SHORT TERM PREPAREDNESS

When I was in my very early twenties and married with two small children, I was watching the news and saw the devastating effects of the California earthquake. People were confused and in desperate need of water and food. Many of the people were on their own because it took a while for help to arrive.

That was the first time when I thought that perhaps, I needed to prepare my family for a disaster.

Being as young as I was, I only thought of the short term problems. It took a few years for me to realize that we also needed to prepare for the more difficult ups and downs in life.

In those early years, I did the best that I knew how. I purchased some candles and a few extra cans of food each payday and when a couple of large shelves were full, I felt that I was done. I had no idea what it would be like to live through a disaster.

Well it just so happens that we had a small disaster, nothing in comparison to the California quake but nonetheless, still a disaster. We had a windstorm that took out our power for 4 days and that experience taught me just how unprepared I really was.

The first thing that I felt that we were lacking in, was a way to cook the food that I purchased. We did have a wood stove but because I never practiced cooking in it, I soon found that it became a challenge to try and learn something new in the worst time possible. The next thing was lighting. The candles that I had bought, burned down more quickly than I thought they would. My husband and I went to the store on the second night (actually several stores) and found that every kind of emergency lighting in two counties were completely sold out. We did manage to find a few more leftover candles at one store and purchased those.

How foolish I was in those early years, I only hope that we have prepared more sufficiently for whatever disaster that we may face in our future.

Of course I did learn a few things from that power outage and I think that most was pretty explanatory. If you have a wood stove, practice cooking with it a few times. Also have an alternative way to cook, like having a portable camp stove with plenty of fuel stored up or an outdoor grill with a stove burner on the side. Remember to never use a camp stove inside because the gasses released are deadly and you need plenty of ventilation. Lighting is very important and having a few oil lamps can be a great relief. I also decided that having a sleeping bag for each member of the family would help to keep us warm at night.

I am so grateful that the power outage was nothing more than an inconvenience but it did help me to think about all the other what ifs in life. I think that the best way to prepare is to think about the worst possible things that could happen and what you can do about it.

Think about Bedding, Lighting, Clothing, Hygiene, Water, Food, Cooking, Shelter, First Aid, Heat and Communications. There are several things that we should prepare and it can be overwhelming but over time, it is possible to accumulate what is needed without going into debt.