Your first priority when a disaster hits would be to protect your family. Now, it doesn’t matter if you have children or just have your parents or grandparents, they are your family and you may be the only one to help keep them safe. It can be a big responsibility at times, however, when the disaster is over and your family has made it through safely, it will be rewarding.
Prep a Disaster Kit and Maintain It Regularly
Everyone knows how important it can be to rely on a disaster kit and if you haven’t prepared one yet, you need to start. This doesn’t need to be a huge kit, just the basics to help your family get through the disaster. Ideally you want to have enough food, water, medicine and heating to last at least one or two weeks. However, once you have created your disaster kit, you also want to ensure things are updated regularly.
For example you don’t want to add food into your disaster kit in August and then by December the same year, it’s all gone off because that be a huge problem. Your best bet is to stick to non-perishable items and check on their expiry date every few weeks, or at least once a month. If there are any supplies which are about to expire, you can swap them for fresher items.
Stay In Your Fallout Shelters
Bunkers and fallout shelters can absolutely be the best way to stay safe during a terrible storm or even an attack on the country. They are usually fortified which means they can withstand a great deal which is really important for you. You don’t necessarily need to buy a shelter; you may have a strong root cellar or old bunker in or around your home which could prove to be useful. As long as it is still reliable it can be used.
When there is some sort of emergency or disaster, you should lead your family into the shelter and wait for the danger to clear. You should take a radio into the shelter with you so that you can find out when the danger has passed and when you are free to leave the shelter again. If you don’t hear anything on the news within the first twelve hours, consider staying in the shelter a little longer. You don’t know if it’s safe to leave and just in case, wait until the news has some sort of update.
Leave the Hot Zone Immediately
If you or your family happen to be in the center of where the disaster is unfolding, it’s crucial you leave the area quickly. Whether it’s a biological attack, terrorist attack or a violent storm, you do not want to remain in the ‘hot zone’ because this is the area which is mostly affected and is highly dangerous. Finding yourself in this zone is dangerous at the best of times and you need to calmly guide your family away from here and get to a safe location as quickly as possible.
If you find yourself, for some reason, unable to leave the hot zone immediately you need to seek help from the authorities. Remain calm and don’t add to the confusion or panic. If there is a reason why you are being kept there, find out what but don’t overact and don’t try to storm through police barriers.
Brace the Home for Storms
When there are heavy storms heading over your way and you choose to remain indoors, you will need to do whatever you can to ensure the home is safe. This means you have to close all shutters, lock every door and window and barricade yourself in.
Barricading yourself in a home may be extreme but depending on the disaster outside, it may be necessary. Also, you don’t want any unwanted visitors to pull a fast one and get in your home and it can be a good idea to just ensure your family remains safe. You may find the storm passes and you’ve done the hard work for nothing but it’s better than losing a loved one.
Store All Foods Carefully
As soon as the power goes off, your refrigerator and freezer will go off meaning everything inside will be spoiled. However, instead of diving into your emergency food supply, you should eat as much food from here as possible. For example, yogurts, cold meats and cheese can be eaten within the first few hours of the power going off and it’s the same with ice cream but once the food is thawed from the freezer, do not eat it unless you can cook it through. This is when you’ll need to break into your emergency supplies.
Cleanse All Water before Use
Water remains one of the biggest threats when a disaster strikes. You truly don’t know if water has been contaminated and if you don’t know what’s going on outside, its best to stay clear. However, if you are going to use water from any faucet in your home, you should ensure it has been purified first. Purification is a simple process and it will ensure the water is safe to use and of course, if you plan to drink any water, it definitely needs to be purified first.
To do this, you will need to boil water and add iodine tablets to help cleanse it and remove any bacteria. This will be effective to make the water safe to consume.
An Alternative Power Source May Be Required
If you have solar power already installed in your home that is great because it usually means you have some form of power. However, if there is no solar power and you don’t have a back-up generator to rely on, then you have very few options. You may have to stick to indoor camp fires to cook food or to keep warm. There are many different types of backup generators and each have pros and cons that may be more or less suitable for your intended uses. You can buy generators that run on different types of fuel and can have different levels of fuel efficiency. You should check the availability of different types of fuels in your area.
Whatever you do, you must look at methods to keep your family safe. The above points may not all sound relevant to you or necessary but they may just allow many families avoid disaster.