Issue #73

Last Update May 20, 2013

New York Stringer is published by NYStringer.com. For all communications, contact David Katz, Editor and Publisher, at david@nystringer.com

All content copyright 2012, 2013  by  nystringer.com

Finance and Technology Minimal Emergency Planning for the Family (Part 1) by David Katz July 6, 2012   There are many types of emergency that might impact your family. Let's leave aside the big, scary ones that might never happen – terrorist attack, pandemic, atomic or biological warfare – and concentrate on the things that happen all the time. Being resilient in the face of these occurrences will also help if the big stuff happens. What are these common emergencies? They can be categorized as weather related (floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, drought), failure of utilities (electricity, water, sewage, telephone), fire, illness and accident. With proper planning, the effects of all of these incidents can be ameliorated.

Let's also consider these incidents in relation to the home. Some require you to leave your home, some trap you in your home, and some may prevent you and other family members from getting home in the first place. Each of these conditions requires a different response. Let's take them one by one.

Emergencies that require you to leave your home:

These include fire and flood (an if you live in Kansas, possibly tornadoes), earthquake, or anything else that makes your building unsafe. Evacuating your home requires, in order of importance:
-an evacuation plan – what route to get out, where do you go, whom do you notify
-go bags, to grab as you leave, that contain the minimum that you will need to keep functioning until you are resettled:
o important papers (copies of deed, insurance policies, passports, drivers license),
o access to funds (a small amount of cash, at least one credit card with a decent balance left     on it, checks),
o one week's supply of medications you can't do without,
o change of clothing,
o small first aid kit,
o communications (cell phone with email or SMS access),
o a weather or emergency radio receiver,
o cell phone charger
-a meet-up point if the family gets separated.

If there is plenty of warning and you can leave by car, you might want to have certain items in your trunk:
-a small supply of nonperishable food and water
-a small pop-up tent
-fire starting materials (matches in a waterproof container, lighters, etc.)
-flashlights, lamps and lanterns
-space blankets
-a hand ax and/or sheath knife
-a laptop or tablet, and backups of important computer files (financial information, address books, etc.), including chargers
-walker, mobility scooter or canes/crutches for family members with mobility problems
- a week's supply of critical medications for the ill and elderly. This should be a spare supply, additional to the normal day to day supply. Medications requiring refrigeration should be kept refrigerated in a special go-bag, to be grabbed as you leave the house.
-portable toilet kit with spare bags
-An approved 5 gallon gasoline can, with gas

Once you and your family (and your pets) are on your way, contact a predesignated person out of your area to act as communications liaison with your family and friends, and let him or her know where you are, where you are going, what shape you are all in, and what you need.

Emergencies that keep you in your home:

Several kinds of emergencies could force you to stay in your home for extended periods of time. These include blizzards, flash floods, chemical spills, release of radiation from a nuclear power plant (or terrorist attack) that requires you to stay indoors until normal levels are reached, rioting, and pandemics where health officials have forbidden movement of people. In addition, power failures and water supply problems, while allowing you to leave your home, often keep many people at home, since transportation is iffy.

Preparing for this kind of emergency requires you to have:

• ￿an emergency  stock of food,
• ￿-water (both for drinking and sanitary uses),
• ￿a means of disposing safely of spoiled food,
• ￿emergency lighting and emergency communications devices.
• ￿An emergency stock of critical medicines for the sick and elderly I
• ￿If you live in a cold climate, you should also have the ability to provide heat for one small room independent of your normal furnace or electrical heat supply
• ￿A regular, plug-in (non-wireless) telephone. Regular phones are self-powered, and are often not affected by power failures..

Water and power in the home are important and connected resources. If you live in a single-family dwelling, or a two family house with separate garages, and local ordinances do not forbid it, you have the option of putting in an emergency generator, which can be used to power a refrigerator, a few lights, and chargers for your cell phones, laptops/tablets and other communications equipment.

If you live in an apartment, your choices for backup power are more limited. The next article in this series will deal with this problem.