No matter where you live, the slightest shrug of Mother Nature’s shoulders can throw your home, neighborhood or entire region into chaos. Take these steps to prepare your family.
Not to be too alarmist, but no matter where you live, there’s a natural disaster waiting to happen. In Seattle, we worry about earthquakes and even a little bit about volcanoes. (There are still people selling Mount St. Helen’s ash.)
Upheavals nationwide this year have included epic flooding in Texas, historic wildfires in the West. Tornadoes in the heartland and likely coming soon to the South, Hurricane Erika. Fact is, wherever you call home, the slightest shrug of Mother Nature’s shoulders can throw your city, neighborhood or entire region into chaos.
You can’t prevent a disaster, but you can take steps that will help you navigate the mayhem that ensues. Here are some key steps to take now, including how to assemble an emergency kit, that can make a big difference for you and your family in a crisis.
1. Gather your important records
One often overlooked item in disaster planning is financial records and other key documents such as birth certificates and the title to your car. It would make sense to have a contact list with important phone numbers — your insurance company, your bank and your doctor — for instance.
Be sure to have two copies. One copy can be stored in a watertight container that you can easily grab from your house. The other one should be kept elsewhere in the event that the house is destroyed or unsafe. You could store them in the cloud, or send them to a relative or trusted friend who lives in a different state, in case a large region is affected.
It’s hard trying to rebuild your life after major losses, but this step will at least make it simpler to get started. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides a financial preparedness checklist here to help you make sure you have the essential items stored.
2. Have a plan
What if this hypothetical disaster strikes in the middle of the day? Both spouses are at work — in different places, most likely — and the kids are at school. You need to have an idea of where to connect. The family residence is an obvious first choice, but in many disasters, that’s just not viable.
Make sure you have a backup location. Local governments have designated areas for shelters, often places like city halls, schools or community centers, these can be good choices and are the sort of place that should be on your radar screen anyway. It would not hurt to have an alternative backup location, one that everyone knows about and knows how to get to.
Don’t rely on using your cellphones to keep in touch. When disaster strikes, networks tend to be overwhelmed as everyone tries to call or text. Power outages also may disrupt the number of available cell towers. Texting uses less data than calling, so try that first. But make sure everyone knows to meet at your preset location if technology fails you.
If you have small children, make sure your caregiver, be that a long-term nanny or short-term babysitter knows the plan. Because briefing a teenage babysitter might end up scaring them off, you might just want to have instructions written down, and let them know where those written instructions are. You should also familiarize yourself with plans at your child’s school. It would be a very unusual school that would send the children out unsupervised after a disaster, but you should know what the school plans to do, and how you might communicate with them.
3. Build and maintain an emergency kit
So you’ve gone through planning for your finances and the mental exercise of knowing how your family will reconnect. Now it’s time for some of the more physical work, building a kit.
The federal government suggests you have a kit prepared that will see you through three days without assistance. Depending on where you live, that may not be enough. In rural areas, with less dense populations it may take longer for government resources to get on the scene. Or you could just live in a place with a somewhat unprepared government (looking at you, pre-Katrina New Orleans) and find yourself on your own for longer.
Before you start putting the kit together, remember, it will need to be refreshed. Water and food can go stale, batteries die even if they’re not used. Every few months, refresh the kit. No need to waste the food. Just pull it out of the kit and put it in the cupboard as you restock with fresh supplies.
One system for making sure the task isn’t forgotten is to restock whenever we spring forward or fall back for daylight saving time. (While you’re at it, take the opportunity to change the batteries in your smoke detectors as well, if you’re not already doing that.) Here are the bare essentials for your kit:
- Water: Probably the most important thing to have is water. Disasters can foul public water supplies, and power outages can mean that private wells may not work. Guidelines call for one gallon of water per day per person. Volume-wise, this can add up quickly. A family of four would need 12 gallons for those three days. (No, this does not include bathing.)
- Food: Again, you’ll want a three-day supply for everyone in the family. It might be obvious, but you want non-perishable items. Canned goods (don’t forget a can opener), dried meats, dried fruit, etc. Try to avoid salty foods or things that might make you thirsty. Make sure the foods you store don’t require water — you’ll want that for drinking — and bear in mind you may not have electricity or gas, so these should be things you don’t need to cook.
- Medications: If you take medications, make sure to have an extra supply. Murphy’s Law will have the disaster happen right at the end of your prescription, before you’ve had a chance to get it refilled. So make sure you always have a few days’ worth of your meds in reserve. Just like food, these can go stale, so be sure to rotate them out.
- Pet food: Your dog, cat, bird, hamster, pot-bellied pig or whatever you have will be in this with you. They’ll need food and water, too.
- Battery-powered or hand-crank radio: Your local government probably has an emergency broadcast channel. Find out what it is and tune in on this radio so you can listen for news and instructions. If you have a battery-operated radio, make sure you have spare batteries. Hand-crank radios, while a pain to operate, will have power as long as your arm is working.
- Flashlight and extra batteries: Know how many batteries you’re going to need.
- First aid kit: At least the basics: bandages, some disinfectant. There’s lots of them commercially available, a simple web search will turn up lots of options at different price points.
- Whistle: This simple item can be a life-saver if you need to signal for help.
- Dust mask, etc.: You may need to filter contaminated air. You may also need plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place. These supplies could make the difference if there’s some kind of chemical or biological spill, or even attack. The sheeting and duct tape could also be useful in a variety of situations.
- Personal sanitation supplies: Moist towelettes, toilet paper, garbage bags and plastic ties. Kind of gross but potentially necessary.
- Wrench or pliers: to turn off utilities. In addition to having the tools on hand, make sure you know how and where to turn off your utilities. If there’s a gas leak, it can start a fire, and the fire department will already have its hands full. If there’s a water leak, that water damage will make cleanup that much harder.
- Manual can opener: Don’t be the person holding a can of beans that you can’t open. (Then, not only will you be hungry … you’ll be hangry.)
- Local maps: Remember, your smart phone may not be working. A map can help you find alternatives if the roads you are used to are blocked.
- Cell phone with chargers, inverter or solar charger: I’ve been saying you won’t be able to count on your phone, and you won’t. But it might work — or it will eventually — and in the meantime you’ll at least be able to play Flappy Bird to help pass the time.
These are the basic, bare-minimum items you should have on hand. It doesn’t hurt to have another kit in the car. And your personal circumstance may also dictate additional items – baby food and diapers, climate-appropriate gear, such as heavy sleeping bags if you live someplace that gets cold, and more.
Check out the government website, www.ready.gov for more details and suggestions. Then stock up and make preparations while the Wi-Fi is working and the stores are functioning — and sleep easier at night knowing that you’ve done your best to prepare for the worst.
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