Preparing for an Emergency…’Where do I start?’
Recent events have led friends of mine to revisit their emergency preparedness.
I was asked ‘where do I start’? Here is my answer:
Basic emergency preparedness includes:
-Contingency planning on how to handle a civil emergency or natural disaster.
-An emergency 3-day kit
-Home emergency supplies
and
-Maintain a positive mindset
Advanced contingency planning gives you the peace of mind that you made critical decisions during a time of relative calm, not during the trauma of an emergency event. Some emergencies call for evacuation, others call for staying at home. You probably don’t want to assemble your action plan when you are up to your elbows in alligators.
An emergency 3-day kit should be with you at all times (probably in your car). This should be the bare essentials needed to survive for three days without any relief. Normally this is 3 days worth of food, water, a first-aid kit and the bare fundamentals for shelter. Feel free to add whatever items you can reasonably include in the kit.
Food storage is easier than it sounds. I recommend you just buy the food you would normally eat and store the surplus. Normally I buy a little extra each time I go to the market and set-aside the extra food for storage until my pantry is full. I use the food I buy and I rotate them so no item is in my food storage more than one year. I keep about 5 gallons of water per person at any one time. If you want more comprehensive food storage, there are a variety of companies that specialize in comprehensive food storage kits.
Maintain a positive mindset. I have found that survival begins with a calm, determined mindset. Stay positive, don’t make decisions in anger or panic and remember to be a refuge of emotional security to those around you that may be traumatized.
Here are a few rules of thumb for those of us who live in urban environments:
-
-Keep the gas filled in your car. Refill at half a tank because storing fuel at home can be a fire hazard.
-Keep at least $200 in small bills at home in the safe because ATM’s usually go down when you need them most.
-Keep small flash lights in case of power failure. The small micro-lights on key chains come in handy even when there is no emergency.
-Apply the rules of food storage to toilet paper and plastic bags at home for waste removal if you lose water pressure.
-If possible, keep extra prescription medicine/supplies. Some medications keep, some don’t. Consult your doctor.
-Assume your friends and neighbors will not be prepared. No matter how much you warn them, most people will not prepare themselves. Assume you will take people into your home that have nothing but the clothes on their backs.
-Safely maintain a supply of firearms and ammunition in accordance with the law. We cannot always count on the authorities to keep us safe and some individuals do not act reasonably.
-Maintain emergency shelter. Regular camping equipment can come in very handy if you need to evacuate, if you have to help shelter others or if your home becomes unsafe.
Excellent resources for emergency preparedness are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Provident Living website
and the U.S. homeland security website.
Will a shoulder pad fit in my 3-day kit?
Two men enter, one man leave!
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