Be Prepared or End Up at the Super Dome!

"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 three days. 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. In addition, basic services such as electricity, gas, water, sewage treatment, and telephones may be cut off for days, or even a week or longer."

Thursday I did a presentation on 72-Hour kits at our church. Because I had EVERYTHING out, I decided it was a great time to update instead of waiting until the first of April like I was planning.




Here is a list of just a few of the things we try to have....

• 1 gallon of water per person per day
• 3 day supply of food per person
• Changes of clothing for all
• Blankets
• Rain Coat
• Flashlight (we have several, so that you crank, some headlight etc.)
• Batteries
• Lighter
• Water-proof matches
• Can opener (I have a GI one in each bag!)
• Shovel
• Duct Tape
• Rope
• Leatherman tool
• First Aid Kit
• Toiletries
• Prescription Meds
• Personal documentation
• Legal documents (Copies)
• Cash (make sure there are no denominations over $20.)
• A light weight toilet lid that fits on a 4-5 gallon bucket along with the appropriate liner!
• N95 Breathing Mask
• Light Sticks
• Radio
• Gloves
• Whistle
• Medications
• Emergency Contact Phone list
• Equipment for purifying water

You can put together your own kit, or buy one. Frequently Costco has nice ones or Emergency Essentials online has them. I prefer to do my own so I have what I want in it.
We keep ours in the closet next to the front door. Today I decided I need to do one more thing. I'm going to make a list of the things we would like to take in case we have more time and can take a vehicle. I will put the item list and location on the inside of the closet door. I could get a lot of things in 10 minutes if I had a list to go from.


So now my question for you. Are you prepared? Or would you end up at the Super Dome? What other things would you suggest?  (Although my posted list is by no means even my own complete one I look forward to input from everyone!!).


Don't forget to update it every 6 months!! Especially the food and children's clothes. It won't be good if your teenager pulls out a 6T set of clothes!!

There are some really great sites for these with much more information than I have shared here.
http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/Preparing/EmergencyPreparednessShoppingList.pdf

http://www.fema.gov/pdf/library/fdsk.pdf

http://www.ready.gov/america/getakit/index.html (this also has insights for Military families)

http://bereadyutah.gov/family/get-a-kit.html

http://bereadyutah.gov/family/documents/72-hourchecklistpdf.pdf