When Seconds Count: GETTING EMERGENCY HELP TO YOUR RURAL HOME

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When it's not city blocks but miles to your house, and long distances to an emergency facility, wasted time can quickly add up to a fatal delay.

Post concise directions to your location next to every telephone. When emergency help is needed, these directions can be read to the dispatcher. Fear and panic can cause you to forget what you know. Be sure to include:

1. Your name. (This will be particularly important if you're found unconscious.)

2. Correct, complete name of the road you live on.

3. Name of your town. (Nearby towns often have roads with the same names as those in your town.)

4. Precise directions to your house. If your lane branches off of a highway or county road, be sure to begin with a central, known starting point, such as a highway mile marker. Say to go "X" miles (or tenths of a mile). If it branches again, as from a lane leading to other homes, add "Y" miles left or right. Keep in mind that it's best to use left and right directionals, rather than east, west, north, or south.

Steps to Getting Help Fast

Don't delay! When there's an emergency, immediately pick up the phone and call for emergency services.

Next, call a close friend or neighbor and ask them to come and be a "flagger" at the entrance of your driveway to help the ambulance locate you. Whether or not your address is correct and known, always call a flagger if you can. This is no time to worry about waking a neighbor or to fear embarrassment. This person may also be able to help with other needs, like caring for children, livestock, or pets, or bringing other family members to the hospital, if necessary.

If your flagger will be arriving in a vehicle, tell him to park with his headlights on dim, have his hazard lights (all flashers) on, and be sure not to block your driveway. (See "Instruction Card for Flaggers," page 70.)

Know (and Tell) Where You Live

It may take some effort to learn (or get) your correct physical address, but do it! Ask your postmaster or telephone company, or your county's zoning and planning, assessor's, or commissioner's offices, if your property has ever been given a rural address.

Subdivisions with loops can be particularly confusing to those who don't live there. If the houses all share an address assigned to the main access road, delays will occur.

The ambulance I work with was dispatched into a subdivision just before dark, during a heavy downpour. A man had called 9-1-1, shouting, "My wife was pushing the garage door up and fell through the window! Both her arms are cut! We're at 3256 Highway 2," and he hung up. As the ambulance raced toward the scene, one of the crew radioed 9-1-1, asking, "Which house is she in? That's a subdivision."

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