In Sandy’s Wake

How prepared are you for an unexpected natural disaster?

Of course people shouldn’t need to live in fear of when a natural disaster might hit their town.  The odds are against it.  But it doesn’t hurt to be a little proactive and prepared just in case. 

So what do you do when the worst of the worst happens where you live?

• For one thing, make sure you know, and get along with, your neighbors.  There’s no time like a crisis for people to pull together and help each other out.

• Find out now, what your employers expectations are on situations where you may not have ability to get to work, and look at what your alternatives might be if the need arose.

• Keep a well-stocked cabinet with canned essentials to wait out the worst of things. Canned tuna fish and beans are high protein foods that keep for a long time.  Keep bottled water, candles, kerosene, and perhaps even a Coleman cook stove for those emergencies where power is out for days.  Make sure you have medical supplies on hand as well.

• If you cannot afford owning a generator, a chainsaw, a wet/dry shop vac, or other large “only need once in a lifetime” items, make sure you are connected to people who are accessible, and able to share theirs with you.  Again, in times of crisis, people tend to pull together and help each other out.

• Think about this now:  If you could only bring what you could carry on your back, what would you take?  How much time do you need to gather it up and go?  Grab the family and hit the road!

• Always be prepared to let go.  In the end, a lot of the trauma is about the “things.  We tend to collect and want and need and covet our “things”.  Yes, things are nice, but they can be replaced.  Take pictures of them all and put them on a flash drive, and call it insurance planning.  Things can be replaced.  People can’t.

• With the really serious “storm of the century” events, trust the warnings, and don’t wait—get out of town.