Emergency Preparedness. I’m sure you’ve heard of it; but do you really understand what it is? And would you classify yourself as sufficient in it? This is a topic the Husband and I have been thinking a lot on. It is something that has been weighting on our minds for quite a while and something we are not where we would like to be. With the recent hurricane Sandy, political unrest in the world, and even those around us losing jobs; we feel this is a subject that needs to take a stronger stance in our lives. And since I write about topics that are important to our family, I feel it is a subject that many of you may find helpful as well. It is a vast topic, and not something that can be covered in just one post. So I invite you to join us on our journey as we begin a new Emergency Preparedness blog series that will help both our home and yours learn how to be prepared in the case of an emergency of many different kinds.
What is Emergency Preparedness?
Emergency Preparedness is a vast area of information. It is more than just having a 72 hour kit ready in case of fire or earthquake. According to Wikipedia It encompasses
- Knowing and avoiding unnecessary risks
- Assessment of possible risks to personal/family health and personal property.
- Preparing equipment and procedures for use when a disaster occurs
- Managing and participating in the search and rescue needs, and fulfilling the basic humanitarian needs of the affected population.
- The recovery of what was lost. Knowing what to do after the disaster has struck. This includes the entire time after the emergency and living day to day life in such scenarios. This includes management of Home confinements, or economic depression or daily living after loss of job. The most extreme home confinement scenarios include war, famine and severe epidemics and may last a year or more. Then the recovery will take place in the home.
As I said, emergency preparedness is quite vast and encompasses quite a lot! It is not something we can cover in a mere one blog post. That is why we are beginning a new series on JadeLouise Designs on Emergency Preparedness. Our goal is to research each of the areas mentioned above and find easy, effective and cost efficient ways to be prepared for all kinds of scenarios. Our goal is to help our family as well as yours know where you are strong and where you can improve. And we can work together to help all our families be prepared for any emergency that may arise and the daily living afterwards.
The part that really struck me is the recovery side. Sure, we can get through many different kinds of disasters. But it is the recovery where we are really weak. If you lost your job, how long could your family survive just on what you have in your home now? If prices continue to rise on food and you could no longer afford normal grocery shopping trips, how well is your pantry stocked and how long could you feed your family? If the water supply was contaminated, how long could you provide clean drinking water for your family?
Many only think about the immediate emergency and surviving it. Which is very important. But according to research, it took at least a year for things to start getting back to semi-normal in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Most disasters take about a year or slightly longer to recover from. The recovery stage is one that is often overlooked, but I feel is one that needs more of our attention. We will be focusing a lot on that area.
What are the different areas of emergency preparedness?
Examining the definition of emergency preparedness, there are many different areas in which one needs to be prepared against! Depending on where you live you could have the threat of a hurricane or tornado. You could have a higher risk of earthquakes. Or maybe even higher crime rates to guard against. Or maybe you live in a flood plain. These are geographical emergencies you need to be prepared for.
Then there are situational emergencies such as fire. Anyone is susceptible to fire emergencies in their home. And as much as I hate to think about it, honestly any location is susceptible to a terrorist attack. How ready would you be to handle a terrorist attack? We thought it could never happen on US soil and then 9-11 happened. If something on a large scale or even a small scale of such were to happen how prepared would you be? Or the Sandy Hook school shooting. Would your children know what to do in such a situation? Would you know what emergency plans your community has laid out if such an emergency arose in your area?
Don’t think a terrorist type emergency could arise in your area? Maybe you live in a rural with a low population. I know from growing up in such locations we always had that mindset. “Oh, we are too small for anyone to notice. Something like that will never happen here”. Well guess what? Living in a rural area doesn’t guarantee your safety. Just Google Search Cokeville, Wyoming Bombing. In 1986 a mentally disturbed man and his wife entered the school and took the elementary children hostage with a homemade bomb. Cokeville is a very small town with a population of 525 in the 2010 census count. It completely shatters the idea that emergencies of such can’t happen where you live.
