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Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you find some helpful hints for organizing your time and space. My passions are to help you make home a refuge instead of a crisis center, and to help you function in peace rather than chaos - at home or at work. I have switched my main blog to 1-2-3 ... Get Organized on WordPress, so please visit me there.



Wednesday, September 3, 2008

National Preparedness Month - Determining Potential Emergencies

Before I get started on today's topic of determining potential emergencies, Marsha (see her comment on Giveaway #1) reminded me of something I forgot about on Making a Plan yesterday. And that is having a family password. If someone approaches your child saying you sent them, that person must give the password before your child will go with them. Our family used my maiden name as our password. Thanks, Marsha, for the reminder!

Determining Potential Emergencies

One of the first steps in preparing for an emergency is to find out what types of disasters are prevalent in your area. This includes both natural and man-made disasters. By knowing what emergencies may come your way, determines where you will keep your emergency kit.

For example, if tornadoes are a possibility in your area, a basement would be a likely place to keep your emergency kit. However, if flooding is a threat, a basement would not be an ideal location.

If you are new to an area, do some research to discover potential emergencies. You will need to know if you should stay in your home or evacuate. You will need to know where emergency shelters in your locale are located, if that is an option you should take.

We have tornadoes as a threat in our area, for example. We have designated a closet that is located under a staircase, which is away from windows. It is partially below ground and has a significant amount of piping that serves as additional support. In previous houses, however, our best protection was in a ground floor bathroom or closet.

Also, pay attention to how you will be notified of emergencies. We have a tornado siren in our area that sounds when a tornado watch turns into a tornado warning, which means to take cover. Other possible methods of alert are through emergency radio, TV broadcasts, computer weather alerts, or phone calls from local authorities.

I keep The Weather Channel on my desktop which has a temperature icon in the lower right corner of my computer screen. When there is a weather alert, it turns red.

We’ll talk about emergency radios tomorrow.

We had some great suggestions yesterday - take a look. What do you do to prepare for emergencies?

Resource: National Preparedness Month

Related Posts: National Preparedness Month - Making a Plan

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