CHECKLIST: Home Emergency Kit

[CosmoGTD]

Anyone interested in brainstorming out a CHECKLIST of all the things a person should have set aside for their family in case of a very serious natural disaster, flu pandemic, or other such serious extended emergency?

There should also be links and lists on the internet to help with this.

 

[TesTeq]

FEMA site.

You can find additional info at http://www.fema.gov/rrr/emprep.shtm.

 

[mcogilvie]

You can find additional info at http://www.fema.gov/rrr/emprep.shtm.

Most of the information at the fema url is generic. If you live in a place that has frequent hurricanes, your planning should be rather different from a place that has tornados, heavy winter storms, or forest fires.

Some people are very worried about terrorist attacks, which could take chemical, biological, or nuclear form. Very little in "disaster preparedness kits" would be directly useful in such circumstances. Fortunately, natural disasters remain much more likely than a terrorist attack. Hurricane Katrina has given us all a good indication of how our government agencies would respond to the need to evacuate millions of people from a disaster site. Rather than focus on individual preparation, we should demand better planning by government at all levels.

 

[kewms]

Hurricane Katrina has given us all a good indication of how our government agencies would respond to the need to evacuate millions of people from a disaster site. Rather than focus on individual preparation, we should demand better planning by government at all levels.

That seems a bit counterintuitive to me... Government has shown it can't deal with the task, so focus on government instead of individual preparedness?

It also isn't an either/or decision. There's no reason why I can't pressure my congressman *and* stock up on emergency supplies.

The Red Cross has some good information, sorted by the type of disaster:
http://www.redcross.org/services/prepare/0,1082,0_239_,00.html

Katherine

 

[CosmoGTD]

In terms of natural disasters, its actually up to each individual to have enough emergency supplies on hand to last at least a week. There is no government on earth who can supply a large city full of people with emergency supplies in less than a week, so each person has to take their own steps to care for themselves for as long as possible.
I personally would not leave my own care in an underfunded abstract entity over which I have no control.

For example, if I lived in a flood zone, you would bet I would have a canoe, and an inflatable boat, etc.
Or in a hurricane zone, a safe storm cellar, etc.

I think a good addition to this list would also be a full Emergency Kit in your car, in case of trouble on the road.

Other things of course would be a couple of small battery radios, lots of batteries, flashlights, candles, gas generator, etc.

It is occuring in the back of my mind, due to the media hype these days, that a serious flu pandemic, which could start next week, or not in our entire lives, is also something to think about. To be honest there is not much one can do about that, unless you have a large box of high quality masks, gloves, glasses, and are able to move to a remote area quickly. I think in that case, the best you can do is to cut down on the odds a bit.

Obviously the key aspect of this, is to go from the list, to actually having the preparations DONE, and then perhaps updated a couple of times a year.

 

[moises]

Heinrich von Kleist wrote a short story "Earthquake in Chile." It was really a work of political philosophy. Political philosophers used to write about the "state of nature" that existed prior to society. They would look at how humanity was before there was society and they would use that knowledge to theorize a society congruent to humanity's nature.

Kleist created a story by looking at how people behaved after an earthquake removes all the trappings of society. Disasters are a nice conceit to find out someone's view of human nature.

Survivalists tell us that in disasters we re-enter the state of nature. Social connections, which are artificial, not natural, dissolve, and we revert to our natural, atomistic, individualistic selves. We have no obligations to others and they have none to us.

So, I live in my small Manhattan apartment. I can't fit six weeks of water in it. But let's say I did. Let's not leave out what is perhaps more crucial to me than food--weaponry. As society dissolves, I will need to protect myself from all those other crazed Manhattanites who lacked my foresight and have gone 4 weeks with no water other than the filth they lapped from the East River and the Central Park Reservoir.

So I better have lots of weapons and ammunition to keep these crazed hordes out of my apartment stashed with food, water, and weapons.

I incline more towards mcogilvie's perspective. I interpret his broader point to be that there is no human nature that exists prior to society. We are, fundamentally, social creatures. We evolved from bands and tribes. We survived and flourished by cooperating with other human beings. So having relations with other human beings is an essential characteristic of who we are.

Accordingly, if we might endure six weeks' interruption of water and power supply, we need to plan for this community-wide.

We might live in gated communities, but they are still communities. And these crisis situations will require community-wide solutions.

Why is this discussion relevant to GTD? David tells us to sweat in peace or we'll bleed in war. David's key metaphor is that GTD is a martial art. If there is a war to fight, I want to have a well-organized, well-prepared army on my side. I am not going to be the only cowboy in Manhattan.

