And a Happy New Year!

Disasters aren’t Fun, but preparing for them can be! And being prepared is a lot happier than not.

Washington state has a Prepare in a Year–one hour a month plan that I’ve been following and suggesting fun games to involve the family without filling children with fears–empowering all to consider emergencies as adventures rather than dark dooms. https://mil.wa.gov/preparedness

Once your family is prepared, review your plans and preparations each year–month by month:

1. Brainstorm or review what emergencies might happen and what to do–play charades or each person draw a picture or make a poster about a possible emergency (everything from getting lost in the store, losing the car keys, or kitchen fire, to an earthquake or terrorist attack). You can find activity books and coloring pages online. I’ll include links at the bottom of this page.
2. Update contact information: daycare/schools/work, 911, out of area contact, family phones/emails (including extended family, trusted friends/neighbors). Play “Who ya gonna Call?” (pull emergencies out of a bag one by one, and everyone, or teams, yell out who you would call/contact for help), or “Who do you know?” (using a map you can play a game like Scattergories, listing people you know in each city or state and their contact info; for young children have pictures of relatives/friends that live in different areas or states so they can place the pictures–with contact info on the backs–on the map).
3. Renew your family emergency water supply. Use the old water to water the garden, wash the dog or car, or for a family water fight. Review how to create clean water, using filters & drops of bleach at home, boiling and distillation at home, on a hike, or vehicle breakdown in a remote location (including the desert or seaside). Have a friendly little competition of cleaning up quarts of dirty water, or create a family/neigborhood science fair on emergency sources/methods of clean water.
4. Review and renew your Grab & Go/72-hour kit. If possible, have a 2 week supply of necessities (including TP/cleaning supplies, meds, and pet care) for your family, in case you can’t get to the store, at least 3 days’ supplies in a kit if you have to evacuate. Make it a Scavenger hunt (at home or at the store) to find/replace expired items. Red Cross, Ready.gov, etc have lists of supplies to have on hand. Stage a family 72-hour emergency camp, pretending there’s no public electricity and/or water. You can stage your camp in the living/family room, backyard, or your favorite vacation site. Each person can have an emergency backpack and teens and up can have a friendly competition over who is best prepared to live for 3 days with just their backpack items.
5. Update family photos and copies of important documents. Along with contact info, each family member should have a recent family photo. This can be soothing for children, as well as help find separted loved ones. In fact, young ones could have a small photo “album” of the family having fun, making memories. You can divide into teams to take photos and collect copies of documents. Young children can choose family & friend photos they want to keep in their little emergency albums. Include extended family, trusted contacts/friends/neighbors. Put family photo & contact info in each family member’s emergency backpack/duffle bag as well as a family Grab & Go/72-hour kit.
6. Survey your family’s preparation for an extended emergency. For an extended event, consider  Lighting (light sticks, flashlights, batteries), Cooking (camp stoves, BBQ/charcoal, sterno, matches, etc; as well as disposable dishes you don’t have to use up water to wash), Shelter (tent/tarp/rope or cords, rain gear, sleeping bags, mylar/other blankets).  Frig/Freezer keep closed; if off several days:  if in doubt, throw food out.  Sanitation (heavy duty bags to line empty toilet/bucket/camp toilet, disinfectant, TP), Pets (water; google long lasting treats), Emergency Info (radio, batteries, cell charger). Again, you could stage a family emergency campout, in-house, backyard, or favorite campsite/vacation. You can include such friendly competitions as firestarting, camp cooking, putting up/taking down a tent. You can stage a quiz show on camp/emergency safety, such as Jeopardy, or play a game like Concentration or Bingo. Pictures for Concentration or Bingo can be actual photos of emergency supplies your family has, your own/family member drawings, or clipart/drawings you can find online.
7. Disaster can strike day or night.  It may be hard to think clearly and quickly.  “The more procedures you have in place, and the easier they are to remember and implement, the more effective and efficient will be your response.”  Get a box or bin that will fit under the bed, add critical items for day or night emergency evacuation, such as head/foot/hand protection from broken glass & falling obects, simple change of clothes, bottle of water & a prepackaged snack, light source, small pack disinfectant wipes. You can play a dress-up relay or fashion show of emergency items to have in a convenient bin under the bed. Take pictures for a slide show or make a little video for fun to share with family/friends, or just to enjoy watching as a family with popcorn or emergency foods.
8. Review how to shut of electricity, water, and gas in an emergency. It’s a gas, safe at last:  “Natural gas leaks and explosions are responsible for a significant number of fires following any major earthquake” But, shut off gas immediately only if you smell it .. . Hear a hissing sound . . . Or meter dials are spinning more than usual. That’s a turn-off:  “Water quickly becomes a precious resource following many disasters.”  Cracked lines can pollute your house water, gravity may drain your water and toilet tanks unless you trap it by shutting off the main house valve (not the one at the street). Shocking!  All responsible members of a household should know where the fuse box is, how to safely turn off/on power when needed. Game:  Power Down Relay:  time relay teams pretending to shut of gas, water,  and electricity.
9. Earthquake safety. Each year an international ShakeOut is held in October. Get ready for it by finding the safest way and place to find cover in each room of your home. Drill Bits activity:  go from room to room in your house and choose the safest place to Drop/Cover/Hold.  While in each room, you can have the youngest elementary school child be the leader (or take turns being leader/demonstrator) and show how to Drop/Cover/Hold, then call out “Earthquake”, and everyone quickly practice the earthquake drill. Elderly Alternate:  choose where you would be safest in each room (such as in an inside doorway)—one hold the doorway (brace yourself), the other hold your honey, heads down, close eyes. https://www.shakeout.org/
10. Practice Fire Safety. Take time to review your home fire escape plan, check your fire extinguisher, pantomime practice using the fire extinguisher, how to put out stove and oven fires (Don’t put water on an oil fire!  Smother a stove top fire with a lid, if you can.  Salt one in the oven, if safe).  Fires can get quickly out of control, get you and everyone out of the house and  far away; immediately call 911.  Teach kids to use 911 responsibly and not to play with fire/matches.  Practice/review putting out a campfire, how to keep a campfire under control. What to do in a wildfire situation? Where will you meet when evacuating your home, either for a house fire or a wildfire?
11. Practice Shelter in Place--A disaster may pollute the air. Your home is a good first barrier.  Prepare to seal off one room in your home for added protection. If in your car, roll up windows, shut off motor etc. to avoid drawing in outside air.  Breathe through a damp cloth. Brainstorm & collect fun games you can play while sheltering in place. If you have electricity or electronics in your shelter, that is one idea (family movie day or night), for others, see https://emergencyprepideasoptions.wordpress.com/2020/11/
12. As a family, complete a home safety inspection yearly. Put on a labcoat or suit-able Inspector HaZard costume, complete with clipboard and check-off list: Are your water heater, furniture (ie bookcases, etc), media, computers, large and small appliances, china, hanging plants or chandeliers, mirrors, artwork, secured to studs and so they won’t go swinging into windows?  Are your gas and water lines flexible enough to withstand the rockin’ & rollin’ of mother earth?  Inspect your foundation, roof, and chimney for secure fastening, no loose bricks, etc.  Make sure poisons, toxics, solvents, are not in breakable containers and susceptible locations for crash landings. Alternately, with young or older children you can walk through your home imagining what would happen in an earthquake and placing a sticky note on everything that could fall or cause a hazard. 

