How prepared are you?

I have learnt, in my adult life, that people are so hohum when it comes to emergancys, or disasters, they are so "oh it wont happen to me" or "the govt will have a plan, we will be sweet" but WHAT IF something does happen to you?

When the Matata (Bay of Plenty) floods happened, it put me into shock, im from Edgecumbe, a small country town just under 10 minutes away from Matata, i had friends and family affected, and noone was prepared.

If you had 5 minutes to get as much as you could and leave, do you have things prepared to grab? do you have torches, Candles and Matches, blankets, first aid kits in a place to grab very quickly? do you have a small supply of food? water? if you were stuck in your house for a week without power or water, would you survive? do you have enough supplies to last you?

Or do you expect everyone else to provide for you?

As an adult, as a parent, as a mother, i have to look after, provide and care for my children, in an emergancy this is just as important. it doesnt matter about myself and Darryl not eating heaps, but our children still need to be fed, they still need to have water.

We have animals, they need caring for, do you have supplies of pet food?

im not saying you have a whole shed dedicated to "just in case" thats just a bit silly, (and expensive!) but a few bottles of water, some batteries, torches, radio, tins of food, being stored away in a plastic box (or backpacks as some people i know do) doesnt hurt. It doesnt cost much to set up, we started by purchasing a couple of things a week, our local supermarket a few months ago had tins of soup for 25c a tin, so i got heaps of them, beans, spagetti, tins of fish, rice. all these things can feed your family.

i will be honest, i had the shits put up me last night with the Earthquakes we had in Auckland, i went into survival mode, i got my emergancy kit by the door, i double checked all torches, i got blankets and clothing ready, i got water prepared. so if for any reason we had to leave in a hurry, we could, WITH supplies.

I think to be honest i put the shits up some of my friends and family too... but it got them thinking, and i make no apologys for that :)

I am not a sook, or a pussy, or a pedantic freak, i come from a town where Earthquakes are very common, but i also come from a town that has had their share of natural disasters (a huge Earthquake being one of them) but when we have an earthquake in Auckland, a VERY shallow earthquake only 30km off the Orewa coast and 6KM down. It does scare the bejesus out of me, and it does get me even more ready than when i was before.

ok SURE you dont have to be scared shitless and stay home 'just in case' thats just dumb, you dont have to worry every 5 minutes where your kids are, or your husband/wife.

But for goodness sakes, get prepared.

http://www.getthru.govt.nz/Emergency-Survival-Kit.57.0.html

http://www.survive-it.co.nz/

http://www.mcdem.govt.nz/memwebsite.nsf/wpg_URL/Being-Prepared-What-to-do-Index?OpenDocument