Emergency Preparedness Commences

This morning I had to go into work for a meeting with my supervisor. On my way there I heard about the 6.0 earthquake that hit Wells, NV early this morning. I'd just dropped Charlie off at preschool and Jack off at my sisters and realized how really unprepared I am for a natural disaster. When we got back from the Bahamas we heard about the freak snow storm last week that left people stranded in their cars, running out of gas, on the freeway, and kids stuck on buses and at their schools. I just need to get ready and prepared so these stories don't stress me out.

I'm going to start getting prepared by using the Be Ready Utah website and the book I read a couple of months ago called Preparedness Principles by Barbara Salsbury. There's a ton of information but I just need to start somewhere.

I ultimately want to be prepared enough to have an emergency kit at home, in the car, and one for Greg at work. I also want to be prepared enough to be able to stay at home "in shelter" for two weeks. I don't have nearly enough water stored and that's probably the easiest place to start. At one gallon per person per day I need to store 56 gallons of water for a 2 week supply. Unfortunately, I don't have room for a giant 55 gallon container. The 15 gallon containers are 26 inches tall - so I might be able to put a few in my bedroom closet upstairs, but I really don't want to. That leaves me with the 5 gallon containers, gallon jugs, and cases of bottled water. I actually have space for them in the bottom of my kitchen and laundry room pantry and on the floor of my bathroom linen closet.

This week's goals:

#1 - Store 12 gallons of water for our 72 hour kits.

#2 - Start putting together items and food for our 72 hour kits.