Being Prepared
I was a Girl Scout. From Brownies through Seniors, I went camping, earned badges, volunteered, traveled, and learned many basics that have followed me throughout life. Even today I continue to live by the Girl Scout motto, Be Prepared.
It seems like lately we’ve been collectively beaten up by one emergency or another. We’ve been hit with a pandemic, insurrection, snowstorms, ice storms, and now the nation is experiencing a massive polar vortex reaching to the Gulf of Mexico leaving millions without electricity and heat. As much as we may feel like things are getting worse, the truth is there have always been disasters. What is happening is we are getting worse at being prepared.
I’m not talking about emergency systems on a national, state, or local level, but at the family and personal level. Between social media and major news outlets I’ve been flabbergasted by the reports of how many were unprepared at the most basic level. As another snowstorm bears down on the region, I want to devote this week’s Dishing the Dirt to simple steps we can all take to mitigate any hardships we might encounter due to weather related or manmade events. Planning to be prepared is simple. It will give you peace of mind and might even save your life.
Electricity. We pay for it. It’s not gift or a right, but a service. We are not entitled to an electric source 24/7/365 (unless you have the foresight to install personal solar or wind and even that’s not a 100% given). Travel to remote parts of the globe and you might encounter societies who only have access to electricity a few hours intermittently and do fine. We’ve become spoiled by the lights always on paradigm. But things like big floods, high winds, fires, accidents, and ice can bring down power lines causing outages lasting from minutes to months.
There is zero excuse to be caught unprepared for weather related events. Just about every mobile weather app offers the ability to receive alerts. Additionally, many local governments offer alert services through both text and email. My phone has been chirping every few hours with updates from Montgomery County’s Emergency Alert Service that is hooked into the National Weather Service. For those who eschew smart phone technology, television and radio also broadcast emergency weather alerts which often start twenty-four hours in advance—plenty of time for a bread, milk & toilet paper run.
Living in California for twenty years, emergency preparedness was second nature thanks to a geology professor who made his students build Earthquake Kits for a lab project. I still have mine and have pulled it out a couple times over the years when the power has gone out. This year I finally upgraded the Radio Shack Weather Cube for an emergency radio with a crank and solar charger that can also charge USB devices (like a phone) and has a powerful LED flashlight. It was $30. Isn’t that worth it instead of having to go outside to your car to charge your phone in the middle of an ice storm, hurricane, or blizzard?
Disasters by their own nature cause discomfort. Emergency rations for a few days aren’t meant to be Michelin starred MREs, but enough sustenance to get by. Think peanut butter and jelly, granola bars—anything that doesn’t require refrigeration. Toss in a chocolate bar or two as a treat. Have on hand at least a gallon of water per person in your household per day for drinking. Similarly, I like to fill a few five-gallon buckets ahead of weather events for basic sanitation.
Many fears are centered on keeping warm in the event the loss of electricity leads to no heat. It’s much safer to pile on layers and snuggle under blankets than it is to try to heat your living space by methods that could lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. That means never, ever use charcoal, camp stoves and generators inside your home.
Getting through a weather-related emergency is mostly common sense. It’s asking yourself, “What do I need for the next few days?” and making certain you have it. Some of my must-have items include a bag of salt or ice melt for around my doors so when I do venture out I don’t fall. Many of the items on an Emergency Kit list are everyday items for me as a farmer—flashlights, headlamps, heavy gloves and boots, a sharp knife, and basic tools. During potential disaster events my workload seems to double, but for most folks they’re going to need something other than their mobile phones to pass the time. Break out the board games, a good book, a deck of cards, a cribbage board, dominos, an origami book, and colored paper.
Most importantly, look out for those around you. Check in with your neighbors, especially those who are elderly, infirmed, or who live alone.
Emergency preparedness is not about if, but about when. Paying attention now will reap the benefits when disruptions occur.