Everyone in our area is glued to news coverage concerning the arrival of Gustav. A lot of people are very panicked. Panic is not going to help anyone. Being prepared will. Staying busy before the storm arrives will help you avoid the "worries" also.
Here are a few things to do:
1. Stay in tune with your radio or TV for information, but don't become obsessed.
2. Check to make sure that items on and around your home are secure. If there are things that might go flying in high winds, move them inside.
3. Turn your refrigerator thermostat to its coldest setting. That way if the electricity goes off the food will stay good longer. Keep the door closed!
4. During the storm, avoid using the phone except for serious emergencies.
5. Make sure you have an ample amount of water for purposes such as cleaning and flushing toilets. Fill your bathtub and other large containers with water.
6. Have some cash on hand. During Katrina, electricity outages were a problem and using debit cards were impossible.
7. Charge the batteries on your phones and cameras. Make sure you have extra batteries for important items such as radios.
8. If you haven't bought a weather radio... NOW is the time.
9. Double check your medications. Do you have enough to last you a week? During the last storm we had a hard time getting medication refills because of computer issues.
10. If you are leaving your home to go stay with someone, let your family know.
11. Fill your vehicles with gasoline. If you haven't already done this, be prepared for long lines.
12. I'm checking my Disaster Box: water, food, first aid, flash lights, blankets, socks & underwear, cash, meds, spare keys
13. Laundry. Catch up on your laundry so that you have plenty of clean clothes. If there is no electricity for a few days it will feel good to have clean clothes to wear.
14. Friends and Neighbors. Check on your friends, family and neighbors to see what they are doing. Take care of each other!
God is in control! Keep praying and preparing!
3 comments:
Deanna, this is a great list for disaster preparedness! I think I'm going to do as many of them as I can (batteries, keeping up with meds, keeping the cars full of gas, that kind of thing) now and keep them up until hurricane season is over so, if we get a storm eyeballing us, then I only have to take care of the last-minute stuff that you can't do beforehand. You completely rock.
And, hey, love the new pics of the kids!
My Blackberry is completely screwing up my emails and I just got one from you from like 10 years ago. OK, maybe it was more like a day or two ago...
hmmmm...I'm staying with a friend and her parents are up from Louisiana. We are all prepared. Sadly enough, her ex recently came and stole the only TV she had... bastard. But her mommy and daddy are out buying us a new one now. Because my house is really old, the power is always going out so I said screw that...
What else... we have lots of Hurricane mix if anyone wants to come for special chicken pasta I'm making tomorrow night.
I know I don't have to say this, but be safe. :)
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