The month of September is recognized as National Preparedness Month. Therefore an important question to ask is what are you doing for National Preparedness Month (NPM)? During this month, people are reminded to prepare themselves and their families now and throughout the year. Most importantly NPM focuses on helping people to think ahead and prepare in the case of a disaster. If more people thought about this and prepared more people would be better prepared in the case of a disaster. If more people were prepared there would be less chaos and panic when disaster does strike.
While the thought of being completely 100% prepared can be overwhelming for many. Others will read this and find all of this information to come as second nature for them. The important thing is just to become more prepared. Meaning if you couldn’t run to the store, would you have enough food, water or toiletries on hand? Or if you couldn’t turn on the stove or use the furnace to heat your home, would you have alternate cooking and heating sources? If the thought of this is overwhelming to you, then focus on one aspect of preparedness at a time.
Take this month to learn live saving skills such as CPR or first aid. Take this month to check your insurance coverage for the hazards you could face such as floods, earthquakes tornadoes or other natural disasters. In addition, consider the costs associated with these disasters and start saving in the event of an emergency. Take this month to learn practical steps such as shutting off your utilities like the water or gas services coming into your home. Or take this month to start storing adequate food and water for you and your family in the case of a disaster.
Mainly in our home we are focusing on food and water storage. We have a fairly extensive food storage system due to having food stored in many different forms. We have food that is frozen, canned, and dehydrated. In this way, we have food stored in different forms and if we were to lose power for an extended period of time we would still have food that was canned or dehydrated that we could prepare or eat. We also have alternate form to cook food such as our BBQ, BBQ burner, or camp stove. And as important as food is for our survival, we realize that water is just as important. We currently have a 300 gallon and also a 275 gallon water holding tanks. We typically use these water tanks to collect rain water off of our roof and to water our garden. However, we plan to purchase a lifestraw or other filtration system so that we could drink this water if necessary. Below you will find a link to a lifestraw or lifestraw water bottle if you are interested in either of these items. It is recommended for you to have one gallon of water stored per person or animal per day.
One simple exercise we would recommend is to think what you would need to have in your stores if there were to be a big storm this winter. Would you be prepared if you were to lose electricity or natural gas for an extended period of time? What will you do for heat? Do you have an alternate heat source available? What will you do for food? Do you have enough canned foods or dehydrated foods and the means to heat these foods? Do you have enough water stored? Do you have adequate first aid supplies? Do you have enough candles, batteries, and flashlights? Do you have enough toiletry items? These are just a few questions to get you thinking about how to become more prepared.
The easiest and least overwhelming way to becoming more prepared is to simply make a list and start working down that list. You may also benefit from creating an additional list which would indicate how much of each item you or your family would need to meet your needs for a specific period of time. For example, you may need to have so many cans of diced tomatoes, boxes of pasta, or rolls of toilet paper. You can easily start just by purchasing an extra can or box of something during your next shopping trip. You can also preserve your own food in one of these means or repackage food from the store for longer term storage such as being canned or vacuum sealed. Just start by determining what is adequate for each of these stores and then start building up your supply to ensure that you have the means to survive in such a state of emergency.
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We hope this information gets you thinking on how you can become more prepared. We would love to hear if you have any other tips, tricks, or ideas that would help with becoming more prepared. Please leave a comment below with your ideas regarding preparedness. For more information, visit ready.gov at their National Preparedness Month at https://www.ready.gov/september. Thank you for stopping by and visiting Sunup to Sundown! We’ll be back soon with another recipe or update regarding our garden or our journey to becoming more self-reliant.
