Disaster Preparedness Checklist – Why Bother?

When you think about what is most important to you, what comes to mind?

Your family?

The home you have worked so hard to build?

Too many of us, as we go about caring for our families and building our homes, forget the simple truth that in one moment, everything can change.

We all dislike to think about situations that could potentially harm our family and disrupt our lives.

 

While considering the consequences of hurricanes, earthquakes, famine, epidemics, war and civil unrest are certainly unpleasant, it is asking for trouble to ignore such possibilities.

Why not plan for them instead?

Whether it’s a major disaster or a passing discomfort, emergency preparedness can make all the difference.

For one, I don’t believe in 2012 end of the world theories.

My wake up moment came in March 2011. It was much more real than some Mayan prophecy. The Northern Japan earthquake, with the resulting tsunami and nuclear disaster came out of the blue.

It hasn’t directly endangered our lives – like it has our extended family’s – however it has effected us in other ways, and continues to, up to this day. Water prices are up. Food prices are up. Some sushi is now “fishy” in more than one way.

Now we carefully check which part of Japan a produce has come from before buying – something we’ve never done before.

But most importantly, we now have a list, a much improved food storage, and a plan, just in case something happens. Our area near Nagoya is long overdue for the next big earthquake (just as Tokyo is).

We try not to think about all the things we should have had on our survival preparedness checklist before. Stocking up on them would have been much cheaper before the disaster.

That’s one takeaway I guess – even after the direct danger is over, the economic consequences remain. It helps to be prepared, on the long term too.

All this is not about living in fear and being paranoid. In fact, I find, that being prepared can brings about a sense of peace. You will know that, should disaster strike, you have made a reasonable effort to be ready.

Anyway, back to March 2011. There I was, looking with dismay at my half-prepared  emergency bags, wondering how long we would have lasted on them if we would have had to evacuate. Thankfully we didn’t have to. When Internet was back up again I started researching the topic. Japanese libraries not being my best friend, I turned to the biggest library, the Internet.

More on what I’ve found in the next post, How To Start Your Stockpile Today (and Be a Surviving 10-percenter)