Emergency Prep Drills

[baymule]

Last year we had the worst drought in over 60 years, there were many fires. Two major fires were in adjoining counties next to us. We could see the smoke in the skies. It does give you a funny feeling knowing there is fire coming and you can do nothing but run. We were lucky, no fires in our town.

Hurricanes are just something we deal with. No power, no groceries, no nothing. FEMA trucks, MRE's, bottled water and ice are handed out at a staging center. (shrugs) We didn't need the MRE's or water, but we went and got them anyway and gave them to other people. Some of the people we knew were drinking lake water and had no food. I just can't imagine not having more than a few days worth of food in the house.

Grocery stores lose all their cold foods and have to clean up after they get power back. They have to throw out tons of food. When they open back up, instead of bulging meat counters, there is just a scattered few packages, same with the dairy case and frozen foods. The shelves are mostly bare but people are grateful just to be able to shop again. The atmosphere in the local grocery store after hurricane Ike blasted through here 5 years ago was quiet, reverent, almost like a church. That kind of respect. We don't get hurricanes every year, but get ready when one enters the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricanes--HUNKER DOWN!

Fires--RUN!!

Moolie, good job on the kits!

 

[ORChick]

I grew up in California, but never felt an earthquake till I was in my 20s - just lucky, I guess. That, and Grandfather built the house on bedrock.

Then I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 25 years - felt quite a few 'quakes, including the nasty 1989 Loma Prieta quake, the one where the freeways in Oakland pancaked, crushing numerous cars.

During all that time it was constantly pressed home that we should all be prepared for the next earthquake ... but, like most, I kept putting it off. I didn't have room for water storage; I didn't have time to think about food storage. Even so, I probably had more than most in the area (just because I would rather not go shopping more than I have to), but not enough, even for the few days that an earthquake might cause us difficulty. After every quake I thought about it, and worried about it ... but quickly put it aside.

Now I live in Oregon. Earthquakes are a possibility, but not likely. More likely are forest fires. Now I am more aware, and have more stored. I'm all set for the next earthquake. If I have to evacuate quickly because of a fire ... oh dear, I'm not so sure about that.

As baymule says: "Hurricanes are just something we deal with" --- Hurricanes scare me, but earthquakes are just something we deal with. Fire scares me too, but I'm not sure I am quite ready to "just deal with it".

Thanks moolie, for bringing this to our attention. Even those of us who don't take part will, I am sure, learn something.

 

[moolie]

Thanks to you both for your thoughts and for sharing your experiences! As I said, I just can't imagine dealing with an almost annual event like a hurricane.

I've only ever felt 2 earthquakes, when we lived in Vancouver BC, but both were scary--the first was my first night in hospital after the birth of my oldest daughter and everything in the room swayed, I thought I was dreaming but then the nurses at the station across the hall started talking about it. The second was a couple of years later, we woke up to the sound of a freight train in our bedroom and everything was shaking. Both times all I could think of was to get to my kids, in the hospital the nurses reassured me, brought me my daughter, and after a feed we both fell back asleep. The second time it was also over very quickly, neither of our girls even woke up so we just stood watching them sleep.

It was actually back when we lived in Vancouver that I first became aware of "emergency preparedness". I took part in a "Moms & kids" weekly morning at my church during which the kids all had playtime with volunteer Grandmas--a toddler room, a preschooler room, and a baby room--while the Moms could sit and have coffee and chat. Sometimes there were book or Bible chats in various rooms, and once they brought in a gal who gave us the skinny on what to do in case of earthquake or other catastrophe.

She was pretty thorough, she covered food and water storage and basic sanitation plus just living in conditions with no water/power/electric/natural gas. There was a handout, wish I still had that. I took the info home, talked to hubs about it, and then we did nothing really other than think about it.

 

[moolie]

I hope that even if people don't actually "do" the challenges they post on the www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net site, that people follow along and read the daily comments at the bottom of each page. Or even that people go back and read through the past challenges and comments. And then really think about what you'd do in each situation if it were happening to you. And really make some concrete plans.

Things can happen in an instant, like a tornado appearing or a fire turning and heading toward your neighborhood. Hurricanes usually give us a bit more notice, but sometimes they turn unexpectedly as well. Meaning evacuation. Earthquakes really are instant and cause so much destruction. Then there are floods and landslides like what happened out in BC this spring/early summer. Events like these can take away all your preps, but still require mental preparation to deal with. Other things like loss of job/income can also be quite unexpected and it's always prudent to be prepared in terms of a full pantry.

And then there are the "no power" and "no water" types of situations that spring up, are you ready to deal with them? How about getting snowed in, or blocked in by a landslide, or living with no services during an ice storm? Do you have food and water? Can you cook without power/natural gas services? How do you and your family cope without power for extended periods of time?--kids get bored quickly, lack of light can be depressing, extremes of cold (and heat) can really wreak havoc on your home and your life. What about first aid, when something serious has happened and you can't get to medical aid?