Other emergencies to prepare for are simple such as vehicle emergencies. Do you know what to do in a car accident? How about driving in Winter conditions? What if you get caught in a blizzard while traveling?
As we discuss Emergency Preparedness we will focus on 72 hour kits for kids and adults, what do too and have ready in case of the need to evacuate your home. What papers you need to have collected in case you need to evacuate quickly. We will focus on areas such as car safety, car emergency kits, survival tips and tricks. We will create emergency preparedness checklists to make the planning easier! We will feature bug out bags, food storage, car preparedness, water storage, supply and purification, and much much more!
How do I begin improving my emergency preparedness?
The best way to begin emergency preparedness is one step at a time. It will take time. It’s not something you can get accomplished in one day. But the most important step you can take is the serious decision to take that step toward preparedness. To come to the understanding it is a topic of importance and be committed to actively preparing your emergency preparedness equipment and skills.
Our purpose is not to put you, our readers in fear of what will come. But to give you the confidence that you are prepared for what may come so you don’t have to live in fear once it arrives! This is a topic the husband and I are both passionate about and are striving to improve in.
He has his military training and background. He is also currently taking a community response training course so he will be able to ensure community support when an emergency arrives at our location. I have a lot of experience in camping, food prep and more. And yet there is still a lot we are continually learning. I can’t wait to share it all with you all!
And best of all, the husband will be an active participant in this series. You may even see not only projects he creates but he may actually even write to you all! Wouldn’t that be exciting?
I urge you to sign up for our email subscription, a single email that arrives only when new content is published; or follow us on social sites located at the top right sidebar so you don’t miss an installment of our emergency preparedness series. I recommend a site other than Facebook. They have changed their Newsfeeds so much that they actually hide our posts from our fans unless we pay Facebook exhorbant amounts of money per post to allow our post to be shown to merely 7% of our fan count. It is not often our fans see our posts there any longer.
I recommend Google+, Pinterest or Twitter as you have a better chance to actually see our updates on those sites. We will be covering all the different types of emergencies and how you can be prepared.
If you are a business and have products that go hand in hand with Emergency preparedness or camping and would like to be considered to be featured, we’d love to hear from you! You can use our contact form or email me at amber at jadelouisedesigns dot com. We are always on the look out for great products to help our emergency preparedness be the best it can be!
Joan
Tuesday 15th of July 2014
Looks like it's been a while since a post and I'm new to your website. I think it's great. That being said, emergency preparedness is also on our minds in our household. Since the 9/11 attack, I prepared a list of things we need and need to do incase of an emergency. I prioritized the list so that the most critical issues are handled first. We live in the dallas area and realize this would be an area of interest. Still reading the posts but couldn't wait to let you know I appreciate the opportunity to discuss with others. Especially women and our concern for our families. Keep up the good work.
Mary Withrow
Sunday 18th of August 2013
I lived in a area of alot of hurricanes and your advice is great! I always keep canned food, canned milk, gallons of distilled water and these are items you can buy and store gradually. I also keep a tank of propane for the grill to cook and a generator and gas. Lol - We stay prepared, even in the winter in case of outages
Missy Marie
Thursday 27th of June 2013
My family are preppers. My Dad has solar panels,a well and a shelter/safe room. We're raising bees for honey,growing and canning vegetables. We have Life Straws and freeze dried food in 5 gallon buckets. Guns and alot of Ammo.Better to be safe than sorry.
Mikki Cross
Monday 25th of February 2013
I live with my daughter and although we have never been in a serious emergency she has become more neurotic and has definite plans in order for any emergency which she keeps updating frequently. I guess this is better than being blinsided by an emergency we aren't prepared for but I think basic common sense and a week's supply of clean clothes, fresh water and canned/pouched goods is enough.
Stephanie LaPlante
Thursday 14th of February 2013
We try our best to be prepared for anything bad but sometimes things catch you off guard.