When I was a teenager growing up in North Dakota, we had one of those famous 'blizzards of the century'. We got so much snow we couldn't open our front door because the snow was piled so high. The street in front of our house was impassible and there was no traffic what so ever. Worse yet, our family was running out of food and our pantry was bare. So my father decided it was time to replenish our food supply and walk to the nearest grocery store, which was located about a mile from our home. His strategy was to pull a toboggan to the store, put the groceries on it and pull everything back to our home. Well, we got to the store by walking down the middle of the deserted streets, pulling the toboggan, loaded up our groceries and headed back to our house. The trip back to our home was not fun. The grocery bags kept falling off of the toboggan and we had to stop and reposition the bags again and again. My father, who was not in the best shape of his life kept falling behind as my brother and I kept taking turns pulling the toboggan. Eventually, we made it back home, however my exhausted father was not okay. He was sick from the excursion and it took him a week to recover from his sickness.
Lesson learned here? Being unprepared for any disaster that may require you and/or your family to shelter in your home for more than a day could mean risking a family member's health or safety. Which is why many years later, my current family will never be caught without at least three days of food, water, and shelter items. That is why I encourage every family to have a shelter in place plan in place, with a minimum of three days of survival food, water and shelter items in place. Every family, needs to have a shelter in place plan just in case the next blizzard, power outage, hurricane, and dozens of other shelter at home events might occur.
Need more proof that your family might need a shelter in place plan? Check out these statistics from recent news headlines:
related posts:
Here’s the situation – danger to your family is imminent. Some of your family members are not at home or are dispersed in your community. What steps can you take to ensure that you can contact dispersed family members and provide them with recommendations on how to avoid the approaching or current danger? A family
Read MoreOur team of preparedness professionals has been monitoring current disasters for the last five years and here is a list of common disasters that occur during the month of June: So, what are we talking about when we mention these general disaster categories? Let us get more specific about these categories: Flood disasters include situations
Read MoreIf you are in your home and a tornado warning is issued, most people know what to do. Experts recommend hiding in a basement or underground shelter. If an underground safe area is not available, they recommend a room that is in the very middle of your home such as a closet or interior
Read MoreAAA is projecting that a record-breaking 45 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home over the Memorial Day holiday weekend – the highest number ever recorded. The Memorial Day weekend is also known as one of the most dangerous weekends of the year. That weekend is considered the ‘Start of the 100
Read MoreIs there going to be a ‘next pandemic’? You can almost count on it, even though years have passed since the last pandemic. Here are some clues about health-related disasters happening right now in 2026. A recently published book by Michael Osterholm called ‘The Big One’ validates that the world will be facing future health-related
Read MoreOur team of preparedness professionals has been monitoring current disasters for the last five years and here is a list of common disasters that occur during the month of May: So, what are we talking about when we mention these general disaster categories? Let’s get more specific about these categories: Flood disasters include situations
Read More