Does your family have a natural disaster plan?

[insidevoice]

We are currently on the verge of being inundated by flooding.  Since our house has only a small crawl space over a slab and no real basement, it's not likely to be a problem for our place, but the roads are already beginning to close  in surrounding areas and bridges are washing away.  We are also about to be in tornado season in this area, they are south of us for now, but will be headed north soon enough.  

It's got me thinking about our emergency planning for my family.  Our house would not be safe in a tornado, there are no internal rooms to shelter in, but there is an old root cellar on the property that we can use if we had a tornado with no warning.  With more warning we would head across town to a relative's home as they have a complete basement.   

What preparations do you have in place for natural disasters that may impact your family? 

[DahliaRW]

Well, we're on a tall hill so I don't have to worry about flooding where our house is.  But we live close to major rivers and definitely have to deal with road closures when they flood.

We currently have plans for fire mostly, since our kids are younger.  They know to get out of the house as quickly as possible and to not take things with them (i.e. don't stop to get toys).  Our family meeting spot is by the neighbor's house ( a good distance away).  My older two (3 and 6) also know which houses near ours they can go to for help that we feel are safe.  My youngest is not quite 2, so she's really too young for all of this.

We also have an emergency kit we keep on hand with food, water, first aid supplies, camp stove, etc etc.  Also have a smaller kit in each vehicle.

Don't have a clear cut "if there was an earthquake and one of us wasn't home" plan or anything like that.  That's definitely something to look into.  My older 2 know where to go to stay safe during an earthquake, but that's about it.  My oldest also knows how to use my cell to dial numbers if he needs to try to get ahold of relatives and such.  We don't live where there are tornadoes, so that's not an issue either...

Thanks for the thought.  Definitely should fill some holes in our plans!

[meesh933]

Embarrassingly, no. And we live close to the Gulf Coast, and it's almost hurricane season, and .... it's stressing me out. We have a tentative "get out of dodge" plan but not a lot of supplies in case of being stuck in traffic for days (which has happened to people around here before) or being stuck and having to ride out a storm. I really wish we had a better place/way to stockpile gas, because from what I've heard, it's hard to come by if we end up having to evacuate. We live in an apartment, though, and I don't think the fire marshall would approve of cans of gas in an apartment building.

I just read "How to Survive the End of the World As We Know It" and have started at least thinking about things more, and trying to stock up on food and bottled water and buy some emergency gear. Our 5 (or 10?) year plan involves homesteading and self-sufficiency, and when we have more space I will definitely stockpile beans, bullets, and Band-aids. For now, I'm focusing on getting some non-perishables and first aid kits in the cars, flashlights, things like that.