What Type of Lights Should Your Disaster Response Plan Include?

Emergency Services:

What Type of Lights Should Your Disaster Response Plan Include?

The ability to safely and effectively respond when natural disasters strike requires planning and training, but ensuring first responders have the right tools at their disposal is also a top priority. Some of the most crucial equipment in any disaster response plan is reliable lighting solutions. Whether you are a first responder, local post-disaster volunteer, or you are preparing your home emergency kit, understanding the various types of lights that you can select will ensure maximum readiness for any unforeseen disaster. 

When building your disaster lighting kit, it is important to consider the varied deployments for which these lighting solutions could go into action. A properly diversified illumination kit will include small task lights for individual responders to carry with them, an array of portable work lights for illuminating field tents or large indoor spaces, larger and more powerful light towers for bringing light to whole fields, and a combination of corded and battery-powered alternatives for when the electricity is out. 

In this blogpost, we’ll help break down the various categories of disaster response lighting, so you can build the ideal illumination kit for your anticipated needs.

1. Task Lights 

Ensuring each member of a disaster response team has access to their own individual task light will allow them to more easily navigate dark environments while searching for victims, assessing damage, etc. Some task lights are designed to be handheld, some body-worn, and others to offer overhead illumination. These portable, focused lighting solutions include:

• Flashlights: Handheld flashlights are a common part of most first responders daily carry equipment, but having flashlights charged and ready for use by additional disaster response volunteers or staff is a valuable addition to any response plan. 
• Headlamps: With varying designs that clip onto helmets or feature adjustable straps to slide over the head, headlamps often boast extensive battery life for long operational sessions. Not only do these basic small lights provide hands-free task lighting for workers, but can be helpful in establishing visibility of team member locations throughout a response event.
• Rechargeable Lanterns: While headlamps and flashlights are directional illumination tools casting a focused beam of light, lanterns throw a broader area of light, usually 360-degrees of illumination. Lanterns, like our 4,000 lumens LED Pro Lantern, also offer extended features that can make disaster response safer and more productive. With an adjustable handle, the LED Pro Lantern can be carried as a traditional slung lantern, or the handle can serve as a kickstand to prop up the light, and included accessories allow it to be elevated on a tripod or hung from beams or tent poles.  The dimmable LED Pro Lantern can adjust to finetune the amount of light cast from 360-degree illumination to 180-degrees, and even includes a bright spotlight setting (to act like a flashlight) and a warning beacon setting that flashes to signal location in low-visibility situations.

2. Portable LED Work Lights

Portable work lights are also helpful in disaster response situations providing reliable lighting for single rooms or mid-sized outdoor areas. Most work lights have adopted modern LED technology that operates efficiently to provide fixed illumination of darkened areas. Not all portable LED work lights are the same though, so understanding how this category is separated will ensure you choose the most ideal lighting solutions for your emergency preparedness kit. Options include:

• Single-Diode LED Lights: Small work lights are a common inventory item at home improvements stores, and their key benefit is their compact size. Usually featuring a light stand, the single LED diode is mounted within a reflective field to amplify its illumination. For additional lighting power, these multiple single-diode units are combined into a single unit. The tradeoffs with these lights are durability, they are designed to be inexpensive and long-term usage often suffers as a result, and heat, the lights can throw extensive heat that makes work spaces uncomfortable and the units often become hot to the touch.
• LED Balloon Work Lights: The alternative to these inexpensive options are more robust LED balloon work lights that cast full 360-degree illumination. Featuring soft-sided diffusion balloons that surround multiple LEDs, the balloon light is inflated with an onboard fan unit. This means there are no plastic diffusion domes to break if the unit is knocked over, and the fan pairs with an internal heat sync to keep the light cool to the touch regardless of run time. Balloon work lights come in a range of power levels to illuminate smaller spaces like a garage, up to powerful units that can illuminate a whole school gymnasium. Our Volterrex Balloon Work Lights leverage proprietary diffusion materials and innovative LED technology to throw ideal diffused light that reduces eye strain and renders colors accurately so fine detail (like colored wiring, or medical labels) are easier to decipher. 
• Battery-Powered Balloon Work Lights: Delivering the same naturally-colored, diffused illumination that is ideal for reducing eye strain and making disaster response more productive, battery-powered balloon work lights allow you to leave the generator at home when deploying to an area without electricity. Options like the Volterrex 13,000 Lumens Cordless LED Balloon Light ensure extensive battery life up to 40 hours at lower brightness settings and their interchangeable battery packs are easily swapped to keep the light on for days.

3. Telescopic Light Towers

Light towers are invaluable in disaster response for delivering high-intensity illumination over large areas. For disaster response teams establishing large scale operations in the field or illuminating an entire stadium or parking lot for triage demands, light towers are an important element of any disaster response plan. While emergency preparedness teams might elect to rent light towers when needed, including this equipment in your pre-disaster kit ensures they are ready and available in a time of need. There are a different types of light towers to consider including:

• Mobile Diesel-Powered Light Towers: These solutions are traditional light towers featuring intense lighting fixtures mounted on telescopic light towers. Most often mounted on a tow-behind trailer alongside their diesel-powered energy source, these powerful and noisy units require regular attention to top off fuel levels to keep the lights on.
•  LED Balloon Light Towers: Equipped with energy-efficient LED lights, and more portable than diesel-powered alternatives, balloon light towers deliver the same powerful illumination offset by the additional benefits of diffused LED balloon lighting. Anyone who has driven past an emergency scene or nighttime roadwork knows first hand the blinding nature of traditional light towers. Alternatively, modern diffused balloon lights towers deliver glare-free illumination for better and safer work conditions. The Volterrex line of LED Balloon Light Towers range from 42,000 lumens units to a massive 135,000 lumens light that will throw up to 70,000 square feet of quality light. These larger models can also be equipped with easily collapsible telescopic tripods mounts, or integrated with our rolling light carts for easy deployment. 

Conclusion

Amid the chaos of a disaster, being able to deploy the best combination of lighting solutions quickly and reliably can directly impact life-saving efforts. A customized mix of task lights, work lights and light towers also ensures safer and more efficient work environments for first responders and volunteers. Most importantly, selecting lighting solutions that are built tough for maximum durability, with the build quality needed for disaster response, will ensure your team is ready to deploy in the next inevitable disaster scenario. 

Volterrex by ISM Lighting is proud to offer our technical expertise to help support your preparation efforts. Please contact our team for assistance in selecting the best combination of innovative lighting solutions for your disaster planning.