Right now there are tornadoes and floods in the midwest, fires in the west, hurricane season is starting in the Atlantic and it is always earthquake season, so I have disaster planning on the brain. When a disaster strikes your home or community, it can be a really costly event. However, with a little bit of time and effort in advance, the frugal person can avoid some of the worst trouble and expense. Putting together a disaster plan and a set of supplies can be done rather cheaply. It doesn't need to cost an arm and a leg and the money spent now will seem like a terrific bargain if those supplies are ever needed. Even if they aren't, you will have bought yourself some peace of mind that is priceless.
Much of this diary will be a reprise of the one I did six months ago on building a disaster kit. See that diary for the detailed list of supplies I have tried to assemble. If you already have a disaster plan and set of supplies, you may want to revisit them and update them now. If you haven't yet made your disaster preparations, now would be a good time to start.
I'm just skimming the surface of what one should do for disaster preparedness. For more in depth information, check out these sources:
- Alpha Geek wrote a fantastic five-part diary series a few years ago covering many aspects of disaster preparedness.
- The American Red Cross also has lots of great information on their website and I suggest taking a few of their classes as well. Even if you don't plan on becoming a disaster volunteer, they would love to get you some training now in case an event ever does hit your community.
- The Department of Homeland Security has an extensive website with information for individuals, families and businesses.
- FEMA has a an in-depth guide as well.
- Fly Lady has a checklist of things to consider when planning to evacuate your home.
- Check if there is a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in your area. They are a good source for disaster training and information.
Make a Plan
The first step in planning is to think about what kind of disaster you are likely to face and what your needs would be in each situation. Some disasters can strike without warning, while others we can see coming hours or even days in advance. What would you do if it happened when you were at work? In a public place? On the road? What would you need to keep yourself and others around you save and healthy until help arrives? What kind of help from rescuers or relief agencies do you expect? What would you do if they couldn't respond for a few days or even longer?
Call me a Pollyanna-ish ostrich, or whatever, but I really think the likelihood of a disaster where all of society breaks down, like nuclear Armageddon, is so remote that I'm just not going to spend my time and money preparing for it. If you are concerned about these sorts of things and want to know about hard core survivalists, there is a ton of information on the web. Just google "survivalist supplies" to get started.
Here are some of the types of disasters I think I could face, ranging from most likely to least:
- short term localized utility outage (such as storm or heat related)
- major earthquake that could cause extended utility outages (including water) and would make it difficult for us to evacuate the region
- house fire that destroys all or part of our house and contents
- being stranded in our car in a remote location, possibly in adverse weather
- widespread extended power outage
- flu pandemic
- neighborhood fire that affects a large number of homes at once
Depending on where you live, your list may be quite different and may include things like ice storms or blizzards (which can knock out power and block roads), floods (from rising rivers, hurricane storm surge, tsunamis, flash floods, broken dams or levees, etc), volcanoes (which may produce toxic gases that necessitate temporary evacuation of your home), chemical or nuclear spills (from local plants or from accidents of transportation vehicles such as trucks or trains).
Once you have in mind the types of disasters you may face, think about how you would meet your needs for each of the following items under each situation. Make sure to consider what every member of your household (including pets) would need. Also consider those who you may be responsible for, but who don't live under your roof (such as your elderly parents).
- Water: Each person needs one gallon of water per day (one half gallon for drinking, one half gallon for sanitation).
- Food: Dried food is easiest to store and transport, but canned goods need less water to prepare.
- Sanitation and Medical Supplies: This includes everything from any daily medications you take, to eyeglasses, toilet paper, baby diapers, etc.
- Shelter: If your home and car are not available, how will you protect yourself from the elements?
- Communication: You will need to connect with family members who may have been separated at the time of the disaster and you will need a way of receiving any information from relief agencies who may be providing assistance.
- Transportation: How are you going to get away from a dangerous environment?
- Comfort: Be sure to include small items in your supplies that will help you feel a little less stressed in a trying situation.