If you've dealt with it before, please share. If you haven't, or haven't thought about it much, please think about what you'd do in the various situations. And if you plan to play along like we're going to do--please post about your experiences here, how far you took the exercise, what you were lacking, where you did well, what you'd never considered etc. I'm sure it will be helpful to anyone who reads this thread

 

[moolie]

Ok, and now as the news has just come on the radio it sounds like Hurricane Isaac is about to make landfall and many people are in it's path--please stay safe everyone who is in the affected areas!

 

[baymule]

Watching Isaac on the news now.........looks like a direct hit on New Orleans......and we are on the dry side. Phooey.....wanted some RAIN!

 

[Emerald]

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
http://www.rgdyck.com/moolie/emerg-kit.jpg


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
http://www.rgdyck.com/moolie/emerg-food.jpg

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).
http://www.rgdyck.com/moolie/emerg-stove.jpg


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
http://www.rgdyck.com/moolie/emerg-hygiene.jpg

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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.

There are a few things that our school system would freak over even tho the teachers all have scissors.. the sewing kit. needles and tiny scissors are sharp ya know.. a bit overkill in my opinion too.
But with your sewing kit a pack of dental floss is a must. it sure comes in handy for other things as well. I have even used it to tie something to the top of the car when we ran out of twine. hubs thought it wouldn't work but we had nothing else.. it frayed less than the twine we did have. he now doesn't pick on my dental floss in the car..
and instead of a knife for spreading peanut butter the other side of the fork/spoon is a natural knife. just turn over and dip and spread.
instead of a small camp stove and matches( oops.. this is just for the kids at school to make it a bit more zero tolerance easy) find a stainless steel cup that fits into a neoprene can cozy and put extra hand warmers(better yet the shoe/foot warmers that are long) and you activate one wrap around the cup and then tuck into the can cozy(it may be a bit harder to find them that fit easily). it takes a bit longer than a flame but it does warm things up.. I've used that to keep a cup of coffee hot.. poured out of the thermos and into that kind of set up the hot coffee stays plenty hot till the end in cold weather. you do have to have the cozy or the heat doesn't stay concentrated on the cup.
But other than that I think that your get home bags for the girls are great!
Another great thing about hand sanitizer is that it is highly flammable. so if you are trying to make a fire and the stuff you have isn't quite a good as you would like for fire building a squirt of that stuff on the wood/grass/leaves etc. and it stays lit till the stuff drys and your fire gets going a bit better than just a match or lighter alone.

On the other topic.. we tend to lose power 6 times a year.. this year it has already been 7 times. about every third year we lose it for at least a week.. in winter too. We have the dry runs down pretty pat.

 

[terri9630]

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.

Around here? Pretty much all of that would get a kid expelled.

Matches, Candle, First Aid kit, Tylenol/ibuprofen, Sewing kit, pop-top cans-can be used as knife-, plastic Knife, P38-type can opener-can be used as knife-, emergency stove that takes tiny fuel tablets. Pretty much any sharp,pointy,cutting thing. Meds of any kind must be locked in nurses office, don't get me started on that one! Nothing that has anything to do with fire. The first aid kit sound odd, but someone may be allergic to the latex or adhesive in those band aids the kid may share.....


Oh, due to a school shooting about 10yrs ago, no lockers here. The kids have to carry everything with them. They even banned bags/backpacks for a while. Cars parked on school property are subject to random k-9 searches.

 

[moolie]

Wow. Glad I live in Alberta. I thought all that "check your bags at the door" stuff was just for the movies, but if you're all seeing it in real everyday life, well, wow.

We've thought about it, and since they don't strictly "need" the can opener, we're taking that out along with the plastic knife, matches, candle, stove, and fuel. They can use the spoon for peanut butter, they have flashlights, and they don't actually need to cook anything so we're just going to put those items into their Girl Guide (like Girl Scouts, see my journal post #70 for more info about Girl Guides) kits. Today we're going to pick up a few more handwarmers for warmth though.

The first aid kit containing bandaids, safety pins, gauze, and first aid tape stays, along with the tiny Tylenol and Ibuprofen. My kids often need a bandaid and there is no reason to go to the office for that, same with the meds--both girls get cramps and would be totally miserable without. The sewing kit stays in as well, it's actually a smaller version of the kit they used (and were required to buy and bring to school) when they took Textiles (sewing/Home Ec.) so definitely fine with the school. And they're still keeping the food too.

(still shaking my head at some of those regulations though...)

 

[terri9630]

Our school has a sewing portion of home economics but all supplies are supposed to stay in the class.