Emergency Supplies Blog

According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), more than 1.6 million fires were reported in the United States of America in 2005, and they caused about 3,700 civilian deaths and 18,000 injuries. In addition, for years from 2002-2004 an estimated yearly average of 166 deaths from unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning exposure that had nothing to do with fires.I think one of the most important emergency preparedness ideas is to get a good carbon monoxide detector combined with the smoke detection feature and replace your batteries annually.  Approximately 97 percent of U.S. homes have at least one smoke alarm—according to a national telephone survey.  Nevertheless, without fresh batteries the alarms won’t work when it is time to sound a life-saving warning. Another potential problem, and another good reason to check smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms annually, is that environmental contamination and age will cause the sensors in alarms to degrade and become less effective over time.   Its a fact that millions of Americans are without adequate protection from fire and carbon monoxide because the alarm’s battery is dead or the alarm is too old, alarms don’t last forever, and old ones need to be replaced.”

Tips to Help Prevent Fires and Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
The CPSC advises all consumers to remain vigilant against fires and carbon monoxide poisoning, and recommends three simple tips to help you protect your life, your loved ones, and your home:

Every home and building owner should have a gas and water shut off tool and know how to use it.  Also, others in your home should be trained on how to shut off the gas and water.  In an emergency, like an earthquake, fire, flood, or evacuation, you’ll need to shut off your gas and water service to your building.  I work in a real estate office and these emergency gas and water shut off tools make great gifts for our new home owners.

It is important to remember to rotate the following items in your emergency kit.

#1.  Check your food and water to see if it has expired.  If your food and water is going to expire within 6 months just use it up and replace it.  Be sure to check your iodine tablets or other methods of water purification to make sure thy have not expired as well.

#3.  Check any medications that you keep in stock.

#4.  Check your batteries and make sure all the things that use batteries are in working order, like flashlights and radios.

#5.  Also, check your activities bag and the activities bag of your children to make sure thy are up to date.

#6.  Make sure you check your emergency contact list and also revise your emergency plans if need be.

#7. Finally, go through all items in your emergency kit adding additional items like solar blankets, etc… as you become better prepared.

If you have a baby or very young children in your family you will need to make sure you include your childs special needs items in your emergency kits.  Food for children may be difficult to find in stores or shelters, so you will want to make sure that you have plenty of these supplies available to you.  If you need bottles and nipples the ones with the liner are especially nice to use.  If your baby has just started on baby food you will want to include a variety of foods and snacks too. 

Also, you will need to include a good supply of diapers and some garbage bags.  You should also consider using a Wag Bag to help decompose these waste products.  Don’t forget to include any medications that your baby might need.  These include infant Tylenol, etc… that have not expired.  If you have properly prepared for your baby it will make the emergency that much easier to deal with.  It should be fairly simple to gather these supplies and a few toys as well and put them in a seperate bag.  If you kids are older consider getting them their own child emergency kit  or adult emergency kit that they can customize.

I live way up north in Minnesota.  It makes sense to me to keep some Canadian bills in my emergency cash, along with my passport.  If I had to move fast changing currency is only going to slow you down.  Really there are not too many scenarios that would require you to leave the county, but why close that option.  Having the extra cash is the important thing for most people to remember in their emergency plans.

#1.  Packing for an emergency and/or emergency evacuation is just like packing and prepared for a camping trip.  The hard part is getting the food and water supplies ready, unless you are using freeze dried foods or food bars and pre-packaged water.  I would add in a few kitchen canned items along with a can opener, knife, fork, and spoon combination and a emergency can opener too.

#2.  Thereafter, you should have all of your camping gear and supplies in clean and dry bags, buckets, backpacks, etc… ready to go on a moment notice, just like you should do with your emergency preparedness gear and emergency kits.

#3.  Finally, with camping trips you have your travel plans and destination just like you need to do with your emergency evacuation plans.  Only with a emergency evacuation consider out of neighborhood, out of town, and possible out of state.

Basically, thinking ahead is the key to a succesful camping trip and/or emergency preparedness.

I live on the Florida West coast and have an area in my home for emergency hurricane supplies.  Most of you the items you mentioned are in my kit with the exception of cash which is an excellant idea and I will now keep $500 in small denominations in my safe labeled “Emergency Cash Only.”  Emergency preparedness planning for your unique situation is like a cheap insurance policy.

I would recommend that the first thing you will need in a major emergency evacuation, like the Katrina event would be $100 – $500 in cash.  As people were leaving and had to fill up their car with gas they found out the stations were not taking credit cards and you had to have cash only.  Lines at the ATM’s were long and the machines ran out of cash quickly.  Emergency preparedness planning is the key.

The duffle bag idea is an OK idea for gathering your emergency staples in the kitchen and would work to carry the items to your car, but if you have to carry your emergency food for any distance a backpack is really the only way to go.  Being a hiker, I know.  Make it easy on your self to transport your emergency gear.

Instead of running your car’s gas tank to “E” keep it 1/2 full.  This way if you need to go somewhere in an emergency you are not stopping at the nearest gas station first, instead your 100 miles away.  Emergency preparedness is everyones job.