The first step I recommend in beginning your Preparedness Plan is by creating what is known as a "72 Hour Kit".
If you do the research, the overwhelming consensus is that it takes emergency workers and/or relief aid at least 72 hours - that's 3 days - to arrive, get set up and begin offering assistance. And the first assistance that goes out will be to those people in your area who have the most critical needs. Recent conversations have even said that most Americans should plan to have basics for survival for up to 14 days in the event of a major emergency. A 72 Hour Kit is a great first step.
A well-prepared 72 Hour Kit will help to ensure that you can remain self-reliant during that time period when no outside assistance is available.
How do you put together a 72 Hour Kit? It really is not that hard and doesn't need to be expensive. We have one for each member of our family in an appropriately-sized backpack. To begin stocking our 72 Hour Kit, we use items from our pantry or purchase "one extra" of some things when we're at the store on a shopping trip.
What you use to store your items in is as individual as you are. We use backpacks appropriately sized for each person. Some people use luggage that has wheels. Some use duffel bags. What is important is that you find what works for you, what you can keep up with, what would be easy for you to grab and go with, something you can store in your home in a handy, accessible place.
First, you need to identify the major items that you would need for the first 3 days of survival in an emergency. Those things would include:
~Food
~Water
~Heat
~Light
~Shelter / Protection from the elements / Bedding / Clothing
~Communication Items
~Basic Tools
~First Aid / Trauma Supplies
~Personal Hygiene and Sanitation Supplies
~Copies of appropriate personal documents
~Money
Let's take a few minutes and look a little more closely at each of these items. While this might seem like an extensive listing, remember that our family keeps these items for each person in an appropriately-sized backpack. We're not trying to put our whole house in there - just the basics we need to get through 3 days or so. And, there is some economy of scale when you put together a pack for each family member, as it could end up lasting you much longer than 3 days if you needed it to and rationed your items carefully.
For obvious reasons, it is important to put items in your 72 Hour Kit that you and your family will actually use / eat. You don't want to go out and buy the latest and greatest astronaut nuggets if your family won't touch them with a ten-foot pole. We go through our packs once or twice each year - sometimes quarterly - to rotate in new items and we consume the items about to expire. So keep expiration dates in mind when putting food items in the kits. Also pay attention to things that might leak or have excessive smells that need to go in zip-lock bags.
One more thing. We put our 72 Hour Kits together so that they could keep us going for 3 or more days whether we were in our home OR if we had to evacuate because the building was not safe. You never know when you might end up needing to grab your kit and head out. An example - if the train that runs a couple of blocks from my home were to derail in the middle of the night and we received a knock on the door to evacuate - we have no way of knowing how long we might be gone. With our 72 Hour Kits ready to go we can just grab them on the way out and know that we have our basic needs met for the initial period of uncertainty that would surround such an event.
The easiest way I can think of to demonstrate putting a 72 Hour Kit together is to share with you what I have in mine. Our family spent time last week rotating our supplies. I keep an index card in a zip-lock baggie in an outside pocket on my 72 Hour backpack that lists everything that is inside it and where it is located (upper left pocket, lower zipper pocket, you get the idea). Here's what I have:
Okay, first items on the list are FOOD and WATER. You must have food and water to survive and you don't want to be at the mercy of someone who might be charging $30 a gallon for water. I want things that are tasty, easy to prepare and light-weight. My kit primarily has a couple of MREs (meals-ready-to-eat), a few pouches of those pasta side dish packets that you make up with warm water, some pouches of salmon, small cans of fruit, a few pouches of instant oatmeal or cream of wheat, granola bars, ramein noodle cups, chocolate pudding mix, bottled waters, water purification tablets, tea bags, hot chocolate mix, instant coffee, salt, sugar and pepper (each in an empty film canister that is labeled) a stainless steel cup, stainless steel spoon and stainless steel fork and a pocket knife. Things that are light-weight, easy to prepare and that don't take up a lot of room. Things that will sustain you and a few items for comfort (and in my case, a little caffeine!)
