Food Storage, Emergency Preparedness and Weekly/Monthly Assignments (Week of March 9th)

Hi Carson Ward Family, Family and Friends,

So much to share this week! I apologize the blog posting is so long this week, but it all needs said. Do not forget the weekly and monthly assignments...

The Rains Came, Damages Came, Flooding Came, Mudslides Came, No Electricity... 
           and Miracles Came Too!

The last four days of this past week brought down pours of rain, lightening, thunder and strong winds to Southern California USA. This was much needed rain to help with our drought, but at the same time with it came damages, flooding, mudslides and in some areas no electricity. At times the sky poured out buckets of rain!

Story...Sunday morning during church the call went out for help for one of our Ward members.
The down pour of rain caused their roof to leak causing a waterfall down the wall of one of their bedrooms, flooding the carpet and padding. After our church meetings the men and the full time missionaries serving in our Ward went home, changed their clothes, grab their tools, hammers, nails, extension cords, ladders, tarps and work trucks. Eleven men and 4 missionaries showed up to help.

The men boarded up the roof where the water was coming in and put a huge tarp over the whole roof and secured it. 

The miracle--that day a man from Iowa, Brother Farmer, was there visiting due to being in town for business for a few weeks. He had been attending another Ward but felt he should come to our Ward on Sunday. As the call went out for help he spoke up and said he was a roofer! Heavenly Father had answered prayers and he came to help.



 

 

After they were done they enjoyed the food brought by the sisters in the Ward. While the men pulled up the carpet and padding, mopped up the water, and started fixing the roof the women were home making sandwiches, soup, and hot chocolate for the hard workers. One sister even brought donuts, a favorite of the men.



The family was so appreciative of those who came to help! Thank you to all who came to help and those sisters who brought food.

Who will come to help when disaster strikes? It will probably not be your local or federal government right away, that can take days, weeks, months. It will be your family, your friends, your church members, your neighbors!

What was learned from the rainy storm week? Each time we face an emergency situation or disaster we learn how well or how well not we are prepared. We learn we do not have things as well organized as they should be, easy to access and all together. Some of our Ward members were without electricity throughout Saturday and the night until early the next morning. We lost our electricity a couple of times during the evening.

I am going to spend a little time on this because it is important. We can learn from others experiences and our own. Some of our Ward members lost their electricity for several hours.

What we learned...Personal Experience...

1. Not to keep our emergency lanterns so far out of reach. They should be in an easy access. Batteries should be stored by these items. I had to get out the step ladder with a flashlight, then climb up to get the lanterns and batteries. As I always stress, keep like items together.
2. Keep important keys where you know they are, easy to access and marked what they are for. We could not find our emergency key to open the electric garage door. Now it is marked and kept in safe secure easy access place with other important keys in a box.
3. We were glad we had a generator so we had light, besides the emergency flashlights and lanterns, and radios. We had light to move around easily. We were able watch television to see what was going on in our area.

What others in our Ward learned...

I asked them... How being prepared helped you? How not being prepared for no electricity effected you?  How did you handle things during that time? What did you learn from this experience?

This is what they shared...

First one: I received your questions below and was surprise because, it was one of the questions we discussed as a family when the lights were out.  Mind you, we were told from our neighbors, that the light won't be coming on until tomorrow evening at 6pm.  Our expression was WOW! Our hair! our make up! my son, said; 'How am I going to shave?  Yes, questions came into our minds!

To answer the Questions below;

1st.  -  I always have CANDLES, lots of candles! I've always been prepared with candles. We kind of had a headache, because the candles were scented!  So a bit of advise, prepare to buy the unscented ones.

2nd. - If we weren't prepared for electricity, we wouldn't have light, to help each other prepare for the night, until the morning light.

3rd. - We made sure we were all comfortable, we slept together in the living room, it was kind of crowded, but we were together. We just talked all night about old times, the present times and our goals for the future, it was such a spiritual feeling.  Something we haven't done in a long time.