 

[kewms]

Actually, communities seem to be pretty robust, even in natural disasters. The reports of antisocial behavior in New Orleans seem to have been vastly exaggerated, with government officials repeating rumors that they heard from media, all based on a handful of actual incidents that grew in the retelling. There were very few reports of lawlessness after the Asian tsunami, particularly in light of the scale of the disaster.

If you seriously believe that it will take six weeks to re-establish connections with the outside world after a disaster, then you have no business living anywhere near a city. Few, if any, cities anywhere in the world can be self-sufficient for that long. (Pyongyang, maybe, as it's so highly militarized. Salt Lake City, maybe, due to the Mormon emphasis on self-sufficiency. New York? Los Angeles? London? Forget about it.) The larger the city, the more dependent it is on a steady flow of imported food, medical supplies, etc.

But then, there are very few potential disasters that could break connections for that long. The first significant aid started flowing into New Orleans within a week, and we all agree that response was unacceptably slow.

Katherine

 

[slacker]

Your biggest disaster threat in Manhattan is probably a terrorist dirty bomb, in which case you might need to evacuate, and therefore will be unable to enjoy your 6-week supplies of food and water anyway. So don't sweat it

Having something like a personal firearm, gas masks, etc. is likely more important.

 

[CosmoGTD]

6 weeks is just a rough rule of thumb, of course, covering the worst case, and allowing for various factors.
Other simply say 3 days is enough. All people should have at least 3 days of full supplies on hand, if they have any common sense.
It was not long ago when the power was out in my city for a number of days during that massive blackout.

What actually prompted this for me, was seeing an interview with a respected scientist, who was discussing the possibility of a serious global flu pandemic, like the one in 1918.
The reality is IF that ever happens again, there will be serious food shortages in the cities, due to disruptions in the transportation system.

As far as water though, you can have some water purification tablets, chlorine and things of that nature. (I think there are hand-powered water purifiers for hiking, I wanted one of those anyway...)

But I am not talking about post-apocolypse Road Warrior visions here!
Just the idea to have a good Emergency Checklists, to whatever degree the individual feels is necessary for them and their family.

Its a good example of the application of GTD. Get the ideas out of your head into a Checklist, and then get the checklist DONE, so then you can forget about it and not worry about it.

For those in a large city, it would seem wise to have enough gasoline on hand to get you to where you want to go. We have all seen that the first thing to be unavailable is gas for your vehicle, even in so-called organized evacuations for hurricanes.

 

[mcogilvie]

That seems a bit counterintuitive to me... Government has shown it can't deal with the task, so focus on government instead of individual preparedness?

It also isn't an either/or decision. There's no reason why I can't pressure my congressman *and* stock up on emergency supplies.

Consider my remarks in the context they were made, that of large-scale disaster, either natural or man-made. If you have to evacuate a city, the bottleneck is evacuation, not supplies. This is intrinsically tied to government planning. In the case of a nuclear threat, people would evacuate, no matter what they are told to do. We have much more uncertainty with a biological threat, but stockpiling water, for example, is likely of limited value. Furthermore, experience with the fallout shelters of the 1950's show that most people do not properly rotate stock; many of the emergency supplies of that period would have been unusable. Some of the information on the Red Cross site is similar to advice from the fifties which was parodied as "get under your desk, put your head between your legs, and kiss your a** goodbye."

 

[kewms]

Natural disasters are far more common than either nuclear or biological threats, so it makes sense to me to prepare for natural disasters first. (Earthquakes alone killed nearly 90,000 people in 2005. How many did all nuclear and biological threats combined kill?) Earthquakes don't give advance warning that would allow an evacuation. Hurricanes bring bad weather that makes evacuation difficult or impossible, plus hurricane tracks are so difficult to predict that many people are certain to either ignore evacuation warnings or evacuate in the wrong direction.

So it seems to me that the chances of a disaster area being fully evacuated before the fact are fairly slim, and the chances of being stuck at home without help for some period are fairly high. Which brings us back to the wisdom of personal disaster preparation.

Katherine

 

[mcogilvie]

Natural disasters are far more common than either nuclear or biological threats, so it makes sense to me to prepare for natural disasters first. (Earthquakes alone killed nearly 90,000 people in 2005. How many did all nuclear and biological threats combined kill?)

Agreed.

Earthquakes don't give advance warning that would allow an evacuation. Hurricanes bring bad weather that makes evacuation difficult or impossible, plus hurricane tracks are so difficult to predict that many people are certain to either ignore evacuation warnings or evacuate in the wrong direction.

Once hurricanes make landfall, they weaken rapidly, so inland is almost always better.

