EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS:
WEEK 5 – SUPPLIES
During a disaster or emergency situation, you may need to survive an extended period of time without power, city water, or gas. This could happen (very likely), so you should gather up supplies to survive this time, well in advance. You will need certain tools & supplies that you may not be able to find after a disaster. Now is the time to get prepared. You never know when an emergency will occur & it could take hours, days, or even weeks to regain utilities, so your family needs to be ready!
You should keep all of your emergency supplies in one location, in your home (the emergency survival station). If there ever comes a time when you need them, you will not have to go searching around to find them. It wastes valuable time. I created a list of supplies you may need in an emergency situation.
This week your goal is:
1. Collect 2-3 bins to keep your supplies in. By doing this, the weight is evenly distributed so if you have to leave your home, it will be much easier to transport them. Older family members can each carry a bin.
2. Shop for your supplies. There are many stores that carry these items. Dont forget to look online.
3. Organize the supplies into the bins & backpacks.
– A WORD FROM FEMA –
“Try to assemble your kit well in advance of an emergency. You may have to evacuate at a moment’s notice and take essentials with you. You will probably not have time to search for the supplies you need or shop for them. You may need to survive on your own after an emergency. This means having your own food, water and other supplies in sufficient quantity to last for at least 72 hours.
Local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster but they cannot reach everyone immediately. You could get help in hours or it might take days. Additionally, basic services such as electricity, gas, water, sewage treatment and telephones may be cut off for days or even a week, or longer. Your supplies kit should contain items to help you manage during these outages.”
GETTING STARTED:
SUPPLIES LIST (Adjust to your needs)
The following contents are items I found important to have on hand, from my research on emergency preparedness. Many of these are from FEMA or Red Cross. You can add or take away to suit your families needs.
- NOAA weather radio (we keep ours on my husbands night stand)
- Local & US map & compass
- N-95 Mask
- Mess Kits & Dish soap (Great to have if you are away from home)
- Flashlights & batteries
- Pocket knife/multi knife
- Wrench to turn off utilities
- Extra cell phone (charged)
- Paracord (emergency uses here)
- Fire starter (magnesium & water proof matches)
- Whistle & signal flare
- AM/FM radio & batteries
- Camp Stove/propane (for power outages)
- Dutch oven (if you run out of propane)
- Emergency Preparedness Manual
- Faraday Cage (great details here)
- Duct tape & plastic sheeting (to shelter in place)
- Work gloves
- Extra can opener
- Ponchos
- Hand axe & shovel
- Tent
- Sleeping bags/blankets
- Walkie talkies & batteries (if phone doesnt work)
- Lantern
- Spare batteries
- Biodegradable trash bags (for sanitation)
- Toilet paper/qt ziploc bags
- Hand sanitizer/moist towelettes
- Plastic bucket with tight fitting lid
MONEY SAVING TIPS:
When purchasing supplies, look for sales in stores & online. I found many of my items at walmart (very inexpensive). You may not have the extra funds to go out and purchase everything at once. If that is the case, you can make your list and purchase a couple of things each week. Also, look around your house. You may already have most of the items needed for your emergency survival supplies. You just need to gather them up and put them all on one place. You dont want to have to go looking in an emergency.
“EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS” E-BOOK
GRAB A BUTTON IF YOU ARE PARTICIPATING IN THE CHALLENGE
<div align="center"><a href="https://www.abowlfulloflemons.net/2012/11/emergency-preparedness-8-week-program.html" title="A Bowl Full of Lemons" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.abowlfulloflemons.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/imgettingprepared250.jpg" alt="Ask Anna" width="250" height="250" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
Tags: emergency preparedness, emergency preparedness 8 week series, supplies
Blog, emergency preparedness Posted in
20 comments
20 comments on “Emergency Preparedness – Week 5 “Supplies””
Thank you so much for putting this 8 week program! I am learning a lot! Quick question on week 5: what type of case (pictured above) are you using to store your extra/loose batteries?
Laura B, Its a tool organizer from Home Depot. It was about $12.00.
Thanks!
I just found your blog a week ago and I had to tell you I haven’t been able to leave (except to organize my pantry, and start moving things around in the basement to start my emergency prep, and set up my financial box… Filofax is next)
Thank you!!
I love this series! Thank you!!!
