Are You Prepared for an Emergency?

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 

It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions

in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

--Proverbs 6:6-8 (NIV)

He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely,

But he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.
--Proverbs 10:5 (NASB)

The wise store up choice food and olive oil,

but fools gulp theirs down.

--Proverbs 21:20 (NIV)

Lately I've been seriously thinking about the possibility of a real emergency (major hurricane, tornado, major long-term power failure, national or international financial crisis, man-made disaster (for example, something along the lines of an EMP Attack), terrorist attack in some other form, or you name it).  Natural disasters have occurred with regularity in this country and around the world.  I've been fortunate that the worst I've experienced is a short power outage, a pretty mean snowstorm, and a nasty sand storm with winds over 100 MPH.  None of these led to more than minor inconveniences.  Others in this and other countries have not been so fortunate.

For some time I have been contemplating setting up/purchasing some short- and long-term food storage and perhaps a short-term emergency kit that I could grab, throw in the car, and take off.  I don't know if an emergency will come about or not.  But, it seems to me that it would be a good idea to be prepared.  To that end, I started poking around online to see how best to go about it.  I've found a bunch of stuff, some of it actually helpful.  I had pretty much decided the best way to approach the task is to use freeze-dried foods with a shelf-life of 20 to 30 years as a base for long-term food storage.  I've looked around a few times and found several options for purchase of such food but nothing grabbed me.  That is probably because I don't have a clue what I'm doing - how to decide what food, what quantities, etc.  Tonight I came across The Ready Store which I found very helpful.

If you subscribe to their free ReadyNation Newsletter (which I did out of curiosity), you get free access to their downloadable/printable 13-page "ReadySteps(TM) Worksheets" and their ReadySteps(TM) Workshop Videos which I found quite interesting and valuable.  The video workshop walks you totally through creating a plan, determining how much money it will cost so you can do it over time.  The video workshop talks about both Shelter-in-Place and Grab-N-Go necessities and how to determine which foods and which quantities you need for each.  The one thing that irritated me is the workshop is one continuous workshop split into numerous different videos.  You start out simply clicking the play arrow thingie.  When that video is finished, you have to click next video and play that one and then click next video and play that one and then click next video and play that one -- you get the idea.  It would be nice if it was all one video so you could just pause it if you need a break, or at least give a list of videos so you know how many there are.  That complaint aside, I watched them all (5 or 6 or 7 of them, each about 9 minutes long) and I think it was worth my time.  I first downloaded and printed the worksheets so I could more easily follow along when he talked about each page.  

I do recommend the videos and worksheets.  I think we all should have some kind of an emergency plan in place.  I think the worksheets should give me the guidance I need to start my own Emergency Preparedness Plan.  I imagine I'll be working on implementing it for at least a couple of years as my budget permits.

Blessings,

Mary