Seven Day Challenge - Day 6

This one took me by surprise. I guess I kind of knew it was possible, but the actuality was a bit of a shock. Unfortunately, I was not able to participate, and I know this is one that we need the most work on. My in-laws are coming into town in a couple days and I needed to buy food and focus on getting ready. So, I had to break the rules and go shopping! :-(

We do have 72-hour kits, but the water is separate. To be honest, I was super intimidated by the fact that my husband was at work and I would have had to evacuate with my children alone. This is probably pretty realistic - that my husband would most likely not be home during a day-time disaster. Even he has his own little safety bag he has at his desk with supplies.

So, if I had been able to participate, I would have gone upstairs and grabbed our tent, sleeping bags, and our 72-hour kit bags - more like hauled our bags down because they're heavy - and loaded them into the car. I still have water storage I brought up from the cellar so I would have loaded that into the car along with our external hard drive (that automatically backs up every couple hours), our financial binder and some valuables. The sad thing about evacuating is that  right now I can think of a lot of things that are valuable - our photo albums with photos yet to be scanned, journals, my countless hours of research, writing I've done since I was in 1st grade... What do you do about things like that? Things that are irreplaceable? *sigh*

Anyway, I think we would have done fairly well with this challenge, except for the stress level. It's a good thing I have some essential oils in my purse for anxiety, because I would have really needed it! See, this is why we need more practice, so that it's not so stressful and the kids can even play their part.

Food Storage Made Easy

Seven Day Challenge – Day 6 (Monday)

~ Natural Disaster ~

Evacuation & 72-Hour Kits

A horrible hurricane (or earthquake, or other disaster) is about to hit your area. You have to evacuate within minutes and eat out of your 72 hour kits today. While you were gone your house was destroyed. Lots to think about today.

Goal: Test your family’s evacuation plan and 72 hour kit foods

Today’s Tasks:

• Evacuate your house within 15 minutes of getting today’s email. You do not know if your house will be destroyed while you are gone so plan accordingly. Stay away until after lunchtime
• Eat/drink ONLY out of your 72 hour kits until you return home
• While you are out, make a list of potential reasons you may be forced to evacuate. For each scenario, write down where you would go, what type of stuff you would need in your kits, how long you’d be gone, etc. Use this list to re-evaluate what you may or may not include in your kits.
• Make a list of all of your valuables to submit to your insurance company since your house was destroyed while you were gone (this is more valuable to have BEFORE you actually lose everything)
• Using the daily report card, make a list of things you could do/buy to minimize your losses in a complete house loss (i.e. Fireproof/waterproof safe, computer backup options, safety deposit box for valuables, etc.)
• SHARING TIME: Post a picture or description of one of your 72 hour kit meals on our facebook page or in the blog comments
  
  

Today’s Limitations:

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants
• You can’t eat or drink anything besides what is in your 72 hour kits until dinnertime
• You must stay away from home until after lunch

Advanced Tasks:

• Eat out of your 72 hour kits for dinner too
• Evacuate overnight using only supplies from your disaster kit
• Contact your insurance company and find out details about what would be covered in a total loss situation like this

Need to Buy: Unscented glycerin soap (If you have regular bar soap, even in a ziploc bag, it makes your whole bag reek!), camp dishes?, 50-foot nylon rope, extra shoes for hubby & kids?

Need to Do: Update our home inventory. Relocate our 72-hour kits to the downstairs closet. Keep some water with our kits.

Need to Learn: How to lighten our load and have bags that are easier to carry.