Emergency Prep Activity Books and Coloring pages for kids:

https://preparednessmama.com/preparedness-coloring-books/

https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/emergency-preparedness/preparing-yourself/comics.aspx

https://www.oglecounty.org/departments/sheriff/emergency_management/emergency_management_for_kids/disaster_supply_kit.php

https://www.beready.af.mil/Kids/

https://www.cdc.gov/childrenindisasters/helping-children-cope.html

https://www.ready.marines.mil/Ready-Marine-Corps-Kids/Fun-Activities/

You can Google “emergency preparedness activity and coloring pages for kids” and you can find more on Pinterest.

Best Wishes for a Brighter and Better New Year, and always! ST

Click to access ShakeOut_P3_DisasterSuppliesKit.pdf

The Heat is On!

What does it mean, The Heat is On? “The pressure in a situation is high; the urgency to do something has reached a very high level”, so says the Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. And this year we are feeling it! As the Phantom predicted, Disasters have occurred! 19 years ago it was an attack on our country by terrorists. Today we are faced with like terrible traumas:

COVID concerns have kept us in, definitely. Fires have been set under the seats of police and policy makers, and in the centers of our cities. The heat this summer has been horrendous. And now fire is rampant in our forests, threatening (and even overtaking) homes, smoking up the air we breathe.

