Tag: disaster

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Pet Preparedness

Pet Preparedness – How an Old T-Shirt Can Help

Pet wearing t-shirt

Along with water, food, medicine, and other “survival” needs, your pets are going to need emotional care after a disaster as much as any human member of the family.

Let’s look at a few tips:

1. Having your scent present will keep them calm. Wear an old T shirt around the house for a day or so and immediately put it in a paper bag and store it with your pet’s emergency supplies. If you have to board your pet or leave it with a friend while you recoup from the disaster, this old shirt can be used as part of their bedding and since it contains your scent, it will go a long way toward making your pet feel safe and secure. Note: The T shirt should be worn and scented by the family member that particular pet is closest to.

2. Pack a toy that your pet has played with. Don’t try and introduce a new toy in your pet’s emergency gear, go with something that still has their scent on it and that they recognize. In any emergency, a sense of normalcy and familiarity go a long way toward emotional stability whether you’re dealing with the two-legged or four-legged members of the family.

3. Ask your vet about over-the-counter medications that can help calm your pet. You’ll want to gather this information now from an educated source who’s familiar with your pet rather than having to rely on second-hand (or second-rate) information from questionable sources after a disaster has already hit.

4. For smaller animals, give each their own carrier but keep the carriers close to each other whenever possible. In an emergency, animals will be under stress. Like humans, they’ll need a little space even though they’ll want to be near others. Having separate carriers helps greatly.

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Take a Hike!!

Literally. Or at least a nice walk. It’ll do you good.

The first chapter in “Disaster Prep 101” covers your health; the many reasons it’s your most important preparedness foundation and the simple ways you can improve yours.

Here are but a few disaster-related reasons good health is important:
1. In a disaster, the first thing to hit you is stress. The better your health, the easier the stress will be on you. (PTSD mitigation and prevention.)
2. If you are injured or infected by whatever the emergency is, the healthier you are, the faster you’ll snap back.
3. During any physical labor for search and rescue, cleanup, helping victims, etc., the greater your stamina the easier things will be for you.
4. Being healthy in general keeps you out of hospitals and frees up room for victims of future mishaps.

Health is your foundation for all other preparedness measures and you should start there first. It’s the good foundation on which your “house of readiness and self reliance” is built. So start with you and your well-being first.

In fact, focus on your health before doing pretty much anything else since it’s top of your priorities list.

We hear lots from people trying to sell us on the doomsday philosophy that society is going to collapse and you need to hoard gold, silver, and jewels. As soon as we ask these people questions like “Well how are you going to get full market value for your hoarded gold if society has collapsed and the functional economy along with it?” or “Then how come your trying to sell your gold, silver, and jewelry?” they usually clam up.

Then once we explain to them that the best investments you can make are in yourself; your health and well-being and your skill sets since “no matter where you go, there you are,” we find they start to listen. Always, always, always invest in you and your family first before anything else.

To help, here’s a quick priority list for you:

A. Do something to improve your health every day. Take a walk, take the stairs, cut down on junk food or vices.
B. Get the basics for your family. Get a starter kit (most people call them 72-hour kits), a smoke detector, and a fire extinguisher.
C. Create your basic family emergency plan.
D. Invest in your skill sets. Take a CPR class, a first aid class, learn more about family financial planning, or take a cooking class so you’ll know how to make your food supplies last. Even learning to cut hair is a barterable skill.
E. Expand on each of the above. Gather gear as needed, take more classes, and always put you and your health first.

Skip the gold and jewels and take a hike!! Focus on you. You’ll be all the better for it in the short run and long run.

Paul Purcell – “Disaster Prep 101”

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Use the News

One of the things I say continuously in my presentations as a disaster preparedness trainer is “the news channels will never go out of business.”

This means that there will always be something bad for them to report, but that also, there will be far more viewers unaffected by what’s going on than there will be victims.

So today’s tip is “Use the News.”

With current headlines echoing a volcanic eruption and tsunami in Indonesia, and severe weather in the Midwest around Chicago, we have opportunities to discuss readiness.

Most people will watch these stories on the news and say “Oh, how awful!”

But you, being the readiness-oriented in the group can say “You know what we’d do if that happened in this area?” And there you go. Your opportunity to use the news.

Use the news as a reminder to have a fire drill, to examine your home’s structure in advance of an earthquake, to prompt you to check you level of supplies you keep on hand for various emergencies, and to discuss reaction steps with your family.

Do you have small children? Taking the “Here’s what we’d do” approach with them serves several purposes at once.

1. It teaches them to look at bad news in a more positive manner.
2. It involves them in family planning so they can grow up making preparedness a subtle part of their life.
3. It provides an opportunity for them to seek the solution rather than focusing on the problem.
4. It reassures them that you’re in control and things will be alright.

Paul Purcell
Author – “Disaster Prep 101”
(Available at 1800Prepare)

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Emergency Responders General Preparedness Personal Stories Uncategorized

The Best Gift of the Evening

My daughter is one of those kids for whom it is always difficult to buy a gift. I say “kid,” but she is 23 years old, a Flair Bartender (think Tom Cruise in “Cocktail”) and a Paramedic. She has been self-supporting for years and as a single working woman, has the luxury of being able to buy, what she wants cash when she wants it. When her birthday came around this year, she told me she wanted a toolbox (with Sears Craftsman tools) and a 72-hour Go-Pak.

Now before you think that this is a set-up, you must realize that I am the author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Disaster Preparedness” (www.TheCompleteIdiotsGuide2DisasterPrep.com) and my youngest child has had a 72-hour Go-Pak since he was 5 years old. My daughter’s interest was not in just any Go-Pak, but in the best one that I had reviewed while I wrote the book. As an author and researcher, I also never write product endorsements, only factual reports.

As soon as my daughter opened her gifts, the Go-Pak had everyone’s attention. The backpack was opened and everything in the Go-Pak passed around by her firefighter colleagues. The Go-Pak she received was the 1800Prepare/Guardian adult 3-day disaster kit. This kit comes in a substantial bright red backpack. The Go-Pak comes “out of the box” with everything except your important documents, prescription medications and spare clothing. I do recommend adding 2 additional chem-lite sticks and a USB data drive for photos and medical records. The 1800Prepare website (www.1800prepare.com) has a complete inventory of the items in this Go-Pak. For me, the coolest item in the kit was the “Tube Tent.” This tent does not require poles and can be used as a tarp, tent or even a rain poncho should the poncho included in the Go-Pak be lost or damaged.

My daughter got her toolbox (with tools) too. Although she loves to tinker and her firefighter friends plan to borrow her tools often (at least so they said at her party), the best gift of the evening was her 72 hour Go-Pak. Every firefighter at the party asked me where they could get one like it and plan on giving them for gifts this year.

For years, I have encouraged everyone to give 72 hour Go-Paks to every family member as a gift. I am proud to say that as the result of this one gift, one major city’s fire/rescue service will begin giving this most important gift of preparedness.