Cables and gas lines run in a lot of places you might not expect, and preppers (along with everybody else) need to know where services cross our properties.
Maybe your neighborhood’s gotten rough and you feel a need for a fence to keep people away from your back door. Or food’s gotten really pricey and it’s time to put in that garden. For whatever reason, the shovel comes out. As you stomp it down, there’s a clink and a rotten gas odor. Better hope there’s no spark as you pull that shovel out of the leaking gas line!
Know Where Cables and Gas Lines Run
Here’s a prep that’s quick, absolutely free, and helps set you up to be able to handle problems at your home place with minimal drama. It’s even a stealth prep, as you don’t have to be a prepper to be a responsible homeowner. Salty and I talk about it here:
All you have to do is find out where in your state one goes to check what underground utilities cross your land — in Missouri it’s 1-800-DIG-RITE or www.mo1call.com. Follow their procedures to put in a locate request — again in Missouri, all I had to do was mark all potential dig areas with white flags and go to my online ticket to click my place on the map.
Wait about three days until all utilities have reported, then make your own map of their placements. Once you know where everything is, no new disturbed dirt means no new underground lines. Then if you need to dig in a hurry — you’re prepared.
Never assume, CHECK!
Don’t think you need to because you know where cables and gas lines are on your own land? I thought that. I called anyway, because I’m just that law-abiding way.
The white flags mark where I hoped to dig for my tree. The yellow line marks the gas line I didn’t know was a few inches under the surface.
The flags outline where my tree was going to go. The yellow line marks a natural gas line I hadn’t known existed, since we’ve never had natural gas in the house.
At least where I live, digging in in the wrong spot of your own yard can have consequences that range from accidental explosions (gas) and electrocutions (power) to just really expensive (line repairs). You may also need to fix your own water or sewer lines when services are disrupted. Much better to know where cables and gas lines are and avoid trouble.
Phone numbers and websites vary depending on your location, but it should be easy to find. If in doubt, if you live in a city call City Hall they will know it. If you live in the country, call your County. Commonly, you can dial 811 (but not in all places).
Better to be safe than sorry!
Boy are you right! And I learned the hard way. My tiller tore up the buried electric cable feeding my detatched garage. It ran under my new vegetable garden. Who knew?
I got Lucky with some digging I did years ago, before I understood the importance of this, so I feel for you.
New house long ago and I was using posthole diggers to put in fence posts. Neighbor came out and informed me that I had just cut the TV cable for the neighborhood. The Coca-Cola 600 race was on so big time problem. Neighbor grabbed some wire and clips and within 15 minutes made a little jumper that got the cable back up. Not the best TV image but it worked.