Emergencies- Being prepared

The shakes of the last few days, following on from the storms a few weeks ago are a timely reminder that households need to be prepared with emergency supplies.

Also, its good to have a plan in place should disaster strike during working hours. If you are responsible for children, or other vulnerable family members or neighbours, do you have a back-up plan in case you are stranded somewhere else? Are there other trusted people who can collect your children? And have you let your childcare, kindy, school or whatever know who they are?

Also where do you keep your emergency supplies? Is it likely to be somewhere you can still get to if everything starts tumbling down?

Our kit is kept in our small shed for this reason. I’ve got a fair amount of water, which I try to remember to change on family birthdays- works for us as they are spread throughout the year. We have a first aid kit, (including spare medications) small torch, wind-up radio, candles, matches, toilet paper, bucket and lots of plastic bags (I understand these things were fairly important immediately following the Christchurch earthquake!), Janola, and a small amount of canned food (could probably do with more).

Apparently following the Christchurch earthquake, water and having cash were two of the most pressing issues.

One of our local body platforms is to provide assistance (possibly financial, certainly advice) to help homeowners put in rainwater storage tanks. We see this as helping with emergency preparedness, droughts and even alleviating pressure on the storm water system in heavy rain events. It won’t totally replace the need to have some bottled emergency water but it should be a useful back-up.

Here”s a picture of my emergency cupboard..

Any comments?