Home Security Systems and Alarm System Monitoring; Security at Home

Some of the best additions to home alarm systems in the last decades have been seemingly simple changes that had some large impacts.

One of the simple changes to home security systems in the past years has been the addition of a talking device. A home alarm system Talking Device is designed to help you to understand the status of your home system and it’s monitoring capabilities as well as programming.

Another advancement in home alarm systems include extras like Key Chain remotes. Keychain Remotes are similar to a car’s keychain remote. They allow to you operate the basic functions of your security system remotely. Most keychain remotes allow you to activate and deactivate your system from a close remote location. Many also have the added security function of a panic button. A panic button allows you to call emergency personnel with one touch, for any reason. The features of remotes vary greatly and can include a full key pad, a talking feature and a panic button as well.

Yard signs and house decals/stickers are one of the simplest, yet most effective additions to a home security arsenal. Many studies have found that homes without alarms were 2.7 to 3.5 times more likely to be burglarized, and that the most effective deterrent was the alarm monitoring company’s yard sign. Why a simple yard sign, you ask? Because a yard sign is a warning to potential burglars that your house should not even be considered as a target.
With home security systems, often the small changes and additions can have the largest impact on safety.

While most of our Hurricane Safety Tips are designed to protect people and their homes, there is a very important aspect of most peoples’ lives that hasn’t been discussed yet… pets. Any person with pets is faced with some difficult choices when told to evacuate their homes in the path of a dangerous storm.
In order to make sure that your family pets are safe, even in an evacuation scenario, you should create a pet evacuation plan. Plan your evacuation strategy and do not forget to arrange safe house your pet, or check into shelters and friend’s houses where you can take your pet with you. When you are considering your pet’s evacuation plan, remember that there are specialized pet shelters, animal control shelters and veterinary clinics that can all service as potential refuges for your pet during a disaster.

After you have the proper arrangements to house your pet in an emergency, you should take steps to create an emergency supply list and kit for your pet.

Your pet’s emergency kit should include:

****Proper identification including immunization records
• Ample supply of food and water
• A carrier or cage
• Medications
• Muzzle, collar and leash (if applicable)

A recent photograph of your pet, especially one detailing specific markings, should be kept in your pet’s emergency kit. Many shelters and clinics will not allow your pet access unless you can show proof of proper immunizations.
Thousands of pets either died or were lost during Hurricane Katrina. That disaster has increased pet owner’s vigilance in emergency planning and will hopefully help avoid the same situation from happening again.

If your area is under threat from a Hurricane or other major storm, it is best to minimize your safety risks by preparing a Disaster Supply Kit.

Items to include in your Disaster Supply Kit:

*First aid kit and essential medications for you and your family for at least 7 days.
*Canned food and can opener.
*2-3 gallons of water per person.
*Protective clothing, rainwear, and bedding or sleeping bags.
*Battery-powered radio, flashlight, and extra batteries.
*Special items for infants, elderly, or disabled family members.

In the more extreme circumstances, your local government may issue a mandatory evacuation warning to people in your area. If that is the case, then you should have n place a personal evacuation plan, including supplies and medication to tide you and your family over for up to seven days.

It is important to remember that in a time of evacuation, you should have a plan on how to protect your home while you are gone. Remember to have written instructions on how to turn off electricity, gas and water in case of an emergency. Having written instructions taken down before hand will help you remain calm and get the job done quickly in the small time generally allotted before an evacuation. If you have any questions on how to safely turn your utilities off, contact your utility companies and request that they send a representative out to show you how to complete this task safely.

**Important note: Do not wait until there is a potential danger before calling the utility companies. At that time they may be too busy with emergency preparedness to help you. Call ahead of time.

Fire Hazards due to incorrect usage of portable generators are always a concern for emergency officials after a large storm such as a hurricane.

Here are some helpful tips on using portable generators after a power outage:
*Never use a portable generator indoors. The Carbon Dioxide from generators can rapidly lead to serious injury or even death. Place the generator outside, under a canopy structure to prevent it from getting wet. Do not place the generator near any open widows or doors, as dangerous CO can still exhaust into the house.

