HOW TO TURN OFF YOUR UTILITIES
GAS: keep a gas turn-off wrench
attached to your gas meter with a cord or wire, but bury it to keep it
out of sight. If you are using a crescent wrench, set it to the exact
setting and keep it in a plastic bag. It will probably rust anyway but
will be set to do the job.
You can always turn your gas off if you have reason to fear a gas leak.
Questar says that you should turn it off if:
-- your house is severely damaged (like by an earthquake or tornado)
-- you smell gas or hear it leaking
“Stop, look, listen, and smell” to test for a gas leak
• It is very important to know that if you do turn your gas
off, you should NOT turn it back on yourself even if you know how to
relight the pilot lights. You can void your homeowner’s
insurance policy if you have anyone other than a certified technician
turn your gas back on. Actually, this isn’t as dumb as it might
seem. Certified technicians have the equipment needed to check for
leaks in your outside gas line and other places that you would be
unable to detect but which could blow up your house.
The picture below shows how to turn off your gas. With the wrench
turn the valve 90 degrees = a quarter turn. We recommend that in a
disaster you label your meter with a tag that says you have turned your
gas off, so that some well-meaning person who comes along and smells
gas too, doesn’t accidentally turn it back on while meaning to
turn it off.
**We have noticed that the turn-off valves on many gas meters are so
tight or old that it is almost impossible to turn them . This is
terribly dangerous. Although your gas wrench is probably strong enough
to break the seal, your arm might not be. Please have someone get your
gas meter turn-off valve loosened up: the muscle-man or Amazon of the
house, a friend, or someone from Questar. If you do it yourself, be
careful not to turn the gas all the way off. Just move the valve
enough to get it loose (an eighth of a turn or less). If your valve
won’t budge and you’re nervous, call Questar.
WATER: Your water can usually be turned off in 2 places,
one in your basement or crawl space where the water main comes into
your house from outside, and in the water meter can outside near the
street. If we have a crisis that could either break water lines or do
anything to contaminate our water supply, you should immediately turn
off your water out at the street. This will protect you from pulling in
contaminated water, and it will keep the water in your pipes from being
sucked out by the neighbors down line. To have the use of the extra
water in your pipes, having turned off your water valve at the street,
open all the faucets in the upper part of your house, and the water
will drain to the faucets downstairs. You should probably turn off your
water if ever there is a severe earthquake even if your house seems
fine, because the city water supply could be contaminated elsewhere by
the quake.
To turn off your water in your basement or crawl space, see the
picture below. To turn it off at the street, use channel locks to
rotate the pentagonal nut on the meter can lid until it feels loose.
Then you can pry the lid up. You probably need a sprinkler key to reach
the valve and turn it, not because it is so far down, but because of
its awkward placement near the meter. (You can buy 4’ water keys
at Lowe’s for about $10). Some water main valves turn off
with a quarter turn, like your gas meter, BUT SOME TURN OFF WITH 180
DEGREE TURN! It is really important that you figure this out before
a disaster happens. Just go out and turn on your hose in the front
yard, and then see how far you have to turn your water main valve to
turn the hose water off.
ELECTRICITY: Being able to turn off your electricity is
also very important. Inside your home you probably have individual
breakers or fuses for different things in your home, but outside within
3 feet of your electric meter you will have a box on your house with
the master breaker for your entire house. You should turn this off
first, and then turn off all the little switches inside so that you
don’t get power surges frying your appliances and computer when
your electricity comes back on. To turn your electricity back on,
reverse this process and do the little ones first and the big one last.
TYING DOWN YOUR WATER HEATER: Your water heater can be an
extra source of water for you in an emergency, but it can also be the
thing that blows up you r house in and earthquake if it falls over and
breaks the gas line. If you haven’t done it already, you need to
take steps to get your water heater tied down. This can be accomplished
by hiring a plumber to bolt it to the floor with a steel brace (more
expensive, but easy), or you can go to a hardware store (Lowes, Home
Depot, Anderson Lumber) and buy plumber’s tape, which is metal
tape with holes in it for screws to go through, buy some heavy duty lag
screws. See the picture below for how to strap your water heater
down in this way. For those of you who have free-standing water
heaters which have nothing to tie them to, or water heaters in finished
utility closets, you can hire a handyman or carpenter to do this for
you for a reasonable cost.
(pictures described above will be forthcoming soon on this page.)