Life does not always go as planned, to say the least. There are always bumps in the road, and you can weather the storm, as they say. But situations, especially emergency situations when your life and that of your loved ones are on the line, tend to produce existential stress and panic that may cause you to forget what you need to do to keep everyone safe. Instead of losing sight of what is important in that moment, take time now to plan for an emergency situation. A little planning and time will go a long way to help you feel more confident should something happen. It could also save you or someone else, in addition to making the process of rebuilding your life later on much easier. Here are some tips you can use.
Create a Survival Pack
When you go camping, you need gear. When you have to shelter in place at home without power or modern conveniences, you need things. The same goes in the event that you have to bug out. To ensure the experience is a positive one and that you have everything you need to survive well, putting together a survival kit should be your first order of business.
Here are some must-have items:
- Army sleep system sleeping bag set
- Medication
- Power supply
- Power cords
- Non-perishable food supply
- Water supply
- Water bottles
- First Aid Kit
- Water filter
- Tent
- Toiletries
- Walking or hiking shoes or boots
- Clothing
- Find more supply recommendations here
Make Copies of Your Essential Documents
When disaster strikes, you do not always think about what you will do when it is all over. If your home is lost to a fire or water inundates the structure, the things you need most to rebuild your life might be gone. The process of contacting banks, city records offices, and other entities to obtain new and official copies might be laborious and slow-going, not to mention expensive.
Do your future self a favor right now and gather all of your essential documents, including those of your family members. Make a copy of each item and store it in your safe. Place the originals in water-tight clear, plastic bags. If you have to evacuate in the rain or there is a fire, this might help preserve the documents. Upload a copy of each of these things into your secure cloud. This is also a good time to collect all of your account usernames and passwords. Compile a secure document with this information and safeguard that, as well. Trying to remember account information in an emergency can be next to impossible. Take this effort one step further and make copies of the front and back of the contents of your wallet. That way, you have your insurance information, driver’s license number, and credit card information, just in case.
Here are some of the documents you should copy:
- Insurance policies
- Home title
- Car title
- Loan information
- Passport picture and name pages
- Social Security cards
- Birth Certificates
- Citizenship papers
Make a List of Things to Grab
In an emergency situation, such as a house fire, you need to grab people and pets and run fast. There is no time to think about lost memories. Lives must be saved. However, if you have received an evacuation order and you have more time to pack up the belongings you want to carry with you, the stress of the situation might cause you to overlook the most important items.
Before an emergency arises, walk through your home and decide what you want to take. It can feel impossible to distill down a lifetime of memories into the things that you can reasonably carry and transport.
Use this time to take action, not only to prepare, but to preserve. Start your home walk-through with a pen and paper at hand to jot down everything you want to bring with you. Next, videotape the entire process. It will take a while, but you should open and close drawers and cabinets, boxes and bins, and go through each room thoroughly. Name every item and state where it is from, how much you paid for it, and any detailed information you can add. This video will serve you well in case you need to file an insurance claim later. Next, make a plan to scan and upload every photo you have and save it in your cloud account. This takes time, as well, but those photos are too heavy to carry, and you can easily reproduce them later on if you have taken the time to save them.
Know How to Care for Your Pets
Find out whether or not your pets are allowed in shelter and evacuation sites. Some people have been known to park at the shelter and stay in their cars on-site with their pets when there is a no pets policy. If you find yourself in this situation and choose to do the same, you will still have access to whatever amenities and services are inside the shelter, including food, water, supplies, and disaster resource services, but you will still be able to care for your pet outside. While it is not an ideal solution, it is an option.
Not all pets are well-trained. If yours could benefit from professional assistance, consider signing up for training classes and then continuing the work at home. Not only will it make life with a pet much easier once they are trained, but it will also help to create a better situation in case you have to evacuate the comfort of your home and your pet is forced to be around other pets and people in a stressful situation. You are busy. Between work, family, and friends, you might not want to tackle these tasks, but you should. Making an effort today will save you a lot of headaches and heartache if something happens. Procrastination will not serve you well here. When you have checked everything off your to-do list, you will be able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing you have done what you need to do to protect yourself and your family.