Portable Generators should having wiring done by professional, qualified electricians only. The only time a portable generator should be connected to general house wiring is with a power transfer that has been installed in accordance with the National Electrical Code® (NEC). Call a qualified electrician or check with your utility company to see if they can install the appropriate equipment.

The best solution for areas that lose power frequently is to have a permanently installed stationary generator to provide backup power to the home.

The fact is that even a properly connected portable generator can become overloaded by homeowners who assume that a small generator is capable of running an entire household as normal. If you are using a generator to power your home after a power outage, use only what appliances you need at that moment. This way, you can avoid overloading the generator.

Using common sense regarding safe power usage with a generator is your best bet. Plan ahead and know exactly where, when, and how you will place, start up, and operate your portable generator before any storms hit.

Many times, during such violent storms like Hurricanes, the electrical power to your home is lost. We are continuing our series on Hurricane Safety with today’s discussion focusing on Power Outages.
If your area is forecast to be hit by a major storm, you should prepare for a possible power outage. Here are some tips on preparing yourself and your home for lost power:
Keep the essentials close by, so that you will not need to try and find them in the dark, when you need them the most:
• Flashlight
• Batteries
• Portable radio
• at least one gallon of water
• a small supply of food

Many people put candles on their list of power outage stores; however the risk of fire from an unattended candle is too high a price to pay for the limited light. In addition, emergency services will already be stretched to their limit and may not be able to get to you immediately in the case of a fire.

If you have space in your refrigerator or freezer, consider filling plastic containers with water. Remember to always leave at least one inch of space inside each water jug for expansion. Water expands as it freezes and your carefully bottled water won’t help you when it burst out of it’s container.

The water will assist you as providing both drinking water and, in the case of the frozen jugs, provide a cooling room to help keep food from perishing too quickly.
Fill your bathtub with water and plug the drain. This water can be carried by the bucket to the home’s lavs for flushing water.

Our special series on Hurricane Safety is a timely one this season, with 3 major storms brewing at the same time in the Atlantic ocean. We have already discussed your best options for Hurricane Safety: Staying Informed and Being Prepared.

In that discussion we explained the differences between a Hurricane Watch and a Hurricane Warning. Understanding the difference is important because different watches and warnings should influence your decisions about personal safety and the steps that you should take to preserve your safety.

Know What to Do When a Hurricane WATCH Is Issued
Listen to the local and national weather on your radio, TV, or internet connections.
Prepare to bring inside any lawn furniture, outdoor decorations or ornaments. Remember to also list your trash cans, hanging plants, and anything else that can be picked up by the wind and tossed dangerously about.
Prepare to cover all windows of your home. If you do not have storm shutters then use precut plywood that can be purchased at a local hardware or home improvement center.
Special note should be made that, contrary to “old practices,“ tape does not prevent windows from breaking, so please don’t waste your time and energy in taping windows.
Fill your car's gas tank.
Check batteries and stock up on canned food, first aid supplies, drinking water, and medications.

Know What to Do When a Hurricane WARNING Is Issued
If a voluntary or mandatory evacuation is issued, please listen to the experts and evacuate.
If you are not advised to evacuate, stay indoors, away from windows.
Be aware that the calm "eye" is deceptive; the storm is not over. The worst part of the storm will happen once the eye passes over and the winds blow from the opposite direction. Trees, shrubs, buildings, and other objects damaged by the first winds can be broken or destroyed by the second winds.
Be alert for tornadoes. Tornadoes are very common with Hurricanes.
Stay away from flood waters. If you come upon a flooded road, turn around and go another way. If you are caught on a flooded road and waters are rising rapidly around you, get out of the car and climb to higher ground.

We have discussed many seasonal safety tips on our blog, and late summer is the time to discuss Hurricane Safety. Hurricane safety is all about being prepared and staying informed.

The first step for any Hurricane Safety plan is to stay informed. You should keep a close watch on any Tropical systems that might affect your area. Watch your local weather stations and check in at the National Hurricane Center’s website if there looks to be a tropical system that might threaten your area.

You should know the differences between a Watch and a Warning of Hurricane conditions.

• WATCH: Hurricane conditions are possible in the specified area of the WATCH, usually within 36 hours.
• WARNING: Hurricane conditions are expected in the specified area of the WARNING, usually within 24 hours.

