Are you the flighty Dr. Mindy Lahiri or the well-planned, poised Dr. Danny Castellaro? Not to pick on Mindy, here, but how well do you think she would do in a natural disaster? Do you think she's got her home emergency kit tucked away on her shelf right beside the little box that contains pictures of all the studly one-night-stands? Oh yeah--she has Morgan to bail her out! I would put my money on Castellaro--somewhere in that hipster urban loft he's got home emergency tools that would make Red Green weep.
So, how well are you prepared? Do you have a home emergency kit in a well-known place that can be immediately accessed when need be? With winter coming in a couple of months, it is a good time now to prepare a home emergency kit in the event that some more crazy weather comes our way, especially with an El Niño winter expected this year.
The red thread of many of these blog posts is that our world is highly unpredictable as a result of technological and industrial development, not to mention the tension within international financial markets and politics. There have been crazy weather patterns over the last decade, and there is no reason why they won't continue. We cannot predict the future, but we can take the information that is right in front of us, and plan according to a variety of scenarios. As mentioned in a past post, if you don't have a disaster plan, it's important to create one by simply asking "What if...?"
If you don't have a home emergency kit, here's the minimum of what you need to put it together:
1. Water: You should have 2 litres per person per day of water reserves. (Including small bottles that can be easily carried in case of an evacuation order).
2. Food: You need to pack food that doesn't spoil, such as canned food, energy bars, and dried foods (remember to replace the food and water once per year). Think about a family of 4-5 people living off this for 3-days in terms of the amount you need.
3. Manual can opener
4. Flashlight and Batteries
5. Battery-powered or wind up transistor/short-wave radio
6. Extra Batteries
7. First Aid Kit
8. Special Needs Items: Prescription medications, infant formula, or equipment for people with disabilities.
9. Extra key for your car and house
10. Cash: Including small bills, such as $10 bills and change for pay phones.
11. Emergency Plan: Include a copy of it and ensure it contains in-town and out-of-town contact information.
These will make up the basics of your home emergency kit. Think portability and minimalistic, that is, keep things around that will be portable, and that you can easily load into your vehicle, in the event of an evacuation.
Here are a few more items that you can add:
12. Alternative Heat: Fireplaces, kerosene space heaters, and other combustion-based sources of heat are good to have on-hand when the furnace has no power. Make sure, however, that everyone using them understand how to do so; and be sure that your chimney is cleaned out or the kerosene heater has been test-run prior to adding it to your kit.
13. Materials for Emergency Repairs: Keep on-hand materials such as large plastic sheeting and duct tape, in the event a tree falls on your house leaving a gaping hole or a broken window, dropping your temperature to freezing in a number of hours.
14. Keep Mobile Phones Charged: Make sure that you have your phones well-charged. One cool tool is a solar-powered phone charger, such as Solio. That way, you are guaranteed to have power in the event that you were caught with a phone battery running on empty. Also good to have is a USB-powered phone charger in your vehicle, so that you can charge while you're on the run.
The most difficult part about preparing for a disaster is that you have no guarantee that one is going to happen. It's easier to prepare for a Thanksgiving dinner, simply because you know that your going to have guests. But those who are smart in the end are those who are prepared for anything. Our world is unpredictable--that's one thing we can be guaranteed on; and perhaps that's precisely the certainty we need to compel us to prepare accordingly, such as assembling a home emergency kit following the simple steps above.
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