Monday, September 10, 2007

Unprepared

That is what we are.

For family home evening tonight we had a "surprise" preparedness drill. A fake phone call alerted us to a Chemical spill on the freeway near our home and gave us 5 minutes to gather everything we would need to survive for the next 3 days. Everyone scrambled and five minutes later we found ourselves all loaded in the van. Our lack of preparedness was then obvious:

We had only a jug of apple juice. No water.
Our only source of shelter,warmth and bedding were two pillows and a Maddy sized poncho.
Our shoes were mostly flip flops, church shoes or sandals.
Only 2 of us had a change of clothing.
We had $10 cash.
Our food consisted of a half eaten loaf of raisin bread, a half eaten box of crackers and a box of granola bars.
Our partial 72 hour kit and comprehensive first aid kits were still in the basement.
And we totally had forgotten about the dog.

Worst of all, during those 5 minutes we managed to misplace Elsie. Turns out she had gotten her shoes and climbed into the car like she was supposed to. We lost precious time figuring that out, however.

To our credit we had plenty of diapers and wipes, toothpaste, a full tank of gas and our important documents. But not the wills.

We decided that not only should we have a complete 72 hour kit, but also an evacuation plan that included stewardship of little ones and pets. Although I knew where the 72 hour kit and first aid kits were, no one else did. And I couldn't carry them and the baby, and so I had focused on the documents and diapering needs. Hopefully, in a real emergency we would have more than 5 min, but even so it probably would be better to keep our emergency stuff more accessible to the car, and have everyone clearly know where it is.

So, now we have a plan of who does what and takes care of whom. Securing the little ones in the car will be first on the list. And in the coming weeks I am going to finally get that 72 hour kit up to date and complete. We are then going to redrill and see how we do....

My preparedness mission for this week: 2 gallons of water per person per day for drinking/sanitation and cooking needs. For our family that is 14 gallons. I'm thinking that three of these might be the way to go.

8 comments:

  1. What a great idea for a FHE!! I think we'd do pretty good. We all put together 72 kits into backpacks for another FHE and they are easily accessible in the storage room. But we don't have clothing in them. So we need to fix that. Most of our water is frozen, but at least it can thaw... unless it's freezing outside!! :(
    Thanks for a great FHE idea!

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  2. Do you remember doing that when we were little? I remember I grabbed my fluffy red Sunday dress, and my crayons and coloring books. What else mattered anyway? What a great way to get the family motivated to get your preparedness stuff together.

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  3. Hey, Apple juice can count as a food and a drink, right?

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  4. What a great reminder! We keep a 5 gallon container of water in our mud room (right by the garage door) all year round. It acts as our door stop but also is there for the "in case of emergency" need.

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  5. Super FHE-what a great idea. Once we get settled I've got to get back into Emergency Preparedness mode (crossing my fingers that no emergencies take place the next couple of weeks)

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  6. Such a good idea Nettie! I am totally going to use it!

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  7. That is a great idea. I should get our stuff back together as well. If we did do this tonight we would have shelter because the tent is still in the van from our last camping trip. I remember doing this when we were at home. I grabed alot of the dehydrated food from the basement without looking and it turned out to be jello and fruit type stuff; nothing with carbs or protien. Oh well I tried. Loves to all.

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  8. I feel the pull as well.... the need to get myself organized.
    Thank you for the reminder.
    (PS: I've moved back over to blogger again--problems with Upsaid. *sigh*)

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