Emergency Preparedness

Dear Annabelle,

It has taken me a bit to get my head around where to have emergency kits.  I am thinking that I will put the main supplies in the garage in a clearly organized area.  That way we have easy access if it is an emergency where we need to stay in the house, quick access if we need to leave by car, and not that different if we need to leave by foot since the garage is the door we generally go out anyways (our shoes are by that door).  I also realized that if we leave on foot we would likely take the bike trailer that we use as a stroller since we would need something to transport the girls and the stuff.  This past winter we kept our emergency water in the garage and it didn't end up freezing so that was a good test.  About six months ago our water turned off for about 12 hours due to a water main break.  We didn't even have any extra water on hand at the time; so at least we have an emergency water supply now.

I really liked this blog's posts with details of how to prepare your "emergency survival station" in 8 weeks.  In general I think I will follow her guidance.

Below are some other links on creating your emergency preparedness kits:
- from premier aquatics
- one on creating emergency kits for kids to take to school
- one on creating a faraday cage (not sure I need to do this, but came across it as a link and want to read more)
- red cross list
- wikihow list
- a car list
- DMV list
- FEMA list
- FEMA on storage locations

I think a lot of the lists are the same but I just want to cross reference them.

The car list reminded me that we should also expand on the emergency supplies we have in the car (where everything is currently kept).  Because the person with the car might not be able to get back to the house in an evacuation scenario it seems like you almost want to have a duplicate set of at least the basic supplies.

I also want to consider what our back-up situation is for data.  Are our pictures backed up somewhere other than in the house?  Do we have our important documents backed-up somewhere (other than in the safe in the basement where they live)?  Watching the evacuation from Fort McMurray also really inspired me to work on all these things since, for example, you might not have time to grab the folder from the safe.  In a way I feel it goes well with all the Konmari cleaning/purging I have been doing since it is all about deciding what to keep and where to put it.

Hugs,
Jen