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

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!

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.

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.

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.

People may not do much planning when it comes to their backsides, but they should give a little thought to what they would do during a disaster.

You will still need toilet paper in a disaster. So, shop the sales and always have a several month supply on hand for your family. It’s not that expensive and will make your life a bit more enjoyable with the “ship hits ths sand”.

I know some people think that toilet paper is a waste of the Earth’s resources. It does take resources to make toilet paper. However, you can now get toilet paper made from recycled paper. So, there is an alternative to the “brand-new” variety.

This was just a friendly reminder.

Hurricane Katrina, the wildfires of Southern California, the blizzards this winter, the Haiti earthquake, and the Chile earthquake have caused many people to realize how unprepared they are for these uncontrollable forces of nature. Every home should have a minimum of one 72-Hour Emergency Kit stored in a safe place. Ideally, each member of the family should have their own kit.

Each kit should include a first aid kit, freeze dried food, water sanitizing tablets, a flashlight, and a hand-crank emergency radio. This last item is one that many do not consider, but it is essential to have in an emergency where power may not be available.

A powerful hand-crank radio can be powered either with batteries, with electricity, and by hand-cranking the handle on the side. Some of these radios have a small solar panel which allows them to also be charged with the sun,

Most hand-crank radios will come with several different bands of radio. Of course ,they all come standard with the public radio bands like AM and FM, and tuning in to these stations is very simple to do. What makes them also very special is that many units will come with the shortwave frequencies as well. Short wave frequencies will allow you to tune in to many home operated radio broadcasts which are ideal in emergency situations. Some of these radios will also come with special radio bands like weather, police, fire, or marine radio signals which are extremely helpful in emergency and disaster situations.

You will find the shortwave and specialized radio stations will get the clearest and best reception at night, while daytime signals are somewhat limited. Some of these special hand-crank radios come with their own antennas that you can uncoil and string across the room.

Here is a link to one example of a hand-crank emergency radio. This is a Red Cross FR300 Emergency Radio.

Check it out here.

For some reason, Waldo the dog refuses to do any emergency preparedness planning. Perhaps it’s because he’s too busy chasing squirrels. He always has a lot of excuses.

I’m sure you realize your pets are never going to do any emergency planning. Face it. When was the last time you saw your dog checking his 72-Hour Kit? When was the last time you saw your cat putting a spare food dish and lead in their Grab and Go Kit? It just doesn’t happen.

Since our pets won’t do it, we must do it for them. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Put together a pet emergency kit together. Useful items include food, water, collar with ID tag, harness and/or leash, crate or pet carrier, and clothes. Experts recommend supplies to get you and your dog through the first 72 hours.
• Have a photo of you and your pet together. In case you two are separated, it will help you to be reunited with your dog or cat.
• Form an emergency plan. Decide which family member will be responsible for getting the pet, and who will get the emergency kit. Also decide where you will go and meet if you are not together when the emergency occurs.
• Have a list of pet friendly hotels and motels if you have to leave your home and need a place to stay.
• Form a partnership with neighbors who can access your pet in the case where you’re not at home during the event occurs.
• Get and/or display “Pet Inside” stickers in the extreme event you have to evacuate without your dog/cat and then followup with your disaster personel later to ensure your dog is rescued.
• In an earthquake, remember to “Duck, Cover and Hold.” Grab your pet, duck and drop to the floor, and find cover up against an interior wall or large piece of furniture, so that you can protect your head and neck, and hold on to your pet until the ground stops shaking.
• Compile a list of vets and veterinarian hospitals in other areas of your city where you might need to seek temporary shelter or assistance.

After reading this, you will probably come up with your own list that will be suitable to your situation. The main thing is to plan for your pets, just like you would plan for your family.

You’ve probably noticed that the frequency of major earthquakes around the world has increased. There have been many 5.0 and above earthquakes already in 2010.

Here is a list of some of the major earthquakes of 2010 from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program website:

• Magnitude 5.9 EASTERN TURKEY March 08, 2010
• Magnitude 6.6 OFFSHORE BIO-BIO, CHILE March 05, 2010
• Magnitude 6.5 SOUTHWEST OF SUMATRA, INDONESIA March 05, 2010
• Magnitude 8.8 OFFSHORE MAULE, CHILE February 27, 2010
• Magnitude 7.0 RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN February 26, 2010
• Magnitude 6.9 CHINA-RUSSIA-NORTH KOREA BORDER REGION February 18, 2010
• Magnitude 5.9 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA February 04, 2010
• Magnitude 7.0 HAITI REGION January 12, 2010

This clearly underlines the need for emergency preparedness in governments from federal all the way down to the local level, but also of citizens. We must take preparedness steps in order to safeguard our families.

When you create a plan to survive, you are likely to survive. Start with 72-Hour Emergency Kits and 72-hour Emergency Meal Kits.

Please take time and prepare your family for the unexpected.

Here is a link to the USGS website:

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

In reading many articles on the Haiti earthquake, where survivors talked about their ordeal, one thing became clear. There are three items you must have available in your emergency preparedness supplies. You should apply this suggestion to your 72-hour kits.

Here are the three items:

1. Full, Unbreakable Water Bottle
2. Whistle
3. Respirator Mask (even if it’s just an N-95)

The water is self-explanatory. The whistle is needed for signaling, whether trapped in earthquake rubble, or lost in a forest. A respirator mask is essential as toxic fumes and dust are often released in large disaster situations.

You may be thinking you wouldn’t always have your 72-hour kit with you when disaster strikes. I’m just saying to think about this, add the items to your 72-hour kits, or office desk, or vehicles.

A little preparedness goes a long way.