Be Prepared For Emergencies

Can you believe that hurricane season is almost upon us - where does the time go?  One day we’re planning our spring gardens, and the next day it’s suddenly summer vacation. 

Weather-wise, our neighborhood has been lucky this year.  No ice storms, no tornadoes, no floods … but it won’t always be that way, and we owe it to ourselves and our neighbors to be prepared for whatever comes our way.

You don’t have to prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse to be ready to take care of yourself and your family when the unexpected comes your way.  There are simple steps you can take to be able to wait out a three-day storm, or be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice. 

This ongoing blog is about how to make preparedness a part of your life.  I’m going to cover topics such as personal emergency plans, preparedness kits, family communication plans, pet-parenting and disasters, and being informed.  I’ll talk about how you can get involved now in local community preparedness efforts so that you can be part of the solution in a disaster situation instead of a victim.

The simplest -- and best -- thing you can do is be informed, make a plan and have a disaster kit.  There are a lot of great websites out there that can help you decide what you need for your preparedness kits. 

Ready.gov is FEMA’s flagship preparedness site and has a lot of good information on what to have on-hand.  The Red Cross site can tell you all about pandemics, first aid, and weather-related safety tips.  There are even various commercial enterprises out there that will prepare kits for you. 

Unfortunately, not all of us can afford to put aside a week’s worth of food and cash.  If you are living paycheck-to-paycheck, or even meal to meal, it’s difficult to put any thing aside.  But there are things you can do to be aware and ready in every stage of your life.

A little planning can make the difference between suffering through an unexpected event or being able to have fun with it and call it an adventure.