Emergency Prep Drills

[moolie]

So we talked about this a couple times over the past year or so, in terms of how do you know your family is prepared for the types of natural and man-made emergencies that can occur in your area. I mentioned that last fall I had followed along with a "7-day Challenge" at www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net and now I see they are gearing up to do it again.

If you would like to follow along you can either just check their website daily and do what it says, or sign up for the daily email--this year I'm signed up for the emails. I've got my entire family on board, and we've read through their past challenges (listed on this page: http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2012/08/20/7-day-challenge-2012-its-that-time-of-year-again/) to see what has happened in the past, so my teens and hubs all know that there may be waterless (no showers, gotta get clean anyway) and powerless (pretty easy for us) kinda days throughout the challenge.

For our family, most of the "challenges" they've posed in the past are pretty easy to take--we can cook, stay clean, have enough food and water etc.-- but if we were challenged without power or natural gas during the cold months of winter we'd be quite challenged since we rely on a natural gas furnace with an electric fan for heating our home. We do have a wood-burning fireplace in a central room on our main floor, but it is more "pretty" than actually functional. We have tried it and it would keep our family room and kitchen warm if we blanketed off all the doorways, but we worry about CO2 buildup because, as I say, it's not efficient. So one of the things on our list of "wants" is a wood stove for the basement, which would also provide another cooking surface (at present we have mostly outdoor alternative cooking methods--propane grill, fire pit/charcoal, camp stove plus stove-top camp oven box).

So anyway, just putting it out there--anyone who would like to follow along please feel free to share your experiences here! And thanks in advance for your comments and ideas

 

[baymule]

Sounds like a good idea to have a practice run. We get hurricanes here that knocks everything out for weeks so we have lots of practice!! Our pantry is stocked, freezer full, (eat freezer food first lol) and when a hurricane is brewing, I go get new garbage cans with lids and fill with water. Also fill all the 5 gallon buckets for flushing toilet and fill pots and bottles in the kitchen. I keep glass kerosene lamps and I can feel my way to the kitchen drawer in black darkness to find the matches. It is not the cold that does us in, but the heat. After hurricane Rita, which came weeks after the infamous hurricane Katrina, we had 100 degree plus days and hot humid nights. We had a lot of people staying with us, and a couple of them slept in wood chairs outside in the back of my DH's pickup truck, trying to catch a breeze! Doing without life's comforts really makes you appreciate it when you get them back!!

 

[moolie]

Sounds like you've had lots of "practice" and have a lot of things down pat, is it a big stress every year dealing with hurricane season? I can't imagine watching those weather maps and realizing that I'm in the path of those gigantic storms, rather than so very far away like we are.

 

[moolie]

Evacuation:

We have always been pretty "prepared" to hunker down at home and take care of ourselves in case of blizzard or similar weather disaster like Baymule above, but we began seriously thinking about emergency preparedness in terms of evacuation readiness just over a year ago due to the Slave Lake AB disaster--wildfires completely decimated a town of 7000 that is only a few hours north of us back in May 2011. We live in a suburban neighborhood on the edge of the city next to forested and grassland areas where a wildfire would put our neighborhood in immediate danger.


We have a grab list posted in the laundry room by the back door:
-72-hour kits
-emergency contact list (we each have copies in our wallets)
-zippered binder of important papers/passports/etc.
-box of photo negatives and digital photo backup CDs and hard drive


The pet carrier for our cat (with two small stainless steel bowls, foodsaver bag of dry cat food, water bottles, leash & harness) is also in the laundry room.

 

[moolie]

Emergency Prep Kits / 72-Hour Kits


Our two teens as well as my hubs each have a 72-hour kit at work/school (we get winter blizzards and there may be a time when everyone is stuck and can't get home so everyone has food, water, and basic supplies), and we have the usual emergency kit in the car (first aid kit, basic tools, winter items) as well as a 72 Hour Kit in our laundry room by the back door, plus I keep all manner of things in my purse on a daily basis (pocket knife, matches, P38-stype can opener etc.)

The 72-hour kit at school is something that perhaps others don't do (and may not be feasible for younger kids) but our 2 teenagers each have 3 neoprene pencil cases in a drawstring gym strip bag in their lockers at their schools:

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72-Hour Emergency Kit: Red neoprene zippered Pencil Case with list of contents, LED Flashlight, Hand-warmers, Matches, Candle, First Aid kit, Tylenol/Ibuprofen, Mylar Emergency blanket, Sewing kit, Tape, Notebook/pen, Deck of cards, City map, $20 in coins, Emergency contact list

6x 750 ml Water bottles and a 72-Hour Emergency Food Kit: Black neoprene zippered Pencil Case with list of contents, 6 Granola Bars, 6 Fruit Leather, pop-top cans of Baked Beans/Stew/Chili/Tuna Salad, 3 applesauce Cups, stainless steel Sierra Cup to cook in, Spoon/Fork/plastic Knife, P38-type can opener, Emergency contact list

We also bought each kid a tiny emergency stove that takes tiny fuel tablets (although both have said that eating the food cold out of the containers would be fine in a real emergency).