Ramblings of a Suburban Mom
Laura B. Its a “tool” organizer from Home Depot. It was only about $12.00.
What would you recommend as the essentials for someone without a car? Could be tough to bring all of this on the go.
It all looks great! Just a couple things. If you have a baby, make sure you stock diapers in your emergency kit, and also don’t forget to stock sanitary supplies for the women in your family. Also, if you buy a magnesium firestarter, (which is an excellent thing to have) make sure you know how to use it, meaning, practice before you actually HAVE to use it. It does take practice to get it down. Nice supply Toni!
Thank you for all you do!! I love your site and you have given me alot of great advice and ideas.
My husband just got me an LED lantern for Christmas that has a cell phone charger and radio, too. It takes batteries, but can be handcranked, too. We were out of power for 4 days after Hurricane Sandy, and I sure did get sick of sitting in the dark — so the lantern will come in handy. My husband picked it up from Target.
A couple of times a year, Virginia has “Sales Tax Holiday” for items that they consider part of emergency preparedness: http://www.tax.virginia.gov/site.cfm?alias=HurricanePreparednessEquipmentHoliday
I’m sure many other states offer it was well.
Thanks for all of the great tips! I would really like to implement some of your emergency preparedness ideas, especially since I live in an area that was hit pretty hard by Sandy (we are ok, but we went without power for quite a while, and some of this would have been useful). Do you have any suggestions for making this work for someone that has very little storage space? We live in a 700-sq. ft. house, and don’t have a garage or basement. Thanks!
great advice, recently gave your blog and series a nod on my blog YOU Need toKnow…there are about 30 people living in our valley and, over the years, I’ve learned to live with short and long power outages.
trying to type with a big dog’s head on my lap…
suggestions…
-small fire starter logs make starting a fire FAST, easy and instant heat plus a great base for logs.
-hand/foot/toe/body warmers provide on the spot heat. I swear by them and know they are what kept Dave, my husband, from getting very ill while we were were camping in the Sahara Desert.
-propane Coleman lantern…it’s nice by the fire pit table as well.
-Sharpie pin to date the batteries so they can be rotated out as needed.
-blue tarp has grommets and is stronger than plastic for shelter, plus it can be seen from the air.
-mattox is as necessary as a shovel, imo.
-gatorade or power aid powder for electrolyte replenishing
excellent series, thanks!
We went through a 2 week ice storm in my community about 20 years ago. It was miserable and SO cold. Wind chills that second week of many degrees below zero. None of us were really prepared.
Your list and wise advice can make a world of difference for any family going through an area wide emergency. I am starting my to-do list now!
I was reading on another blog about the essentials of “surviving in place”. One thing I would add to your list is 2 weeks of clean underwear for each member of your family. If you don’t have water, having clean underwear could mean the difference between “I can make it another week in these conditions” and having a mental breakdown over the state of the emergency.
Thank you very much for this post. I purchased your E book and it is very helpful.
I have two questions. I see bracelet on the photo and would like to know what is it for.
Second question has to do with your previous post on medical supplies. Where can I find CPR mask? Everything that I found online comes in the pack of 10 and not 1 or two.
Thank you so much.
Its a paracord bracelet. You can take it apart and it has 8 ft of paracord. The cpr masks- Im not sure? You may be able to find them at the drug store or walmart. I got mine from work. 🙂
I want to say again, Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us and helping each of us think about being prepared for an emergency. For the fire starters, while the one you have is compact and will take up very little room, I would like to share my firestarters with everyone. When I was a young girl scout, we learned to take the paper egg cartons, put a little sawdust in each cup and poured melted parafin wax over the sawdust. Let the wax reharden and then you can either keep the cartons as is or cut the cups apart. When you need a fire, just cut or tear off an egg cup and put it in the bottom of your sticks. Light the cup on fire and then the sticks will catch. As I have gotten older, I have modified my starters by putting half a birthday candle in each one after I pour in the wax. Then for the matches, I coat the heads of the stick matches in finger nail polish. This waterproofs them.
Solar charged path lights make a good substitute for lanterns and can be found at Walmart for very little during the summer months. They also require virtually no energy to run, just place them in the sun during the day and bring them in at night.
If it’s cold and snows like it does where I live, you can add some of those packages of hand warmers. I found some in a two pack for a $1 at Target! Also that bucket you show in your picture could be used as a possible floatation device.
Jennifer~