Do you know what safety your home currently provides? Well its time to evaluate a few important factors and assess your home’s weakness. Your homes construction, proximity from local threats, and even your geography will be deciding factors.
+Construction
Is your home on a foundation or a slab? Might the foundation flood? What is your home composed of? Wood, brick or metal? Are there any noticeable weak points to your home? Large, exposed windows? Could they easily be barred if need be? Is your home’s construction sound? These are just some of the questions you need to be asking yourself.
+Proximity From Local Threats
Do you live close to train tracks or a busy railway? What about an airport? Be it Federal, State or County a major crash could be devastating to nearby residents. Do you live in a highly populated area or a busy metropolis where a terrorist attack would be more likely to occur? What about your local proximity from a nuclear or industrial plant which could release airborne contamination? If you live near any of these hot spots it may be wise to harden your home to meet threats that are likely to threaten you from a proximity standpoint.
+Geography
Tornado season in the midwest to Hurricane season in the South East. What part of the country do you live in? Some weather events are more likely to affect you than others and in order of importance those are the events you want to better protect your family from. Flooding, landslides, blizzards, ice storms, heat waves as well as a plethora of other threats affect specific geographical areas more than others. Sometimes the landscape around you can provide its own natural protection or use. Maybe you live on a dirt road that is hard to access under specific elemental conditions? Are you close to a river or flood zone? Live on the coast where coastal storms wreak havoc or in a snow belt where nor’easters are a serious threat?
Nor’easterBy ImNotQuiteJack
Home Invasions. Flood. Snow Storm. Earthquake. Pandemic. Black Out. Tornado. Air Pollution. Winter Freeze. Water Pollution. Ice Storm. Chemical Release. Lightning. Heat Wave. Flood Contamination. Fire. Wild Fire. Military Attack. Drought. Biochemical Attack. Volcanic Eruption. Riot. Landslide. Hail. Tsunami / Tidal Wave.Sinkhole. Avalanche. Airplane / Train Crash.
Can your home offer protection from any of these threats listed above? If so which ones are most likely to affect you? Now out of the most likely scenarios draw up how much protection your home provides for each of them and how you can improve.
Included in this site (link soon) is a home assessment threat worksheet to aid you in calculating your home’s strengths and weaknesses VS. individual threats. The table below is a loose example of what a basic entry might look like on a home assessment worksheet.
|
Threat |
Likelihood (1-10) |
Protection (1-10) |
Steps To Improve |
|
Snow Storm |
9 Central NY is known for snowstorms. We have some great ones every year. |
5 I have a secondary heat source and a back up generator when the power goes out in nasty weather. It is still prone to flooding after the heavy snow. |
1. Clean Out the gutters before winter. 2. Seal a few cracks on the outside of my foundation. 3. Back door needs a storm door. 4. Buy heating fuel to last the winter. 5. I need to insulate my attic. |
Your assessment is just that… yours. Point being is you have to think about your homes weaknesses and devise plans to strengthen them. You know your home better than anyone else. That being said you better than anyone else can prepare for the most likely (or most worrisome) of threats. Reduce their impact by taking action and improving your homes weaknesses.
This is a small portion of a chapter in our book which will eventually be released here.
