Family Fallout Shelter from 1957

You have been diligent and created a cache of emergency preparedness supplies, including food storage, water, communications, and medical supplies. Now what? Are you really ready for a disaster?

One way to find out is to simulate one. Pick a three day weekend and try it out. Turn off your power, water supply, and electronic equipment. Just walk to the circuit breaker box and turn the main breaker off. Now, use your emergency supplies for three days. Prepare your meals from your food storage, using the water you have stored. Try out the emergency radios, and see what it’s like to go to the bathroom when there is no running water. You’ll find out very quick your strong points, and more importantly your weak points.

If you didn’t store enough water, you’ll find that out. If you didn’t store any comfort foods or snacks, you’ll find out once you miss them. The point is to do a dress rehearsal.

You don’t even have to do it for three days. Just do it over a two day weekend. You’ll find out if your children will get bored. What you didn’t store any playing cards, board games, or puzzles? You know what type of activities your family enjoys doing together. Store the items that will allow you to do those things.

Practice runs are a great way to test your emergency and family preparedness. Try to make it fun for everyone in your family.

At a minimum, you should have a 72-hour emergency kit for every member of your family. If you lack these items, buy them.

Here are a couple of ideas:

          Mountain House 72-Hour Emergency Meal Kit

          72 Hour 4 Person Getaway Kit

Georgia’s Get Ready Program

Here is a nice video put out by the State of Georgia and their “Get Ready” campaign. It tells about the need for preparedness and a ready kit.

Here’s the link:

A Message from Georgia’s County Commissioners: Get Ready Georgia!

Family Fallout Shelter from 1957

When the going gets tough, the tough sit back and enjoy their food storage. That’s right. Nowadays, being prepared is no longer the realm of survivalist types.

More and more, people are concerned about what will happen if there is a long-term national economic emergency. Or if there is a major terrorist attack. Or if they lose their job. During these times, how will they provide for their family? More importantly, how will they feed their family?

They’re called Preppers, and the prepper mindset has now hit the mainstream. In a world where global economic collapse seems more likely everyday, everyday Americans are taking stock and stocking up. Just what are they stockup up on? Long term food storage, it’s what’s for dinner when all hell breaks loose. No longer the realm of fanatics, families make the decision to store food and water to help make it through a prolonged emergency.

Preppers are a group of self-sufficient men and women who make it their goal to be prepared when disaster strikes. From natural catastrophes to economic meltdowns to nuclear attacks, the preppers’ goal is simple. Carry on as usual, even when catastrophe strikes.

Over recent years, a huge community of preppers has developed. They are organized, researched, and happy to share their knowledge with others. Do a search on the web and you’ll find blogs, podcasts, forums, and YouTube videos on everything from food storage to how to survive a nuclear attack.

People are waking up to the fact that they cannot rely on the government for their personal safety and survival. Even the U.S. government is telling people to store a minimum of 3 days of food and water for every member of the family.

At the top of preppers list is a supply of food and water for their family. Here the possibilities are many. You can start by bring extra items home from the grocery store. Or you can get a 3 month supply of food for each member of your family. The Mormons encourage their congregations to have a years supply of food for each member of the family.

You can get take this to whatever you want. Just know that you will probably no longer be considered crazy if you made some preparations. Three years ago, economic collapse seemed far away. Today, it looks like it’s coming and there’s no stopping it.

Do your family a favor. Store food and water today before economic collapse occurs. Your family’s life will be so much easier when it does.

Always have a full tank of gas

You should always be looking for ways to be prepare for an emergency. One of the easiest things you can do is to always have a full tank of gas.

Always having a full tank will allow you to be at least travel in your immediate area. If a major disaster strikes, you may be able to get out of your area, but travel on interstates is iffy if a lot of people want to leave an area at once. The interstates are usually one of the first things to jam up.

Another reason to keep your gas tank full or near full is because in a disaster the power may be off, and the pumps will not work.

If I am driving around in my local area, then when the gas tank is half full, I will go ahead and fill it. If I am traveling on the interstate, I usually don’t do that. I admit, I don’t want to have to stop any more often than I have to. However when just driving locally, I always stop and fill my tank when it gets to half full.

This is an easy thing you can do, so add this to your preparedness arsenal.

Personel Hygiene is Key in an Emergency Situation

I remember in 1981 after the Iranian Hostage Crisis was over. The Americans who had been held in Iran for 444 days were giving interviews, telling the world what their ordeal had been like. A common thing each person said was important during their captivity was being allowed to exercise good personal hygiene each and every day. They said it was a little thing, that turned out to be a big thing in keeping their sanity, day after day in captivity.

I can tell you as a man, I find it makes a big difference exercising good hygiene every morning when I get up. Whether I have time to shower or not, the act of shaving, washing my face, and brushing my teeth makes a big difference in how I feel the rest of the day.

Hygiene is a big deal in an emergency situation. Being able to exercise personal hygiene each day of a major disaster can drastically affect your outlook on your situation. Every one has their own idea of what good personal hygiene is. Men and women’s needs are certainly different. But everyone needs to take hygiene and sanitation into account.

All survival situations will not lend themselves to allowing you to perform great personal hygiene. However, you should strive to do the best you can. Be sure to store plenty of personal hygiene items in your emergency preparedness supplies.

While personal hygiene won’t change what is going on outside, it will make a big difference on what is going on inside your head. Keep that in mind.