I will try to be as specific here to Milpitas residents as possible about how to prepare for emergencies such as wild fires, earthquakes, and sometimes floods. The preparation for all three are the same, but you will get more warning for some than others.
Home Selection
Buy or rent in areas generally far from the wild lands of the east hills. Every section of those hills have had a fire at one time or another, though the scars have long faded as new grass returns. So far fires there have not crossed Piedmont Road, but warnings to prepare for evacuation have been giving to those in neighborhoods on the west side of that road.
Never get a home at the top or bottom of a cliff, even if the view is great. Look at the hills. It is fairly easy to see where there has been running water and sections of the hills have slipped.
Avoid areas that have flooded in the past. That creek may look charming and harmless now, but can become a torrent in heavy rains. The creeks have been fortified, true, but that once in a lifetime flood could still happen. Coyote Creek area can liquefy during a quake.
There is no escaping the fact that our hills were formed by the Calaveras Fault. We will always have earthquakes, but most aren’t bad…yet. The 2003 Working Group for California Earthquake Probability assigned an 11% probability that the Calaveras Fault would produce a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake in the next 30 years. See the shake map on our Earthquake page.
Expect that your Milpitas home will be made of wood and stucco, and never brick. Make sure your home has been anchored to its foundation. Do not buy or rent a home that has not been bolted to its foundation!
Day to Day Tips
I know your mom told you to put your clothes back in the closet or laundry hamper each night. Here in Milpitas leave your shoes next to the side of the bed away from a window, and the clothes you just wore nearby, ready to put on should you prefer not to run from your home naked. You can always put the clothes away in the morning. Your bedroom window may break, so don’t place your bed right near it. Assume glass may have gotten in your shoes, so inspect first. Keep a sweatshirt or jacket nearby, even in hot summer weather. Nights can be cool around here.
Keep your medications in box or drawer you could grab fast to take with you. You may need to take extra precautions if you have small children to keep that box or drawer locked. I use a pretty box I found at Michaels.
Keep a flashlight and a battery operated radio in your bedroom, so you can find out what is going on. Should you get trapped, also have a loud whistle. Remember that the call for help is three short bursts, three long bursts, then three short bursts. Wait a little bit to start it up again.
Everything but the clothes could go in a big enough box for your medications.
Know where every family member is at any time of the day or night. You will need to round them up and get them all to safety.
Keep you car’s gas tank always half full minimum, or fully charged each night.
Get everyone over age 12 trained in first aid and emergency preparedness through a youth program such as Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, Red Cross, local CERT team, or whatever source you can find. Businesses often train teams of employees in these skills.
Make a 72-hour Survival Kit in Advance
You will probably save money and have exactly the stuff you really use if you prepare an Emergency To Go Bag yourself. Many items can be found at local pharmacies, hardware, groceries, and sporting goods stores.
- Water – there’s NOTHING more important! You’ll need one gallon of water per person, per day. And you should plan for at least three days. So if there are 5 people in your family, that’s 5 gallons of water per day for three days, equaling 15 gallon of water at the ready!
- Food. Choose something nonperishable that’s easy to store and carry, like canned goods or freeze-dried food. Remember a can opener!
- Flashlight – remember extra batteries!
- Battery-powered or hand-crank radio – NOAA Weather is best.
- First aid kit – Red Cross recommended kit contents
- Medications – any prescription drugs you or your family need to live, plus over-the-counter items you use like aspirin or allergy meds. Remember an extra pair of glasses if you wear corrective lenses!
- Multi-purpose tool and duct tape
- Sanitation and personal hygiene items – Remember a roll of toilet paper and hand sanitizer, feminine products
- Copies of personal documents – birth certificate, Social Security card, driver’s license, deed/lease to home, passports, insurance policies plus list of medications. Put all of these in a plastic ziplock bag. If you have the means, scan all important documents and store in one of your cloud accounts. Be sure to have ID and Password to your Cloud account written down.
- Your backup hard drive or laptop
- Cell phone with chargers, but prepare to deal without them, too.
- Family and emergency contact information – and keep this not only in your mobile phone, but in a separate book. If you have no ability to charge a dead mobile phone, you’ll need those contacts written down and accessible.
- Cash – if there are widespread power outages, ATMs don’t work, and stores won’t be able to process debit and credit cards. In a widespread emergency, cash is still king! Jewelry that could be traded in desperation might also be handy.
- Emergency blanket – light-weight foil blankets are easiest to pack and carry
- Map(s) of the area. Drop by the AAA store near Staples to get some.
- Masks for COVID protection.
3 Kits Are Better Than 1
Everyone needs a survival kit. In California, families need to be prepared for wildfire and earthquake emergencies in particular. It’s a good idea to not only pack an emergency kit that you keep at home, but to have one at work, and one in your car.
Do NOT store near your chimney, swimming pool, large trees, or anything else that might fall down in an earthquake or wet supplies in heavy rain. A jam packed garage is also not the best place. In a small place, you may want to disguise your kit as a coffee table or footrest.
Prepare for your Babies and Kids
You know best what your children might really need, so prepare to have duplicates in their To Go bags. Ideas here from the CDC.
You may want to write your name and cell phone number with indelible ink on your child, should you become separated, and they be unable to give a responder that information. Same thing can be done on large pets with spray paint.
Remember to Prepare for Your Pets.
- WATER!
- Collar
- Leash
- ID/License
- Food
- Carrier
- Bowl
Where to Flee
This is where things get interesting. You really must prepare your escape routes ahead of time, depending on if you might be at home, work or school.
If the East Hills are on fire, go west, toward Mountain View, on 237. But in an earthquake or flood, the Coyote Creek could be flooded or the area around it liquified, and unpassable.
680 north has slides and faults going under it. Know those dips near where Mission Blvd. goes under the freeway and your coffee spills? Land gives way there continuously, and during a big quake, that section will give way.
880 has major overpasses that could give way. It is closest to the Bay so could liquify going north. In the ’85 quake, large sections disappeared up in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Wouldn’t want to be up there in fire season either.
Now Piedmont Road, up against the hills, can get you pretty far south without any bridges. And eventually you could get on 101 South. But Anderson Reservoir dam could give way and flood 101.
As our major source of earthquakes is the Calaveras Fault, you do not want to try to escape an earthquake here by going up in the hills via Calaveras Blvd. Epicenter is often at the Calaveras Reservoir. Fires and landslides, too, are more likely in the hills than down in the valley. That’s a pretty tough drive even in the best of times.
If you are in the middle of town, take Abel St. south and continue south on Oakland Road. Or Milpitas Blvd. north to Warm Springs into Fremont, depending on source of danger.
So, my recommendation: after an earthquake, if your home is safe, plan to stay put in your home or yard, or tent in a City Park until help comes.
