Are you or your family prepared for an emergency or disaster?
By Nikiforos
@Nikiforos (38)
September 27, 2010 6:53pm CST
I think it is a good idea for every family home to have a small room or closet dedicated for emergencies. A lot of people live in areas that have natural disasters such as hurricanes, flooding or tornados. There are also a lot of wars and human conflict to worry about, and the ever present possibility that a new Cold War could be one day just around the corner.
Anyway, my question is, what preparations have you made for an emergency?
I am currently planning to move into a new home, but I am going to make sure that my new home has a special small room or closet (downstairs or external) for emergencies. I will prepare this room myself, by buying some emergency foodstuffs (I recommend US-made Mountain House brand) which has a shelf-life of 30 years in a variety of food types. One can of Mountain House should feed an adult for three days, but it is not particularly cheap. In any case, I think I will buy enough food to supply my family for a month. Because it has a 30-year life, I won't need to keep buying new stock every 2-3 years for normal canned food.
I think there are also a few basic things that everyone should have in a box - a flashlight with spare batteries, a first aid kit and a packet of water sterilising tablets. Duct tape, transistor radio, waterproof matches and spare blankets are also good.
I myself am going to buy a large quantity (about twenty 20kg sacks) of coal very cheaply, which will be stored in a small prefabricated outhouse, so that I can cook, heat the house and boil water for my family in an emergency.
2 people like this
4 responses
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
28 Sep 10
We have water and drinks in the closet for when a tornado is expected to come. We also have pillows in there, and bring pillows sometimes. We have a flashlight and a radio in there as well. Usually the plan is if it's during the day the ones who are awake are to wake up the ones who are sleeping, and we also are to get the animals and bring them in the closet with us. There is a television in the room the closet's in so we can turn it on and listen to the weather as well. We usually bring snacks when we are to go into the closet.
@Ramaditya (1227)
• Indonesia
28 Sep 10
Yes, but not too seriously. We've got emergency exit door and some tools to extinguish fire just in case. As for hurricane; I think it’s difficult to prepare such a thing in our area, and besides, nothing like that ever happen so far.