Emergency Prep Handout - Please comment

We are developing a 1 page handout to be included with our emergency kits and would like to get some comments on it. Please feel free to comment here, or send me an email if you want your comments to be kept private.

Thanks to all!


Emergency Preparedness Tips:

• 1. Fill out a card containing your in- and out-of-state emergency phone contact number, emergency meeting place, location of your emergency kit, etc. Family members should always carry a card with them.
• 2. When your cell has poor or no reception – send a text message. They often get through when voice does not.
• 3. Scan all your important documents, zip them into a folder, password-protect the folder (your zip software will have the option to do that), and upload it to a USB memory device or burn a CD/DVD*. Offer out-of-state friends or relatives to exchange devices for safe-keeping. A bank safe-deposit box is also a good option.
• 4. After a disaster, survivors often claim that their most painful loss is family photo albums. Consider scanning irreplaceable photos and adding them to your Important Documents Disc or USB device.
• 5. Make sure that all cars, motorcycles, boats, and RV’s you own carry up-to-date First Aid and Emergency kits for appropriate numbers of people. Emergency kits for vehicles should contain vehicle-related items in addition to general supplies. Don’t forget a tow rope, jumper cables, light-reflecting triangle or road flares, and a can of tire sealer/inflator.
• 6. People with special needs may require special arrangements for evacuation. Prepare a plan for your loved ones and rehearse it with them. Designate an individual in the family who will be in charge of each person with special needs (this includes children, elderly, and people with disabilities)
• 7. Pets require special arrangements as well. Include dishes for food and water (small, easy to clean, made out of non-porous, non-breakable materials), pet food, extra water rations, collar, leash, muzzle (if needed), copies of immunization records, any prescription medications, and a small toy. Microchips are useful in lost pet recovery. Research pet-friendly hotels along your planned evacuation route. Arrange for a safe place to house your pets if you can not bring them along.
• 8. In an earthquake, much of the damage is caused by fire and water. Locate all utilities’ shut off points and fire extinguishers in your home and insure that all family members know where they are and how to operate them.
• 9. Designate a meaningful date once a year (birthday, anniversary, holiday, etc) to go through your kit and your Important Documents Disc or USB device and update everything that has changed or expired. This is also a good time to change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and to check the expiration dates on your fire extinguishers.
• 10. Have a family meeting to create your family’s Emergency Plan. Research indicates that children are more likely to learn and follow the plan if they participate in its creation and rehearse it regularly. Make it fun to keep kids engaged. Trade roles and have them teach the plan to you. Role-play various scenarios and praise the kids for getting it right. Be patient!

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*Items to consider: driver’s licenses, passports, birth/marriage certificates, insurance policies, current prescriptions for medications and vision correction, diplomas, etc. If you hold insurance policies for your belongings, it is also wise to photograph expensive/irreplaceable items and scan in those pictures as well – it will greatly simplify your claim process later on.

I have a couple of suggestions.

I carry a reflective safety vest in all of my vehicles. They take us almost no space. The vest will make it easier for people to see you in both daylight and at night. My vest come from Home Depot.

I recommend carrying two cans of fix-a-flat. I work in construction and flats are pretty common. It often takes two cans to do the job. But, fix a flat has gotten to a tire store many times. I don't leave home without it.

David Enoch

Its good, but I'd prefer emergency info listed first - what to do / where to go as first information...like

If you smell gas - get out! do not use phone or lights or any electrical equipment...etc

Some things that came to mind:

#3 is rather "tech-y" for someone who isn't quite familiar with computers. Plenty of people store important things on their computers, but many don't really know how to do more than launch iTunes or IE to surf to their favorite website.

#4 could also mention a fire-resistant safe as another alternative to protect precious photos, especially for people not so computer saavy. Storing it higher in the house should protect against water damage from floods.

#5 I think specifically mentioning a flashlight in that list of items would be good.

#7 mentions pet-friendly hotels, but could also mention that almost all public shelters do NOT accept pets. Most people who have never had to go to a shelter don't seem to know this fact.

Maybe mentioning to keep this kit and their other important items someplace quickly accessible, not up in the attic. Whether it's an earthquake, wildfire, tornado, or even a grease fire in the kitchen, they may need to run out of the house NOW with it.

