Emergency Preparedness

[cee3]

In a few months, my family will be moving from Australia to the U.S. We'll be getting rid of almost everything we own and starting from scratch. As part of turning over our new leaf, I would like to have a better plan for our family in case of emergency and to be able to be pretty self-sustaining if we had to be. I'd like that to include natural disasters (hurricanes, etc....we'll be moving to NC) and manmade disasters (oil shortages, etc.).

What do you all do in terms of emergency preparedness?

1) How long are you prepared for? Two weeks? A year? More?

2) What food stores should I have?

3) What other items should I include in a emergency preparedness kit? I've lived on the coast of the Hurricane Belt before, so I have a basic idea of hurricane preparedness, but no real idea otherwise.

4) What skills would you recommend I/my husband learn?

5) What books/magazines/websites would you recommend on this topic?

6) Any other suggestions? I'm just starting to really think about this, especially in light of the looming oil crisis and the bird flu. I don't want to be paranoid or tin-foil-hatty, but I'd like to just be prepared.

[azzuranotte]

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=461331

Check this thread out.

[snowflake]

Always be prepared.

I'm just beginning to work on this and have been planning our food supply. I'm stocking up slowly as we can afford it and I've cleared out a nice area in the basement for shelving to store food, water, flashlights, etc.

I have some websites bookmarked I think. If I can find them I'll come back and post them.

[lhowlett]

http://www.providentliving.org/chann...1706-1,00.html

[cee3]

Thanks for those links....*starting to plan*.

[be11ydancer]

First, make sure you each have a backpack that contains all of the supplies you would each need to survive for three days, including MRE's and water, waterproof matches, t.p., survival blanket, first aid, etc. Once you have that, then you focus on how to store two weeks worth of water for the family. This can take up a lot of space, so be creative and include water purification tablets. Finally, after you have your 72 hour kit and your water storage, you can begin storing food. Basics like beans, wheat, milk powder, salt, flour, sugar, oil, pasta, seeds, etc. I could go on and on about this, as it's one of my favorite topics.

Check out this web site for all kinds of preparedness supplies: http://beprepared.com/Default.asp? This is where we purchased our 72 hour kits.

[Shiloh]

I think part of your emergency preps should be to keep all your valuable things in the same place so that if you had to evacuate you could easily throw in a box your fav pictures, grandma's watch and you might want to try timing it make sure you can do it in under a few minutes. I lost a great uncle who tried to get his valuables out before the house burnt down...

4) What skills would you recommend I/my husband learn?

maybe doing some nature survival training, as we all loose that what plants can you eat how do you make fresh water, picking up a pocket book to keep in your napsack dh has a great one on outdoor survival.

things happen wether its a power outage, an icestorm, hurricane, house fire its good to be prepared...lol you could join the scouts

I'd also say choose your home wisely, ask about flood planes in history as often times dams that hold for the last fifty years but if the water level returns to its normal level if a few dams go it might be a problem.

water is a big issue in any crisis so its always best to keep that in mind.
I might look at different senarios, a flu pandemic might require small things at start like hand sanitizer, face masks. etc. You could make it fun, go to the open house at hte fire hall ask about how to survive a fire, what to have where in your house. There are many government org that are more than happy to give you information on safety and disaster preps.

we also have heavy duty backpack carriers for the boys my son is almost five and he fits in it with height and room to spare, we have a smaller one for the younger boy. I lived on the 16th story years ago during a fire alarm without a backpack I'd have been one cranky woman carrying kids down that and possibly up.....again if the elevator didn't start.

a medical book would also be a good asset as if you did have a real emergency state declared you might need to quickly look up how to treat someone else.

[AngelBee]

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