Last week we regrouped, finished off our holiday cookies and other treats, and completed our Family Holiday Planner, efficiently ending 2021. Yay! So today I want to get us back on track with the building up of a prepper and planner mindset. (see Prep & Plan Week One). Because I still haven’t taken down all of my holiday decorations, today’s assignment is more intellectual than physical.
Like I said in the beginning, “…being ready for emergencies has nothing to do with the crazy TV shows about people hiding in underground bunkers or building tree houses in the Ozarks. The kind of Prepping & Planning I’m talking about is a no-nonsense, no-stress way of evaluating risk and your family’s readiness in the face of unexpected emergencies. And these unexpected emergencies can be anything from a flat tire 100 miles from home or a burst washing machine hose that is flooding the house (both of these have happened to me!).
In September, we began this adventure with 3 legal pads. If you haven’t finished this first assignment, or things have changed in your life and it needs to be redone, here is a recap:
Recap of Previous Homework
Today, I want to focus on this first assignment, specifically the list of disasters that have happened or could happen. Since I wrote the first blog post in September, a lot has happened including wildfires in Colorado and tornadoes in the deep south. And part of building a Prepping & Planning mindset is to acknowledge, statistically and realistically, what disasters could happen wherever you live. So grab your legal pad 3 (the Financial/Bugout/Long Range Planning notebook we haven’t used yet), a cup of tea and a snack, and let’s get to work.
Disaster Review
- Title a page in Legal Pad 3 as Disasters Review. Then, on that page, rewrite all of the family/pet emergencies you’ve dealt with over the years.
- List any other kinds of disasters that could happen, even if they haven’t yet.
- Natural disasters (tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, landslides, flooding, etc.)
- Accidental disasters (frozen/broken pipes that flood your house, a house fire, electrical emergency, broken clothes dryer, etc. )
- Turn to another page and write down everything you can think of, besides people and pets, that you would want to save if you had to evacuate your home quickly.
- Would you grab your purse or laptop? Cellphone? Jewelry, silver, or other heirlooms? Photographs?
- One of my best friends once told me that when she would hide in her tornado shelter (built into the garage of her Alabama home), she would sit on all of her photo albums, clutching her cell phone and her cats. Those are the things that are important to her.
- If you lost everything, and had to start over, what would you want with you?
- Important documents (including insurance documents and car/home titles, etc.)?
- Your grandmother’s engagement ring?
- All of the keys to your cars and safety deposit box?
- Take your time and write down everything you would need and want. This will be the basis of your family’s bugout bags that we’ll be building in a few weeks. But, for now, make the list. Then ask everyone else in your family what they need and want.
Next week we’ll begin to break this all down, starting with a Home Emergency Binder. If you’re interested in more information about disaster preparedness, check out Ready.gov’s Make a Plan. Although it’s a HUGE site and can overwhelm even the most sophisticated planner, it’s a great place for general information. But, if you want to begin more simply, just write down everything on your legal pad while drinking a cup of tea or coffee (or a glass of wine). And don’t stress. The entire point of this blog series is to help move you into a mindset where preparedness becomes second nature. A mindset where this all becomes easy, just like brushing your teeth or taking a walk.
Until next week, stay safe and enjoy the winter. It will be over before we know it!
