 Let's do it slow. Yeah. Let's go. That's the stations in your area. Equipment that can quit hazardous materials. Official message. Honey, did you hear anything about a test today? No. I didn't see anything in the paper. Do you think it's real? This is a test of the emergency alert system. This is a coordinated monthly test of the broadcast stations in your area. Equipment that can quickly warn you during emergencies is being tested. If this had been an actual emergency. The Harrison's and their neighbors did the right thing. The chemical stockpile emergency preparedness program or CSEP uses a variety of warning devices to alert and notify the public in a rapid manner. A siren or a total alert signal is meant to grab your attention. You should listen to the warning message and take immediate action. If you're outside and cannot hear the warning instructions immediately go inside and turn to your local emergency radio or television station for information on appropriate protective action. Officials in your CSEP community will use electronic sirens, tone alert radios, route alerting, or messages sent over TV and radio to let you know what you need to do to protect yourself, your family or household members, your pets, or people at your business or workplace. Depending on the situation, you may then be asked to evacuate or to shelter in place. In some cases, officials may ask part of the community to shelter and part to evacuate. Emergency planners have developed protective action strategies to maximize public protection in the event of a release. If officials advise you to evacuate and you are at home, immediately gather up medications, emergency supplies, family members, and pets and follow recommended evacuation routes away from the hazard area to a reception center. Officials will tell you where to go and when it is safe to return. If you cannot evacuate or shelter by yourself, make arrangements for your neighbors, nearby friends, or relatives to assist you. Contact your local emergency management agency for assistance. If household members are separated, follow your household emergency plan that contains strategies to take protective action and eventually reunite. If your family does not have an emergency plan, you should develop one. Information and resources developed in your community can help you to prepare a plan. Children outplaying should know to return home immediately. If your children are at school, don't phone the school or try to pick them up. The schools have a plan in place to protect the children. If a family member is at work or another location, don't risk your own safety by trying to pick them up and don't wait for them to get home before taking protective action. Community officials will reunite families when it becomes safe to do so. Have an emergency kit to support shelter and evacuation. This may contain a flashlight, portable radio, extra batteries, water, emergency food, clothes, and other items. This FEMA Red Cross brochure contains a complete checklist for your family's emergency supply kit. Officials may advise some people to shelter in place in their residence or place of business if a chemical agent accident occurs. Sheltering is a normal protective activity for a variety of emergencies. People often are advised to shelter inside when natural events such as thunderstorms or snows threaten an area. For a chemical emergency, shelter in place means you go inside a building, close and lock windows and doors, and turn off heating or air conditioning units, and other fans or vents to the outdoors. It's preferable for occupants to stay in an indoor room with no outside windows. You need a portable radio or television to know when it's safe to exit. Don't wait for an emergency to pick her room to use. Choose it in advance and make sure that all household members know which room is your safe room. If a plume containing chemical agent vapor is expected to pass over your structure, taking additional precautions to protect yourself may be necessary. To enhance the protection afforded by the structure, you should take additional actions in your safe room like placing duct tape over cracks and plastic sheeting over windows and door openings. These measures are called expedient sheltering and provide a further barrier to outside air penetration. You will be notified when you should end sheltering. Quickly, follow official instructions on what to do next. Officials may direct you to relocate to a reception center. When officials tell you to vent structures, open doors and windows and turn on fans to replace the inside air of your residence with outside air. At this point, you may be able to stay inside while venting or you may be asked to go outside into your driveway or street. If you cannot leave your house, try to open up your house as much as possible. Turning on fans and opening front and back doors and all windows provides good cross ventilation. Don't use your telephone or cell phone unless it's absolutely necessary. Phone circuits are quickly overwhelmed during that emergency. You may be wondering why officials would tell you to shelter when a plume with hazardous vapor is in your neighborhood. I'll explain what would happen if a chemical agent plume passed your house. As the plume passes the structure, some contaminants enter the building. The concentration of contaminants is lower in the building than outside and even lower in the safe room. Notice that the structure retains some contaminated air after all the contaminants are swept away from the air outside the structure. The reason contaminants remain inside a structure after the plume is passed has to do with the amount of air that normally enters and leaves a building over time. This is referred to as air exchange. All buildings have some air infiltration, even with all doors and windows closed because air is constantly moving back and forth through the walls and cracks and crevices. Scientists can measure the rate of air exchange that occurs in a structure. That is, how long it takes for the air inside to be replaced by the air coming in from the outside. In homes that are not sealed to up-to-date standards, the average air exchange rate will vary from one to two air exchanges per hour. This means that on average, if the air exchange rate is two exchanges per hour, it will take about an hour and a half for most of the air in the house to be replaced with outside air. Unless retrofitted or weatherized, most older buildings have much higher rates of air infiltration. The air will pass more easily and quickly from the outside into the structure. If a chemical agent release were to occur, the most likely way the agent would reach your neighborhood is through vapor in a plume. Unlike the larger particles present in smoke from fires, vapor can penetrate structures more easily. Moreover, vapors don't rise into the atmosphere and condense, so chemical agent vapors aren't going to condense and fall down as raindroplets. Unlike buildings, cars, even when they're completely closed up, provide little protection when moving. That's because cars have a small interior space compared to their exposed surfaces, making cars much more leaky than buildings. Researchers have found air exchange rates for moving vehicles range from 12 to 45 exchanges per hour. You know what that means if you've driven by a skunk on the side of the road. As soon as you smell the odor, you probably open all the vents and maybe the windows too to get the odor out of your car. And the odor leaves very rapidly. The odor is trapped inside until the air is replaced with closed stationary vehicles. The exchange rate is much lower depending on the wind speed. But you can see why emergency officials may advise staying in a building rather than have you leave in a vehicle during the passing of a hazardous plume or if there is not time to evacuate residents from an area before the plume arrives. Let's review how we would shelter in place and protect ourselves in a real emergency. First, we use the bathroom as our safe room because it has no windows and it's on the first floor making it easily accessible. Then we take our shelter in place kit into the safe room. Now the kit includes tape, some plastic sheeting for the door, a pair of scissors, a radio with extra batteries and some emergency food and water supplies. We also have our plastic already cut and labeled. Well that sure speeds up the process. Now the first thing we need to cover is the door. We have to make sure all the edges are sealed with duct tape. While you do that, Tony and I can tape around the pipes. I'll tape under the sink and around the pipe that goes to the toilet. Great! And Christian can tape around the pipes in the shower. That's easiest to do with small pieces of tape. We also tape the electrical outlets and place a plastic sheet over the ceiling vent. Anywhere vapors can get into the room, we seal it. Then we listen to the radio for further instructions. Now the radio will give us updates on the situation and tell us when we should leave the safe room. Mom, shouldn't we keep taping? Yeah, if we keep taping we'll be safer. Well that's true, but it's more important to get a tight firm seal the first time. And finally, when the official order is given to end sheltering, we'll follow officials instructions to vent the house or relocate to a reception center. That sounds like a plan. So, if you're advised to shelter in place, go inside. Turn off air and heat, close windows and doors. Get out your pre-assembled emergency kit for expedient sheltering. Go into your safe room, tape openings, stay calm and listen for the message to end sheltering. Then follow instructions from your emergency officials on what to do next. This family may never have to deal with an emergency from an accidental or intentional release of chemical agents, but they are well prepared because they have all rehearsed their emergency plan. Being prepared is an important first step protecting you and your family.