With September being National Preparedness Month, I decided to write a blog on why you should be prepared with a family emergency plan, and give you some basic urban survival tips to make sure you are ready for any type of emergency that may come your way. Now, if you’re an experienced prepper who frequently reads about disaster preparedness, stick with me: Some of the tips may seem obvious to you, but they are a good reminder. Plus, I’d like you to share this blog with friends and loved ones who may think that urban survival preparedness is just a lot of hysteria.

First and foremost, decide what you should prepare for. It’s pretty difficult to make a good preparedness plan of action and determine which supplies to purchase if you haven’t given thought to the types of emergencies that could occur. Here are a few sample questions to ask yourself:

• What types of weather emergencies or natural disasters is my area susceptible to?
• What are some areas of risk that are close to my house? This may include chemical plants, oil storage facilities, railroad tracks (trains can carry hazardous chemicals), highways and other infrastructure.
• Do I work or live in an area that could be targeted for attack or riot?
• Where are the evacuation routes if I have to leave and where would I relocate to?

Second, start making your plan. Don’t knock yourself out trying to think of everything all at once, but just start making categories and getting your thoughts down on paper so you don’t procrastinate. It’s actually a good idea to revisit the plan periodically to see if there are items you missed the first time around. Here are some key points:

• Who are you responsible for? Just yourself or a family of five? Do you have elderly parents or in-laws that you may have to assist?
• If you have to leave the house and get separated (such as during a fire), where will you meet?
• Whose emergency phone numbers should you have in the phone?
• Where will you store emergency storage items in the house for quick retrieval, as well as important papers, such as insurance cards, social security cards, bank information and other personal information?

Third, gather input from your family and if you have a friend who is a prepper, get their thoughts as well. Of course, depending on the age of your kids (assuming you have kids), you don’t want to overwhelm them with information and have them unable to sleep at night. To me, it’s like instructing children on what to do during a fire drill: There are serious points to be made, but you don’t want it to be downright scary. Let them know that preparedness is all about feeling secure in the knowledge that you’ve already planned on how to take care of everyone.

Because I’ve still got a lot more to say on getting your family emergency plan together, I’m going to continue disaster preparedness planning in another upcoming blog, so bookmark this page. In the next installment, I’ll give you suggestions on how to inventory emergency supplies and which kinds of items you should have on hand.

If you’re fairly new to the concept of urban survival, disaster preparedness and making a family emergency plan, I hope you found this blog helpful. And if you’re an experienced prepper, I hope you found some good reminders. Don’t forget to share this with someone you know who would benefit from knowing how to keep their family safe during a natural disaster.

This entry was posted on September 4, 2012 at 6:22 AM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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