Doe's your community planning for disaster management include long term evacuations?

     At the fourth level of disaster response is the long term event causing evacuation or staying at home with no services. After the initial 72 hours that very easily can expand to one or two weeks, the realization is this event could be a permanent situation for a few months or longer.
    We have used our pantry foods first, they lasted for a week, we then used our 72 hour supply of food. We kept the water in a pouch intact, in anticipation of having to use it when walking someplace. At the beginning of the second week the years supply of dehydrated food was opened. Now at this time we can pretty much expect to be feeding our neighbors and perhaps family members that showed up from somewhere else. We have already established ground rules for the "tribe" we created consisting of the neighbors that have stayed. In order to conserve the food a decision was made to make big pots of soup, dehydrated foods make great soup.

Get a big rock with lots of moss on it. 

    It would be a very rare occurrence for an emergency situation to last longer than a month, however when faced with the possibility it is prudent to start to make long term plans. The original plan we put together has now been expended, the long term plan we made is obsolete due to the added members of the community. Great co-operation among the members will have to be maintained, it will be trying. People will have to be assigned jobs or chores, depending on the time of year a garden will have to be planted, livestock found (I'm thinking chickens), firewood and everything needed to sustain ourselves will have to be addressed.
   

The master plan said Water, dang it, Water!

Water will have to be continually purified, there will have to be people dedicated to production of water. Related to that is people making sure there is a continual supply of fuel to keep the water fires going. Water purification will have to be accomplished by boiling water in huge kettles, allowed to cool, then stored in food quality containers.
    What are the chances of an emergency event taking on a life of it's own and being of an exceptionally long length? I don't know, a better question perhaps is how is your community planning for disaster managment? Will it be every man for himself, or is there a written plan somewhere? Too often plans are not recovered until they are needed, it is much better to have one in advance. Community plans are a lot of times posted on line or like where we live at the local post office.
    Many Government and private entities reccomend having at least two weeks survival supplies on hand. The very minimum after that is a two week supply, two weeks is a common evacuation period.

Could you please get the remote for me?

    It would be very difficult to keep enough water fresh and on hand to sustain us longer than a few days, 1/2 gallon of water per day per person is the minimum needed. The actual amount is at least 1 gallon a day, twice that if you have a baby. Unless you live near a lake, river or spring, finding a good source of water will be tough at best. Never use flood water for anything.
   plan. If you are able to provide for 80% of your needs you are doing very very well.
I hope this blog will be food for thought, people no matter how far removed from this thinking should at least make a mental plan. A written plan, a 72 hour kit and a good predictable way to "make" water pure should be a minimum. If you are stranded in your home, you are most likely OK, if in a shelter we will most likely be fine as well. If your evacuation spot is more remote, such as a forest, the challenges will be compounded by either lack or planning or lessened by having a
    Thanks for reading, your comments are welcome always. Thanks
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