People from different parts of the world have been experiencing emergencies and disasters since time immemorial. Natural or man-made disasters have caused the loss of so many lives. It is a proven fact in the pages of history. As a result, emergency preparedness is of great importance.
Earthquakes, floods, typhoons, hurricanes, and diseases are just a few of the calamities that have rocked mankind for ages. What makes more terrifying is these unwanted occurrences are just getting worse by the year. Other types of emergencies could be a bushfire or a death in the family. These types of adversities can affect our family in more ways than we think.
Survival Life's 10-Step Guide To Emergency Preparedness
Since we can’t control these disasters, all the more those that Mother Nature throws at us, we need to anticipate and prepare for the worst. Emergency preparedness planning is not as simple as it sounds. It is a complex and long-term process that requires a lot of time, preparation and money.
Step 1: Learn About The Possible Risks That You Might Face
You can’t prepare for something without learning about the possibilities of what you and your family might face in the future.
Read about the history of your state and find out from the Local Emergency Unit Center about the possible dangers and how they might affect you.
Step 2: Prepare a Bug Out Bag
Once you can identify the conceivable dangers, you can start setting up your bug-out bag. It should contain items like food, water, and survival items that could last you three days at least.
image via Wikimedia Commons
Don’t forget your personal documents like health insurance, medical records, and the like as this is equally important. Make sure you pack this nifty 13-in-1 multitool in bug out bag. Get yours here.
Step 3: Sit Down with Your Family
An emergency preparedness plan should involve not just you but your family as well. If you can include your friends in the picture, then it would be better.
More than having a documented plan, emergency preparedness is more about being at the level of readiness and a state of mind.
Step 4: Analyze the Risks and Develop Scenarios
Start with the high-risk situations being on top of the list down to the lowest type of emergency. Ask yourself key questions such as What is the event? How or who will make it occur? Where and when would it happen? Who will be affected? These are just some of the questions that you need to answer.
Step 5: Identify The Consequences of the Risks
By identifying the risk consequences for every possible scenario we can eliminate and find alternative solutions with lesser danger points. We can, therefore, be able to put emphasis on which action plan to take that has a higher chance of getting out alive.
Step 6: Develop an Action Plan
Develop the most direct and comprehensive action plan that would fit you and four family’s situation. Scenarios must be at the places you frequent. How you respond will determine your survival rate.
Step 7: Justify Your Actions.
Every corrective action must be justified with practical reasoning. This will help you achieve applicable solutions. Learning how you will respond will help you come up with better results.
Step 8: Determine a Bug Out Place
Should the SHTF time come and your only choice is to evacuate, you should have a meetup place before going to the bug-out place. This will give you peace of mind knowing that everyone is safe. If there’s someone missing then you would know whom you need to help.
This will also be most convenient should you be unable to go home directly. A bug out place is where you and your family can stay for a long term basis. It will have to contain supplies that will last for 6 months to a year. Of course cooking your own homemade recipes can be therapeutic as well as a healthy alternative while waiting for things to settle.
Step 9: Document the Plan
Every relevant discussion, planning process & sessions, ideas, issues and action plans must be documented to the detail. Emergency contact information should be documented in a sheet and also in wallet size cards so that every family member can carry at all times. Distribute the plan to all those involved for future review and personal reference.
Step 10: Perform Regular Exercises
Make sure that you and your family carry out regular drills of disaster scenarios on a regular basis. You can choose to have this become a family activity every month, quarter, semi-annual or yearly intervals. This can be fun but at the same time, it will give you an actual feel of what you need to do minus the panic.
Watch this emergency preparedness video by USCSB and see that being unprepared for something can indeed be fatal.
These steps for emergency preparedness may not guarantee you a 100% success rate but it will surely help you plan, organize, train, equip, exercise, evaluate, take corrective actions for every possible emergency. It will take a lot of effort from you and every family member to ensure an effective coordination when the SHTF.
For other great survival gear that you will surely need in your bug out bag, check out the Survival Life Store!
Are you prepared enough to survive any emergency? If not, then you might want to learn more right here.
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The contents of this article are for informational purposes only. Please read our full disclaimer.
Editor’s Note – This post was originally published on January 26, 2017, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
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Survival Life’s 10-Step Guide To Emergency Preparedness