It goes without saying that today is a somber day. No matter your connection to the events of eight years ago – whether you’re like Sherry and tearfully witnessed the towers falling firsthand or like me watching on TV, praying for family that worked in both NYC and DC – this date probably still shakes you. And while we were both fortunate that all of our loved ones escaped harm, our thoughts and prayers go out to those whose didn’t.
We’ve decided to use this date not only to reflect, but also to plan for the future. I’ve had emergency preparedness on the brain recently due to a project at work, through which I’ve learned that I’m actually in the minority. Most of us don’t stop to think about what we can do around our house to prepare for an emergency – whatever that disaster may be. And as much as I’ve been thinking about it at work, I figured it was time to see exactly how much I had put into practice at home. So here’s our own Emergency Supply Kit audit.
You can find the suggested Emergency Supply Kit list that we used to evaluate our preparedness on MakeAPlan.org. The first thing on the list is water – three gallons per person to be exact. We’re good here, I thought. We snagged a big case of bottled waters at least two years ago for this very purpose and stored it out-of-reach in the kitchen specifically for instances when we’re without clean water for a day or two. We’ve broken into a couple of times, but our supply is still pretty good. We’ll give ourselves a B+.
After water naturally comes food. Again, a three day supply of non-perishables is suggested. We’re lucky if we have a three day supply of non-perishable food within a day or two of our latest grocery trip, so we could stand to stock up on our canned food supply. But at least we’ve got a manual can-opener! I’d say that earns us a C.
We do get an A+ when it comes to five days of pet food. We’re always sure to have a full canister of Burger’s kibble – mainly because the pet store that sells his food isn’t in our neighborhood so we always stock up when we go. And since Burger is a light eater (he’s 8lbs after all), five days worth of food doesn’t take up very much space.
I was ready to give us an A+ in the battery-powered radio category, until I realized that the batteries in our guest room’s plug-in-with-battery-back-up radio are totally dead (and we’ve been relying on the cord). Did our grade just plummet to an F?
Nope! Because I realized that our shower radio is battery operated. Woo hoo!
We even have a few back-up batteries tucked away in a kitchen drawer. I’d say that gets us right back up into grade A territory on the radio front.
Though I’ll have to give us a B- on the flashlight front. While we’ve got a flashlight handy, we have absolutely zero back-up batteries for it.
And while we’re also tempted to give ourselves a big round of applause for having a fire extinguisher and a real life first aid kit around the house, we must confess that it’s technically a Pet First Aid Kit. But it actually has pretty much all of the stuff we humans might need (just on the small side) so let’s call that one a B-.
Overall I’d say we get somewhere around a B for our home’s basic Emergency Supply Kit. Where do you guy stack up? Have you done any emergency planning or supply kit gathering? Got any other be-prepared tips to pass along? You can find out more from the official government folk at Ready.gov or MakeAPlan.org– and feel free to pass along anything else you learn on the subject. Oh and while we wish that all of you are ready for any emergency, here’s hoping that none of us find ourselves actually experiencing one anytime soon.
PS: If you’re in the Washington DC area, check out Capitalert.gov. It’s the project I’ve been working on at the office and it’s a way to get free emergency alerts sent to you via text message or email by your local government.
Jess says
This is such a great reminder to be prepared! I get an F on our emergency kit. I will be working on getting this stuff together. It is so easy to take advantage of the fact that things are comfortable right now, but emergencies happen! Thanks for the reminder.
Karen says
John, are you the capitalert.gov web designer, or how is it your project. Just curious. :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Karen,
Good question – I wasn’t the web designer (I know enough web coding to be dangerous, but not enough to be paid for it!). I work at the ad agency that’s helping to promote the program in the DC region. So if you hear it being mentioned on the radio, that’s my handiwork!
-John
Arlee Leo says
OK, this may be a little on the lighter side (no pun intended), but when I was growing up, my dad would declare “energy free” nights. We couldn’t use any electricity – we used flashlights, oil lamps, and candles to read, play games and generally find our way around the house; we’d use the wood stove for heat and cooking. I suspect my dad just liked to pretend he lived in another time, but the story he gave us was to prepare us in case of a power outtage. And, I have to admit, now when we lose power, rather than being cause for panic, I do feel prepared.
Erin says
Oh, wow. You don’t sound prepared to me at *all*. Have you ever experienced a natural disaster? Three days of food is NOT sufficient. Sorry, but I would give you a D-. (You have at least *some* things.) ;)
Two winters ago the greater Seattle area experienced a record month of rain in November, followed by a snowstorm and a windstorm in December. Soggy earth + big winds = a LOT of fallen trees. There were areas without power for TWO WEEKS! Our own condo, situated 2 blocks from Microsoft, was without power for 5 days. Even though the other side of the street had power, our line wasn’t active for a while.
Now, you might think that going without power is do-able, but during that time, the big trucks couldn’t get through because of flooding/snow/blocked highways, and the stores started getting bare. (And may I remind you that it was mid-December, ie, in the 20’s at night, 30’s during the day.)
A similar thing happened last winter when we had an unusual amount of snow. I went to buy some cake ingredients and was greeted by nearly empty shelves in the sugar/flour section. Snow/flooding blocking both interstates into Seattle. I also experienced a similar thing when I lived in NC and an icestorm came through the area. Not fun.