Prescription meds is one important thing that everyone needs to add for themselves to any store-bought kit, and which may not be available for a number of days after some disaster. At the very least, they should grab their own meds on the way out. Better would be to have a small emergency supply in their kit.

RF kits all have flashlights (not sure about the value, but they are included). This list would be included in a RF kit.

#4: perhaps include additional line suggesting that some stores will scan and store photos for those who are not computer savvy.

I like this idea of yours. I am impressed with the details that you've included concerning the care of pets, speciial needs, and the elderly.

Pets should be wearing visible ID tags, even if they have a microchip. Having the vet's address/phone on the reverse gives the finder options. Many people still don't know about microchips or what to do to check if an animal has one. I have a notarized document in my file at my vet clinic listing my animals, and asking them to accept them if they are brought in by anyone, and I will pay the bill.

Folding pet dishes (good for water, too) are lighter and much less bulky than regular dishes. Here is what they look like: http://www.sitstay.com/dog/supplies/serv...et_13318_26916_

Sue

It's all well and good to scan your docs, but that's not going to help when you run out of the house one night in your underwear. I have a copy of my IDs and passport, ziploc'd, in a Nalgene in my BOB. More accessible than a USB three states away.

"...collar, leash, muzzle (if needed)..." I'd personally take out the "as needed" portion. No one wants to admit that their Fluffy is an ankle-biting pint-sized demon. Until I step on it, then I'm the bad guy. All dogs should be muzzled if taking off - IMHO. Which reminds me, I need to go buy a muzzle....

Suggest laminating the emergency contact card. Most copy shops have the capability. If not, perhaps include a waterproof card in your kits?

#6 - in some areas, there are programs set up so that 911 dispatchers have a "list" of special need folks. See if your area has something similar. That way, if Fire Station 51 knows that Old Grandpappy has a prosthetic leg and can't climb out of his third story apartment, they can send Johnny and Roy to check up on him (saving his kids, Apathetic and Forgetful, from driving into the disaster to check).

Instead of putting it on a piece of paper, make it useful and print it on a orange bandanna so people will be more incline to keep it and can use it for other things like filtering, signaling,dust mask, etc.. you get the idea. On one side of the bandanna you can put your instructions with company logo and on the other side the words HELP! and the below symbol. I would also put some basic survival instructions on it as well.



Kinda of like the below but you have to make sure not to copyright it.

Pictures of each family member and each pet. A couple of printed copies, and a couple of JPG's on that USB stick of yours. Might help in getting everyone back together if they get separated. "Have you seen this face?" with a picture works better than trying to describe what family/pets look like.

Pictures of your home and its contents can definitely help with insurance claims you may have to deal with later.

Write name and telephone number on forearm in permanent marker.

There is a permanent marker in the kit is there not?

I would suggest that home scanned and burned CD/DVD may not have a system readability life beyond just a few years. For those folk that have the savvy to do this they might consider a plug in external hard drive device that would offer greated longevity.

Only a few years is a bit pessimistic. But if you want to use an external HDD I would want a solid state rather than one with moving parts, esp if it's going to be mainly sitting around.

Take pictures, and write down serial numbers of all your firearms. So if some New Orleans style government forceably confiscates them illegally (as was done after Katrina) you have some ownership proof to possibly get them back later. Better to not give them up in the first place, but what do you do when a rifle is pointed in your face by "alleged" law enforcement personnel, as in New Orleans.

Plug in drives are not the best method of "backup" either. You should ideally have both and replace the drive and cd/dvd media regularly. I buy external drive enclosures rather than a pre-made drive and pop in a new drive every could years (I tend to need the space by then anyway so I need a size upgrade) and once a year copy all the backup dvd's.
I'm also working on data consolidation, I've closed most of our bank accounts such as loans and credit cards and consolidated down to just a couple banks so thats fewer statements to track. I've switched most everything to paperless billing so I can just download the statements rather than scan them. I try to keep scans in tif format rather than pdf since the file sizes are smaller and scan or bulk convert to greyscale. so instead of a bunch of 1-2M pdf's for scanned papers I have a bunch of 100-200k tif's. Now multiply by 1000 and its a bit of space.
I've also gone away from MSOffice so I can combine documents again rather than keep a bunch of smaller seperate ones and the file sizes are much smaller again with OpenOffice plus I can easily fit the portable version on the document backup dvd so I have it handy if I need to restore to someone elses system.