DIY Home Emergency Home Preparedness

For those that want to customize their approach to disaster preparedness

Emergency Home Preparedness is by far one of the most essential elements of Emergency Disaster Preparedness. Your home should be considered your base of operation during a crisis provided it remains intact. Depending on the event, you will need certain things to keep you safe, warm, fed and healthy.

Let's take several types of dwelling structures and discuss the things that are unique to them and the different measures and necessities required to safeguard you and your family during and after an event.

The Family Home is usually the largest investment most people will ever make in their lifetime, yet a surprisingly large percentage of home owners really know the strengths and weaknesses of their home. All modern homes less than 20 years old, are required to be built to very strict construction standards to resist environmental damage from primarily earthquake, high wind and internal fire. There's little that can be done to protect your home from most other natural disasters such as tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, flooding and other severe environmental conditions.

Understanding your homes ability to withstand these conditions is paramount to ensure your safety and survivability during a crisis. You and your entire family should know where and how to shut off such things as electricity, gas and water and have any necessary tool readily available to accomplish these tasks. You should have a well rehearsed escape plan to exit the home if necessary and an established meeting place to assemble and assess the emergent needs. If you have a multiple story home there should be emergency escape ladders strategically placed in the upper levels of the house.

Kidde KL-2S 13-Foot, 2-Story Fire Escape Ladder with Anti-Slip Rungs

Kidde 468094 25-Foot, 3-Story Fire Escape Ladder with Anti-Slip Rungs

Many lives are lost each year due to being trapped on upper floors of homes due to smoke inhalation and the inability to escape.
You should ALWAYS have fully operational smoke alarms throughout the home and if you have gas powered appliances you should also have CO2 sensors.

You should have fire extinguishers located in strategic locations such as the garage, kitchen and stairways.


Apartments pose an entirely different set of circumstances and unique characteristics during an Emergency Crisis. Apartment buildings are particularly vulnerable to fire and earthquake damage. Since it's unlikely that you own the structure your living in, you have very limited ability to alter any physical characteristics of the unit. In an evacuation event having multiple units of people in close proximity all wanting to utilize the same escape pathways, having an alternate escape path would be highly recommended. You can apply many of the same safeguards as a family home. You should become familiar with the layout and escape routes. Depending on your specific location from ground floor, you can have escape ladders or knotted ropes available to effect an escape. However, ropes require significant skill and agility to operate

Rope Rescue for Firefighting

and should only be used by experienced personnel. Having hand held portable communication devices such as any good quality FRS (Family Radio Service) are recommended devices for every emergency survival situation or whenever you need to communicate from distances of up to 5 miles with others in your party or team.

Mobile Homes because of their inherent design characteristics are susceptible to a variety of extreme environmental conditions. Typically they are not attached to a permanent foundation and utilize light to median grade construction materials. Yet, for many, these dwellings are called home. Not being affixed to a permanent foundation poses a threat by high winds, flooding and earthquakes by having the capability of displacing the unit from its foundation and causing substantial damage to the dwelling, its contents as well as its occupants. Little can be done to overcome this problem if the dwelling is on leased land. When regional disaster strikes an area densely populated with this type of structure, the casualty rate tends to be high and common landmarks can cease to exist. Having a GPS, compass and area street maps are excellent tools to have in your survival kit. As with the traditional family home you should always know how to shut off the utilities and have the tools required to accomplish this task readily available.

Visit my Amazon Store

An Inside Look at an Emergency Survival Kit

Get the book mentioned in the video.


When Technology Fails
(Revised & Expanded):
A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency

Deluxe Emergency Kit-4 Person, Emergency Zone, Disaster Survival Kit, 72 Hour Kit

Emergency Preparedness
Awareness & Survival

American Red Cross FR400 Emergency Radio, White

LifeHammer Stay Glow:
The Original Emergency Hammer

Emergency Cocoon Survival Sleeping Bags
Pack of 4 Bags PLUS Four HeatMax 18 Hour Body Warmers.

For a little Humor

Do-it-yourself Emergency Preparation

Depending on the regional threats Floods, Hurricanes, Fires, Tornadoes, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, etc. and the potential severity of those threats, will determine what you will need to give yourself the best leverage for coping with those threats.

There are always the very basic necessities food, water and shelter and first aid. The quantities are determined by number of people that need to be supported.

FOOD:
You should have a supply of freeze dried , dehydrated, and/or Meals-ready-to-Eat (MRE)'S sufficient to support each person for a minumum of 72 hours.

Water:
The general rule of thumb for water is 2 gallons per person per day. This might sound excessive but you will be using water for more than drinking.

Shelter:
Two person tube tent minimum, larger size is better.
Wool blanket or sleeping bag.
Emergency Space blanket.
Instant hand/body warming pads.
Propane powered Heater, 20 pound cylinder mounted

First Aid:
I recommend taking a first aid class including CPR and to keep your cards current as you may need to help others around you.
First aid kit for home and car.
First aid manual.
Extra prescription medications.
Aspirin or Ibuprofen.

I'll be publishing an in-depth checklist shortly.

It's all about Preparation

How well you plan for an emergency survival situation could determine whether survive or not?

In my experience there are four categories which people fall into.

#1. (Least common) Those that have a well designed plan for sustainability during a crisis.
#2. Those that have established a marginal plan for sustainability.
#3. Those that have thought about it but have not taken any action.
#4. (The most common) Those that believe that there's no need to get paranoid about something that might happen.

According to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), There are 17 different type of disasters. They are: (links are to FEMA)
Chemical Dam Failure Earthquake Fire Flood Hazardous Material Heat Hurricane Landslide Nuclear Terrorism Thunderstorm Tornado Tsunami Volcano Wildfire and Winter Storm

Some of these disasters have a long enough notification or lead time that you can take preventative measures to reduce or eliminate serious risk of being exposed to an emergency survival situation while some of these disaster types are sudden and extreme. Depending on where you live and the type(s)of potential disasters you could be exposed to, your preparation plans will be different.

Here's the list of State Offices and Agencies of Emergency Management

Do you have a checklist to follow while making your survival kit?
The following documents require Adobe Acrobat reader

Ready.gov offers this Checklist and Family Emergency Plan

Since you have come to this lens, there's a high likelihood that you fall within the top three categories mentioned above.
Please take a moment to participate in the following poll.

Emergency Survival Kit

If a national or regional disaster occurred, are you prepared? Do you have an Emergency Survival Kit?

Think about it!

What if the attacks on September 11, 2001 were only a diversion to take our eyes off the real coordinated attack that took out the national power grid, then the communication grid leaving the United States of America without power and communication? How long would it be before you were helpless, cold and hungry?

What about earthquakes, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes. Do they happen?

Think About it! The threat is real.

Think About it! Then take action to do something about ensuring that you and your family have prepared for the unimaginable.