Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Emergency Preparedness - How To Get Started

All of us should be prepared for disasters whether natural or man made and it doesn't have to be overwhelming. Follow in our emergency preparedness series - How to get started.

Do not let the feeling that this prepping or being ready is too much so you will just keep putting it off. I already cover why you need to start NOW. When you begin to gather emergency supplies and start a plan for emergencies, you will discover it gives you a sense of peace and in my case is a little bit addicting. I love working on my deep pantry food storage and getting items that we need checked off of our list.

prepper, prepping, storing water



First Step:

Lists 

Begin by doing a bit of research and make some lists. Just getting your emergency plans on paper in the form of lists will help you to take the first step.
Here is a good pdf by the Red Cross for preparing for emergencies for people with disabilities:
Red Cross guide.

Here is what I see as first steps in emergency preparedness:

1. Water: 

Basically without it you won't last long. You need to have water stored for drinking and for sanitation. My next post in this series will be on storing water. How much and how and where we store ours.

2. Food:

You need to have some shelf stable food that you will actually eat to last at least for two weeks to begin with.

3. Basic Emergency Supplies:

We should all have some basic supplies in case the lights go out or severe weather hits. Flashlights, batteries, emergency radio that actually runs on batteries. Emergency candles and battery operated lanterns (especially if you have kids) will offer some basic comforts if you loose power. Imagine a big storm hit and you have no power. Do you want to go into dark without any light? How about not having any information on more storms or other emergencies you should know about. We just keep a small battery radio so we could listen to local weather and radio stations.

We have way more than the basics as we have been prepping for a while, and I will share what we have stocked up just in case. But if you need to begin prepping, here is where you should start.

So first things on your emergency stockpile list are:
1.Water
2. Food
3. Flashlights, batteries, battery operated lantern and candles. A battery operated radio.

Free Ways to Store Water

2 comments:

  1. A solar powered radio/flashlight is also a good and relatively inexpensive addition. And I have iodine packed in with my rice and beans bucket to purify water if the water supply were ever uncertain. Just a drop or two purifies a liter of water - I hope I never need it, but better safe than sorry. :)

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  2. And get a good camping water filter so you can purify water if it becomes contaminated or your water is compromised.

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