Monday, March 21, 2011

Getting Re-Prepared


Why does it take a community's collective practical destruction for me to get my head back into my own personal preparation? It's been nearly 2 years since I've looked at my family's 72 hour kits. In that time, each member has changed a lot and the kits are no longer a viable solution for us in the state that they are currently in (the kits that is).

In that two years, the baby is no longer in 3-6 clothes, not on formula anymore, and no longer wearing size 2 diapers. Yet her kit had all baby stuff in it, right down to bottles and burp pads.

Today I did a total overhaul. I replaced all of the food, even the meal replacement bars. I replaced and sanitized the water, bought new food & medications, changing clothing choices and increased sizes for the kidlings.

I replaced insurance documents, re-assessed the financial preparations that were included in the kit (checks, cash, credit etc.) and copied new documents. I also made new "Lost" signs for my family with updated information and pictures which was a relief. The most important part of an emergency is finding all of your loved ones and the last thing I want to do is put together a poster.

The National Center for Terrorism suggests placing your 72 hour kits in a protected place in your backyard which is an interesting thought considering an earthquake (our likely event) will probably not hurt your backyard too much. Ours have been in our storage room in our basement which has increasingly disturbed me. Is this the best place? Won't our entire house be on top of that room if if caved in? What good is a 72 hour kit or evacuation kit under 20 million tons of bricks, concrete, wood and other debris? Hmmm.

However The Marshmallow wants me to consider mice getting into my kit so I'm not sure what the solution is. I'd rather keep the goods for ourselves, and not feed the vermin of the neighborhood while we're waiting for The Big One.

All in all, I feel 80% prepared for a natural disaster. I hope it doesn't come because that 20% will be alarmingly conspicuous on that day when I wish I had been 100% prepared.

4 backward glances:

Unknown said...

As a rs presidency we feel we have to prepare our ward. We actually had a night tonight where people could come and put together food packets for 72 hours kits. They were only $6 each. We had over 300 made! We are trying to make things EASY for our ward. We even had a food storage website going and a group that meets every few weeks. It has been great. I love hearing everyone's ideas and seeing their different food storage's in their homes and stuff. Oh- I added MRE meals to my 72 hour kit packets too. They actually taste ok and last 7 years!

Amy Marie said...

Where did you get your MRE's? I put our 72 hour kits together at the big stake activity that was done back in '06 I believe. They gave us what I thought were brand new MRE's, but they expired this past January - so that was only 5 years (I guess that's still not too bad).

Unknown said...

I got them at emergency essentials on 33rd and 2nd west (I think) in Salt Lake.

Amy said...

Guess who is COMPLETELY OUT of MRE's? Emergency Essentials! Lol, since Japan, they've had a run on them. Guess I'm not the only one assessing my situation.

They gave me taster samples of them though - the 1200 calorie MRE tastes like shortbread. Bring it on!