FEATURE

The Big Rumble Wishes You
a Safe Holiday Season

'Tis the season for big family gatherings, home cooked meals and gathering around a warm toasty fire. It's also the season to change the batteries in your smoke detectors so that everyone can take part in the festivities safely. Here area few more tips to keep your holiday safe:

• Make sure that your holiday decorations are fire resistant
• Use electric candles instead of real open flames
• Turn off your decoration lights before going to bed
• Always keep an eye on whatever yummy dinners you're cooking for the fam!

You can find more holiday safety tips on the San Francisco Fire Department website. From everyone at The Big Rumble to you and yours, have a very Happy Holiday Season and we will be back next year!

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OTHER STORIES

Give the Gift of Safety
from California Volunteers

Including children in disaster planning helps them to be better prepared and increases their risk of surviving a disaster. California Volunteers has created a downloadable online book that you can personalize for your child to help in understanding the importance of disaster preparedness. Visit California Volunteers to customize a family disaster plan and create your child’s free personalized book, which contains teachable moments on how to talk to your kids about disaster preparedness. 

Talking about disasters and disaster preparedness helps reassure kids and helps alleviate any fears they may have. It can also help them feel more prepared. Have your child help create a disaster plan and build a disaster supply kit. Practice your plan and have your child lead the drills.

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Community Member Spotlight:
Gail Goldyne

Name/Nickname: Gail Goldyne

Occupation/Affiliations: On the Marina Community Association Board of Directors & Co-Chair of the mEQm-Marina Earthquake Monument Project

What preparedness initiatives are you involved with in your neighborhood? I’m a member of NERT and was actually in the very first NERT class in 1990. The NERT Program started because of neighbors like us who wanted disaster preparedness training. I’m also involved with mEQm which will have interpretive signage to teach the public basic earthquake preparedness tips.

And in what capacity are you involved? I try to solicit my neighbors to be prepared. I have a personal go-bag that I designed based on what I learned from NERT and Red Cross.

What made you get involved with the preparedness initiative? The biggest shock that I had from the 1989 earthquake was my ignorance of not knowing what to do in a disaster. Education is power. When it comes to preparedness, the more you know, the more capable you are of taking action in a disaster. We have block meetings once a year in my neighborhood and I always bring up the topic of earthquake preparedness and pass out a list of tips to be prepared.

Where were you at 5:04 PM on October 17, 1989? In my kitchen in my house in the Marina with the television turned on to the World Series.
If you have one tip about preparedness to give your neighbors, what would it be? Go on 72hours.org or learn from the teachings of NERT or Red Cross. I encourage my neighbors to be prepared by making a go-bag for themselves and their loved ones. We have a responsibility to keep our house safe and be prepared. You have to be prepared for an earthquake if you live in San Francisco; it’s a civic duty to be prepared.

Do you have any stories of you helping a community member in an emergency situation? The night of the 1989 earthquake, my husband rescued a neighbor whose house was severely damaged. She was young, panicked and was trapped behind her gate unable to get out of her house. My husband had to use a saw and crowbar to bend the gate for an opening for her to squeeze out. We had twelve people sleep in our house that night who were unable to stay in their houses because they were either stuck in San Francisco or their homes had been destroyed.

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Featured Safety Organization

The San Francisco Fire Department offers free emergency preparedness training through its Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) program.

What is NERT?

NERT is a hands-on training program that is designed and taught by professional firefighters. It teaches participants the practical steps to becoming prepared: building an emergency supply kit; making a family reunification plan; and establishing an out-of-state contact person. The most important aspect of the program is personal preparedness.

In the event of a major emergency, it is likely that first responders will be unable to respond immediately to all those in need. The NERT training program encourages community members to rely on one another in order to meet these immediate and sometimes life-saving needs. It empowers participants to work in teams to assist in their neighborhoods and become active members of their community.

What skills will I learn at the training?

The program provides the knowledge and skills necessary to be personally prepared, including how to:

• Use fire extinguishers
• Turn off utilities
• Apply disaster medicine
• Conduct light search and rescue
• React to natural or human-caused disasters or emergencies

Who can participate in NERT?

There is no typical NERT volunteer; anyone and everyone can benefit from NERT training. Graduates report feeling empowered, more prepared and less fearful. The schedule is flexible and the locations vary throughout the City to maximize access for those who live and work in San Francisco. Visit www.sfgov.org/sffdnert or call 415-970-2022 for a schedule and an outline of the program’s curriculum.

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Children’s Art

At one of The Big Rumble events this past year, the children of the After School Program at De Avila were kind enough to draw for us! They were asked to tell us what they would miss most if the big one happened today. Here are a few of their responses:

 

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