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:
Did you know that the number one disaster type is power outages! Statistically U.S. electricity customers experienced 1.42 outages every year. There were 5.5 hours of electricity interruptions in 2022 per household and that number is increasing four years later! Need more proof that the power outage disaster type is getting worse? Check out these
Read MoreEvery family should have a plan to protect their physical assets. You know, such things as your home, your property, your vehicles, your belongings, etc. However most families do not have a plan to protect their digital assets. What are we talking about when we say digital assets? We are talking about proof of identity,
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 April: So, what are we talking about when we mention these general disaster categories? Let us get more specific about these categories: Flood disasters include
Read MoreIn most communities the tornado sirens are tested the first Wednesday of every month. At other times communities sound the tornado disaster sirens when a tornado is near the area. Most of the time it’s a false alarm and the danger pasts. But what if … it’s not the first Wednesday of the month and/or
Read MoreLastly is a plan for specific needs. This area may not apply to everyone, but if you have pets, children, elderly family members or other people living with you, their safety may depend upon including provisions for them in your shelter-in-place and evacuation plans. This specific needs option should include having extra pet food, medical
Read MoreDid you know that there is a National Consumer Protection Week? Well I didn’t either until I got an email from the Social Security Administration. Apparently, National Consumer Protection Week is the first week in March, every March. Who knew? As part of this National Protection week, the Social Security Administration published an article called
Read More