Five easy tips to make sure that your family is never caught unprepared in case of a disaster.
It's scary to think about but a natural disaster can happen at anytime. Some disasters like tropical storms at least give you a little warning, but others like an earthquake give no warning at all. When a disaster happens you could be forced to evacuate your home, or maybe even find yourself confined to your home. With all the basic services cut off, what would you do without water,gas,electricity, or your telephone? By following these easy five steps you can rest assured that your family will never be caught unprepared.
Make a Family Plan
You have no way of knowing where everyone might be when a disaster strikes so be sure to pick at least two places for everyone to meet in case of an disaster.
Emergency Supplies
Food & water (three days worth per person)
First aid kit
Matches
Can opener
Candles
Battery powered radio
Flashlight and batteries
Copies of your important documents stored in a water proof container
Tip: Be careful with matches, in case of broken gas lines lighting a match could be deadly!
Protect Your Home
Be sure that you know where and how to shut off all of your utilities and then make sure that you family also knows how.
Check Your Insurance
You need to find out just exactly what your covered for. For instance after Hurricane Katrina some insurance companies wouldn't pay because although the home owners had hurricane coverage they didn't have flood insurance! So it's very important to make sure that you are covered now.
If you don't own your home then renters insurance is very much reccomended.
Red Cross
Contact your local American Red Cross or other disaster relief agency for tips and advice on handling different types of disasters. Be sure to ask about your pets, most shelters will not accept pets so you need to make arrangements for their safety as well.
Just last year my family was caught unprepared by an ice storm and things would have been a lot easier on everyone involved if I'd had this info back then. So just remember that just because it's never happened yet, doesn't mean that it won't.
I've just been to check where I keep my matches and spare candles. I think the chances of a weather storm of great magnitude are unlikely in the UK, but like you say, best to be prepared! I'm fascinated by the idea of an ice storm. Is that a major hail attack? Sounds painful, whatever it is!
#2 by Karen N, Aug 20, 2008
Hi Sun,
We did get a little hail, but an ice storm is caused from a warm cloud raining above a layer of colder air. This causes the rain to freeze on impact and leaves everything coated in a layer of ice. Last winter it rained for hours before the power lines started coming down. All night long you could hear cracking sounds as the branches from our trees were breaking off and then towards morning all the power went off. The whole town was without power for three days, crews were brought in from different states to help cope with the devastation. Our house is completely electric so we had to stay with friends until the power was back on.
#3 by Lauren Axelrod, Aug 20, 2008
I'm in the middle of Tropical Storm Faye right now and it's just a bit of wind and a whole lot of rain. However, when I experience Hurricane Charley years back, I blew up my innertube and floated down the street.
It's the only thing I could have done to keep my mind off the fact that there was a water oak tree in my master bedroom.
