Last night I went to an emergency preparedness seminar. Honestly, after a really rough day at work yesterday, I was dreading going to a seminar where all the tree-huggers were over-reacting to the Japan incident and stockpiling 40 days worth of food, weapons, and toilet paper in their garage. Cynical, yes. My eyes were set to roll. I had pen and paper ready to pass notes and to write down all the ridiculous things people said. Up until last night, I always said the three things that could help me most in an emergency was a gun, antibiotics, and lingerie. I was there for the wrong reasons. (That may be an understatement.)
To my surprise, however, it ended up being very practical and reasonable. The instructor was hilarious, and was sincerely interested in the minimum, realistic needs for an emergency evacuation – not Armageddon. So, I thought I would share some of the interesting tidbits I picked up in the class, and let those of you who want to know more find a good resource for information.
I live in an area that is in a danger zone for earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, floods, forest fires, landslides and wind storms that will rip a 200 year old Douglas fir out of the ground by its roots. I grew up in a place known for tornadoes, hail storms, flash floods, and extreme heat. While I cannot do anything to predict, prepare for, or prevent any of those disasters from happening, I can take a few simple steps to make sure that the secondary disasters (loss of power, water, sanitation, communications, medical, food, etc.) will affect me less.
One of the most interesting things the instructor said is that the most helpless people in a disaster are married couples. Why? Because they divide the responsibilities. In doing this, they are not prepared if they are separated when the disaster occurs, or one is incapacitated or killed. See there! There is a benefit to still being single; I know how to fend for myself. Every person needs to make sure they know the plan, can carry their own stuff, and work any tools all by themselves.
When neighborhoods are force evacuated, the average amount of time people have to leave their home is 7 minutes. That’s it. Would you grab the right stuff if you were woken up in the middle of the night and told to get out of your house in 7 minutes? This is why it is good to have a backpack stored somewhere, packed with survival essentials. These survival items might be a filtered water bottle, food, light sticks, a head lamp, baby wipes, chapstick, and extra socks. Very basic. This is not a kit to help you survive in the wilderness on worms and tree bark for 2 months. This is a kit to use if you have to walk a few miles to a shelter. On the outside of the backpack, you probably want to have a tag with a list of things you want to make one run around your house and pick up, like medicine, weather appropriate clothing (coat, hat, sunglasses), a child’s favorite stuffed animal, etc.
To illustrate the value of a kit, here is an example she gave in the class of something that NEVER would have occurred to me. Ladies, if you were woken up in the middle of the night and told you have 7 minutes to get your whole family out of the house and on the way to safety, would you remember to put on a bra? I know I wouldn’t. That is probably one of the things you want to throw in the bag. Can you imagine an hour later when you are in a shelter feeling really, well, uncomfortable? Find an old backpack, and make yourself a kit.
Another thing that is really important to have is a communication plan. Why do you need this? She gave an example of a family of 2 parents and 3 children. They knew there was going to be a flood, so the parents quickly ran to the grocery store to buy some supplies, planning to grab their kids when they were done and take off. When they got back home, their kids had been force evacuated from their house. They had no idea where their kids were for 7 hours. Can you imagine their panic?
Your evacuation plan can be pretty simple. Here is what you need:
- Designate a place outside of your home that is secure, where the family can leave a note as to where they are going.
- Have an in-town meeting place that is not the grocery store, fire, police or hospitals. You want to go to a place where people are coming together to seek shelter and help in a community. Your best bet is a church or a school.
- Have an out of town meeting place. If you are going to need to evacuate for an extended period of time, everyone in your family should know where you are all destined because you may not all be in the same place when the disaster occurs. A relative’s home would be a good example of this.
- A wheeled garbage can – good luck wheeling that through rubble.
- A bucket – hard to carry. (Some people plan on using this for a toilet too. Um, gross!)
- Suitcase/Backpack with wheels - Again good luck with the rubble.
- Wheel barrow
- Shopping Cart
Back pack is best. Loaded with all your gear, the backpack should be half empty. Why? Well, all of those never-used-before goodies will never fold back into the same shape they were when they were shrink-wrapped. Also, you are likely going to grab a couple of comfort, last minute things on the way out the door. They need to fit in the back pack too.
What if everyone in your family cannot carry their own backpack? How can you carry everything? The best thing to use is a baby stroller. They have big wheels that can roll over a lot of uneven terrain. They can hold a ton of stuff. You can put your coat over the stuff, and people will probably just think it is a kid and not steal your stuff. I think I just heard a lot of you click on Craig’s List.
Now, for me personally, I am not getting a baby stroller. I am making a calculated decision here. See, I am single. I would like to be married someday. Can’t you just see me pulling into the garage one day with Mr. Right and him seeing the baby stroller? He turns to look at me with a questioning face, and I say, “Honest, it is part of my emergency evacuation plan!” Then all I see is his dust trail from running as fast as he can in the other direction. Nope, this party of one is betting I can carry all of my stuff for a couple of days with the backpack only.
What should go in your kit? Here is what I am putting in mine. Food wafers, water bottle and water packets, light sticks, bra, socks, whistle, army knife, head lamp, sweatshirt, emergency contact info, copy of birth certificate, Social Security card, pictures of immediate family, small notebook and pencil, poncho (just because I already have it), sunscreen, baby wipes, chapstick, thermal blanket.
On my tag outside of my bag, I am putting medicine, a couple of small family heirlooms, Kindle (I know it won’t work for long, but I need a dream.), coat, quilt, wallet, cell phone, steel-toed shoes (if I have 'em, I should take 'em).
There are a lot of other things you could do, but that is pretty much what I am doing as a single individual that lives about 2000 miles away from my nearest family member (won't be walking there in 3 days!). I would like to direct you to the little company who put on this seminar for more information. Simple Safety has a lot of great information. They put on seminars all the time, and they are as cheap as $5. They will offer researched tested products for you to buy at really reasonable prices. This is what I bought:
One package of 3600 calorie wafer bars. Taste like shortbread. 5 year shelf life. $6.95. This will last me longer than a week.
Once case of drinking water pouches. $28. This would last me more than a week. 5+ year shelf life.
One Seychelle Filtered Water Bottle. Good for up to 100 gallons of water filtering. Removes 99% of viruses, contaminants, and pollutants. Folks, you could go to Mexico, fill it with water from the faucet, and drink. (I cannot tell you how much I wish I had this in Peru!) $32
Two packages of 12-hour light sticks (one red, one green). Lights up an entire room. 7 year shelf life. $16.
Now I do not plan to put all of this in my backpack. I will put some of it in my car, some of it in my office, and spread a couple of light sticks around the house in the event of a power outage. You can say that I got duped. I feel like I was smart. Come-on! I didn't buy the portable toilet or the face masks. Just the stuff I could see myself legitimately using in a number of various emergencies, or while I am hiking.
Oh, I should also mention, that if you attend one of the classes, you get a pretty significant discount off of these prices. I just wanted to put her website pricing for everyone that can't get to a class.
In summary, I confess, I was wrong. This was interesting, useful, and not panic-driven. It was just a venue to share a lot of common sense and take advantage of expert knowledge.
So after reading all of this...Are you prepared to be your own hero?
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