trees or a landslide blocking the road in both directions
There are lots of reasons you and other family members may not be able to get home. Depending on the nature of the blockage, it may be an extended period of time too. It is even possible that evacuations have forced family members out of your house. You need to plan ahead of time for a place that everyone in the family knows to go if they can’t get home or have to evacuate due to a local emergency.
First Things First - Multiple Routes
Be familiar with different ways to get to (and away from) your house. If there is a problem or emergency causing blockages in the neighborhood, you may not be able to get where you need to be using your normal travel routes. Periodically, drive those alternate routes so that you are familiar with them. They may be just residential streets with lots of stop signs and low speed limits, but in a crisis those surface streets might be a much better solution to being stuck in the middle of unmoving traffic.
Grandpa TJ: Sept 2011, a massive power outage hit southern California and Arizona. I was at work, about 20 minutes north of my house. My normal way home was via the freeway (the blue route) but that day there were no traffic lights and hundreds of cars at a dead stop – all of them fighting to get to the freeway just a mile away. After a couple of tries and about 15 minutes, I was able to extricate myself from the traffic jam by the simple method of going the opposite direction as everyone else. Instead of heading for the freeway, I used the “scenic” route (in red) to totally avoid the freeway traffic and was able to get home about 30 minutes later. It was later reported that the traffic jam extended up and down the freeway too. I’m convinced that the cars I left behind were still stuck long after I had arrived home. Always have more than just one way to go!
Take the time to study a map of your neighborhood
Whether you consult a map or just drive around to find other options, you need to know more than just one or two ways to get home. Always have a variety of ways to get there.
Grandpa TJ: I have highlighted many of the alternate routes I have used over the past 30 years on the map to the right. I have used every one of them at different times due to a variety of traffic problems, blockages and actual emergencies.
Don't be stuck in traffic with no options!
In the above map, the blue line represents the normal way home from work via the freeway. The green lines show other ways to get from the freeway to the house if there are blockages.
If you need to evacuate, it may be already too late to use the freeway – which may have turned into a virtual parking lot. You need additional, pre-planned options shown in red on this map. And take the time to actually drive these other escape routes beforehand, you don’t want to be trying to find your way along them for the first time in the middle of a crisis.
Nearby Family Meet Up Location
Just like the Home Fire Meet-up spot, you need to have somewhere for the family to go if they either can’t get home at all due to blockages or if they have to evacuate the house due to a local emergency. This meet-up location should be far enough away from the house to be safe from whatever is causing the danger but still somewhere nearby if at all possible. Have more than one meet up location in case the first choice is inaccessible also.
This is also a case where a hand-drawn map might be easier for family members to understand than a cluttered street map, especially if you have children. It doesn’t have to be super accurate but should have the key streets and the preferred routes to the primary and secondary meet-up locations shown on it. Emphasize that they should follow the preferred routes if at all possible so that you will know where to look for them if they aren’t at the meet up when you get there.
Use Group Texts to Coordinate Plans
In the days of hardwired phones, phone tree lists were the fastest way to get information out to a specific group of people. That is where the coordinator would call two people with information for the whole group and then those two would each call two more to relay that information along. Then those four would each call two additional people and so on, until the entire group was notified. There were flaws with that plan but in general it worked ok.
In the cellular phone era, taking time to call people is very slow compared to sending group texts. Grandpa TJ: During a crisis, the cellular voice lines are frequently jammed and you are often told to try your call again later. But as long as you have cellular service, texts can usually still get through. And with group texts, you are not restricted to just cellular either. Texts can be sent and received via WiFi hotspots and desktop computers without using cellular at all. So set up and use family group texts on all of your connected devices as a way to quickly get information to the entire family, not only during an emergency but anytime. You can always try to call them too, but don’t rely on voice calls only during an emergency.
So when you run into a problem and need to head to a family meet up spot, group text everyone with your location at the moment and where you are heading. That way not only do they know your plans but they also have a time stamp for when you left.