In regards to emergency preparedness, I have learned from lots of sources (including one called experience) about the what, the how, the why. And now I want to share some of that with you.
Why do we prepare for emergencies? Fear? Duty? Obedience? Common Sense? There are many reasons and levels to preparedness. Some of us, out of necessity, have learned to prepare. Others of us, simply do it because its what we did growing up and so it has become such a part of us and our character that we don’t think much about actually doing it, we just do out of habit.
We have been warned multiple times by church leaders to prepare for emergencies, to have a home storage and to otherwise prepare our families to be self-sustaining in as much as possible. With major disasters that can happen anywhere & anytime, we need to plan on being able to sustain ourselves for at least 3 days--why?--because after a disaster it may take that long (or longer) before emergency personnel, supplies or other help is available. This is a reason for having a 72 hour kit, besides its being handy to grab and go should evacuation be required.
So with whatever reason and motivation you have for preparing, there still comes the need to know what and how to prepare. One way you can determine what you will want and need is to have a mock-disaster. See if your family can live 3 days without using your water, electricity, etc. Have practice fire, tornado, etc. drills (great FHE idea). See how organized, or disorganized as may be the case, your plans and supplies are! Or you can simply follow ideas for plans and supplies that have already been made & supplied by others. I really like a list found here on pgward.org (they made a cool car kit crossword puzzle found here) The image below is a handout for a RS mtg I taught. (If you want to print it, click on the image, hit your print button and print at 148%--that should get it to fill the page, print only the first page if it comes up as 2).
For some great brochures, ready.gov is a great resource. Here are some links to specific publications as well as the link to the page where you can see what other publications they have:
- publications on planning and preparing for emergencies: http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/trifold_brochure.pdf, http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/PrinterFriendly_ReadyAmerica.pdf
- family emergency plan publication: http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/EmergencyPlan_REV6.pdf
- what to have in an emergency supply kit: http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/checklist3.pdf, http://www.ready.gov/kids/_downloads/familylist.pdf
- publication for kiddos to color and enjoy: http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/inschool_book.pdf (has coloring, crossword puzzles and a comic strip of a animal family getting prepared), http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/KidsPoster_Jan2011_map_web.pdf (map of the US with some cool facts)
- other kid activities links: http://www.ready.gov/kids/parents/downloads.html, http://www.ready.gov/kids/_downloads/matchinggame.pdf,
- general link to available publications: http://www.ready.gov/america/publications/allpubs.htm
(earlier in this post I mentioned pgward.org, I gotta say I love that site! One of the reasons I debated so long in doing my own blog is because I thought their site was already so wonderful and informative, they have done a great job for their ward, and I was lucky enough to stumble upon their site)
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