OK, I get the message already

[twilight33]

Yesterday I took stock of our office, car & home disaster/first aid kits. To my surprise, one of the car first aid kits migrated under our bathroom sink so that was remedied fast. As if Katrina wasn't enough of a reminder to get off my butt and review, today's riveting episode of the Wiggles had Greg going through the contents of a first aid kit.

I also lived life on the edge yesterday by drinking some expired (late 04) emergency water at work. It tasted fine and I suffered no ill effects, so we'll hold on to those as extras for our office kits. I did not feel similarly brave with trying the expired emergency food bars, but in conjunction with my mom we're placing a combined disaster supplies order soon to replace and upgrade some things including emergency food for the cats.

We are reasonably well prepared to live off the grid for a while if something hit now, but we haven't really updated our supplies much since the Nisqually quake (before Kieran was born). I'm also torn on whether continuing to stash the supplies in the house or moving them to the detached garage would be better, although the latter has huge humidity & temperature fluctuations in addition to many gas powered items. The shed is so flimsy it'd be history, plus it's under a tree. Maybe a split of the food we'd actually prefer eating & water paks in the house with the dire straights stuff in the garage?

Comments

[spaceling.livejournal.com]

This is something I need to think about doing, along with the whole "renters insurance" thing I haven't been able to afford.

My thought for your circumstance: split the goods. If a quake hits that damages the garage enough to make it fail, you'll still have access to the stuff in the house. If a quake causes the structure of the house to fail, there will be less rubble to go through from the garage to reach its store of supplies.

[twilight33]

I was bad and never had renter's insurance, although probably would have if I was still renting when northwardbound had her lovely break-in fiasco.

I'm leaning towards splitting them even though it's more of an investment. It's possible that the entire top floor could fall into the basement & we'd be most interested in getting out instead of hunting down a Rubbermaid bin. This is also why I'm thinking about moving the camping gear to the garage (from under the basement stairs) & parking my car away from the garage/not under electricity wires for increased accessibility.

[northwardbound.livejournal.com]

I have to preach for two seconds :) Get renter's insusrance! It really shouldn't run you much more than $15/month, and if something happens, you'll be soooo glad to have it. My insurance company even shipped me new copies of 90% of my cd collection when my place was robbed, so I didn't have to hunt em down.

Now on to disaster recovery-food for the cats is a great idea! We need to update our disaster kits too, but I always keep leashes near the front door now so we can corral the beasties. We keep our camping/disaster stuff in our shed, just because it's easier to access stuff in there in a hurry.

[spaceling.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know I should do it... if for no other reason than that I live in an apartment building with others who may not be as competent in the kitchen, or as good about storing combustibles. It has long been a matter of finances... but you're right. I can afford Netflix. I should have renters insurance.

[twilight33]

I certainly hope you never have to evacuate with the herd & Crystal, that gives me a headache just thinking about it!

[northwardbound.livejournal.com]

Hah I'll be the crazy cat (and dog) lady at the shelter. But even worse, can you imagine Scott evacuating with the amphema (the long, wriggly bitey creature that lives in his office)?

[tim-wright.livejournal.com]

I know you know this, but wherever you store the stuff, make sure its in container that can easily be grabbed and taken with you, preferably similarly sized storage containers that stack and, if not watertight at least can be placed in puddles without any harm. Could you load all your disaster kits into the car in under 10 minutes? Would the kits even fit in your car? You might also want to think how you would move them if you couldn't use a car. And perhaps prioritize your stuff: what box could you leave behind if you could only carry one or two things? You don't want to be sorting through things if you don't have too.

One big tip: Leather gloves. Every kit should have a pair as should your car.

Also, in this cyber world, everyone should be backing up the data on their home computers. But it doesn't hurt to make regular back ups on a removable storage device (CDs or DVDs) and store them someplace far away from your home. Every couple of months I send my dad in Orangevale another DVD to go with the backup series he already has. It's got all my financial data, as well as my correspondence and all my digital images (but not my music)--all the stuff that is truly irreplaceable.

As long as you are doing that, you might as well scan those important documents (licenses, birth certificates, immunization records, passports, etc.) and include those digital images on your back up disks.

You sound really well-prepared Nikki, but I just want to point out to people who haven't thought a great deal about preparing for a disaster, one of the key things to do is to have a plan everyone in the family is familiar with. Like who is picking up the kid if both parents are at work? Who is a contact person outside of the area who can relay messages in a disaster. If you have a house fire, where will everyone meet so you can do a quick headcount?

For those just thinking about how to get ready for something big (fire, flood, earthquake, tornado, etc.) the American Red Cross has a lot of great information, for FREE, on its web page and is a great place to start. If you live in California, check out your telephone directory, SBC for years has been including basic information about first aid and what to do in a disaster in the first few pages of the phone book. I just checked DEX (Qwest's directory) and it has nothing. Also, having a current copy of The American Red Cross First Aid and Safety Handbook is also a good thing!

[twilight33]

Thanks for the vote of confidence in being prepared! The best free storage containers I've found are 5 gallon buckets with lids & handles from kitty litter/laundry detergent/etc. Easy to carry, stackable, fit everywhere, and can be used as water containers & portable toilets with garbage bag liners. Viva emergency multitasking!

Thanks for the reminder on the work gloves, we have too many in the garage & shed and none inside the house or cars. That's rather sad about the Seattle phone books having nada for emergency info, I remember that from the CA phone books too. My mom & I store backups for each other, sadly I don't have anyone else out of state I'd trust with that data except for someone in the UK. Mom & I are over 85 miles apart, I'll just hope for the best. We realized the need for coordinated out of state contact numbers last night & are putting that list together to share with my CA aunts.

The odd thing is that everyone else lives further away from where Kieran will be at home/school than both of us are at work. I'd like to hope both of us wouldn't be killed/seriously injured in the same building, otherwise we can walk to Kieran's schools (until he's in junior high) & home if need be. Tennis shoes are already in the car as well as under the bed.

[sunneyone.livejournal.com]

i say keep it all in the house if you have room. but definitely keep the food in the temperature controlled environment.
i'm going catfood shopping tomorrow and i'm going to get an extra bag. one bag lasts them about a month.