Melody-Catalpa

Melody-Catalpa

Best Neighborhood Ever

Emergency Preparedness

Building Resilience in the Melody Catalpa Neighborhood

While everyone knows it’s a good idea to prepare for emergencies, creating a plan for what to do before and during a disaster can be challenging on many levels. Here are some tips on preparing.

Be Informed

Document and Insure Your Property

  • Use your smartphone or other camera to make pictures or video recordings of your valuable and sentimental possessions. 
  • Download a home inventory app such as Sortly.
  • Periodically review your insurance coverage with your insurance agent, including settlement options.
  • Keep all your important paper records and documents in a fire- and waterproof box or safe.
  • Make electronic copies of all your important records and documents, including contact information for your insurance agent and policy numbers. Store the information in the cloud using secure, encrypted software such as 1password or LastPass; or store hard drives or other sensitive information offsite, such as in a bank safe deposit box.

Plan for Evacuation

Some emergencies may require evacuation. Make a “PACK LIST” for every member in the household (including pets) so that you can quickly gather items without having to think too much about which items to pack when you’re under time pressure. Your list(s) might include the following:

  • Sentimental items (Take photographs of your sentimental items that you would want to gather in case of a disaster. Make these photographs available to your nearest and dearest, or your closest trusted neighbor.)
  • Charging cables
  • Laptops, hard drives
  • Cash
  • Medications, dentures, retainers, and other essential medical equipment
  • Glasses and sunglasses
  • Diapers, wipes
  • Changes of clothing
  • Pet food, water bowl, collar, medications, rabies certificate/collar tag (in case your pet needs to stay at a shelter)
  • Nonperishable food, water bottles, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, face masks

Place your PACK LISTS in an obvious area and make sure everyone in your household knows where to find them. Place your Pack Lists in your front entry closet inside your pet carrier, or designate a box for these items. (This is also a good place to consolidate extra keys, batteries, headlamps, first aid kit, instructions for how to find your wills, Medical Power of Attorney, etc.)

  • Find a neighbor(s) to trade keys with and familiarize yourself with their emergency plan so you can serve as a backup, if needed
  • In addition to your pack lists, include printed instructions and locations for water, gas, and electrical shutoffs, with written instructions in case someone else needs to turn off these services.
  • Include photos of every member of your household, including pets, should you get separated.
  • Print the EVACUATED sign and tape it to a visible area near your front door when you leave (e.g., on the inside of a window on/adjacent to your front door). This will allow emergency personnel to more quickly locate people who have not left their homes. 
  • If you are evacuating due to a wildfire:
    • Shut all doors and windows, leaving them unlocked.
    • Shut off gas at the meter; extinguish all pilot lights.
    • Leave a light on in each room so firefighters can see your house in smoky conditions.
    • Turn off air conditioning.
  • Learn more about making emergency plans and Go Bags at the City of Boulder’s website.

Evaluate Risks and Protect Your Property in Advance

While every property is unique, as a general rule, consider where the wind blows and where embers could land or get lodged. Keep those areas as clear of combustible materials as possible. Also consider how a fire might spread if it started on your property. When possible, eliminate debris from paths leading directly to vinyl or wood siding or other combustible parts of your house. 

If your house is downwind of a wildfire, the greatest risk comes from blowing embers. Evaluate your home’s risk with this in mind.

  • Consider where the wind creates piles of leaves on your property. That is likely where burning embers will land.
  • Remove combustible materials from within five feet of your house and other buildings to minimize your risk.
  • Keep your gutters clear of leaves and other debris. Embers can easily fall into open gutters and start a fire that spreads to shingles and eaves.
  • Don’t leave uncovered firewood in wind-prone areas. Blowing embers can easily get lodged in your woodpile, starting a new fire.
  • If you have gaps beneath your garage door, consider adding a seal strip to cover the gap. If that’s not possible, keep combustible materials away from the gap so that embers have nothing to burn should they make their way in.
  • Are there other areas around your house where burning embers could get lodged and start a fire? Do you have a wooden entryway, a shed, or other nooks and crannies around your house? Keep them clear of combustible materials.
  • Be careful of junipers, which are considered a very high fire risk as they are extremely combustible and their density can trap blowing embers. If you have junipers near structures, consider removing or replacing them.
  • Corrected: Mulch, as a general rule, should be kept at least 5 feet away from the base of the house.
  • Live pine trees, on the other hand, are not considered such a high risk. Their insides are often pretty clear, allowing embers to blow right through them. However, consider clearing pine trees of dead branches, which will make them less hazardous.

In addition to mitigating where embers might start a fire on your property, evaluate what might happen if a fire actually starts.

  • Look at the plants and other items right next to your house. If one of them caught on fire, would the fire be large enough to reach a combustible part of your house (such as the siding)?
  • Many homes have several feet of brick or concrete at their base. When that is the case, small plants are unlikely to cause a problem. But if the plants are large, or your home has siding closer to the ground, consider using smaller plants closest to your house.
  • Do you have a low-lying wooden deck? In addition to considering embers getting lodged beneath it, consider the threat if it caught on fire. Would it reach your siding or other combustible areas on your property? If you’re enhancing your deck, or building a new one, consider building it with fire-resistant materials.
  • Do you have a wooden fence that connects to your house? If so, is that fence upwind from your house, potentially creating a fuse directly to your home? If so, using non-flammable materials for those last couple yards before it connects to your house could reduce the risk.

More information, including a free Wildfire Home and Curbside Assessment through the City of Boulder, can be found here:
https://bouldercolorado.gov/services/wildfire-home-assessment

Helpful video: Your Home Can Survive a Wildfire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL_syp1ZScM

Additional Helpful Links

Twitter account for Mitchell Byars of the Daily Camera
https://twitter.com/mitchellbyars

Local Evacuation Zones from ZoneHaven (Melody Heights is in BO-006)
https://aware.zonehaven.com/zones/US-CO-BOU-BO-006?z=13.008426425063075&latlon=40.04042905220163%2C-105.27248828848138

Melody Catalpa Resilience Training

Fall 2022

  • Melody-Catalpa neighbors Molly G., Amy M., Lenora C., and Risë K. attended a City of Boulder “train the trainers” meeting in fall of 2022, on the heels of our neighborhood’s information session presented at Melody Park over the summer. The meeting they attended was intended to help neighborhoods and block liaisons become better versed in the city and county’s emergency services. Their top priority? Turns out it’s really simple: Making sure everyone in the city and county signs up for notifications from the Everbridge emergency system, through the Boulder OEM website.
  • As each fire/flood season becomes more potentially extreme, having a preparedness plan feels like something healthy, constructive, and community-focused we can do to brace for the impacts of these potentialities. 
  • About a half-dozen people so far have offered to liaise with the people on their blocks to help build disaster preparedness plans. This will not be a large time commitment. The City of Boulder is providing resources and written training materials that liaisons will share as we learn of them. This is a project that will eventually be implemented in every neighborhood in Boulder. Our neighborhood is one of the first to be involved, and the first to receive a presentation in the park from the city addressing emergency preparedness and how we can make our neighborhood safer from wildfires.
Melody-Catalpa