The recent earthquake in Haiti, as well as extreme weather around the world, has made all of us aware that disasters can strike anywhere without warning. Each of us needs to make plans and prepare for what we would do in the case of a local or widespread catastrophe. Where would you go? What would you need when you are there to keep yourself and your loved ones safe? Keep in mind that disasters can strike at any time. You could be away from home and family. A little thought and preparedness in advance can help keep your family safe and well through even a major and widespread event.
If you have made plans in the past and tried to prepare, that's great, but now may be the time to update your plan and supplies. Skip down to the section labeled Updating Your Plan and Supplies and you may find some helpful ideas.
Before we get to the good stuff, I have an administrative note: I recently revamped the mailing list for announcing these diaries. If you want to get an email announcement each week when a new diary is posted, send me email: frugalfridays (at) gmail.com and I'll add you to the list. If you didn't get an email this week, you are not on the current list.
Make a Plan
The first step in planning for a disaster is to evaluate what sort of calamities might befall you and your family and what would be the appropriate response. Blizzards, ice storms, flooding, hurricanes, mudslides and tornadoes are just some of the weather related disasters you may face, depending on where you live. Then there are the natural disasters that aren't necessarily weather related like power outages, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, pandemics, wildfires and even smaller localized fires. Finally there are man made disasters ranging from terrorist explosions to anthrax or other poisonings all the way up to thermonuclear war. You don't need to try to prepare for everything imaginable. Decide what you believe to be the most likely scenarios and prepare for those.
If a disaster were to strike, how would you provide food, water and shelter from the elements for yourself and your loved ones both in the immediate aftermath and in the following days and weeks? What would you need to grab if you had to evacuate your house with little notice? Where would you stay if your house was uninhabitable? How would you get home if the disaster struck while you were at work or otherwise away from home? How would you reconnect with separated family members? These are all questions your should consider and discuss with your family ahead of time.
Keep in mind that even the most detailed and well thought out plans will not account for every eventuality. In all likelihood, you will face something you didn't expect and you didn't plan for in the case of an actual disaster. The process of planning and preparing will help guide you in how do deal with these unexpected events in any case. Just by having a plan, even if it's not exactly followed, you will be in way better shape than those who didn't plan at all.
Assemble Supplies
Much of what you might need in a disaster you may already have on hand. Assembling a disaster kit can be just a matter of organizing it all into one convenient location. This is where the frugal side of disaster planning comes into play. You don't need to buy a bunch of new supplies all at once. If you do find that you are missing a few things you really should have, you don't even need to buy them all right now. You can look for sales and bargains over time. You may even find that you can share the costs with friends and family and buy some items in bulk for a discount.
Here are the basic categories of disaster supplies you should assemble:
- 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.
Obviously, no one set of supplies will be useful in every kind of disaster. After considering where I live and work and what my family situation and lifestyle are, I decided that the three main types of disaster that I want to prepare for are: house fires, earthquakes and getting lost or stranded while driving or hiking. As a result, I came up with a list of 10 distinct disaster kits I have assembled:
- Everyday stuff: These are things I carry every time I leave the house.
- Day Hike: I take these with me every time I go hiking out of sight of buildings or my car. These supplies can fit in my pockets or in a fanny pack.
- Car: I keep these in my car at all times. These supplies fit in an old backpack that lives in the trunk. I also include the Day Hike Kit in this backpack as well.
- Car (cold weather): I add these supplies to my car kit if I am going to be traveling in or near snow.
- Documents: I've made multiple copies of important documents and computer files. I leave one set in a safe location away from my house (with trustworthy friends) and keep one set in my home go bag. A 2.5 gallon ziploc bag makes a good waterproof bag and I used plastic sheet protectors to hold papers (the kind that will expand to hold 10-50 pages). I keep the document originals in a fire safe (or you could use a safe deposit box.)
