Here's the link to Part 1...

OK, I was wondering if Surfergirl was pulling our legs with the mention of zombie attacks! In any case, it's worth mentioning what to do in case of a tornado warning.

Here is a link that might be useful: Emergency Preparedness - Part 1

Thank you all for your advice on where to go during a tornado. I think that the tornado had been spotted a few miles south of the school before they let us out. There's only about like one or two tornados or windstorms a year here, at most. The bus line shut down as well as the school so the students who ride the city buses had to catch lifts with the ones with cars. It was like a panic situation where no one knew what the f was going on.

I can't believe they closed your building on Sept 11, Tally Sue, with the subway being closed too. That was really dangerous. At least your children's school was smart.

At least we all knew our kids were in a safe place, sheltered, and not running around.

That's a blessing. When I reached my car after being kicked out, the first thing I did was call my sister Soleil to see if she had to come home too. She said that she didn't care if she got in trouble and wanted to stay in the school. See, this is why she's got a 4.0. Me? I drive really fast and I have quick reflexes. So I drove home. Which obviously was a bad idea because I also flew part of the way. The only damage was that I had to replace my right front tire. I drove on it the rest of the way home and I wasn't hurt at all. I was really lucky.

Claire - Don't underestimate zombies. Zombies can be caused by many things - voodooism, Indian burial grounds, radiation, and Oprah's Book Club. Always keep a blunt object nearby to strike them. I always keep in my heart the words my grandfather, who was a professional fighter, told me: "Hit them first, and hit them hard."

~Surfer~

Here is the link for some good ideas

Here is a link that might be useful: Dollar Stretcher

I hope all those in the Hurricane area have their supplies all checked out by now!! Keep safe

Yep, car is full of gas, cash in the safe, all prescriptions up to date, valuables in briefcase so they can quickly be put in the car, computer backed up on a drive stick to put in the briefcase, fruitcups in cupboard for trip, cooked food in freezer in case we stay and the power goes out, bandages, ointments, water, candles.

There's a bunch other stuff, but hey, we've got time!

The most valuable tip is to have cash. In 2004 when Hurricane Charley hit, all ATM's closed down due to wind and power failure. Publix grocery store was our hero--they tried to stay open so people could get food. I fed the next door neighbors with grilled meals. We had fun but it would have been better with electricity!

I'm glad you mentioned cash. I think it is a good thing to have all the time especially in small bills.
Are you down on the Tx coast beachlily?

No, minnie, I'm in Central FL. When hurricane season starts, we take inventory and we pay attention. There's a little spot out there now that's forming up. Maybe it will give us some rain!

I forgot how frightened I was during my first hurricane season. A lady who ownes the home behind us is down here right now and was a nervous wreck when Dean formed. She's from N.J. and scared to death! I tried to explain the scenario to her, but somehow I think she and her husband will decide to sell the house. Its a second home and she has never been in FL during "season". Too bad, very nice lady!

The generator is checked and have extra gas and oil. There is plenty of propane for the gas grill and I have a full tank for the gas cooktop. I've started to fill 1/2 gallon milk jugs with water to freeze and pack around food in the freezer. I wished I'd known that hint a couple of years ago. I have plenty of batteries for the radios and flashlights. I invested in a couple of tarps just in case. I've also been praying to the hurricane gods to just send those storms somewhere else, like back to sea! Which was not the case for Frances and Jean, both those girls hit land just 5 miles from our business.
Beachlilly stay safe.

Don't forget those kitty litter jugs for extra water too. good for flushing!!

Add hand sanitizer to the usual list of emergency items because if you go long enough w/o electricity, water distribution systems can fail or be compromised and thus contaminated.

If you have a generator, it should be tested 3-4 times a year. We start ours and run a couple of electric space heaters to be sure it's working properly.

long time since last post. We were probably all wondering if we were prepared enough while those California fire storms were raging. Some people got out with only the clothes on their backs.

I've never heard of being put out in a tornado!

I work at a University and when there's a tornado warning we all head to the lowest level, away from windows. I've been at an indoor mall, too, when this was the procedure. When I was growing up our school did not have a lower level so we were instructed to go into the hallway. Where have you heard of people being put outside for a tornado????? That's crazy!

I'm not sure if this belongs here but for those in the California wildfires, AT&T is charging $300 for their satellite receiver if it was destroyed in the fire.

Here is a link that might be useful: Read more

How strange... My DH happens to be in Louisana this week on a mission trip to work on rebuilding a home damaged by hurrican Rita. He called me tonight and was telling me that he sure wants to be prepared if we ever have to leave in an emergency--- have all our pics scanned onto CD so we can just grab them... important papers together...phone numbers, policy numbers, etc.

Then I come into my office to get on the computer and this is the first thread that I read!! I wonder if 'someone' is trying to give me a message....

