Do you have a emergency preparedness plan? This lady had one, it did not work, why? Read all about here..

  I read an article this morning, the title was "Wildfire season is upon us, are you ready?" I have written blogs about this before, I feel it can't be stressed enough, if it helps just one person it's worth writing about again. The lady's article was pertaining to how she "failed" in her emergency

I first saw it high on the hill behind the house, I looked again
and the monster was upon us. Notice the propane tank away
from the dwelling, it's in a good spot. The trees on the right
may be a problem it appears. 

evacuation planning, she was prepared, however she forgot to tell her family they were participants in the same plan. She had gone through a lot of work putting her disaster preparedness plan in writing, putting together 72 hour kits, phone numbers to contact, it sounds as if she did everything correctly except one thing. She did not include her family, her thinking was she would be in the home when any event occurred.
  As events unfolded, she and her family had left on a long day road trip, her children with the exception of the family's oldest daughter were in the vehicle. Two hours from home, on the road, she received a call from home, the oldest daughter was due in to work that evening. Her daughter was on the other end of the phone, "There is a fire on the hill above the house, it appears to be heading towards the house, if I have to evacuated what do I do?" There it is, Murphy's law in the works, luckily the fire changed course and headed a different direction. The author of the article stated all she could think over and over is "I do have an emergency preparedness plan", fortunately it did all work out for the family. I give the lady a lot of credit for writing about this, it reminds me of the grandson failing 7th grade English, he did the homework, he just didn't hand it in.  Fema has planning down, you can get the planning templates and ideas by clicking here.
  Make a disaster preparedness plan include in it evacuation procedures, phone number of a contact out of the area, list places for family members to meet, detail what do when ordered to evacuate. Keep in mind the spirit of an emergency disaster plan, it is to make it possible for the management of the entire cycle of a unexpected catastrophic event. A plan identifies priorities, levels of capabilities of the family. The plan will spell out various organizations SOP's (standard operating procedures) and EOP's (emergency operations plans), and the procedures they have in effect for use during a large scale disaster situation.

Holy Cow! Chose your poison. 

  All of the expected/unexpected (we expect something to happen, we just don't know what, when or how), can be life altering, a person's residence being destroyed can be ruinous. Part of the planning is to identify the disaster's that are possible to occur at your location. I looked around my semi-rural home site and see the potential for a wild fire, I don't know how inclusive it could be, I put it in my plan. When it comes to flooding, many people do not realize they live in a flood zone, check with your county planning department. Earthquakes happen in every state of the union, write it in your emergency preparedness plans.
 Hurricanes, I lived in Memphis Tennessee for a year when a hurricane visited the Mississippi delta. It was fairly spent by the time it reached Memphis however it was still strong enough to shatter a window causing a serious cut to my upper leg. (Click here for the National Weather Services paper on Hurricanes.) Although not in the path of the storm, I was in the affected area, we can plan for that as well. Tornado's occur in a fairly predictable area, but they have occurred in the central valley of California as well. We had in the California Delta a wind storm in excess of 80 mph, so I plan for a wind storm. I have been in tornado's, hurricanes and typhoons, they are all super wind conditions. It doesn't hurt to add every possible occurrence to your planning, evacuation muster points may change depending on the type of disaster. That's the reason for establishing a contact telephone number out of the area to leave messages. A remote contact is best due to the local lines will be choked up with people calling down the street, when a "busy" signal is received people immediately re-dial causing more congestion.

They are all almost back in the barn, it was a long journey
but the long explanation gave them time to get here. 

  After I brought the cows all around the pasture to get them in the barn I will conclude. Make a comprehensive plan, have your family involved in the planning they must have ownership, practice your evacuation plan, establish an out of area contact for messages and have on hand a 3 day survival kit either pre-packaged or packaged by you and your family. The sooner we get set up for disaster response's the more secure will be in our quest to become as Self Reliant as we possibly can be.  Thanks for reading, leave a comment, suggestion or observation tell me what you think.

jacquesandkate  emergencykitsplus.com