What we do or plan for before an event is going to give us tools and abilities we can use during and after something has happen. For most of us the easiest thing we can do is pay attention to the news. Being stuck in traffic is a great time to catch up on current events and the weather. If you know something bad is coming or might come your way, you can place yourself in a better position to deal with incident. Simply taking a few minutes out of the day to watch or listen to the news is a great habit to get into. Either on the TV or radio, you tune in for the first fifteen minutes at the top of the hour and you have heard or seen all the important information. Awareness is a key trait to develop and once you do develop this trait you might be surprised by how many people are completely unaware of what is happening around them.
After awareness comes acceptance. Somewhere at sometime, somthing is going to happen to you. Yes at some point something will reach out and ruin your day. Accepting this now and realizing something is going to happen will help you not experience denial when the event does occur. To many people become stuck in denial during an emergency they never do anything to help themselves. They never find a safe place to go to and become victims of the event.
For all of us the first safe place we think of is home. A few steps can help to make home a safe place and help us during a bad day. If you own your home make sure you have the proper insurance! For us this means we have to buy earthquake insurance, for you and the area you live in this might mean buying flood insurance. Make sure you have insurance even if you rent. There are insurance policies for renters. Same thing goes for you vehicle, get the highest amount of coverage you can afford. In some cases you can get a deal by combining the two. This planning before the event gives you tools to use after the event, do not short yourself before hand.
Put some supplies away. Couple of cases of water and some candles could be the difference when the time comes. If you have a wood burning fireplace or stove get them cleaned up and put away some wood. You would be surprised how cold your home can be when the power or gas is out. Buy a couple of extra blankets and a board game or two to help stay warm and give you something to do. Having a few packets of hot coco hiding with some marsh mellows is a wonderful surprise to have while sitting around waiting for a storm to blow over. Add a tarp or two, some nails and a hammer to cover up items or cover over a leaking roof.
Figure out where your second safe place would be if you had to leave your house or apartment. How far away is mom's house? How would you get there? How soon would you have to leave? Start to save up a 'rainy day fund' incase you have to leave and find yourself looking for a motel room. Being stuck sleeping in a car is no fun, especially if you have little ones!
If you can find your safe place before something happens. Please, please do not stay somewhere until it is to late! Avoid having to put your survival skills to use if you can. Do not stay if you do not have to! I can not say this any more plainly. Do not be like the people during Katrina who found themselves trying to survive in a flooded city! Especially if you have kids. Leave early and beat the rush!
During an incident find your safe place. Tornado is coming? Find shelter! By being aware of what is going on you should know the storm is coming. By being aware you should know where the nearest shelter. Your car breaks down on the freeway? Find the safe spot. Allowing your car to stop in the middle of the freeway is not a safe spot. The odds of you being hit by others cars is way too high. Being aware while you are driving and your quick acceptance of something bad happening will hopefully allow you to make it to the side of the road. Being out of your car and up the embankment or on the other side of the railing is safer than sitting in your car while you wait for Triple A. If you do not have something like AAA you should. If you do not keep a charger for your phone in the car you should. Add an extra jacket and maybe an umbrella in to the car. These might also help you in your safe place away from the road.
After the immediate danger is over you are going to either like yourself or be really ticked off at yourself..... Why? Because everything you have done before this point or have not done will come back to haunt you. Never bought a pet carrier for your cat? Now your daughter's favorite animal has run off when you stopped for gas or arrived at grandmother's house. Maybe you thought you would save money and not include rental car coverage with your car insurance? Well then you get to pay for the rental car out of your own pocket....... I did this and hated myself for the whole two weeks it took for my truck to get out of the shop.
No matter if the situation is a natural disaster, car accident, power outage or a predator following you down a jogging trail there is always a safe place to go to. We just need to be aware of where 'safe' is, we need to accept there could be a need for the safe place and we need to give ourselves the abilities to use the safe place effectively.
As always,
Stay Safe!
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