1. Job Loss
One of the most unexpected or sometimes expected emergencies
that our families face that are ours, alone, is a job loss. If you’re a
one income family, the loss of the income can be devastating if it is
for an extended amount of time. Even for some families living paycheck
to paycheck or less, that devastation can be almost immediate. Being
prepared with a supply of food, water, money in the bank, and supplies
can help you ride the time period between jobs.
2. Illness/Injury in the Family
Not only for a small emergency like an accident at home that needs
some first aid, a reason to perform CPR on someone who has collapsed, to
an extended sickness in the family that may mean you can’t get to the
grocery store all the time. We need to have a supply of first aid items
in our homes that extends beyond a box of band-aids. It’s also important
to have some first aid / CPR training. Not only for our families in our
homes, but if we’re out and about – we can be the first responder! If
you are suffering through a short-term, family-wide bout with a
rotovirus, or are living with a family member who is in a long-term
illness situation, having a basic pantry and treatment system helps take
some of the pressure off the family about who is going to the store
next to get meds or Pedialyte or throwing something on the table so the
kids can eat while you’re still incapacitated.
3. Car Emergency
If your tire blows on your car on the side of a dark, deep woods
road, what are you going to do? What happens if you get stuck in a
blizzard on the way home you didn’t expect? What if you run out of gas
in the middle of a deserted stretch of road. Having your car prepared
for an emergency with needed equipment, and a box of items to help you
through until help arrives or you can get out is necessary.
4. Weather Emergency
Weather emergencies aren’t relegated
to a Hurricane on the East Coast or a snowstorm that takes out a region.
Weather disasters happen all over the world at all times of the year.
You don’t need to worry about preparing for a hurricane if you live in
Oklahoma, but in Oklahoma, you DO need to prepare for a tornado, an ice
storm, a snow storm, or a drought.
5. Natural Disaster
Natural disasters can effect entire regions and
cause huge loss of life and property. One of the
biggest things we should be prepared for in these situations is an
evacuation. Are you prepared to walk away from your home with an hour’s
notice in the case of fast approaching wildfire, or have a plan if your
home is destroyed by an earthquake? Do you know what documents to grab,
do you have a list of items in your boxes that take, are you prepared
with a simple escape plan from your home?
6. Local & Regional Emergency
Train derailments, power outages,
water main breaks, and chemical spills are all things that can disrupt
city services for days on end, which may leave you without the ability
to go to the store, have clean water, or be safe. Do you have water
stored in your home, or a plan on how to quickly store water in an
emergency?
7. Economic Collapse/sag
When the ‘recession’ hit in 2009-2010, many families
were caught off guard at the soaring prices, the change in consumer
spending, and even the ability to keep paying on a home you thought you
could afford. What happens when there is an even larger collapse of the
economy – do you have food and water and means to grow your own food?
8. War
Most of us in the United States don’t really have a concept of what
war is like, especially if we haven’t served in the military or have
lived abroad in war regions. We might know what war looks like in 20
second snippets on the news and photos in a newspaper, or from stories
we’ve heard from family members. We just have no concept of what living
through war is like, and I bet few of us think that it will ever
actually happen here.
9. Your Family.
If nothing else, look to your spouse and your children. Whether your
preparedness is all encompassing in a bunker in Idaho completely off the
grid to making sure you have 3-4 days of food in your pantry, your
family should be the driving force about why you prepare. It’s your
responsibility as a Mom or a Dad or a Caregiver to make sure that you
can handle whatever life throws at you to the best of your ability.
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