How’s your emergency planning and preparedness project going? If you are following along with me in this monthly series, it’s highly possible you have stalled in your planning efforts. Because, in our “toot sweet” lives, each of us gets sidetracked and derailed with just everyday life. Add emergencies and unexpected events to the equation and sometimes we never get back to projects underway. Time passes and projects are left half done. Dust gathers…
Putting together an family emergency planning strategy is a daunting task. That’s what I love about doing monthly posts on emergency planning and preparedness because it helps me refocus my efforts when normal life has gotten in the way of completing this enormous project! I don’t want to scare you off – it is a massive project. But, here’s the good news:
Every step you take in the emergency planning process makes you one step further along than most Americans.
More than 50% of Americans do not have any kind of emergency plan in place. Let’s work on lowering this number by taking steps to be more prepared.
I know it’s shocking {grin}, but I’m just like everyone else and get waylaid and derailed all the time. Because in reality, I’d much rather be cooking and creating recipes or photographing wonderful people, events and things rather than completing my emergency planning project! {grin}
If this is your first visit to my blog or your first read of posts in this series, I started my Resolve to be Ready 2014 series on January 22nd of this year to follow FEMA’s Resolve to be Ready 2014 campaign. Every month I write about steps to take in creating a family emergency plan. If you’ve missed the first posts in this series, now’s your chance to catch-up:
- Resolve to Be Ready 2014
- Blackout: are you Ready?
- Pet Owners: are you Ready?
- Evacuation: are you Ready?
- Alert: are you Ready?
I post the next step around the 22nd of every month (I know, I know…today’s the 25th!) because we lost our home in a wildfire on October 22, 2007. In 2012, I wrote a 20-part series telling this “story” of our loss and rebuild. If you missed that series, start here: Any Way the Wind Blows. And, be sure to print this Emergency Planning Checklist, which was part of 20-part series. This Emergency Planning Checklist is a helpful tool in the emergency planning process and will allow you to “jump ahead” at any time in this new series, if you have the time to do so!
Okay, so what am I adding to the list this month? Bet you can’t guess {grin}…
Water: are you Ready?
In the event of an emergency, FEMA recommends that every person have a 3-day water supply on hand. How much is a 3-day water supply? 3 gallons. That’s right – FEMA recommends a minimum of one gallon per day per person. So, for a family of 4, that’s 12 gallons of water.
And, that doesn’t include water for pets! Plus, if you have children, are nursing, have sick family members or have a medical emergency or live in a hot climate, you will need more. The 1 gallon per person per day is the MINIMUM!
Here’s a link to FEMA’s site to their article about water: Water – FEMA. This article gives you the information you need to get started.
FEMA recommends that people purchase commercially processed water and that you store it in a cool, dark place. While I’ve had 10 gallons of commercially bottled water in my home since 2012, guess what? It’s stored in my garage!
And, guess what? My garage isn’t insulated, which means in my neck of the woods, it’s decidedly NOT cool 90% of the year!!!
Also, FEMA recommends that you pay attention to expiration dates. And, guess what? My bottles say (in teeny, tiny almost imperceptible letters) “sell by 10/11/11,” which means they were expired when I bought them!!! I guess I still haven’t learned the lessons I wrote about in my post, Warning! About to Expire!
So, guess what? I need to start over because I’m pretty sure that our 10 gallons of emergency water are no longer safe to drink!!!
I guess I’ll be watering the indoor plants for awhile with this bottled water {grin}!
So, I’ve put bottled water on my grocery list for this week PLUS I need to find a place inside our home to store it! I guess I’ll be reorganizing the laundry room, kitchen pantry or hall closet this month!
Every month I update the ever-growing, ever-evolving checklist I created for this series. Here’s your FREE printable updated checklist so that you can get started and follow along: Resolve to Be Ready Project Checklist updated 6-25-2014. And, print this one, too: Emergency Planning Checklist.
Tootles,
Related Posts:
(other posts about emergency planning and preparedness)
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