Friday, September 24, 2010

Before The Disaster Strikes

Print Friendly and PDFPrint Friendly

Earthquake Drill

Are you prepared? I hear this question more frequently and I feel an urgency that we need to be able to answer "yes" to this question. I found a step-by-step guide to help you have all the essentials ready in an emergency. Hopefully you will only need to accomplish a few of these, but it has quite a bit of useful information.

Personal & Family Preparedness

Before the Disaster Strikes
"If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear," D&C 38:30

1.Establish a system for knowing where your family members are in an emergency. Where will you meet?
2. Know how to contact community resources such as fire, police and ambulance services.
3. Have and maintain fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, gas/carbon monoxide alarms. Know how to use them and place them in effective places.
4. Know how to shut off the gas, electricity, and water to your house. Have the proper wrenches or tools available to use on these connections.
5. Prepare and have conveniently available a 72-hour kit of food, water, and first aid supplies.
6. Have available various kinds of clothing, blankets, fuel, tools, and useful things to repair to keep your house operating properly or livable.
7. Find and keep in a safe kind of storage: important documents, identity papers, papers that establish your accounts at banks, ret. funds, social security,etc.
8. Keep other personal valuables in some kind of safe fire proof container. Have it handy so you can get all of these kinds of things out to safe places an quickly.
9. Store and rotate a year's supply of food, water and fuel of various kinds, (wood/coal for the fireplace, fuel for your gas stove, propane for the bbq, kerosene for a heater, batteries for flashlights, etc.)
10. Get your hand on food seed of every kind, lots of them. Store them in a cool, dry place. (vacuum seal in a jar)
11. Develop some useful skills from the Red Cross, know CPR, take some classes if possible, in life saving, and first aid. Consider the CERT class program.
12. Know ahead of time, and have some communication devices if possible to report your condition and status to your family, civil authorities, neighbors, or block captains.
13. Get your financial affairs in order. Get OUT of debt a.s.a.p!! Have some cash on hand, at least several hundred dollars. Have it in small bills and coins. (Don't have several $100 gold pieces, that is hard to breakup for everyday goods)
14. Get a portable gas/propane generator, 3500 watts or more. You will be able to save the food stuffs in your freezer and refrigerator, even power your furnace.

LAST ITEM......keep quiet about all the provisions you have. Remember TMI.... (too much information)



Don't forget about the September goals.....


SEPTEMBER GOALS:

Case Lot Sales: This is the month for case lot sales at most grocery stores. It is a great time to stock up on items that you will use all year long. I love to get broth, cream soups, chicken noodle soup, canned fruit, mandarin oranges, honey, paper towel, toilet paper, etc. If you missed the Smiths sale don't worry, Maceys sale starts on the 29th and continues until the 13th of Oct.

Fruit: The recommended amount of fruit for a one year storage is 185lbs per person. This is a great month to get canned fruit at the case lot sales. Dehydrating fruit is another way to store fruit. Tell your friends and neighbors that you will take their extra bounty off their hands for them. Then you can dehydrate the fruit and store it is mason jars that are vacuum sealed with a Food Saver. Think of things like raisins, canned mandarin oranges, canned pears & peaches, dried apples, etc.

Non-Food Goal: Sewing Supplies-This month you will need to collect thread, scissors, needles, buttons, zippers and extra fabric. We could see a time when we will be wearing and using our clothing items a lot longer than we are used to. Kids grow fast and knowing how to sew and repair clothing will be a necessity.


Enjoy the Journey!
Enjoy the Blessings!
Feel the Peace!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...