Family Emergency Communication

The more active your lifestyle--the more it involves being away from home--the more important it is to craft an emergency plan. The ability to communicate is the heart of your plan. How will you notify your spouse that a fire has occurred? How will the 'away' spouse know where the 'at home' spouse has gone?

For a time you may be able to use the telephone, but telephone poles burn and they may go out early in a fire. Cell phones in Topanga use antennas mounted on telephone poles and use electricity-they may go out quickly. Both the cell phone and regular phone systems may be overloaded within minutes of a major fire becoming public knowledge.

If unable to communicate, a mutually-agreed-upon plan provides confidence that your Other has behaved in a predictable and safe manner. Just like insurance, spending a few hours on integrating a plan into your lifestyle buys peace of mind.

The Community Alert Network (CAN) is a computer-operated system for making telephone calls to the public to announce emergency situations such as wildfires or other major incidents involving public safety. The system is controlled by the senior officer at the Lost Hills Sheriff Station and applies to the Topanga, Calabasas, Malibu, Agoura Hills, Lost Hills and Thousand Oaks areas.

When the situation warrants, an alert message will be recorded and a computer will dial the selected telephone numbers in the database at the rate of several thousand an hour. The message will be repeated twice and left on an answering machine. Messages may also be recorded in Spanish. There is a trade-off between the length and repetition of the message and its urgency. A select number of officials are empowered to activate the system-enough to ensure that the system is as reliable as the telephone system.

However, CAN is not a perfect system. Unlisted numbers, for example, will not be included unless the client authorizes their inclusion. But, it is a tool we have not had before, and it has a place in the event of wildfire. Everyone in Topanga ought to be sufficiently aware of the system to respond to it.

Copy, fill out and mail the CAN registration form at Appendix D to get your numbers into the system.