4th. - What we learned from this, was no matter what happens, as long as we're together as a family, we can get through anything.

Second one: I think we were pretty well prepared on Saturday, but not enough.
Realized how inconvenient it was to get around.  I couldn't cook much
because our stove is electric.

We didn't realize that our emergency  batteries stock was very low.

I was working in the temple on that day.  I heard that strong thunder
damaged electricity of our whole community for a long time.
Henry was doing all right using candles when I came home to a dark house.
Good thing we have been talking about emergency preparedness
every time your Email comes in.

One thing we learned this time is to check more often what we have
in stock and take care of things that need to be changed or added.
Thank you very much for your reminding us all about important
preparation.

Warning about using candles: Candles are a great resource for light but can be dangerous! Candles can cause fires. They can tip over, if to close to flammable materials they can catch on fire, never light if there is a gas leak or suspicion of one, and they should never be left on unattended. A better resource would be to have 2-3 battery operated LED lanterns. We keep a flashlight in each room. We have hand crank flashlights between our mattresses on each side of our bed. That way if the lights go out we can move around easily in the dark. It is a good idea to store candles too. They are a good source of light, just be careful with them. 

What is the above situations had gone on for a days, weeks, months, would you be able to take care of yourself and your family? What things do you need to be prepared? Discuss it as a family,  make a plan and work towards your goals. 

Weekly Assignment: Emergency Family Bag

This week add the following...we started this one last week, continue to add this items this week...

Good Set of Walkie Talkies-- You will only need one good set. These are not the kids toy type. If you have to evacuate and you take two cars, or the family gets separated, each parent should have one of them so you can communicate. Also keep extra batteries in your Emergency Family Bag. Cells phones and texting may not work. I find these at Big 5 on sale often for about $25-$45. You can also find them on line at amazon.com and other websites. I am going to give you two weeks to work on this one.



CONGRATULATIONS! You have just finished your Emergency Family Bag. Gather everything together, place in the sports bag or backpack you already have or purchased and place it in your car(s) or keep it with your 72 Hour Individual Emergency Preparedness Backpacks. We keep ours in our car.

You should have the following in your Family Emergency Bag: Portable regular or solar radio with extra batteries, street maps of local areas/cities, emergency flares and candles, water proof matches, 2 heat cells, flat fuel folding stove, a first-aid kit with a first-aid book, sun block, insect repellent, small tool kit (regular and Philips screw drivers, wrench, pliers, small hammer), Venture 6 Tool, an extra large water proof tarp, roll of duct tape, hand can opener, crowbar, a small wet stone, a travel size board games or card games, small sewing kit, 1-2 mess kits, basic chow set for each family member, 5 in 1 whistle (or, small mirror, compass and whistle) and a good set of Walkie Talkies. See previous blog postings for information regarding these items and where to purchase them.

Next week we are going to start working on an Emergency Supply Cleaning Bucket.

Monthly March Assignment...Sanitation

This month add items for sanitation in case you cannot use your regular toilet...

1) Portable toilet (emergencyessentials.com for $14.95)

2) Enzyme Packets (You will need several. You can purchase them at emergencyessentials.com, 60 cents a packet). The odor is quite strong, keep them in a large plastic zip lock bag. I store ours in the zip lock bag in our portable toilet.

3) Cat Litter (You can purchase them discount stores like the 99 Cent Store, you will need several bags or other stores.)

4) Large heavy black trash bags (Costco or Sam's Club size)

5) Toilet paper & paper towels (Costco or Sam's Club size)

6) Baby wipes (You can purchase these at discount stores like the 99 Cent Store, Costco or Sam's Club. You should have several stored)

7) Disinfectants--Clorox bleach, Lysol, hand sanitizer, etc. 

8) Privacy Shelter (you can purchase this at emerencyessentials.com for $89.95 or construct your own with a large blanket or ex-large plastic tarp, rope, clothes pins, duct tape, nails and hammer) 

Keep all of these items together in your garage or a home storage shed. 
 