Next is HEAT and LIGHT. These two go together in my mind. I have some of those Hot Hands hand and feet warmers that activate when you open them and shake them, a lighter, matches, flashlight and spare batteries, lightstick (2) and a light-weight alcohol burning camp stove that could be used for heat and to cook. Light sticks are important, because they provide light without a flame and can be used in the event there is a gas leak.
For SHELTER I have a emergency tent and a reflective heating blanket. We keep our sleeping bags with our 72 Hour Kits and these could be used for shelter and/or bedding. We also keep a wool blanket with our kits.
For CLOTHING I have a pair of warm gloves, a warm face-mask, a scarf and wool cap. A change of clothing, socks, winter goggles. Remember when putting together clothing that cotton is a cooling fabric and might not be suitable in all environments. Wool is water resistant and makes a good choice for winter items.
For COMMUNICATION we store our hand crank / solar / battery / electric radio with our 72 Hour Kits. We have one that gets AM/FM/Weather Band and Short-Wave. We also have 2-way radios and CB radios stored with our 72 Hour Kits.
For BASIC TOOLS (some of this repeats from items in other categories, but also fits here) a flashlight, lightsticks, good pocket knife, can opener, small hatchet, small shovel, matches, lighter, candles, mosquito netting, rope, sunscreen, bug spray, basic fishing gear (no poles, just line and lures), rubber gloves, rubber bands, zipper ties, safety pins. Empty film canisters are fantastic for storing little items like safety pins! I also have some extra ammunition to match my carry handgun and our hunting rifle, along with some gun oil.
For FIRST AID I have baby wipes, bandages, pain relievers, antibiotic ointment, anti-diarrheal tablets, tylenol, benedryl, sudafed, extras of any prescription medications. We keep our family first aid kit and trauma bags located near our 72 Hour Kits to supplement the basics in our kits. In the event we had to evacuate to another location, we could grab our supplemental medical kits if we needed to.
For PERSONAL HYGIENE I have the baby wipes, toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, a roll of toilet paper, cloth toilet wipes, a few diapers, tweezers, nail clippers, tampons (could also be used for first aid), hand sanitizer and liquid soap. NOTE: Take it from my learning experience and do not make the mistake of putting a bar of soap in your kit. A few years ago I had a bar of soap in my kit, in a zip-lock bag that was then put inside a small tupperware container. It was a uncolored, no "artificials" glycerin-type soap. And it smelled up everything in my kit. None of the packets of food were fit to eat as they all tasted like soap. I now put a small bottle of liquid Dr. Bronner's Castille Soap in a zip-lock baggie instead. No more soap smell!
For IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS: In a zip-lock bag I have copies of birth certificates, marriage license, social security cards, life insurance policies, bank account numbers, small pocket Bible and a photo of each family member.
For CASH: I usually keep about 20 dollars or so and some change just in case the Automatic Teller Machines are out of order. You can keep more emergency money on hand if you desire - for instance, if you needed to get a hotel room - in an emergency situation they might be accepting cash only for rooms.
This is a pretty good overview of what I have in my personal 72 Hour Kit. My husband's kit is a lot larger and has most of the above personal items and many additional items that would enhance mine. For the girls, they each primarily have a change of clothing, an MRE, a couple of books/school books/puzzles, a toy or comfort item, and personal hygiene items.
We keep our 72 Hour Kits all together with the supplemental items I mentioned in a rubbermaid tote near an exit of our home. My husband's kit is lots bigger, like his Army backpack, and his is stored next to our rubbermaid tote. By storing them this way, they are very accessible if we need to get them on the way out the door or if we need to bring them into a safe room, say during a tornado warning.
Our downstairs bathroom serves as our tornado warning shelter and I have a "mini" 72 Hour Kit that I keep under the bathroom sink. I also keep an extra emergency radio, small hatchet and a large juice-size bottle of water in this room. We keep extra juice bottles of water in all our bathrooms.
Please know that this is by no means an exhaustive listing or the only way you can put a kit together. This is an EXAMPLE of what works for our family for the region where we live. Your kit will be as unique as you are and should encompass those items that will work for you. I've tried to have this posting to serve as an example of things to think about - especially for the person new to prepping who might feel that it is an overwhelming task.
