Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Are you ready?

Now we have all heard (ad nauseum) the reports of the 5.9 or so earthquake in Virginia...and the devastation along the eastern seaboard its effects (or not) on the east coast.

For Kalifornians, a 5.9 is nothing but a good afternoon pick me up, but for the east coast folks it was fairly scary. But the question is, will they learn anything from it?

How about you? Have you got a plan and materials in place if something bad (like, say, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake) happens? No water, no power, roads damaged.....Likely the stores will be empty in a few hours..if they are standing. Likely there will be little or no fire protection. Police will be, if they are working at all, both overwhelmed and likely unable to get to you.....If there is any way to call them. Same with other emergency services folks.

Have you ready access to:

Water? Say for 5 days?
Food? Again for at least 5 days?
Shelter? If your home is damaged or unsafe for occupancy, where are you gonna go? Add clothing if you live in a climate where it gets cold....
A reasonably well stocked first aid kit? I don't mean band-aids and aspirin and burn ointment and such...., but rather a real trauma kit. And the training to use it?
A means to protect the above?

If you have preps, are some stashed in a secondary cache? Whatcha gonna do if your preps are stashed in your basement and your home is falling down and you can't get to them?

Having food, water and all of the rest of the above, even if only for a few days, gives you a LOT of options.

Me, I'd rather have choices. Have time to deal with the immediate issues and not worry about eating, drinking, and sleeping safe in the immediate aftermath. It'll give me time to deal with the issues and allow me time to figure out what needs to be done for my family and friends while the first responders get their help revved up to deal with the issue.

You should think about this. Make a plan. Implement that plan.

Be ready. You are, after all, the person who should be taking steps to be your own first responder.




4 comments:

North said...

Training to use it. Excellent point. Few can do more than pull the pin on a Band-aid.

Midwest Chick said...

Problem is that preparing like that automatically makes you a potential terrorist in the eyes of the FBI.

Anonymous said...

And here comes a chance to practice what we learned all of a few days ago.
Q - currently in the Tidewater

Scott McCray said...

Mom lost a chimney, there's a lot of sheetrock to repair and we'll likely never replace all of 55 years of collectibles - but all in all she'll be OK. Gardens tend to survive, the pond hasn't drained and there's always deer, squirrel, rabbits and groundhogs. (plus the other preps...)