All the little lights:

   Have you ever walked into a room in the pitch dark and seen all the little bright lights from all the stuff that's plugged in? I really don't like talking about the old days much, it's in the past and we're moving forward, technology is dragging some of us with it but don't remember even one red light when growing up years ago. Some of the electronic gadgets that are plugged in I don't know the name of even. Other's, like clocks, make me wonder why do we have so many? In fact some of the equipment I have no idea how to use some aspects of.

Most seem to be red, the cable box is green. 

   I got a weather station for Christmas, it's a really cool thing, temperature, rain, time (yes another clock) and it can predict the weather. Everything is working fine, I don't know how to access the prediction part of it. I haven't loaded the app on my phone to enable me to check my weather from remote places. My thought is I get enough information from it on the surface of the supplied monitor, weather that's what I want, what is it like outside now. I have neighbors with weather stations I access with my phone, I really don't need to access mine from somewhere else. Don't get me wrong, I like the instrument a lot, but I have all the weather information I need now.
    If you're like me, I get a ton of notifications every day on my phone, television, my computer and even over the land line. Most of them are important, storm warnings, evacuation, social problem alerts and more. I like technology and I appreciate the alerts. We socialize numerous ways throughout the day, in fact it's hard to imagine the world without the ability to text. Instant communication is now taken for granted, right, wrong or indifferent this is where we are.
   

In a disaster we will lose all of it, for a sustained period of time, or for a very short time. How would we communicate with our family members and other people after losing everything except maybe a cell phone? Included in your emergency preparedness plans should be an informational card each member of the family should have on them at all times. On that card one entry should be how to contact each other upon separation. We must assume the local lines (think cell phone) will be jammed up, everyone will be on their phone, in a panic. On the contact card have the telephone number of a friend or relative who lives out of the area. Inform that person they are the family contact, volunteer to do the same for them, ask them in advance to perform this task of taking the calls. Make sure they know you will call them, not them calling you, the situation will be confusing enough. Upon evacuation, grab your disaster kits and go, call your contact and keep in touch, calling every few hours if people are still missing. The most important is to make sure your loved ones are safe.
Make a contact card, keep it in your wallet and in an emergency use it.

Leave a comment, suggestion or critique. Thanks for reading
jimandkate
emergencykitsplus.com