HOMEWORK: Make an effort to put together at least one 72 Hour Kit for your family this coming week. Please email me if you have questions about anything I've described here and feel free to share your trials or triumphs with us here in the comments!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Why Prepare?
Many who visit this site might already be well underway with their preparedness planning - many may be just starting out and some might just be trying to find out what we're all supposed to be preparing for anyway.
When I talk to people who don't have any preparedness plans, I try to ease into the conversation with them so they can see the logic and importance of preparing for events that could become a reality for them.
Many people associate words like "survivalist" with someone who wants to live in a remote little cabin in the woods with their hoard of ammunition and food. While that might sound like a great idea to some, as a mom who has thought through the importance of preparedness and how it can impact my family, I try to take a little different approach with other moms. Since my goal is to encourage them to get prepared, I need to try to meet them on their current level of understanding and then show them how preparedness planning can be important and relevant for their everyday life.
The first question most people ask is "why prepare?" or "what exactly are you preparing for anyway?". Well, we decided many years ago that there are many things that could happen outside of our control that we might need to be prepared for. We read in the news on a daily basis about some crisis that is taking place - flooding, drought, tornadoes, earthquakes, train derailments, job losses, failing banks, rising prices on gas and groceries and the like - recently the list seems to be never ending.
I usually explain that we have a couple of options for dealing with these situations:
Option 1 ~ We can be pessimistic and decide that no matter what we do, things happen that we do not control and so we might as well just resign ourselves to that fact. We can assume that if something happens the government or other agency will step in to help.
Option 2 ~ We can be overly optimistic and decide that those things only happen to other people and probably won't ever happen to us.
Or, we can be REALISTIC and know that things beyond our control sometimes do happen, they could happen to us, but I can PREPARE for some events to make the time I spend going through them a little bit easier. To me, this sounds like a great option. Knowing that we can encounter rough spots in life, but through a little advance preparation, manage to get through them a little easier than we would with no preparation at all.
So what kinds of things am I talking about? Well, before we started our Preparedness Planning years ago, the first thing we did was sit down and decide what types of things could happen in the area where we live that we might need to be prepared for. Then we put those things in order of likelihood - with #1 being something very probable or very likely all the way down to things that might happen, but chances were more unlikely.
For very beginners who want to establish a Preparedness Plan for their family this is a good first step. You sit down and decide what things you want to prepare for by looking at what they are and how they might affect you. Here are a few of the items on our list to give an example:
~ Tornado
~ Earthquake
~ Winter Ice Storm / Power Outage
~ Job Loss
~ Train Derailment
These are the top 5 things that are likely to happen to us in our area of the country - West Tennessee. Let's look at them individually and I'll tell you why they are on our list.
1. Tornado. We live in tornado alley. We are in our safe room due to storms many times each year. On one occasion just this past spring, a funnel cloud passed directly over our house and touched down a couple miles away. A few years ago, it seemed like every week during April and May we had severe storms rolling through the area and we were taking shelter. We have the greatest likelihood of severe weather every year during April/May and again in the fall around November. I have 3 little girls, so I believe it is prudent to be prepared for the possibility of a tornado.
2. Earthquake. Where we live in Tennessee we are directly impacted by the New Madrid fault, and now a new fault in Marianna, Arkansas, that was just being talked about last week. Depending on where a major earthquake had its epicenter on either fault line, we could experience significant damage, loss of power, loss of infrastructure and the like.
3. Winter Ice Storm / Power Outage. Where we live we also tend to get ice storms in the winter instead of snow storms. Our wintery mix almost always starts as rain, turning to freezing rain, turning to sleet and ending up as a coating of ice. This usually means downed trees and power lines. In the last severe storm we had, there were people without power for as long as 3 weeks. And talk about not being prepared - the local paper even ran a story then about all the people who had canned goods in their pantry, but who didn't have a manual can opener to open them with.
4. Job Loss. My husband is self-employed as a financial planner. Depending on economic conditions, increasing regulatory oversight, or a myriad of things going on in today's world, he could at some point be unemployed.
5. Train Derailment. We live approximately 3 blocks from a rail line that has trains zooming through many times during the day. We've seen numerous times in the news about train derailments and hazardous materials leaking. It seems prudent to me that we somehow prepare for a 2:00 AM knock on the door telling us to leave the area due to a train derailment a couple of blocks behind our home.