Important Information: Check out the posting "Sanitation" under Postings on the right for more information, why you need these items, how they work (example: enzyme packets), how to use the portable toilet correctly and how to dispose of human waste. 

Emergency Preparedness Ideas

Insurance..An Important Part of Emergency Preparedness

Having worked in the auto/casualty insurance for several years I am very well aware of the issues that face car owners and homeowners (including condo-homeowners, rental property and businesses) and renters. If you have not looked at your policies in awhile, get them out, look them over, and review your coverages with your insurance agent and make sure you understand what coverages you have and do not have.

Did you know...

1) Fire policies like homeowners, renters, etc. do not cover flooding or any type of land movement including mudslides. That is a separate policy called Flood Insurance. If you try to get flood insurance because of impending flooding (storm), the policy does not go into effect until one month after the effect date on the application. Earthquake damage--you need Earthquake Insurance.


 
2) If you roof leaks causing water damage inside your property,the roof damage is not covered (wear and tear), the water damage caused inside should be covered (walls, flooring, etc.). If a wind storm or tornado causes damage to your roof, it may be covered, or at least part of it. Check with your insurance agent to see what your policy covers.




 

3) Cars--if your car(s) are flooded they are totaled. Do not let an insurance company try to repair the
damages. The electrical has been compromised and will cause an electrical fire. Also, rust may become an issue later on. Your car needs to be replaced.

Water damage is serious! If you have water damage in your home you need to call a restoration company to come out, remove the damaged items and start drying out your home. Water inside your walls and dry wall spreads quickly, flooring buckles and can causes serious mold issues if left unattended. Most insurance companies will pay for this service. Check with them first. They may have a company they recommend. For more information on how different types of insurance work, coverages and claims check out the blog posting on the right under "Insurance" or click on the link  "Insurance". 

Do it early...Winterize your home in the Fall for any damages to your roof that might cause leakage and water damage inside your home. Have a roofer come out to inspect your roof for any possible damages, it is usually free. Check all windows and doors for leakage too and replace all weather stripping as needed.

 
Power of Three...First 3 Minutes, First 3 Hours, First 3 Days, First 3 Weeks, First 3 Months, One Year...

Our daughter's Stake in Huntington Beach, California USA has a fabulous Emergency Preparedness Plan. Each month the members can attend a class to learn new emergency preparedness ideas and how to cook with their emergency food. She shared this wonder plan with me. Please click here to read the information. Click on each one to see what you need. Great information!

Purifying Salt Water/Distill

Love this idea. If you live near a lot of salt water (the ocean) try this. You can even do this over a camp fire with a dutch oven and tripod. 


Simple Household Emergency Medical Help...

 
1) Colic in babies--We had a daughter with very intense colic for three months. The doctor said it is like being in labor non-stop or like the pain from a kidney stone. We tried everything, even the prescription the Pediatrician gave us, which seemed to only make it worse. My husband found a great natural treatment for colic in one of his older health books by Adelle Davis, "Let's Get Healthy". You take a little apple juice (about 1/8 a cup) and dissolve a little Brewers Yeast (about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon)  in the apple juice. Place it in the babies bottle. Warm it up slightly. Make sure they drink all of it. In a little while the pain with lessen and sometimes even go away. It really does work! 










 

2) Gatorade--Drinking two glasses of Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost immediately-without the unpleasant side effects caused by traditional pain relievers. Headache are many times caused by dehydration. Gatorade dehydrates quickly.




 

3) Alka Seltzer--Cure urninary tract infections with Alka-Seltzer. Just dissolve two tablets in a glass of water and drink it at the onset of the symptoms. Alka-Seltzer begins eliminating urinary tract infections almost instatntly--even though the product has never been advertised for this use. 





Comments: All your comments, ideas, suggestions and experiences are welcome! We all learn from each other. Thank you for your comments.