Disaster Preparedness Kits (Corpus Christi, Eagle Pass, Earth: house, employment, schools)

[PopsGuysRule]

Costco has disaster preparedness kits; they're featured in their email ad of today.... ranging from one person to 10 person kits....
'tis the season to peddle those, isn't it?????

When I lived in SoCal (more years than I've lived anywhere else) my various and sundry employers always gave Earthquake Survival Kits away...

we were encouraged to keep them in the trunk of our cars.... ?????
was that the best place for them????
is there a safe place at all to keep them in earthquake country, given that you never know when, where, how bad, how long, etc...???? your car could very easily be buried in rubble......
I had a co-worker who convinced her treating physician to dispense a supply of morphine to keep in her earthquake kits... she was so terrified that if one of her children were seriously injured, she would have to sit there and watch them suffer.... smart cookie this lady was..... she vauce Cherman....

------------------------------------------------------ i used to sneak down in the middle of the night to the trunk of my car and eat the chocolate coated energy bars out of the kits..... welll, if there was no chocolate left in the house that is........
(my other screen name, btw, is chocHollyK..... I love PopsGuys and I love Chocolate.....)
PGR/chocHollyK/Holly, rambling away on a Thursday.....

[Bo]

I saw a stack of Red Cross disaster kits gathering dust on a clearance endcap at Target the other day. A couple of years back, I got one of those emergency radios that's powered by a crank on clearance at Target for 75% off.

I don't think disaster preparedness is top-of-mind here.

[AnthonySA]

Well I wouldn't know what I'd do if we get another magnitude 2.7 quake again!

Joking aside, we're still vulnerable (albeit highly highly highly highly highly unprobable) through:

• Tornadoes (Eagle Pass had an EF3 last year and they're actually less prone to them than we are)
• Hurricanes -- our worst possible scenario would be a powerful hurricane slamming Corpus Christi and moving North/Northwest. Wind models show that we could experience hurricane force winds for several hours here in town in that scenario -- not to mention flooding.
• Flooding -- South Central Texas has been dubbed "Flash Flood Alley" as we're one of the most flash flood prone regions in the country. A lot of this has to do with our limestone composition of the soil which has near zero permeability and the elevation changes between the coastal plains and the Hill Country. We also have a tendency for storm systems to stall out with an overabundance of moisture coming from the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific oceans.

[djw]

Within two months of moving here/into my house we had two hail storms, several tornado warnings, and quite a few power outages. I was new to Texas and had no clue that was the exception. This was right after all the bad hurricanes hit the gulf, too. So I bought two kits from the Red Cross website and update them every year (....which reminds me...).
They have lots of other neat kits available. I also got a safety kit for my mom. She's a do-it-yourselfer and I'm always worried she'll need stitches or something.
Not to mention the "profit" goes to the ARC.

Cheers!

[majormadmax]

The best survival kit is located between your ears!

Best thing you can do in any emergency situation is take a second and think. Think about what is the right next thing to do. If you are sitting in your car facing a road that is covered in rushing water, the decision should be easy. Don't drive through it unless you are absolutely, positively sure how deep it is. An easy gauge is if you can see the road through the water. If you can, most likely it isn't that deep.

The second think you can do is be situationally aware. Check the weather forecast daily, and if there is a chance of bad weather than check it several times a day. Plan ahead, and try not to go out of the house if you can prevent it.

Thirdly, plan ahead. Have a small survival kit in every car. Carry water, basic first aid items, something to eat that will stay edible in the bag, a flashlight, a knife and even a book. During the winter consider keeping a warm blanket in your car. Always make sure your cell phone is charged, and if you are going somewhere off the beaten track, make sure someone knows where you are going and when to expect you to return.

Lastly, educate yourself. Learn some basic survival techniques and first aid. Get a book or a guide on both. Know where the flood plains are and where low-water crossings are located in your area. Research those topics on the Internet. Learn to shoot a gun. OK, maybe that last one is for a serious SHTF situation; but it never hurts to know how.

Sure, you can go into much greater detail, but the above items will probably get you through 95% of the situations most people on this forum might face. Yes, there are some instances where the circumstances may be a bit more extreme; but these simple tips will most likely get you through anything you are likely to face around here.

Cheers! M2

[luckygreeniii]

Originally Posted by majormadmax

The best survival kit is located between your ears!

