Turning Off Your Utilities in Case of Emergency
In case authorities ask you to turn off the utilities that serve your home in many emergency situations, understanding the steps involved in turning off the utilities will help you respond to the situation calmly and logically.
Depending on the kind of disaster, you will need to turn off certain utilities:
Turning off the gas:
After a disaster, gas is typically turned off to stop the spread of fire. For different states and nations, there are various shut-off techniques. Contact your gas provider to make sure you are familiar with the procedure for turning off the gas to your home.
It’s crucial that everyone in the family is aware of the procedure, so explain it to them all.
Ensure that a professional turns the gas back on if you do need to shut it off.
Water:
In the midst of a catastrophe, it’s possible that a leak in the water mains will contaminate the water that flows to your house. This makes turning off the water supply to your home occasionally necessary.
Find your main house valve for your water supply (it may be helpful to know this in advance, in order to prevent searching for it in an emergency situation) and turn it to shut to effectively turn off the water supply to your home. ( A water shut off tool makes this much easier.) Make sure the valve is closed all the way. Once the authorities have determined that it is safe to do so, you can turn the water back on.
Due to their propensity to rust, water valves should be checked frequently and replaced as needed. In an emergency situation, this will make opening and closing the valve simpler.
Electricity:
If there is a suspicion that gas is leaking, you might be asked to turn off your electricity. Electrical sparks could set gas on fire and result in an explosion.
Locate your circuit box and turn off the electricity to your house. It may be helpful to know where your circuit box is located in advance so that you can do so quickly and with less confusion in an emergency.
Finally, turn off the main circuit breaker after turning off each individual circuit in the circuit box.
Teach everyone who is able in your family how to turn off the electricity.