Let''s do this!! Helping Familes Get Ready for an Emergency

Now that we have our food supplies starting to accumulate, we are going to start preparing for physical situations. I will continue to pass along tips as they become available on whatever I find but there is much to do in other areas of preparedness. Materials this week come from the Division of Homeland Security and related agencies.

There may be a condition happen which the authorities could decide that evacuation would be more of a risk than staying put. In some ways this would be good as it gives us access to our food and materials without having to transport them.

Most of these things are available commercially but many can be made from things around the house.

One of the top items: you knew it would come sometime – Duct tape! This may be used with large sheets of plastic which you can also get from the hardware store as painters plastic. Don’t get the lighter one but don’t get the heaviest expensive one either. If there is a chemical or biological situation that makes breathing the air outside unhealthy, you may need to seal up your house so that you are breathing only the air inside. The faster you can seal up the doors, vents and windows, the cleaner and less harmful the air will be. “Ready America ” web site suggests precutting these plastic pieces and labeling them so that they can be put up quickly. Since the doors of attached garages are the hardest to seal, you may want to quickly move your materials in the garage inside and seal the door to the garage.

Schools, work places and public facilities need to have an emergency plan and so do you as a family. Even talking about this with children can be distressing to them. Carefully and lovingly explain why you are doing this and let them know that it is all to help protect your family from separation and risk. Your family plan needs to spell out how you will contact each member of the family and what they will do if they cannot contact you or each other. They need to know to respect authority of schools or other agencies and know that you as parents will work with them until you are home safe or in a shelter together. For the children, rehearse and practice the drill until you know they have it; then practice it at intervals to see that they remember.

If you have family or friends in far away places, send them a copy of your plan with phone numbers and email addresses of friends and contacts so that a network can be established. Even though communications can be disrupted sometimes they are localized or available by emergency shortwave radio by designated individuals. Have one person in another state or location away from here that everyone knows to contact in case they can’t get in touch with each other, Make sure the children know how to reach that person. Each stake is supposed to have a short wave radio operator so that the stake president can report to SLC Church headquarters. They will also be the designated contact to the State of Utah Emergency Coordinator. See if your ‘far away contact’ can find out who that individual is so that they can make contact through them. Also give them your local short wave radio operator.

If you know someone that has a short wave radio, contact them and practice a remote contact with the designated person. If you don’t know someone, see if you can find someone or become qualified yourself. We will have more on this later. If any of you are already involved, PLEASE let me know.

Home teacher and visiting teachers: know specialized needs of your families and as soon as your family is secure, make sure that they are in their home or taken to a place where they can be cared for. Make sure they can be ready to go quickly if need be. If they have medical needs like oxygen, make arrangements for this by knowing who have generators and can ‘host’ the individuals temporarily. The Red Cross and the local medical facilities are preparing for such emergencies but may be restricted from movement just as you may be. Just be ready for as many possibilities as you can. You will need a battery operated radio to keep in touch with the government services – so, have one.

If you are not prepared, the first thing you will be tempted to do is panic and try to call the Red Cross or 911 or... the Bishop. These agencies and individuals will not be able to handle the call load for people who are hysterical and cannot listen anyway. They need to be there for the things they do best. We need to be prepared. Do have though, a list of all emergency numbers just in case.

One last thing: know how to shut off your gas if you have it. Have a wrench handy so you can shut it off. Know where the water valve is for your home and how to shut it off too.

Today's web sites:
Homeland Security: http://ready.adcouncil.org/beprepared/
Ready America: http://ready.adcouncil.org/beprepared/
Ready Kids: http://www.ready.gov/kids/home.html This is good! FHE? There is a readiness planning worksheet here that the kids can do or help prepare so that they know what is in it and how to use it.