Even strikes can put you without the basics for many weeks or months. If the H1N1 strikes hard, you might be without services in some areas because the population might actually be hit really, really hard.
I’m not trying to be a scaremonger. I’m just always shocked at how under-prepared people are for disasters. There are a lot of emergency prep sites/blogs out there. Perhaps you can find your favorite and have them do a guest post? I subscribe to several and have gleened a lot of great information.
Your LDS (Mormon) friends/coworkers are a great resource also. The LDS church (yeah, “Hi!” I’m a member) has been huge proponents of emergency prep for about 75 years. Here’s a link to their emergency prep recommendations: http://providentliving.org/content/list/0,11664,8034-1,00.html
Have a 72Hour Kit (food, clothing, hygeine, space blankets, etc.) in containers that you can grab and evacuate in 15 minutes or less. Ours is in 5-gallon buckets (one per person) in our laundry room. Our camping gear is in the carport storage. We also keep a tank’s worth of gas in the shed in canisters, which we rotate out. (We got caught with an empty tank during the windstorm :( .)
Sorry for being so wordy! I just really wish that more people would prepare themselves and their loved ones for disasters that inevitably happen. Thank you for bringing it to the attention of so many more.
Elaine says
Elisa’s (and John’s) point about cell phones not working is a good one. We still have a land line, and it worked the morning after Ike, unlike our cell phones. Also phone related: cordless phones obviously don’t work when there’s no power but wired touch tone phones do work. Our neighbors didn’t realize they had phone service because they only have cordless phones.
One other thing – we used LED candles instead of real candles.
Jennifer says
Thanks for the post. I found it especially timely, as I had just gone through the same house evaluation process you did (http://jnejournal.blogspot.com/2009/09/emergency-preparedness-kit.html). I still have some things on the “to do” list to get done in this area, but I feel much better having started the process.
Rebecca says
I give myself a D. We have a wind up flashlight, a lantern with batteries (and back-up) and lots of food in the cupboard. But water? In a small apartment (NYC, I witnessed 9/11 firsthand too, Sherry, life altering) I never feel like I have the space for this very important ingredient. Instead of small bottles (I can’t stand throwing away all those bottles, and 3 gallons worth a day? wow), I will be buying several large containers and putting them in the hallway closet. Thank you so much for the reminder to be prepared for the worst, while expecting the best.
Amber says
We are pretty good in all of the areas with the exception of water. We don’t use plastic water bottles and I was happy to read somebody point out the leeching of bottles that old. In an emergency, I probably wouldn’t care though. :) I might have to borrow the glass juice jar idea. I’ve been known to fill our tubs up with water when a hurricane (or other natural disaster) is coming through to give us water. We lived in Richmond, VA in 2003 and hurricane Isabel took out our water and power for almost a week. We wouldn’t have been able to flush without my tubs of water. We also have a fireproof box that contains important paperwork and cash. We would have suffered without cash after Hurricane Isabel because all of the stores lost power but were still open and only taking cash. I highly recommend a battery powered lantern (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009PURLS) as well as a crank radio.
Laura says
Thanks for the post and the reminder of how important is it to always be prepared.
On another note – where do you get your organic peanut butter? Is there a certain brand that y’all use and / or avoid? Also, how does organic PB compare with regular? I read some gross things about regular PB and it hasn’t quite tasted the same since. :-)
Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Laura,
We get our organic PB at Kroger (it’s the cheap-o store brand but it’s great, USDA organic and not too greasy). If you don’t have a Kroger around you can just try a few brands to find one that you love. The key is to find one that you don’t have to stir too much (some are super oily so you have to mix the oil every time you use it). And as for how it compares to regular, once you find on that’s a nice consistency (not too greasy) you’ll love it eons more than the non-organic stuff… at least we do. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Bruce Hopkins says
A couple of thoughts:
On “storing water”, it’s a better idea to get a quality water filter, like the AquaRain. It’ll filter up to 30,000 gallons on one set of filters and will do lake/pond/puddle water.
http://www.internet-grocer.net/aqua.htm
Also, canned foods will last FAR longer than their expiration dates state. Read where, 2 times, canned foods over 100 years old has been found … and still edible:
http://www.internet-grocer.net/how-long.htm
Ali says
We live in FL so we have a couple of those collapsable 5 gallon water jugs on hand. We also make sure to have an extra tank of gas for the grill. We are fortunate that we also have our offshore boat in our yard and make sure to keep it filled with gas during hurricane season (it holds 50+ gallons) so we could fuel the generator, or cars from it’s tanks. We also have one of those plug in car converters so if we had to we could plug something needing electricity to the car or boat.
Kim Jenkins says
Having gone through 3 hurricanes here in Fla. in 2004 we learned alot about preparedness! Most has already been covered here but to it I would add – have at least $100 cash on hand and make sure vehicle gas tanks are full. We had issues being able to use debit/credit cards after the hurricanes and there were many gas shortages (and some price gouging). Thanks!
Kila Sprout says
Such a great idea! Every family should have a back up of food, water and safety supplies you never know what will happen and it’s always better to be prepared. I never thought of rating how well we are stocked but I am definitely going to take the test with my family’s supplies.
Glenda says
My adult nephew and 150 neighbors lost their homes to a CA fire. He had just a few minutes to pack up … he grabbed the clothes in his closet and only after realized he should have grabbed his dirty clothes — he was stuck with his least favorite clothes :)