The next thing I want to work on is my 72 hour kit. The first place I decided to go was American Red Cross because they seem to me as the "go to" place for emergency preparedness. So you can just go to http://www.redcross.org and what I did was I found the chapter for the area in which I live because they give pertinent information to our living situation.
So basically to be "Red Cross Ready" they recommend 3 things: Get a Kit, Make a Plan, and Be Informed. The easiest one you can do and should do right away because there is no reason not to is... Make a Plan. My husband and I did it last night as part of our family night. First we decided on a person not in the area we live in that would be our contact point if for some reason local lines are blocked up. It's important to inform that person that they are your contact point (which reminds me that I need to inform my contact point!). :) Then we discussed where we would meet in the event of an emergency. We decided that if at all possible we would meet at home, if going home was not an option, then we chose another destination as our back up.
And because I think we watch too many criminal/law enforcement shows we also decided on a place we would meet if one of us said to meet at "the place." Just in case someone is listening in that we don't want to know where we are going. Yes, too many of those shows, but you never know right? :) We currently live in an apartment complex and we also chose an area in the complex where we would meet if we couldn't meet at our apartment.
If you have a bigger home (ours is pretty small) then having an evacuation plan set with your family is a good idea as well.
I just came across another great website which provides great information... www.ready.gov, click here to check out a family emergency plan that you can print out and do with your family right now. Although our family already has discussed this information, I think it's a good idea to write it all down and give the information to other family members not in the area to have.
So one of my next posts will be more about 72 hour kits itself. I plan on first going through the one I currently have and see what I have in there and then go from there. On the American Red Cross page for the chapter that I live in, they have a 16 week plan on creating your own disaster kit. Click here to check it out.
So basically to be "Red Cross Ready" they recommend 3 things: Get a Kit, Make a Plan, and Be Informed. The easiest one you can do and should do right away because there is no reason not to is... Make a Plan. My husband and I did it last night as part of our family night. First we decided on a person not in the area we live in that would be our contact point if for some reason local lines are blocked up. It's important to inform that person that they are your contact point (which reminds me that I need to inform my contact point!). :) Then we discussed where we would meet in the event of an emergency. We decided that if at all possible we would meet at home, if going home was not an option, then we chose another destination as our back up.
And because I think we watch too many criminal/law enforcement shows we also decided on a place we would meet if one of us said to meet at "the place." Just in case someone is listening in that we don't want to know where we are going. Yes, too many of those shows, but you never know right? :) We currently live in an apartment complex and we also chose an area in the complex where we would meet if we couldn't meet at our apartment.
If you have a bigger home (ours is pretty small) then having an evacuation plan set with your family is a good idea as well.
I just came across another great website which provides great information... www.ready.gov, click here to check out a family emergency plan that you can print out and do with your family right now. Although our family already has discussed this information, I think it's a good idea to write it all down and give the information to other family members not in the area to have.
So one of my next posts will be more about 72 hour kits itself. I plan on first going through the one I currently have and see what I have in there and then go from there. On the American Red Cross page for the chapter that I live in, they have a 16 week plan on creating your own disaster kit. Click here to check it out.
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