Viewpoints
Where Do You Live?
By Jerry Cegelske
January 09, 2006
Monday PM
A friend of mine from Tok was telling me about driving 100 miles
to work and after getting there he realized he didn't remember
driving or any of the trip. I guess he set both the car
and his mind on cruise control when he left the house.
What does that have to do with us? We do the same thing
when we go to work or get off work. Leaving work,
we have a few errands to run and then the car just finds it way
home without much help from us it seems. When was the last
time you thought something like "drive 12.3 miles north
on the Tongass Highway, turn left on S. Pt. Higgins, right
on Strawberry", etc?
You know where you live but can emergency personnel
find your house or residence at night in an emergency under difficult
circumstances?
Recently an emergency call came in to the N. Tongass Volunteer
Fire Department requesting an ambulance be sent to the residence.
The ambulance responded in a timely manner, but drove past the
residence because it was off N. Tongass and the address was not
visible from the road in the dark and driving rain. Fortunately
things worked out then, but what if time were more critical?
Can emergency personnel find your home given the address?
The next time you drive home try to find your house by using
the street address alone. If it is not dark and raining
sideways, think as if it were, can you see the house numbers
easily?
Two of the best residence numbers can be seen along the new construction
by Mud Bight. There is a white pole with two plain residence
numbers on it which are easily seen from the highway and tell
emergency personnel where they are and that the residences
are past the signs. Sometimes the instructions to turn
left off the highway at Mile 1.3 just past the big
spruce with the two mailboxes across the road and then right
by the junker pickup truck with the bathroom cabinet in it just
doesn't get passed along when people are under stress!
Jerry Cegelske
E-mail: jerry.cegelske@borough.ketchikan.ak.us
Ketchikan, AK - USA
About: Jerry Cegelske is a
Code Enforcement Officer with the Ketchikan Gateway Borough.
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