“Everybody should have an evacuation plan”

Okay, so this has been kicking around in my drafts for a while, and since I don't have anything else for a Sunday afternoon...

Preparing to bug out on a moment's notice is something that people in cities should be doing anyway. NJ town prepares for evacuation over mystery chemicals

Monmoth County, New Jersey is in the central part of that state; it is actually a part of the New York Metropolitan Area. It is in the north of the Jersey Shore.

A toxic cleanup in a quiet section of New Jersey could soon force residents to flee their homes.

Schools and homeowners in parts of Monmouth County have been told to be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice, as Environmental Protection Agency crews do cleanup work at a former industrial plant in the village of Farmingdale near the Howell Township border, NBC New York reported.

I thought it was EPA's job to clean up places like this. The company in question has apparently been shut down for decades, though they don't explicitly say. Long enough for all of the barrels to be rusty wrecks with no labeling in sight.

One resident told NBC New York she remembers decades ago when her children were coming home from school, and they saw drum lids exploding — up in the air.

As for the current situation, the site is located about a mile from a school.

“Everybody should have an evacuation plan or get-out-of-here plan just in case,” said Howell-Farmingdale OEM Director Victor Cook.

The EPA, that brain trust responsible for the situation in East Paletine, Ohio, says don't worry they have everything under control. Or as much as they can "without knowing what’s on the site." So, none at all.

But aside from pointing out what useless bureaucrats at the EPA have to say, my point is that you need to be able to bug out at a moment's notice, especially if you live in an urban area; there are more things that can go wrong. Things like toxic waste fires.

While I'm on the subject, do you know what hazards are around you? Are there any dams in the area, if so who is responsible for maintaining them, and are they being responsible? Like this situation in New Jersey, are there any toxic sites? Routes that trucks carrying toxic chemicals routinely travel? Power plants? ... What do you mean you don't know. Why not? (Being an adult is hard, but necessary.)