Emergency Preparedness

Our county was under a tornado warning for most of the day yesterday.

Since we live in the mountains, it's not something I EVER expected.

I wasn't too worried, but decided to do what I could to prepare for a possible power outage, which seemed more likely, and take some time to consider the "state" of our emergency preparedness.

My cousin, Erin, called and we formed a plan. Our husbands would stay at work (Todd is on-call this week) and she would come to my house since I have a basement.

Our kids were all at the school, and I realized that I have never sent the emergency kit for each of my kids that the school has asked for. I reassured myself with the fact that Jackie and Dillon's classes were connected, and Brayden was right across the hallway, but none of that would've been as comforting to them as a note from Mom.

I realized that even though I have 72 hour kits, they are outdated and I have nothing in there for a baby. Todd doesn't have any emergency supplies at his office, either.

My back-up plan for cooking without power is my grill. Not only was my propane tank empty, but I realized that during a tornado (or high winds which are common here) I wouldn't be able to use a grill anyway.

I reassured myself that we could live on marshmallows, cooked over the fire in our wood-burning stove :o) ...but our woodpile was completely soaked from three days of rain.

I remembered being in my parents ward on a 5th Sunday when they were discussing emergency preparedness. Someone said that in an emergency, there is a chance that your cell phone may not work in-state, but you may be able to call out-of-state. I don't remember exactly why, but I did call my Mom and make sure she had my mother-in-law's phone number for purposes of communicating if we couldn't make an in-state call. Although, I think this would be more applicable during a really bad earthquake.

Our van had less than 1/2 a tank of gas, the truck was running on fumes, and I had about $20 cash on hand.

Our ward/town has an emergency system in place to check on each other. We have an envelope with colored construction paper inside that we are supposed to put in our window. Green means everyone inside the house is okay. Red means we need emergency help, and Black means there's been a death. There is someone on each block assigned to go around to the houses and quickly check everyone's windows in an emergency. We are supposed to turn our walkie-talkies to a certain channel for communicating.

I didn't know where my envelope of papers was, and our walkie-talkie's were not charged.

The good news is that we DID have flashlights and batteries, AND I even knew where they were.

The even better news is that we didn't even have so much as a windstorm, let alone green skies, hailstones, or a power outage. A tornado was sighted near Bullfrog, which I believe is in our county, but it's over two hours away from us.

I guess I'd better try a little harder with our emergency preparedness, because I wouldn't have as much time to think or prepare for an earthquake or a flash flood, which are MUCH more likely.