How To Be Prepared If An Emergency Impacts Your Family

No one expects to find themselves of their family in an emergency situation, but if you do you’ll want to follow these simple tips.

#1 And most important, have a plan

If you’re not sure where to start, check out FEMA.GOV.

There you can find loads of information to prepare for all sorts of storms and situations specific to your area.

I grew up in Ohio where we had to worry about tornados and blizzards, whereas Courtney grew up in southern California and had to worry about earthquakes.

When we moved to South Carolina, it was both of our first experiences being exposed to hurricanes.

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Important documents

I recommend having a fire safe like this one

to keep all of your important documents such as:

• Birth Certificate
• Social Security Card
• Passport
• Marriage Certificate
• Citizenship Documents
• Any documents that require a seal to be official

Remember that during a storm you may not have access to online documents, but at least have account numbers and phone numbers for those office on hand.

I keep all of these items in a folder that we can grab quickly should we need to evacuate.

Inside the folder it also includes a list of important local phone numbers for the local authorities and utility services.

Please don’t forget to keep documents for your furry family members too.

Food, Water, and Medication

Included on FEMA.GOV is a list of food ideas to keep for your family.

You can also purchase emergency food kits from Amazon.

Because people have a tendency of rushing to the grocery store to purchase all the bottled water, consider some different alternatives.

If you’re like our family, we have quite a few of reusable water bottles and while that may be a great short term solution, it may not be so great long term.

Instead, you can purchase 3 gallon or 5 gallon water jugs from your local grocery store or even Home Depot and you can purchase a pump from Home Depot

As you’re taking stock in your food and water, check your and your family member’s medications to make sure you have enough and if you need a refill get a hold of your medical provider.

Pets

Not only is it important to keep enough food and water for yourself, it’s super important to keep enough food, water and medication for your pets as well.

Should you find yourself in a situation where you need to evacuate, you can use a website like bringfido.com to find pet friendly hotels taking the stress off an already stressful situation.

Power Outage

One of the new additions to our storm prep is the RYOBI 40V 1800-Watt Portable Battery Power Station Inverter Generator and 4-Port Charger with (2) 6.0 Ah Batteries

It can power appliances like your refrigerator, wifi, lamps, TV etc. When you’re not using it for storms you can take it on your camping trip or your next tailgate.

For smaller and handheld devices you can use the RYOBI 18V Inverter charger.

When you need light around your home or you want to move room to room, these RYOBI LED 18volt lights are perfect. They are also dimmable which can help save the battery life.

To keep everything charged, you can use the 3 port 40V Rapid Charge

and the RYOBI 6 port 18V Rapid Charger to get everything ready to go.

Final Tips

Take lots of video and photos of your property and your belongings to document what you have for insurance purposes and if you have time write down serial numbers.

In situations where power is lost, cash will be king and you’ll want to have some on hand if you need to purchase things locally.

It’s better to be proactive and come up with a plan ahead of time instead of being reactive in the moment.

Listen to your local authorities and their instructions on how to safely handle any situations that may arise.

Bottom line, stay safe.