I am looking for any/all advice on prepareing survival gear for my wife and daughter. My wife has Multiple Sclerosis and is almost completely dependent on me for her needs. She can do some things on her own, but is mobility and visually limited in what she can do. Therefore, her ability to use any equipment is very limited, and she can't read any survival instructions at all.<br><br>My daughter is 9, and has no concept of preparedness, even though I have tried to teach her. She has been unreceptive to any teaching method.<br><br>Any and all advice is welcome, both on and off forum.

See if this of some use. Pete<br><br>http://www.fema.gov/library/disprepf.shtm

Man, Im sorry to hear that. I can relate. My father became a quadraplegic when I was four years old. Everything becomes much more complicated. I found that everything I did had to be done twice and the second time took three or four times as long. <br><br>Bugout was never an option. I suppose you could say that we had a "72 hour" house. Winter and fires (and floods when we lived in the Tennesee valley) were the only real issues that we didnt handle on a daily basis. <br><br>Contacting our local fire department and explaining our situation was fantastic. They put us on a list of what you might call "special attention" houses. The one time our kitchen caught on fire promted a phenominal response by the fire department. They take disabilities very seriously.<br><br>Winter in the southeast is murder if you have freezing precipitation. We are not equipped to handle it and it wouldnt make sense to spend the money to do things the way they are handled in New England. If there is snow or ice you can count on the power going out. When you have a quadraplegic in the house, hanging out around a fire in the yard is not an option. It rarely gets below zero F. but the humidity is very high most of the year. Hypothermia is not just an acedemic problem in a southeastern winter. We kept 30 gallons of kerosene and two LARGE kerosene heaters year round. Do not buy a heater that doesnt have a removable fuel container. Go to a marine supply store and get a pump for filling the heaters. Eventually we added a gas powered artificial fireplace. We just thought in terms of "seige warfare" and things worked quite well.<br><br>I could get into wheelchairs, lifts, vans, how bad you can destroy your back handling a disabled person, psychological aspects etc. but I will save that for someone to ask about it. Its one of those things I would rather forget, but I would be happy to spare you some trial and error if I can.

Thanx, any chance we can chat offline sometime? It sounds like you and I have some storeies to exchange

Oh, please let your daughter have as normal a life as she can. I had the situation thrust upon me at an early age. I feel I totally missed my childhood. Yes, Im very resentfull of certain members of my family for it. They could have prevented a lot of it. <br><br>Just food for thought.

I already have about 3 copies of this from the Red Cross, and have exhausted it. You're right, it's a good place to start. Thanx.

K,<br><br>My advice is to start as if you had no special circumstances. Make plans to do all things that should be done. These can, and perhaps should, be thought of in terms of general catergories: Eat, sleep, drink, stay warm, stay dry, bug-out, etc...<br><br>After having done that, then make appropriate alterations to the plan to suit your special situation. As an example, my granfather died 18 months ago. Prior to his death he was bedridden. My grandmother, having been through one house fire already, was deathly scared about being able to be able to get my grandfather out of the house by herself in case of a fire or similar emergency. We had the house inspected by the local fire marshal, who found a few things which were potential hazards. Those were eliminated. We installed smoke detectors in every room of the house and wired them together. We got a wheel mounted hospital bed for him and made sure that my grandmother could push it around herself. She could, but in the process, we found that some furniture had to be moved. It got moved. Ramps were constructed to get the bed onto the porch, and then off of the porch. We attached a cell phone pouch to the bed so that she could call for help, and a bag with a robe and slippers for her, and a blanket for him. We made arrangements with her neighbors to take them in temporarily in such an event, and stored a small supply of neccessary items with them. We may have missed some things, but that should given you the gist of the idea. <br><br>Also, this may be old hat to you, but my family learned a lot from the home care nurse. Prior to her coming out to help, it took two or three adult men (my grandfather was a large man) to move him around to change his clothes, clean him, change the bedding, etc...grunting, sweating, cursing under your breath effort. The little home care nurse did all of this, by her self, in half the time, with greater comfort and dignity for my granfather, and less than half the effort. Good technique makes a world of difference. Check with professionals about this sort of thing. Nurses, ambulance personnel, nursing home workers, etc....a few hours of instruction can make a tremendous difference.<br><br>Take care,<br><br>Andy