Best thing you can do in any emergency situation is take a second and think. Think about what is the right next thing to do. If you are sitting in your car facing a road that is covered in rushing water, the decision should be easy. Don't drive through it unless you are absolutely, positively sure how deep it is. An easy gauge is if you can see the road through the water. If you can, most likely it isn't that deep.

The second think you can do is be situationally aware. Check the weather forecast daily, and if there is a chance of bad weather than check it several times a day. Plan ahead, and try not to go out of the house if you can prevent it.

Thirdly, plan ahead. Have a small survival kit in every car. Carry water, basic first aid items, something to eat that will stay edible in the bag, a flashlight, a knife and even a book. During the winter consider keeping a warm blanket in your car. Always make sure your cell phone is charged, and if you are going somewhere off the beaten track, make sure someone knows where you are going and when to expect you to return.

Lastly, educate yourself. Learn some basic survival techniques and first aid. Get a book or a guide on both. Know where the flood plains are and where low-water crossings are located in your area. Research those topics on the Internet. Learn to shoot a gun. OK, maybe that last one is for a serious SHTF situation; but it never hurts to know how.

Sure, you can go into much greater detail, but the above items will probably get you through 95% of the situations most people on this forum might face. Yes, there are some instances where the circumstances may be a bit more extreme; but these simple tips will most likely get you through anything you are likely to face around here.

Cheers! M2

Very good advice!!!! Although I would suggest to people not to drive through any water. There are obviously people that don't have the best judgement in those cases.

[goodmanm]

Aside from flooding our biggest challenge here would be the loss of electricity. When we lived in FL and once in VA we would:

Clean then fill the bathtubs for drinking water.
Non-perishable food for about a week.
Make sure flashlights worked, adequate supply of batteries/candles.
Full propane tanks for the B-BQ.
Enough money to see us through, atms might be out.

[the_dimwit]

I can speak to this issue on two levels:

First, my wife and I (pre-kids) lived in Northern Virginia during and after 9/11. For the first few months after the attacks, we had emergency "go bags" in each vehicle, a meetup point in case we were separated, and a method of communication (basic codewords, really). After a while, we moved the bags into the house but close enough to the garage door for easy access during emergencies. Thankfully, we never had to use them.

Second, there are a LOT more potential emergencies than a hurricane, tornado, or some other natural disaster. Obviously, there are terrorist (or extremist) groups that would like nothing more than disrupt life and/or cause injury. Yes, bombs and airplanes are effective at doing both. But we must consider other forms of attack:

--Loss of communication (landline, cellular, Internet, etc.)
--Loss of basic public services (water treatment, power, natural gas, etc.)
--Loss of mobility (major roads shut or massively congested)
--Loss of education (schools closed due to an attack)
--Loss of employment (companies shut after an attack)
--Etc. etc.

It is important to realize that many attacks can be carried out by means other than explosive. A lot of things we take for granted are networked in some way, and many are connected to the Internet. Cyber attacks, if successfully carried out, could be every bit as effective as a bomb. Therefore, it is a good idea to prepare as best you can.

Pack a bag with enough clothes and gear for 5 days. The bag should also contain a few bottles of water (you can survive on a very small amount of water for short durations), a wind-up radio, flashlight (with spare batteries), and first aid goods.

Food in the form of military-style rations are a good idea. They can withstand temperature extremes and last a very long time. Modern rations are much better than what our grandparents had to eat back in WWII & Korea.

Establish an evacuation route with your significant others and immediate family. Preferably, the evacuation route should consist of a primary and secondary route and lead to a point upwind of the city (in case of air contamination). Discuss procedures for communication during and after the event--remember you may not have cellular phone access. Text messaging may be the only thing available (SMS works differently from voice, and is often under-used during major events, as was the case on 9/11).

Finally, keep yourselves informed as to what is going on "out there." Do some research and learn basic security techniques and procedures--both preventative and reactive. An informed public is a stronger public.

There are many, many resources on the Web for public use, but perhaps some of the best are:
Federal Emergency Management Agency - FEMA's main site with useful information
Emergency Management Institute - FEMA Independent Study Program - FEMA's self-study course list (contains a lot of stuff that may/may not be helpful for any given person, but good to know)
DHS | Citizens (http://www.dhs.gov/xcitizens/ - broken link) - DHS site for citizens (tons of links)

Hopefully this helps...reply or DM for more.

--Dim