The next step in Hurricane Safety is to make sure that you are prepared.

• Identify ahead of time where you can go if you are told to evacuate. Choose several places--a friend's home in another area, a hotel, or a shelter.
• Keep handy the telephone numbers of these places as well as a road map of your area. You may need to take alternative or unfamiliar routes if major roads are closed or clogged. A portable GPS system would be ideal, as this would enable you to constantly change your route if need be.
• Listen to NOAA Weather Radio or local radio or TV stations for evacuation instructions. If advised to evacuate, do so immediately.
• Take these items with you when evacuating:
o Prescription medications and medical supplies;
o Bedding and clothing, including sleeping bags and pillows
o Bottled water, battery-operated radio and extra batteries, first aid kit, flashlight
o Car keys and maps
o Documents, including driver’s license, Social Security card, proof of residence, insurance policies, wills, deeds, birth and marriage certificates, tax records, etc.

Back to school time in your neighborhood means a lot of things to different homeowners. For some, late August and September back to school time means adjusting to a new schedule for the kids and family. Morning bus pickup and afternoon drop off can shift entire family schedules.

For many, back to school time means hundreds of busses on the roads tying up morning and afternoon traffic. This can create a headache for those that already time their morning commute to the millisecond as they suddenly find their morning coffee time cut by 5-10 minutes.

For some people, however, back to school time is a period of painful reminders of the children that were lost in traffic accidents while boarding or unloading from busses.
Newer safety protocols help protect our children from accidents as they load and unload from busses each day, but for many those changes came too late. Hundreds of children have been killed by being run over by busses with simply no visual ability to see the children far below them on the street. Bars have been installed on most busses to prevent this from happening, but vigilant parenting is the best prevention.

In addition, there are some drivers that impatiently ignore the flashing lights at the top of the bus signaling traffic to STOP and keep going. Tragically, this has often ended in the severe injury or even death of a child trying to cross the street to get to home or school.

This back to school season, take the time to look around you as you are on your way to work or home and obey the safety laws that protect all of our children in and around busses. When you the flashing red lights atop a bus, STOP.

One relatively older technology is making news again in the home security circles. Medical alert systems have long been a staple of As Seen On TV ads, but the fact is that medical alert systems do save lives every year. As an increasingly older segment of our population chooses to live independently at home or in senior living environments, they increase the risk of being injured and stranded alone. Medical alert systems help decrease that risk by tying into the already installed home security system that is monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Medical alert systems allows seniors the ability to live an active and independent life while knowing they can contact medical and emergency personnel easily and quickly from anywhere in their home. Monitoring stations that are active every minute of every day provide trained, fast support immediately when they are called upon.
There are a variety of ways to utilize a medical alert system tied into the home security system. The most common to use a medical alert system is to make sure your home is equipped with a two-way voice service and monitoring service.

In this way, you will have automatic two-way communication with our Emergency Response Center staff immediately, no matter what time of day or night that you need them. Once connected, you will reach a trained responder who will alert the proper emergency service providers, or your personal contacts, depending on the situation and your wishes.

Adding two way voice communications for medical alert monitoring is a smart way to ensure safe independent living.

Home Security and Safety doesn’t have to be a big chore or a headache to think about. One of the easiest ways to access your security risk is to get your whole family together for a big game of “Pretend to be a Burglar.” Everyone, especially the kids, loves a fun game. As adults, we often forget about the usefulness that comes from walking in someone else’s shoes during a game of pretend.

When you put yourself into another’s mindset, however, you will notice things that you never would otherwise. By including your whole family in the game you will gain an amazing insight into the flaws in your current security plans and layout, as well as having some good old fashion fun.

After explaining the ‘game’ to your family, split up and walk around your property. Ask yourself how you might break in to the house. Try and get as close to the house as possible without anyone else seeing you. Can you find a lot of hiding spaces where you can remain undetected? Are there spaces that you can disappear into that are next to points of entry? Examine your house from the street, where are the blind spots? What are the most vulnerable areas and, therefore, likely to be attacked? Stand outside the windows and look in. Ask yourself what kind of valuables are in plain sight. Would they be easy to steal? Remember, if you can see valuable items in plain sight, so can a burglar.