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.

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