Emergency Preparedness

So, the obsessive nesting phase that I went through while pregnant with my daughter (now 19 mos old) finally paid off. My husband thought that I was insane at the time (probably a fair assessment of someone 8 mos prego in July) for making an emergency kit in our basement complete with radio, batteries, flashlights, canned food and 15 gallon jugs of water. He has since come to appreciate me since last week we had a major water main break and 40,000 homes in our area went about 5 days without water.

Luckily, I had my aforementioned 15 gallon jugs of drinking water in my basement and we used every last drop over those 5 days. Mother nature did her part in having provided us with several mounds of snow that had not yet melted so we could use that to fill our toilets. I had plenty of hand sanitizer and baby wipes for hand washing and ‘bathing’.

We were caught up on laundry when it happened and I had plenty of food, paper plates and disposable silverware. So, even though it was a frustrating few days, we survived rather easily.

So, even if you aren’t preparing for world war III, it really does make sense to put together an emergency kit for your family. It could be a water main break or power outage that last for a few days or something much more serious, but having a kit together will make your life much easier during an annoyance or possibly save it during a true disaster. Here is a link to an emergency preparedness checklist: https://www.ready.gov/america/getakit/. Also consider the things that YOUR family may need like: hand sanitizer, baby wipes, formula, paper plates & bowls, etc.

So go out and make your family an emergency kit and NEVER again make fun of any pregnant women who are nesting! One of them could be your neighbor and you may need to borrow a jug of water some day.