Today's paper had a letter-to-the-editor about how people in California lost even the paperwork they'd need to rebuild their lives.

Which means that I need to go through my files, and make a photocopy of every single insurance policy paperwork, pull a single statement from every investment or bank account, make a photocopy of every savings book, etc., and stick them in my fireproof safebox.

I have the big stuff, like birth certificates, passports, etc., in the fireproof box. But in fact, those might be easier to deal wtih than stuff like "can I get to my checking account."

And especially, "can I call my insurance adjuster."

I'm not likely to end up burned out of my home, but few of us think we are.

And even if I never have a fire, at least that info will be in one place.

Talley Sue, pulling one of every statement and account and putting it in a special place in case of emergencies is something I will need to do. That's a very helpful idea and one I'd never thought to do.

I figure, even if the amount is not actually correct (bcs the statement is 3 years old or something, eventually), the account number, the company name, etc., will be there. And I *know* I won't remember where all the retirement accounts I've accumulated over the layoff-ridden years, are.

I was reading that about making a copy of insurance policies, retirement accts, bank accts, etc and thought I needed to do that but then I realized that I never even look at the hard copy of my stuff. I do it all online.

My bank accts, retirement accts, insurance policies,etc are all online. I have made sure from the very beginning to use the same user name and password on all important accts (and they are NOT the same user name and password that I use on everyday websites such as our newspaper, etc), so I can easily access all the accounts without having to think too hard what my user name or password is...

So what I did instead was make a .doc file with a list of all the companies, web address, phone number and address and account number and put this on a flash drive.

I then made a file with all our important medical information on it. This was put onto the flash drive also.

The next thing I did was make a file with the extended family's addresses and phone numbers (Thank goodness for copy and pasting!)

I then put the flash drive into my fireproof safe. To me, that frees up a lot more space in our fireproof safe. It would be very easy to access the info from one of our laptops, the library, hotel, etc

will the flash drive withstand the heat? Bcs the fireproof safe will get HOT, just--not so hot that paper will ignore.

But I can imagine that some media (mediums) or objects will respond differently to the intermittent heat.

And remember you may not have your laptop after the fire.

Will hotels & libraries let you hook up the flash drive; does it need a special receptacle, or just a USB cable? (if the cable, put one of those in there?)

You might be better off with a simple recordable CD.

If all those concerns are either inapplicable or solvable, then the flash drive sounds like a smart idea. You could fit a LOT of things on there--pictures or video of the entire contents of your house, for example.

I like the idea of off-site backup via the Internet, but I always fear the entire company would go out of business, and my backup would vanish.

I suppose you could e-mail it to yourself, and then use your internet mail account's archiving function to stash it there...

I would imagine that a flash drive would be more heat resistant than a CD... plus CDs are more likely to fail or become unreadable.

Libraries, universities, hotels, etc all have computers with usb ports to use. A flash drive just plugs directly into the usb port. A good way of explaining a flash drive is like having your own personal hard drive that is portable. I have one on my keychain that goes everywhere with me. It is a gig so it is big enough to hold anything I need to put on it (transfer lots of stuff from home to work). My kids have flash drives that go back and forth to school with them. To some people, their flash drive is a briefcase.

I rarely walk out the door without my laptop LOL I use it for everything from checking prices when we are shopping (I have sat in Lowe's parking lot more than once, surfing the web to check competitor's prices) to letting the kids watch movies while on the go.

I just copied all the things that are on the flash drive in the safe to my flash drive that is on my key chain... all the important info was less than 1 mg. I also passworded those files so in the slim chance that I lose the flash drive, someone wouldn't have access to our personal acct numbers, etc. Now I have all the info in 2 different locations... Plus it is so much less cumbersome than having all the actual paperwork.

Flash drives are fairly inexpensive. I think when I bought the kids', I paid around $15 for a pack of 2 that were each 512 mgs.

yeah, I'd forgotten the heat issue by the time I got to CDs, and I was just thinking universality.

the USB port has really done a great thing for computing.

That would leave me with only the worrya bout whether I was using a program that I would find on someone else's machine, like Word. My DD does all her schoolwork in Printmaster Gold--an old version of it, even--bcs she likes to do all the graphics stuff, and it's easy to use. But it's not something accessible through any other program.

I used to love Printmaster Gold... it was so much fun!

.doc is pretty universal... you can usually open it in any decent word processing program. You might lose a little bit of formatting but your info will all be there.

How are things with those caught in the recent ice storms? Did you preparations help your out at all? Be intered in hearing from you.
Maybe a hint as to what we should include for those circumstnces?

I've been purging my pantry. I put out two huge boxes of expired dates (2003-2007)cans out in front next to the garage cans last Sunday night for garbage pickup on Monday. The boxes were gone before the G amen even got there. I haven't finished the job yet.