So it seems to me that the chances of a disaster area being fully evacuated before the fact are fairly slim, and the chances of being stuck at home without help for some period are fairly high. Which brings us back to the wisdom of personal disaster preparation.

Katherine

If you live in a hurricane-prone area, yes. I live in the midwest, with occasional tornados; being localized, they do not require stockpiling of food and water. We also have a crustal fault in the bootheel of Missouri, the New Madrid fault, which produced as many as 3 strong quakes in the early 19th century. For example, people in St. Louis who live in brick house without wood frames do need to be concerned about structural integrity, although I think the chance of a large quake in my lifetime is low. Personal disaster preparation yes, generic disaster kit no.

 

[slacker]

Natural disasters are far more common than either nuclear or biological threats, so it makes sense to me to prepare for natural disasters first.

I thought we were talking about Manhattan.

 

[kewms]

I thought we were talking about Manhattan.

I thought we were talking about emergency preparedness in general. In any case, plenty of bad things can happen in Manhattan without the involvement of "evil doers." Manhattan gets its fair share of blizzards, and the models for a hurricane hitting Manhattan are just as scary as they were for New Orleans. Manhattan is also very vulnerable to any kind of disruption of its supply lines, whether the cause is malicious or not. I seem to remember a major blackout not too long ago, for instance.

Katherine

 

[TesTeq]

So why so many people want to live in Manhattan?

I thought we were talking about emergency preparedness in general. In any case, plenty of bad things can happen in Manhattan without the involvement of "evil doers." Manhattan gets its fair share of blizzards, and the models for a hurricane hitting Manhattan are just as scary as they were for New Orleans. Manhattan is also very vulnerable to any kind of disruption of its supply lines, whether the cause is malicious or not. I seem to remember a major blackout not too long ago, for instance.

Katherine

So why so many people want to live in Manhattan?

 

[mcogilvie]

So why so many people want to live in Manhattan?

Because the small risk of death or other bad outcomes is outweighed by the perceived benefits of living in Manhattan. You are, after all, more likely to die from cancer, heart disease, or a car accident than from natural or man-made disaster. At least in Manhattan, you can take the subway.

 

[CosmoGTD]

So why so many people want to live in Manhattan?

Money Money Money!

Its also nice to be able to order an egg-sandwhich to your tiny expensive apartment at 4am.

But to the point, I do think that where you live, urban or rural does dictate what kind of emergency prep you need to make. If you live in a big city, it might not be too extreme to have a working gas-mask ready to go, I think. Not for bio-terror, but even for a large fire. Smoke inhalation and damage from inhaling toxic particles seems to be the most damaging thing to happen to people.
I never considered owning a "gas-mask" but I might look into it. I bet there are light high-quality products available, and something like that could protect your lungs as well as eyes in all sorts of situations, the most likely being a building fire, or a local chemical fire with toxins, which can cause lifelong lung damage with just a few inhalations. Something to think about.

Also, someone mentioned that people who do put aside food and supplies do not rotate them properly. That is a perfect job for GTD.
You could have a 6 month, or yearly automatic reminder set to spend an hour rotating and checking your stuff.
GTD is ideal for this type of thing, as it allows you to Be Prepared functionally, but also to RELAX about it once the prep is DONE.

 

[webrover]

Rotating Stock

I live in Florida and evacuated 2x in 2004 for Hurricanes and sat two others out at home - after they had gone across land. We only lost power at home for 13 hours. We're on the same grid as the local water and sewer company. People at work had power outages for two weeks and more. Keep in mind that you cannot use propane or charcoal stoves or grills indoors and it's not practical to use them outside during wind and rain. Those minimum of three days of food need to be things you're willing to eat at room temperature. Crackers hold up longer than bread if you have an extended power outage. When you know a storm is coming, fit as many nearly full bottles of water in your freezer that you can - leave room for ice expansion. This ice will help keep the food in your freezer and refridgerator (if you move them) cold a little longer. Also when it's hot, an almost defrosted bottle of water, ie. cold water, is a treat.

I have a cabinet in a bathroom that I stock at the beginning of the hurricane season. Batteries, food, paper goods. This cabinet is also home base for battery powered radios, tv, lanterns and flashlights. At the end of the season, batteries go into the normal battery drawer, food into the pantry and paper goods into backup supplies. I try to make sure the food is almost all stuff I would use anyway, even if I wouldn't normally buy it canned. Since Hurricane season ends in the holiday season, any food we don't care to eat canned, gets donated to the local food bank. Then I'm ready to restock. We buy garbage bags in large quantities at a warehouse store in drum and outside sizes, so I don't stockpile those in my supplies.

When we camped, the bottled water just became camping supplies. I'll have to rethink that this year.