While I hope that none of these events happen to us I have to be realistic in knowing that they indeed could. So, to help cope with the possibility of these events - I take comfort in knowing that I am prepared for them.
There are even bigger events that we can talk about preparing for - a severe economic downturn resulting in massive job losses, riots - you can continue naming the possibilities. But when trying to reach out to a person who has never thought about preparedness before, or who is just beginning to think about how to start preparing, I find it is a little easier to help them start small as they are trying to wrap their head around how to get it all done.
HOMEWORK: If you are new to preparedness planning or just thinking about why you might want to prepare, take a few minutes after reading this post to jot down the things that could likely happen to you in your area and how it would affect you. In future posts I'll share how our family has prepared for some of the events mentioned here and we'll talk about how you can get started too.
When I talk to people who don't have any preparedness plans, I try to ease into the conversation with them so they can see the logic and importance of preparing for events that could become a reality for them.
Many people associate words like "survivalist" with someone who wants to live in a remote little cabin in the woods with their hoard of ammunition and food. While that might sound like a great idea to some, as a mom who has thought through the importance of preparedness and how it can impact my family, I try to take a little different approach with other moms. Since my goal is to encourage them to get prepared, I need to try to meet them on their current level of understanding and then show them how preparedness planning can be important and relevant for their everyday life.
The first question most people ask is "why prepare?" or "what exactly are you preparing for anyway?". Well, we decided many years ago that there are many things that could happen outside of our control that we might need to be prepared for. We read in the news on a daily basis about some crisis that is taking place - flooding, drought, tornadoes, earthquakes, train derailments, job losses, failing banks, rising prices on gas and groceries and the like - recently the list seems to be never ending.
I usually explain that we have a couple of options for dealing with these situations:
Option 1 ~ We can be pessimistic and decide that no matter what we do, things happen that we do not control and so we might as well just resign ourselves to that fact. We can assume that if something happens the government or other agency will step in to help.
Option 2 ~ We can be overly optimistic and decide that those things only happen to other people and probably won't ever happen to us.
Or, we can be REALISTIC and know that things beyond our control sometimes do happen, they could happen to us, but I can PREPARE for some events to make the time I spend going through them a little bit easier. To me, this sounds like a great option. Knowing that we can encounter rough spots in life, but through a little advance preparation, manage to get through them a little easier than we would with no preparation at all.
So what kinds of things am I talking about? Well, before we started our Preparedness Planning years ago, the first thing we did was sit down and decide what types of things could happen in the area where we live that we might need to be prepared for. Then we put those things in order of likelihood - with #1 being something very probable or very likely all the way down to things that might happen, but chances were more unlikely.
For very beginners who want to establish a Preparedness Plan for their family this is a good first step. You sit down and decide what things you want to prepare for by looking at what they are and how they might affect you. Here are a few of the items on our list to give an example:
~ Tornado
~ Earthquake
~ Winter Ice Storm / Power Outage
~ Job Loss
~ Train Derailment
These are the top 5 things that are likely to happen to us in our area of the country - West Tennessee. Let's look at them individually and I'll tell you why they are on our list.
1. Tornado. We live in tornado alley. We are in our safe room due to storms many times each year. On one occasion just this past spring, a funnel cloud passed directly over our house and touched down a couple miles away. A few years ago, it seemed like every week during April and May we had severe storms rolling through the area and we were taking shelter. We have the greatest likelihood of severe weather every year during April/May and again in the fall around November. I have 3 little girls, so I believe it is prudent to be prepared for the possibility of a tornado.
2. Earthquake. Where we live in Tennessee we are directly impacted by the New Madrid fault, and now a new fault in Marianna, Arkansas, that was just being talked about last week. Depending on where a major earthquake had its epicenter on either fault line, we could experience significant damage, loss of power, loss of infrastructure and the like.
3. Winter Ice Storm / Power Outage. Where we live we also tend to get ice storms in the winter instead of snow storms. Our wintery mix almost always starts as rain, turning to freezing rain, turning to sleet and ending up as a coating of ice. This usually means downed trees and power lines. In the last severe storm we had, there were people without power for as long as 3 weeks. And talk about not being prepared - the local paper even ran a story then about all the people who had canned goods in their pantry, but who didn't have a manual can opener to open them with.