I copied this hint a while back but can't remember from where so I can't give credit where credit is due.

"Here is a tip on how to recharge AA batteries. First you will need a couple of those solar powered sidewalk lights, the kind that are sold at wal-mart. If you have not taken one of these sidewalk lights apart, all it is is a solar charger and a couple of AA batteries. Leave these out in full sun, take the batteries out over night so they do not get drained, then put the batteries back in the next day, after a day or two of charging they should be good to go. At the very least a small radio or AA flashlight can be used. These lights can also be placed in the bathrooms at night instead of using kerosene lanterns (if the power is off.)"

Has anyone Not been prepared for the recent hurricane? No one seems interested in this type of thread.

I just found out that a family down in Galveston had a supply of life jackets and they floated around in the house when the water came up over their heards. Who would have thought life jackets. Also since those down in South Texas are to be without water, gas, ice, electricity, phone service for maybe weeks do we have enough supplies on hand to last that long?

"I just found out that a family down in Galveston had a supply of life jackets and they floated around in the house when the water came up over their heards. Who would have thought life jackets.'

Instead they should have evacuated when they were supposed to....

Is anyone worried about the swine flu becoming a pandemic? If it gets bad, we'll all need supplies to keep our families comfortable in our homes for awhile-- no one would want to go out in public and risk infection. It's a good idea to keep your pantries and medicine cabinets well-stocked. I make sure to always have fever reducers for adults and children on hand and I like to have Gatorade on hand, but we often run out of that. I keep lots of cold and flu meds and throat lozenges too.

Is anyone preparing especially for this possibility? I think I've got it covered with what I already have on hand.

I put a date on my calendar to go through my Emergency Packs, which are the rolling bookbags I have supplies in for each one of us. (The Time is NOW.) Much of it is now outdated, like contacts, solutions, and even ''contact'' numbers. I forgot to include an old pair of reading glasses, so I need to put those in. Putting this on my calendar to repeat yearly was a good reminder to update the supplies, not to mention that it's also helpful in remembering what's in there. I'll be spending the next few days getting current, since peace of mind is what it's all about.

I recently bought some BPA free water containers for a trip we took, so we'd have our own RO water with us to drink. They hold 4 gallons each (I bought two), and we really like them. They are easy to use; I found them the Bass Pro shop.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aqua-Tainer Water Jug

This is an interesting thread. It's nice to see it.

After going south to help after Katrina and seeing the astonishing destruction firsthand, I realized all too clearly that help might not be available for some time if something ever happened in my area. When I got home, I emptied several shelves in my basement and began stocking up on canned food, soups and nonperishable food items. I have been adding things as they occur to me (like pet food and baby wipes for cleaning ourselves if water is unavailable) and using, then replacing items before they age out. I always have Powerade on hand - I think it tastes better than Gatorade, but that's just me - plus packets of powdered electrolite mixes for water, a supply of powdered milk and a variety of big bottles of juices.

I have a large clear plastic bin filled with items I might need for my family during an emergency, everything from a manual can opener, paper plates, cups and napkins to matches and candles, spare batteries and basic medical supplies. Bottles of Purell of course, and old fashioned, full strength Lysol for serious disinfecting. I also have two tarps and a crank powered radio, should we ever need them.

My mother told me about living through a Katrina like storm when she was a small child in the Miami area in the twenties. She remembers seeing dead people floating and not having food for five days. The Red Cross reached them before any other group, giving them food, fresh clothing and much needed reassurance. To this day, Mom keeps her pantry well stocked, just in case of a hurricane. She remembers how awful it was to be hungry.

Interestingly, the head of my county's Emergency Operations Center told me that he believed every household should always have ten days - not just three days - worth of food and supplies on hand in case of an emergency. He felt that people should not depend on someone else to be there for them, basically because no government entity could possible take care of everyone immediately should some unforeseen large disaster take place. It made sense to me. I certainly saw what happened along our gulf coast. I met people who had been stranded in their small hamlet for ten days before outside help arrived. The local fire department kept people alive by rationing out cans of food its members had found and picked out of the debris. Everybody was living under tarps or sleeping in their cars when the National Guard finally arrived.

When I think back to the last large hurricane that hit my area, I remember that my sister-in-law was without power for ten days even though she was on a main road. So many trees had come down taking the wires with them that the power company had an awful time getting everything working again. We were relatively lucky, we only lost our power for a few days.

Another part of your emergency preparedness:

Are your tetanus and other shots up to date? The last thing you need is to be in a crowded shelter and catch something that could have been prevented.

So nice to see some postings on this thread I will get back to post some more of my hints. I have AOL and recently AOL has been so slow connecting to Garden Web and I'd have to go thru Explorer but now it seems to be running faster. Welcome aboard to being prepared!!!