subject: Emergency Preparedness Plan: The Ideal Emergency Preparedness Plan Can Keep You And Your Home Alive. [print this page] Preparing Your Plan: Preparing Your Plan:
Sitting at home it is always easy to give "expert" advice based on limited experience. it is one thing to second guess disaster victims while watching the news. Unfortunately most people have never sat down and actually made a thorough plan considering each possible contingency and it should be handled. doing this can make a tremendous difference in whether your family can comfortably survive a crisis or endure a painful ordeal. The right time to prepare for an emergency is well before it happens. This is the best time to find all the survival gear supplies you need. Before doing anything else, plan out survival kit bags for yourself and every member of your household. A survival kit is a prepacked bag, typically a backpack that contains all items necessary to sustain you for at least 72 hours after a disaster or other crisis. Normally these items are packed in a backpack or other easily carried package. The first step in your plan is to make sure everyone in your family has their emergency packback ready to go.
Common sense planning for natural and manmade made crisis Unfortunately, looting, and stealing are other dangers that you may need to deal with in addition to a natural disaster. These items could reduce your encounter with such behavior:
Considering installing a fence
Get a guard dog or small dog to warnings
Make sure you have sturdy, well built doors and deadbolts
Make sure you have a security system setup that will work in the event of both power lines and phone lines are out of commission
Rope ladders (second floor use)
Create a list of family and friends and provide it to each member of your household.
Determine a rally point and make sure everyone in your family knows that location
Earthquakes - The earth relieves stress by breaking and shifting rock beneath the Earth's surface; this sudden and rapid shaking of the Earth is referred to as an earthquake; earthquakes usually occur along fault lines. Earthquakes can result in major destruction of property and loss of life when they happen in densely populated areas.
Terms
You should become familiar with the following terms:
Earthquake: a sudden and violent slipping of the earth's crust. earthquakes are normally followed by several aftershocks.
Aftershock: after the main earthquake shifts the earth's crust, several minor adjustments occur as the earth settles back into postion. these create smaller vibrations called aftershocks.
Fault: a crack or fracture in the earth's crust. this is a common place for shifts and displacements to occur. sometime these are created by the earthquake.
Epicenter: this lies directly on the portion of the fault where the earthquake occurs. Once fault slippage begins, it expands along the fault during the earthquake and can extend hundreds of miles before stopping.
Seismic waves: vibrations created by the earthquake. these vibrations travel at several miles per second. Although fault slippage directly under a structure can cause considerable damage, the vibrations of seismic waves cause most of the destruction during earthquakes.
Magnitude: The amount of energy released during an earthquake, which is computed from the amplitude of the seismic waves. A 7.0 magnitude on the richter scale would be an example of an extremely strong earthquake. Each whole number on the scale represents an increase of about 30 times more energy released than the previous whole number represents. In other words a 4.0 earthqauke is 30 time more powerful than a 3.0 quake.
Preventive measures::
Have defective electrical wiring, leaky gas lines, and inflexible utility connections repaired.
Refrigerators, furnaces, water heaters and gas appliance need to be secured and can be very dangerous if shaken loose or fall during an earthquake. bolt this down in neccessary. If recommended by your gas company, have an automatic gas shut-off valve installed that is triggered by strong vibrations.
Place large or heavy objects on lower shelves. Fasten shelves, mirrors, and large picture frames to walls. Brace high and top-heavy objects.
Put any glass item and china on lower shelves. if the door containing these items can be secured, do so.
Anchor overhead lighting fixtures.
Consider installing flexible piping for your gas and water lines. this can avoid costly damage after an earthquake.
Take a look around and make a note of safe spots in each room, ideally under heavy tables or find a wall without pictures or mirrors. Reinforce this information by moving to these places during each drill.
During your drills make sure everyone understands that the best thing to do is first drop low, then find overhead cover, and finally hold on.
One common factor in each disaster scenario is that having a prepared plan that everyone understands will increase your chance of survival a hundredfold. Whether you believe in global warming or not, natural catastrophes are becoming more prevalent and violent each year. Regardless of where you live in the world you are susceptible to some kind of hazard from mother nature, floods, tornadoes, tsunami, earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides, hurricanes, snowstorms, and the list goes on. Become well versed in all the natural hazards that may affecty your family and make your plan accordingly. get a survival kit for each and every member of the family (even pets) and keep them somewhere handy.
Government websites are also great resources to find checklists and other planning materials. Finding information on each type of disaster and how to plan for them is fairly simple using the internet. These resources are very valuable in putting together a well packed survival bag. Another thing to consider is buying a bulk amount of long term food. These are nutritious foods packaged to last up to 25 years Imagine not having power for weeks. this is not uncommon after a major disaster. you will need emergency food to sustain you that does not need to be refrigerated. Emergency food is not just for emergencies. some people keep up to a year's supply just in case they hit hard times.