4. Job Loss. My husband is self-employed as a financial planner. Depending on economic conditions, increasing regulatory oversight, or a myriad of things going on in today's world, he could at some point be unemployed.
5. Train Derailment. We live approximately 3 blocks from a rail line that has trains zooming through many times during the day. We've seen numerous times in the news about train derailments and hazardous materials leaking. It seems prudent to me that we somehow prepare for a 2:00 AM knock on the door telling us to leave the area due to a train derailment a couple of blocks behind our home.
While I hope that none of these events happen to us I have to be realistic in knowing that they indeed could. So, to help cope with the possibility of these events - I take comfort in knowing that I am prepared for them.
There are even bigger events that we can talk about preparing for - a severe economic downturn resulting in massive job losses, riots - you can continue naming the possibilities. But when trying to reach out to a person who has never thought about preparedness before, or who is just beginning to think about how to start preparing, I find it is a little easier to help them start small as they are trying to wrap their head around how to get it all done.
HOMEWORK: If you are new to preparedness planning or just thinking about why you might want to prepare, take a few minutes after reading this post to jot down the things that could likely happen to you in your area and how it would affect you. In future posts I'll share how our family has prepared for some of the events mentioned here and we'll talk about how you can get started too.
Hello From Tennessee
My husband and I are excited to be a part of the Preppers Network for the state of Tennessee ~ we're sending out a hello to everyone ~ to those who have been preparing for many years to those who are just starting to think about preparedness - what it all might mean and how to get started.
We hope to be a resource of information ~ by sharing things we do to prepare in our area and things you can do to prepare across the state. If you have some information you'd like to contribute with others that might be reading or following along, please don't hesitate to let us know about it!
You can reach us at tnpreps [at] gmail [dot] com.
My husband and I will both be contributing here - we hope to provide a well rounded conversation about preparedness planning in general and what can be done in Tennessee. We look forward to "meeting" you all!
We hope to be a resource of information ~ by sharing things we do to prepare in our area and things you can do to prepare across the state. If you have some information you'd like to contribute with others that might be reading or following along, please don't hesitate to let us know about it!
You can reach us at tnpreps [at] gmail [dot] com.
My husband and I will both be contributing here - we hope to provide a well rounded conversation about preparedness planning in general and what can be done in Tennessee. We look forward to "meeting" you all!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Help With Your Preps
Would you like for your religious, civic, social or business organization to know more about what Emergency Preparedness is? Would you, as an individual or family, like assistance getting your Emergency Preparedness plan started?
Would you like help with answers to questions such as:
~ Why should I prepare?
~ What am I preparing for?
~ What is a 72-hour kit that FEMA suggests?
~ How do I put one together?
~ Should I have a emergency kit in my vehicle?
~ How do I put together a vehicle emergency kit?
~ Should I store food?
~ How do I figure out how much to store?
~ Where will I store it?
By getting started with simple, easy steps you can increase your safety and security immensely. We have been actively practicing Emergency Preparedness for our family for over 10 years and we'd love to show you how to get started.
To schedule an Emergency Preparedness speaking engagement or to set up a time for individual consultation, you may contact me using the contact form below.
Would you like help with answers to questions such as:
~ Why should I prepare?
~ What am I preparing for?
~ What is a 72-hour kit that FEMA suggests?
~ How do I put one together?
~ Should I have a emergency kit in my vehicle?
~ How do I put together a vehicle emergency kit?
~ Should I store food?
~ How do I figure out how much to store?
~ Where will I store it?
By getting started with simple, easy steps you can increase your safety and security immensely. We have been actively practicing Emergency Preparedness for our family for over 10 years and we'd love to show you how to get started.
To schedule an Emergency Preparedness speaking engagement or to set up a time for individual consultation, you may contact me using the contact form below.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Coming Soon...
I would like to welcome our good friends, "Prepared In Tennessee". They will be operating Tennessee, If You'd like to be a Team Member and contribute, please leave a comment. Thank you.
Tom
Tom
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