What emergency prep topics don’t these touch on?

Here are some they do:

–Think about emergencies that might happen where you live. How will you prepare for them? What’s your plan of action? We’ve had to do some re-thinking, some practicing . . . what have we learned?

–Maybe you are in the thick of it: who is your out-of-area contact that can let people know where and how you are? Maybe you know someone who is in the thick of it, and how can you find out where and how they are? You need a shared out-of-area contact through whom you can text info.

–Maybe you have to be ready to evacuate: do you have a Grab ‘n Go bag with some necessities, like easy non-perishable food and water, change of clothes, cash in small bills and change, fuel to go and maybe fuel to heat food and/or water, first aid, protection from the heat/cold/wind/water/polluted air/bugs/sharp stuff, means to keep clean (TP, disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer, garbage/laundry bags)?

–Maybe you have to be ready to stay in your home (who knows how long!) Do you have something to live on? You still need items like those above, though it’s easier to store them at home than to take them on the go. Right now AC and air purification seem awfully important! Can you last 3 days, better yet 2-3 weeks, without having to go to the store if you need to? When we could still find humor in our situation, we saw a lot of fun and creative performances about the challenges of shortages due to COVID. We still need to be able to create fun and humor in our lives.

–Do you have a plan for keeping home fires from burning you up or becoming explosive? Clear the space around your home? How to put out small fires in-home, and a place to meet if fire gets out of control?

–Do you have important documents in a safe place you can access to rebuild your life afterwards?

For the present: Drop unnecessary outings, cover your loved ones and real needs (as well as your coughs, sneezes, & breathing out threatenings), and hold on tight!

Best wishes to all in this.

Alarm, or Wake-Up Call?

Photo by Black ice on Pexels.com

Not sure the last time I heard the announcement we were so used to, “This is a test of the Emergency Broadcasting System”.  It began with a dreadful blaaaa sound, and was such an irritating nuisance!

Now we have been forced to test our Emergency Response system.  It’s a nuisance, uncomfortable, inconvenient.  Whether it will reach the widespread alarming proportions of the Flu Epidemic of 1918, we don’t know.  We hope that the measures taken will halt it long before that.  But we can see that some have already panicked, or become greedy, just as when the Great Depression (and other “Panics”) hit, which makes the whole experience worse.

Last month I posted an emergency consideration, “For the Long Haul” . . . because we never know what’s around the bend, over the horizon or hill, or how long it will last.  I didn’t know then that we would have a viral outbreak that would close down schools for 6 weeks, cancel events, cause quarantine concerns  . . . Just hope it doesn’t shut us down completely, with the attendant financial disaster.

Saturday I happened to need milk and a few things.  The photos above were taken at the store.  As I was finishing my shopping they were restocking, but I overheard one employee telling another that earlier there had been a long, long line of people outside the store anxious to stock up.

I was glad I already have some shelf-stable cartons and cans of milk, and dried milk if absolutely necessary, along with other options for eating:  bottled and frozen fruits from my garden, extra canned goods, water, extra eggs and cheese in the frig, etc.  I’m hoping that when this is all over, people won’t fall right back into complacency and wait for the next emergency to run out and clean out the shelves of the stores (or cause riots) because they didn’t see any reason to try to keep something on hand for possible emergencies.

I hope we will discuss with our families  how we could have been better prepared for this emergency, and take steps to remedy anything we may have overlooked or that overtook us unexpectedly.  I don’t think we can expect an emergency to not be inconvenient and uncomfortable, but I think we can even out the spikes of anxiety.  I hope we will try to

• keep at least 3 days of necessities on hand
• consider being prepared enough to live 2 weeks without having to go to the store
• keep a roll of TP and a container of disinfectant wipes in the car for using public restrooms–not just during viral epidemics, but for anytime.

A night or two previous to going to the store I happened to watch an old Sherlock Holmes episode, “The Case of the Perfect Crime”.  Watson becomes more and more alarmed as he sees more and more evidence that Sherlock is the perpetrator of a criminal spree stealing the most valuable and the most sensitive items of the Realm.  As it turns out, Sherlock was acting under instruction from the highest authorities to test their protective and crime solving systems.  The authorities had their eyes opened, and they took steps to resolve and strengthen weak areas of their security systems.

