{"id":5745,"date":"2012-11-05T09:07:42","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T13:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=5745"},"modified":"2023-04-09T12:13:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-09T16:13:32","slug":"secure-everything-assume-nothing-take-nothing-for-granted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2012\/11\/secure-everything-assume-nothing-take-nothing-for-granted\/","title":{"rendered":"Secure everything, assume nothing, take nothing for granted"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The big lesson learned from Sandy is to take nothing for granted. For several days prior to the storm&#8217;s arrival, we checked everything; refueled and started every generator, checked the oil, water, and battery electrolyte, set up fuel deliveries ahead of time for the worst-case scenario, checked all the backup transmitters and STL&#8217;s, and so on.\u00a0 The one thing that I didn&#8217;t consider was a storm surge so high that the propane tank would float away.\u00a0 After all, those tanks are heavy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, a brief examination of elementary physics reveals that even when full, a propane tank will float:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One gallon of water weighs 8.3 pounds if it is freshwater or approximately 8.55 pounds for saltwater (depending on where it is from).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One gallon of liquid propane weighs approximately 4.1 pounds, thus it is about half as dense as water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most propane tanks are not full, being at most 80% liquid volume. It is always the thing that you didn&#8217;t think of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We seem to be suffering a 500-year storm about once a year or so around these parts.\u00a0 I expect that things will only get worse.\u00a0 With that in mind, it is perhaps time to re-think our disaster preparedness and recovery plans to incorporate every worst-case scenario we can imagine.\u00a0 Everyone knows, but it bears repeating: Radio is the last link that people have when all other technology fails.\u00a0 Thus, when it comes to storm preparation, there is no such thing as too much.\u00a0 Thus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Secure everything<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Assume nothing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Take nothing for granted<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Our assumptions about power utility and telephone network reliability and restoration may be wrong.\u00a0 Our assumptions about access to remote sites, our ability to use vehicles, availability of gasoline and other fuels may be over-optimistic.\u00a0 Our assumptions that basic foodstuffs, clean water, and secure resting areas may also be wrong.\u00a0 Get those items wrong and it does not matter how much equipment redundancy is built into facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For remote transmitter sites, access can be a major problem after a storm.\u00a0 In low-lying coastal areas, flooding will be an issue.\u00a0 In those situations, having backup transmitter sites would be a key feature of any disaster plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All good disaster plans also have the human component; clean water, food, and safe, secure resting areas for the staff.\u00a0 As always, when the SHTF and there are no options and no ideas, there is the <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/knowyourmeme.com\/memes\/bear-grylls-better-drink-my-own-piss\" target=\"_blank\">Bear Grylls<\/a> survival method:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/better-drink.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"540\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/better-drink-540x600.jpg\" alt=\"Bear Grylls\" class=\"wp-image-5771\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/better-drink-540x600.jpg 540w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/better-drink-135x150.jpg 135w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/better-drink-270x300.jpg 270w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/better-drink-400x443.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/better-drink.jpg 575w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bear Grylls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Which we really, really don&#8217;t want to do (from the TV show<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Man_vs._Wild\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <em>Man vs. Wild<\/em><\/a> on Discovery).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The big lesson learned from Sandy is to take nothing for granted. For several days prior to the storm&#8217;s arrival, we checked everything; refueled and started every generator, checked the oil, water, and battery electrolyte, set up fuel deliveries ahead of time for the worst-case scenario, checked all the backup transmitters and STL&#8217;s, and so &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2012\/11\/secure-everything-assume-nothing-take-nothing-for-granted\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Secure everything, assume nothing, take nothing for granted<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[219,220],"class_list":["post-5745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-disaster-planning","tag-disaster-recovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5745"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11487,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5745\/revisions\/11487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}