You turn on the news and see glimpses of disasters happening around the globe: fire, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes. These kinds of events can have a traumatic impact on communities and families alike. It’s hard to imagine such tragedy happening to your own home and family, but if it did happen, what would you do? Would you be ready? While no one wants to think about the worst-case scenario, it’s good to have a plan of action in the extreme case that a natural disaster should occur. Here are a few steps you can take to help prepare for an emergency and be ready if the worst does happen.
Listing Out the Possible Scenarios
You can’t prepare for everything, but if you’re looking at your disaster preparation realistically, you won’t have to. Where you live plays a big role in what kind of disasters you should prepare for. For instance, coastal regions can expect their homes to be more likely affected by severe weather brought on by tropical storms and hurricanes. There wouldn’t be much need for a household in the middle of the country to prepare for a hurricane scenario. Each region of the country comes with its own probabilities for certain types of natural disasters. As you prepare for worst-case scenarios you should focus your time, energy, and money on the disasters most likely to occur to you.
Prepare Your Emergency Toolkit
Once you go through and list out the possible disaster scenarios that could occur, you need to start collecting materials necessary to protect you and your family. Many families use an emergency toolkit to prepare for a wide range of possible scenarios. These kind of disaster-prep tool kits include items such as flashlights, batteries, a weather radio, and a first aid kit. In addition to safety material, you should also prepare materials that would be necessary if you became trapped in your home and were left without electricity and clean water. In these kinds of scenarios, you should also prepare a small stash of bottled water, blankets and non-perishable food items for you and your family.
Create Your Plan of Action
Whether you’re impacted by a fire, a flood, or tornado there are different courses of action you should be prepared to take. It can be difficult to think clearly in the heat of the moment. That’s why you should take time now to come up with an appropriate plan of action for each kind of disaster that might occur.
First and foremost, these plans should include a safe location for you and your family. In the case of a fire, you should get out of the house immediately. In the case of a tornado, you should move toward the basement or a central location in your home away from windows. When you finalize your plan of action for each kind of disaster, you should keep your entire family informed about the different plans, where to go and where to find your emergency tool kit.
No one hopes for the worst to happen, but to be truly prepared, we have to treat these dire situations like inevitable realities. By taking just a few proactive steps, you can help ensure that you and your family remain safe and sound during any number of natural disasters. Remember that during these worst-case scenarios, you need to keep your priorities.
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