Primary Considerations of an Emergency Preparedness Plan

Emergency preparedness planning is critical for any family in every culture. These strategies saves people's lives and there is absolutely no excuse not to take the time to make them. No one wants to think about things like this happening to us or our loved ones so we tend to close our eyes to the issue all together - Bad mistake!

Emergency preparedness kits are critical in planning for an emergency. Although some of the items in your emergency kit will not really be life saving, they should be adequate to help you nourish yourself and maintain your energy reserves until the time that relief workers and medical personnel can assist you.

Remember that emergency facilities such as hospital and clinics may also be inundated by the calamity and may not be able to respond right away. This makes the first aid kit a core piece of your emergency preparedness kit.

Since the Power may be out, having solar emergency lights, swiss-army-like multiools, survival gadgets, and escape tools in your kit is also an essential consideration.

Another core piece of emergency readiness is food supplies, preparation and preservation. Sealing your food from air and the decay substantially extends the longevity of your food. There are motorized tools that allows you a way to vacuum-pack food and clothing.

Although an incredible tool to bring along, there are other non-electrical methods. Some vacuum pumps do not require a power source as they operate as a manual air suction system. Using a special conduit in the plastic bag, you can remove the air in preparation for refrigeration or freezing or even storing dry goods.

Regarding emergency preparedness food supplies, one can begin with the standard items like grains, beans, dehydrated milk, sugar, salt, oil, and seeds. After a disaster hits, you could survive on bread and water alone, but blening them with freeze dried food products results in a regular diet.

Another consideration to keep in mind is the lifespan of these items as the items will be stored for a long time which may lead to some deterioration.

Emergency readiness food supplies, including the standards and long term food storage packs, must be stored in an airtight place. Once opened they should be stored in a cool, dark, and dry place. An ideal place can be a basement, cabinet or dry crawl space but not too high to get to. And the surrounding space should be free from other items like, chemical fumes or cleaning products which can enter the containers of these food items.

Freeze dried food is available at most sports stores as well as emergency readiness suppliers on the Internet. They are freeze dried in order to increase lifespan, and with some packages can last for more than 3 decades if unopened. In order to understand how to consume freeze dried items it will help if you understand a bit about how it is processed.

The next step is adapting your emergency preparedness strategy to your unique family and living situation. Many people go as far as to create a family emergency plan for many possible scenarios. It is important to understand the many factors could have your family apart when an emergency develops. Accordingly, it is important to create a plan that everyone in your family knows and have rehearsed ahead of time.

Many families choose to invest in emergency preparedness kits only when the family starts to grow. This should not be the case, because everybody, even those living alone in a house, can invest in these kits for emergency purposes.

Next, What about an Emergency Preparedness Checklist? It's a basic to do list, developed especially for you, to help summarize the parts in your larger emergency strategy you prepared for when emergency conditions are looming, usually from severe weather.

The first step to writing your own Emergency Preparedness Checklist is to evaluate your geographic location and climate, based on the emergencies you're likely to encounter. Each Emergency Preparedness Checklist should be unique. A family living near an ocean coastline would have a completely different list from a rancher living in an area prone to wildfire.

But an Emergency readiness checklist is more than a to do list. It's a way to help you stay focused, prepareded, and positive positive and focused on useful things. By making the best use of your time before disaster strikes, you'll be more able to 'ride out' what comes your way. In future articles we will focus in separately on each of the three core elements of emergency preparedness mentioned above: emergency kits, emergency planning, and emergency checklists.