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Being prepared for an emergency is both instinctive and a learned skill. All of us have survival skills that go back to the days when we lived in caves. This level of skills might get us out of a bar fight but it's going to take additional skills to survive the more complicated events that we are facing as a nation and as a species.
The first thing you need to do is have a plan. Sounds simple but most folks that I have talked to think that the government is going to take care of them during an emergency. This is the kind of thinking that will get you killed. You have to be prepared to make it on your own while emergency services start ramping up. You have to be prepared to make it on your own for days or weeks, depending on the disaster. When the New Madrid fault goes off again, not if but when, we could have thousands and thousands of people heading to Kansas City for sheltering. In 48 hours the city could double in size. Think about what that would do to our resources, cleaned out supermarkets / overloaded phone circuits / traffic jams / drug stores cleaned out and the hospitals overwhelmed, just to mention a few things......having a personal / family plan is the first thing you need to do...
FOOD: I have always suggested that you should be prepared somewhere between what FEMA suggests (3 days) and what the Mormans suggest, 1 year. By this I mean how much food and water you should have on hand to survive any long-term disaster. Of course, how much you have on hand will depend on your budget, but you would be surprised on how resourceful you can be by just shopping the sales at the supermarket!....
For example, this past weekend there was a big sale at our local market. They had a 10 for $10.00 sale going on. This sale included boxed Rice a Roni, boxed Mac and Cheese, pastas, canned beans, canned vegetables and all kinds of frozen dishes!...since it was a mix or match sale, it was pretty easy to pickup a variety of foods that would store for at least a year....for a few bucks you can pickup a plastic storage tub with a locking lid to store your private stash!...over a few weeks anyone can put together a larder of easy-to-fix foods that can sustain you and your family for months!
WATER: Always remember that you can live longer without food than you can water. Having enough water on hand is critical...making sure you have enough drinking water on hand to prepare any foods that you have stored is critical. Sure, you can eat canned soup without water but a can of soup will go a lot further if you have stored some drinking water! An easy rule of thumb is having 1 gallon of water per person, per day stored away. We are so use to turning on a faucet and having hot and cold running water available that most folks don't think about storing water. A power outage, an earthquake and a tornado could all severely hamper your drinking water!...always remember that you have drinking water in your hot water tank and, if you have time, you can fill up your bathtub, sinks and as many pots and pans as you can!...again, having a plan will have you storing water ahead of time and will have you filling up the bath tub when an emergency comes up....
FIRST AID: Here we are talking about a basic first aid kit and enough prescription medications on hand (if you take them) to make it for a while. The Red Cross offers excellent basic and advanced first aid courses for free or minimal cost. We have taken them and we can tell you they are excellent!...having these courses under your belt and taking refresher courses on a regular basis will help you make it through everyday life and in an emergency...in an area-wide disaster dialing 9-1-1 may not work, or at best, will just put you in line for help....assume you are on your own for a while, remain calm and use your training to mitigate the medical emergency while you wait for help to arrive!....
CLOTHING, BEDDING AND SANITATION SUPPLIES: If you shelter in your home, clothing is not an issue, you can dress for the weather and circumstances. If you need to leave your home and go to a shelter, you need to already have a bag packed, know as a Go-Kit, ready to go. This kit should be prepared for every member of your family and needs to be packed for the weather. Duffle bags are cheap so you can have one for warm weather and cold weather, ready to go. You don't have to go out and buy new clothing, you can pack the bags with extra clothing that you have on hand right now.
If you have to go to a shelter, having a sleeping bag for each person in your family will go a long way for comfort. If you have to shelter at home and you have no heat, you will be very grateful that you invested in warm sleeping bags!
At some point in time, everyone will have to go to the bathroom. If you don't have running water, the toilets will fill up very quickly. The last thing you are going to want to do is use your drinking water to flush your toilets!...you might want to consider a camping toilet or, at a minimum, a couple of 5 gallon plastic pails that you can put a cheap toilet seat on so you can take care of business. This also means having a reserve of toilet paper and sanitary napkins on hand so you can make it on your own for a while. In an emergency, toilet paper tends to get cleaned out of the supermarkets very quickly!....You may also want to consider having a few gallons of standard bleach tucked away. It can be used to disinfect most anything and can be used to keep the odors down in your emergency toilets....
TOOLS AND SPECIAL ITEMS: At a minimum you might want to consider having a shovel, hammer and nails, rope, fire extinguisher(s), Coleman Lamp and Stove, extra fuel for both, flashlights, extra batteries, a battery powered radio, blankets, alternative heat source, candles, strike anywhere matches, portable or permanent generator, a garden and any other items that you think you might need to survive for a period of time. All these items can be purchased a little at a time, when they are on sale, and stored away for future use. Fuel and batteries need to be rotated since they have a shelf life but you can use them and replace them over a year's period of time.....
FIREARMS: Having firearms in your life is a personal decision, only you can determine if having them available is important to you. I can tell you that if you decide to have them, make sure you get properly trained on their use and make sure you practice using them on a regular basis. Make sure you have enough ammunition since in a pinch you are not going to be running to the store to get more!...ammo, like toilet paper, tends to be cleaned out of the stores in an emergency.....
PETS: Your pets are going to have to be taken care of just like any other family member during an emergency!...although your dog can probably eat human food for a while, a cat / birds and fish are a different story. Making sure you have adequate resources for your pets is critical. If you have a 500 gallon exotic salt water fish aquarium you need to protect this investment if the power goes out. Again, a little planning will go a long way in providing for our non-human companions!..if you have a pet with special needs, talk to your vet BEFORE an emergency as to what you need to do!...if your pet takes special medications, you need to have an adequate supply on hand, just like human prescription medications!...again, in an area-wide emergency you may not be able to get vet any easier than getting to the supermarket!....please take the time to include your pets in your personal / family emergency plan!......if you and your family have to go to a shelter, you may want to take your pets. Although sheltering your pets is part of the national emergency plan, use some commonsense and be patient. Human life is always going to take precedent over animal life. Getting you settled into a safe situation is going to be a priority over your dog or cat....your Community Emergency Manager will work with you to shelter your pets but be patient, humans come first...
LINKS: Take a few moments and visit the following links. They all have a wealth of information available on them. There are also some emergency food links scattered throughout our website, give them a visit!
FEMA: The FEMA website has a wealth of information available, visit it often: www.fema.gov
PrepareMetroKC: This is an excellent website right here in Kansas City: www.preparemetrokc.org
National Rifle Association: If you are thinking about firearms or are looking for training, this is the place to start: www.nra.org
United States Concealed Carry Association: If you are considering adding concealed carry to your lifestyle, we can highly recommend this website and membership: www.usconcealedcarry.com
Community Emergency Response Training: One of the organizations that I belong to is the KC Northland CERT Team. Virtually every community has a CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Team. It requires a minimum of 20 hours of basic training and a background check. If you are looking to add to your personal skill set in being able to handle many everyday and extensive emergencies, I would highly recommend you get CERT trained! By becoming CERT trained you can help yourself, your family, your neighborhood and community survive a local disaster. It's also a great way to volunteer your time back into your community: For further info visit: www.citizencorps.gov/cert
Check the "What's New" link on the left side of the page for information on CERT classes being offered locally!
American Red Cross / Medical Reserve Corps / SAR: Every community has access to the Red Cross. They offer all kinds of training and are a great place to volunteer your time. The Medical Reserve Corp is another great organization that offers medical assistance during disasters. SAR stands for Search and Rescue. If you are so inclined, you might check out any volunteer search and rescue teams that are in your area. I / we are members of all three and have found their training invaluable!
