Shutting Off Our Utilities After A Disaster

As you know, there are a multitude of natural and man-made disasters that could impact us. A disaster severe enough to threaten lives could also be severe enough to damage our home to the point that some or all of the incoming utilities would need to be shut down in order to prevent further danger to life or damage to our home through fire or flood.

For this reason I’ve given everyone in our home some instructions on the correct way to shut off our incoming electricity, water and natural gas. Since our home is most likely the same as any other urban or suburban dwelling in the US, I thought it would be a good thing to share on the blog. I’m sure that many of you already know this so this post is for those that may have never had to deal with things like main breakers and shut-off valves. If nothing else, this post may be reminder to someone somewhere to share this info with their family.

ELECTRICITY:

This is the first thing that I have taught my family to understand how to shut off. Shutting down the electricity is critical in most emergencies since wiring could have been damaged inside the home if any walls were damaged. In addition to electric shock hazards, a spark from crossed wires could ignite flammable material or any natural gas that may be leaking inside the home. Our box is a basic 100 amp panel and the main breaker is located on the top left hand side. It’s clearly marked so there’s no mistaking which breaker it is. A quick flip to the “OFF” position will kill the power coming into the home, BUT, there is still electricity between the box and the power pole at the street.

Some panels have the main breaker situated away from the rest of the breakers. Some homes have the main breaker outside near the meter.

I have had to remind them to do this task with flashlight in hand since our electrical panel is in our basement and it can get pretty dark down there. For this reason, I keep a flashlight hanging right by our panel.

NATURAL GAS:

I only INSTRUCT my family how to shut the gas service off to the house. Shutting off the gas will extinguish the pilot lights that are continuously running and I don’t want to run around lighting them again. Shutting off the gas supply is ONLY to be done after an emergency and only when necessary.

The shut-off valve on our home is before the meter. I’ve seen them placed inline after the meter on some homes. It should be easy to identify since there should be a bracket on it that allows the gas company to place a lock or a tag through the valve handle.

I keep a 12″ adjustable wrench handy for this task since these old valves can get crusty and stiff with age. Our valve is a simple on-off valve that only requires a 90 degree turn (or 1/4 turn) to open and close it. Once it’s closed the valve handle will be perpendicular to the pipe instead of parallel.

WATER:

This was an easy one. Our city water supply enters about 5 feet below grade into our basement and is before the meter. Our valve handle is a bit larger than an outside spigot handle and, just like those spigots, it’s turned clockwise to close and counter-clockwise to open.

Our valve takes several turns to fully close and it will leak until it’s fully closed or fully opened.

That is all there is to shutting down our utilities. It’s pretty standard and straightforward since we use public utilities and live in a basic older suburban home.

Ben

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