Organizing for an Emergency
- Oct 24, 2017
- 3 min read
Thank you for Visiting My Blog Today:
These last several weeks have been an eye opener for me. The amount of devastating disasters that are taking place both near and far is so sad and upsetting. I must admit, I am not as ready for an emergency situation as I thought I was! I listened to an inspiring podcast last week that really got me to think about my own preparedness for a disaster. It made me question what is important to have at the ready. Does my family know where everything is located? Where is all of our important medical and financial information? It even got me to think about my parents, who have important medications that need to be available to them immediately that are important to their day to day well being. Do those prescriptions need to be filled for an emergency? The podcast was on the coat tails of the Houston Harvey hurricane and it was interesting because the family that was being interviewed had children with special needs. Since they had lived through other disasters they were very proactive about being prepared for disasters. However, some of the medications that they need for their son are the types of prescriptions that need to be on paper and hand delivered to a pharmacist and couldn't be filled over the phone. The mother described what she had to do to get these life saving perscriptions.
I started to really take inventory of where our important possessions are located and if those locations were easy to access so these items could be rescued. To take it one step further, would everyone one in the family know where these items are stored if I wasn't home to direct my family where to look? I decided to make an inventory list of all of our savable items and put a priority on them as to which items we should save in what order. We also have an attic where we store memorable items. At the time of me writing this, I only know of a few items stored up there. I need to take inventory and organize it so if I need to grab anything up there it is labeled properly and accessible especially if it is a priority to save. I also need to put into place an evacuation plan for our home and where to meet up with my family if we are not altogether when disaster arises. We live in Southern California. The disasters that could befall us would be either a wild fire (FEMA, How to Prepare for a Wildfire) (American Red Cross Escape Plan) or earthquake (FEMA, Earthquake Safety at Home). We have fire sprinklers set up in our home. We have lived here for five years and I don't know if we have had the sprinkler system checked once (yikes, I need to get on that!)!
Each type of disaster requires different types of preparedness. It is important to mention that prior to any disaster you should familiarize yourself with your homeowners insurance policy. Furthermore, you should have all of your important documents stored in a fire proof container. Most items can be replaced through our government offices, but if you need a form of identification to pick up medications or get access to bank accounts, you need to organize your paper and be able to grab them quickly.
My hope here is that wherever you are and whatever type of disaster can come your way, you need to be organized and prepared. This is my inventory list and what I'd grab first if I had the time (of course, after I save my people and pets!):
Pack up water and food (keep in mind if you have allergies or special dietary requirements)
3-5 days of medication
Grab a few clothing items and shoes
Pet food
Save computer and hard drives (so many pictures and documents are on them)
Save the flash drive that I have all of our passwords and account numbers stored on. I don't store these directly on my computer for security reasons.
Grab phone chargers
Save pictures
My to do list over the next several weeks:
Create an escape plan.
Make sure home owners insurance is set up to cover any disasters.
Check fire sprinkler system.
Update all passwords and accounts numbers and store on a flash drive, Label flash drive, put in fire proof box.
Put important documents and identifications in fire proof box.
Make an inventory of items in the attic.
Make a list of where everything is located so everyone in the family knows where our rescuable items are.
Organize pictures, put in plastic containers, label plastic containers.
Please leave a comment below if you have any simplified ways to organize you belongings in case of an emergency or disaster.
Until next time...
Keep it Sweet and Neat,
Stephanie
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