Decide on What Disaster Supplies You Need
Obviously no one set of supplies will suffice for all circumstances. Here is the list of disaster kits that I have decided we need for ourselves. One type of kit that I've decided we don't need, but you may, is a bag to keep at work. Mr. sarahnity and I both work in places that have plenty of food, water and first aid supplies available and we wear clothes that would be comfortable if we had to climb over rubble. We drive to work, so the kits we keep in our cars would also be available. The only thing I felt the need to add to my supplies at work was a flashlight I can use to find my way out of the building in case of a power outage.
- Everyday stuff: These are things you should carry with you every time you leave the house.
- Day Hike: Take with you every time you go hiking out of sight of buildings or your car. These supplies can fit in your pockets or in a fanny pack.
- Car: Keep these in your car at all times. These supplies should fit in an old backpack. Include the Day Hike Kit as well.
- Car (cold weather): Add these supplies to your car kit if you are traveling in or near snow.
- Documents: Make copies of important documents and computer files. Leave one set in a safe location away from your house (with trustworthy friends or family) and keep one set in your home go bag. A 2.5 gallon ziploc bag makes a good waterproof bag and use plastic sheet protectors to hold papers (get the kind that will expand to hold 10-50 pages). Keep the document originals in a fire safe or in a safe deposit box.
- Home - Go Bag: This should be the first thing (after people and pets) that you grab if you have to evacuate your house in a hurry. It should include one copy of your Document Kit.
- List of Things to Grab When Evacuating: Make a list now of all the things you would like to grab when you are evacuating your house (assuming you have time to safely grab anything) and keep that list in your Go Bag. I guarantee you that you won't think of everything you'd like to take in the heat of the moment, even if you do have time to go through your house and pack stuff up. I'm still thinking of things to add to this list weeks after I initially started to make it. All of these should be transported in a waterproof box, if possible.
- Home - Disaster Kit: These supplies should be stored together and should fit in a large backpack or 5 gallon bucket. Take them with you if you have to evacuate only if you have time to safely grab them.
- Home - Camping Kit: These should be kept near your Disaster Kit so you can also grab them quickly in case of evacuation. Don't intermingle with your Disaster Kit, since you don't want to have to take all the disaster supplies every time you go camping. These could be very useful if your home is not safe to stay in, but relief shelters are not available.
- List of Home Disaster Supplies: These are things you have in your home that would be very helpful in a disaster, but you use them routinely so they aren't stored with your Disaster Kit. Make a list of them, and where they are stored, in advance and keep it with your disaster kit.
For a detailed listing of what I put in each of these kits, see the diary I mentioned above or just look at this spreadsheet which has been updated to include all the suggestions from the comments of that diary. I included links for items when I found a particularly good (cheap) source.
Where To Get Your Supplies
When I was assembling my supplies, I did quite a bit of comparison shopping both on-line and locally and I found that prices could vary quite a bit from store to store for different items. Unfortunately, I didn't find any one source that was best for all things. Here's where I looked:
- My Own House: a lot of items I put in these kits I already had sitting around the house. It was just the matter of digging them out of the various hiding spots and assembling them all in one place that was tiresome.
- Amazon: I found their reviews for some items to be very helpful when deciding what to buy and the prices of their affiliated vendors were usually among the best I found.
- Google Shopping: I used them mostly for price comparisons once I knew what I wanted to buy. Occasionally I would find a better price on something than I found through Amazon, so it was worth checking.
- Minimus: This is a great source for travel or sample sized items. The prices are generally better than the local drugstore, as long as your order totals over $20. Under that amount, and shipping charges can be significant.
- Military surplus and sporting stores: I don't know if it is just in our area, but I was very disappointed in the prices I saw at the locally at the army surplus store or the discount camping store (Sports Basement). I usually found better deals for the items they carried on the web, even when I factored in shipping. These are good places to wander around to get ideas of what you might want to include in your kit, however.