House fires top area disaster
list
While we’re spared the severe earthquakes of California,
the devastating hurricanes of Florida and the dramatic
snowfall of Minnesota, we have our own share of disasters
in East Tennessee.
Single-family house fires are
the most common disaster in Tennessee, as well as nationwide.
Locally, the Red Cross responded to 233 fires last year,
helping families with their disaster-caused needs. The
majority of home fires occur in the colder months of November
through February.
TIPS
TO PREVENT AND SURVIVE HOUSE FIRES
While house fires account for around 98 percent of local
disaster responses for the Red Cross, East Tennessee also
experiences weather disasters, including:
- Floods:
Each year several area families get flooded out of their
homes. Some years produce more widespread flooding.
Because we’re in a mountainous area, flash floods
are possible, and occasionally do occur. Water can rise
quickly and prove treacherous to people trying to drive
across flooded roads.
- Tornadoes:
They’re also a hazard, even in hilly areas like
ours. In April, tornadoes killed 36 people and damaged
thousands of building in Tennessee. More than 150 tornadoes
hit Tennessee in April 1974 – the most in a year,
according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
- Snow
and ice storms: East Tennesseans remember
the blizzard of March 1993, when roads, schools and
businesses closed until we dug out from the storm. Many
homes lost power for days.
Other hazards possible here include both natural and
manmade ones: forest fires, mudslides, heat waves and
chemical emergencies such as the derailment of trains
carrying hazardous materials.
With nuclear facilities in East Tennessee, there is
a chance of an accident or a terrorist attempt. The Red
Cross drills frequently with government agencies to prepare
for this possibility.
East
Tennessee gets earthquakes, too
For more information on the types of disasters that can
affect our area and how to prepare for them, cal your
local American Red Cross at 865-584-2999.