- Home - Go Bag: This is the first thing (after people and pets) that I would grab if I had to evacuate my house in a hurry. It includes one copy of my Document Kit.
- List of Things to Grab When Evacuating: I've made a list now of all the things I would like to grab when I am evacuating my house and I keep that list in my Go Bag. It took me weeks to come up with everything on this list. I know that I would not be able to think of all the critical stuff under the stress of an immediate evacuation. One thing I don't have yet is a waterproof box to transport all these items.
- Home - Disaster Kit: These supplies are stored together and fit in a large backpack or 5 gallon bucket. My plan is to take them with me if I have to evacuate, but only if I have time to safely grab them.
- Home - Camping Kit: This is one kit that is still pretty minimal for me. I don't have that many camping supplies, but those I have are stored together near my Disaster Kit so I can also grab them quickly in case of evacuation. These could be very useful if our home is not safe to stay in, but relief shelters are not available.
- List of Home Disaster Supplies: These are things I have in my home that would be very helpful in a disaster, but I use them routinely so they aren't stored with my Disaster Kit. I've made a list of them, and where they are stored, in advance and keep it with my Go Kit.
If you want to see exactly what does into my kits, the detailed list of the contents of each of these kits is stored in a universally accessible spreadsheet. I've also tried to add links for sources for some of these items, but be warned that the links may be old and expired. Also, be aware that these lists are for 2 adults and one cat and are designed for our individual case. I've added another list at the bottom of this spreadsheet with items that others may include in their kits that don't go in ours. You may find some of those items useful or even necessary as well.
Updating Your Plan and Supplies
Once you have a plan and a set of supplies, you have done most of the hard work, but you need to periodically review your plan and check your supplies. It would be terrible if after all this effort and work when the disaster finally happened, you opened your kit only to find expired food and water and dead batteries in your radio. Here are some of what you should do at least once a year:
- Reassess your needs: Since the last time you assembled your supplies, have your circumstances changed? Have you added or lost any members of your household, including pets? Have you moved or maybe become aware of new hazards in your area? For example, are you now more susceptible to floods or fires than you were previously? Has your work situation changed? For example, recently our office switched from providing bottled water to filtered tap water. It's better for the environment, but it put a hole in my disaster plan. Make sure your supplies will be of use in the disaster you are most likely to face.
- Food, Water, Medications: Check expiration dates and make sure that anything too old is tossed and replaced. Don't forget your pet food when you are checking the food stores. Water does actually expire after a few years because chemicals from the packaging leech into the water.
- Batteries and chargers: Replace all the batteries in your devices. If you have a crank charged flashlight or radio, make sure that those still hold a charge when cranked.
- Electronic data: Make new copies of your computer data (files, photos, whatever you don't want to lose). You can burn this data to a CD or DVD or just copy it to a spare thumb drive.
- Phone lists and other paper data: Make sure that all the phone numbers on your list are still accurate and remind your out of state contact person that you are still expecting to call them in case of emergency. There are all sorts of other paper documents that you probably have copies of in your kit as well. Make sure these are all up to date.
- Check remote stashes: Whether you keep extra copies of documents with friends or you have survival supplies buried on your remote property, now is the time to check those supplies as well and make sure everything is still up to date and in good shape.
- Add new supplies as you can afford them: Building up a full set of survivalist gear can be very expensive. Rather than doing a complete job all at once, I've been slowly adding to my collection over time. Right now, we are still working on assembling camping gear. So when I see things go on sale that I have been thinking about adding to the kit, I snag them up at a bargain.
- Refresh your skills: Check with the American Red Cross for first aid and disaster training and with your local community for CERT training. If you have already taken classes in the past, look for refresher training.
Further Resources
I have just skimmed the surface of disaster planning. For more detailed info, check out these great resources:
- 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.
- Check if there is a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in your area. They are a good source for disaster training and information.
- FEMA has a an in-depth guide as well.
- Fly Lady has a checklist of things to consider when planning to evacuate your home.