There are many emergencies that you and your family could face. This is why it is important to be prepared and have a plan for when there is an emergency situation. If you do not know where to start, there are some steps that you can take to begin preparing.
Create An Emergency Plan And Practice It
The first step in emergency preparedness is to have an emergency plan for your family. The plan should include a safe place for the family to meet when there is an emergency. You should also include how everyone will keep in contact if there you are not together at the start of the emergency.
The plan should be told to every member of the family and you need to practice it. Practicing your emergency plan ensures that everyone knows what to do and it gives you time to work out any problems with the plan. When you initially create the plan, there could be parts that need to be amended because they do not work in real life.
Have An Inventory Of Your Valuables
Having an inventory of your valuables is important when you are faced with an emergency that damages your property such as a tornado. When creating this inventory, you should include the serial numbers of the items, the date of purchase, physical descriptions and pictures. The inventory is important because it makes life after the disaster easier and will help you with any insurance claims.
Start Building A Stockpile
Having a stockpile of non-perishable foods and hygiene items is important and you need to start as soon as possible. Many people are wary of stockpiles because they assume it will cost them a fortune. This is not actually the case and you can slowly build up your stockpile when you do your normal shopping.
When you go shopping, you should take a list of items that you need for your stockpile. You should take advantage of the promotions that stores have where you can buy one item and get another free. This is a great way to increase your stores without having to spend extra.
Have A Basic Survival Kit
When creating your survival kit, you should not make this more complicated than it needs to be. A mistake that many people make is to mistake niceties for necessities. You need to ensure that you only have necessities in your survival kit and the extra items will vary depending on your needs.
Some of the items that you should include in the kit are eyeglasses and prescription medicines. You should also include at least 1 gallon of water per person per day. Cash should also be included in your survival kit and you should have enough to get you through 3 days.
Maps of your local area should also be included because you may not have access to the internet in an emergency. A pocket knife is also recommended and it is best to have a Swiss-Army knife as this doubles as a range of tools. You also need to have a whistle for times when you have to call out to rescue workers.