Before I conclude this post, I’d like to say a word about allaying the fears of our children, youth, elders, and those with intellectual or emotional disabilities.  Over and over again I have been irritated by characters in stories/films that try to soothe their children by promising things they have no right to promise.  “I promise I’ll be back . . .” they might say, or, “You’re going to be ok,” they tell a dying person.  It’s a cop-out, because they don’t want to speak truthfully and realistically.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t reassure the fearful.  But how does it help to lie to them?  It leaves them feeling betrayed if the promise doesn’t come through.

I’m suggesting that we tell those immobilized by fear something like, “It’s very important that we follow the instructions we’re given, so we can fight this and not let it crush us,” in a reassuring tone.  If the worst happens, we know we have done our best.  If the worst doesn’t happen, we still know that we did all we could and don’t have to be filled with regrets.  Bad things do happen in life, and sometimes we suffer.  But we can choose to be better for them, to take the positives from the experience.  If a loved one dies, we can rejoice that we knew them, think about how they have enriched our lives and made the world better for having been here.  We can also try to live so people will feel that way about us.

Water Works

When an emergency happens, you may have to rely on water you have on hand for 3 days (72 hours) or more.  You can invest in bottled water (recommended 1 gallon per person per day), which you can buy by the gallon, by 5 gallon jugs, or by 16-20 oz individual bottles.  The individual sizes might be easiest to use and to pack & carry, especially for little kids.

Alternatively, you can bottle your own water.  Soda pop bottles are food grade, easily obtained, easily carried, and easily used.  They don’t break as easily as glass.  You  would need six 2-liter bottles per person, for 3 days.  Don’t use milk jugs or bleach bottles:  their plastic deteriorates.

“Water Works” Family Activity–create an assembly line.

1. Rinse the bottle and lid.
2. Drop 8 drops of bleach in 2 cups of water.
3. Swirl the bleach water in the soda bottle and pour it out (like into the next bottle).
4. Fill the soda bottle with fresh water all the way to the top.
5. Put the lid on tightly.
6. Label it “drinking water” and date it.

 

“Hide the Water & Seek” family fun activity.

The person who finds the best place scores!  It should be a place that is easily accessible to grab & go, a cool, dark place, such as under a bed, a corner of a closet, behind a sofa.  In an emergency evacuation, even a fairly young child can carry a 2-liter bottle.  The water is good for drinking, cooking, and hygiene.

It is recommended that water be rotated every 6 months.  Don’t just pour it down the drain!  Use it resourcefully–water your plants or use it for cleaning.

You may want to have disposable dishes for an emergency, because dish washing uses a lot of water.  Wet wipes and hand sanitizer, as well as rinse-less shampoo can reduce water use for emergencies.

Learn how to distill safe drinking water.  See  https://mil.wa.gov/asset/5ba420151d2ac

Water Bottle Bowling, or Bottle Art & Science

• Fill soda pop bottles about 3/4 of water.  Add sparkles, buttons, marbles, food color, oil, or whatever you like to make them pretty inside.  Be sure to observe and talk about what happens when you add something.
• Young children can have fun shaking the bottles up like snow globes (be sure lids are on tight).
• You can set them up like bowling pins, and bowl with a basketball or a soccer ball.
• You can drop various things in one, to play “Sink or Float” . . . such as a nail, a bath oil bead, and other small objects to see which sink, which float.
• You can use duct tape to tightly seal two partially filled soda pop bottles opening to opening, and carefully swirl them so that it makes a vortex when held vertically. Flip it over and over, swirling it again and again.
• Alternatively, cut the bottles into boats and have boat races in the tub or kiddie pool.
• You can also explore the different states of water:  ice, liquid water (does the ice sink or float?), and water vapor (steam, clouds, or mist are similar enough).  Watch your breath on a cold day, watch what happens when cold air from the freezer meets the warm air of the room, or watch the condensation form on the outside of a container of ice or ice cold liquid.
• Explore fresh water vs salt water, dissolve salt or sugar in water.  After it disappears, taste it.  Not everything that exists is visible.

Read fiction and non-fiction stories about water.  Sing and dance favorite songs about water, oceans, seas, rain . . .

Treat Ideas

Banana boats, potato boats, stuffed celery or cucumber boats; vitamin or otherwise flavored water.  If you flavor it yourself, enjoy watching the flavor disperse and color the water.