72-Hour Personal Hygiene Kit: Black neoprene zippered Pencil Case with list of contents, Toothbrush, Bar of Soap, Washcloth Tablets, Sanitary Pads, individually wrapped Wet Wipes, Hand Sanitizer, Q-tips, Tissues, Emergency contact list

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Each kid has an Emergency Contact list in each of the 3 kits as well as in their wallets with phone numbers for all family members including our out of town contacts so they can check in either by cell phone or school land line. The bag 'o stuff fits easily into their school backpacks should they need to take it anywhere, and each kid also has a full change of clothinggym strip (t-shirt, shorts, track pants, running shoes,) plus socks, toque & mitts in their school lockers plus whatever coat/jacket/outdoor layers they wore to school that day so we feel they are pretty prepared to go it alone for a while.

Hubs has a zippered nylon bag containing similar items (slightly different food choices plus a hand-crank radio, work gloves and basic tools) in his desk drawer at work.

 

[Denim Deb]

Some places, there's no way they would allow a kid to have that on school property. In fact, they could find themselves expelled under the zero tolerance rules. And while I understand the reasoning behind the rules, I think sometimes they go overboard. :/

 

[moolie]

Some places, there's no way they would allow a kid to have that on school property. In fact, they could find themselves expelled under the zero tolerance rules. And while I understand the reasoning behind the rules, I think sometimes they go overboard. :/

Sorry, what wouldn't they be allowed to have?

Plastic knife? Matches? Tiny can opener?

That's all I can think of that might not be allowed, but my kids have had no issues--then again it's not like anyone else knows that they have this stuff at school either.

 

[Denim Deb]

Yep, none of that would be allowed. Kids have been expelled for having a GI Joe toy gun that's about 2 inches long because of the zero tolerance rule. One kid took a boyscout utility utensil kit into school to show his friends and got expelled. IMO, at times, it's overkill.

 

[moolie]

Wow, seriously? That is sad.

If it came down to not including those three items, they'd still be fine except they couldn't cook without the matches, although maybe the stove and fuel tablets would be a no-no as well? The can opener is only in case we can't find pop-top opening cans, and the knife is actually kind of superfluous considering the foods they have in their kits (although last year each kid also had a small plastic jar of peanut butter and a box of crackers at school for after track & field practice when they were super hungry, but I guess they could have just dipped the crackers into the peanut butter and not needed a knife).

But no one has ever even looked twice at a collection of 3 pencil cases (both girls are really into Art at school) plus a lunch bag of "emergency lunches" in a small gym bag, or said anything about having a 6-pack of water on the floor or shelf in their lockers. And both girls had "locker partners" last year (not enough lockers at their schools for each kid to have their own, so two kids often share a locker). So I guess we're in under the wire

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I should mention that the kids bring their kits home at Christmas break and when school gets out for the summer at the end of June, so it is at those times that we check everything and rotate out the food--the kids eat it for lunches or snacks the first few days home and then we re-stock the kits when they go back to school--we just bought new food and re-stocked the bandaids and sanitary pads because the kids have dipped into their kits when they've needed those things.

 

[Denim Deb]

Yeah, they'd probably be a no no as well.

I should mention that the kids bring their kits home at Christmas break and when school gets out for the summer at the end of June, so it is at those times that we check everything and rotate out the food--the kids eat it for lunches or snacks the first few days home and then we re-stock the kits when they go back to school--we just bought new food and re-stocked the bandaids and sanitary pads because the kids have dipped into their kits when they've needed those things.

That's a good idea. I know I bought an emergency kit one time, then ask myself why. Everything in there needed to be used by a certain time and if you didn't use it by then, then you were basically throwing the money away.

Right now I don't have it set up the way I want, but eventually, I'll have my tack shed all set up for if I get stuck out there, I'm OK for a couple of days. Plus, I'm going to have some stuff in the truck for in case I get caught in a storm. Normally that's not something you have to worry about here, but we had those 2 really bad snow storms a couple of years ago. And, if you end up going off the road in one of them, you might be stuck for quite some time.