After dealing with my youngest throwing up sporadically for three days, I wonder how well we will do in real emergencies. My wife could barely deal with the smell tonight. I guess my hay fever isn't so bad after all since I can't smell it.

This got me thinking about what I have in my 72 hour kits. I have a pretty good first aid kit, but I don't have any Pepto or Imodium. I'm going to have to add that to my kit. Think about it. You are dealing with a disaster, there is no aid available, and you or your kids have diarrhea or are throwing up. Not only is it unpleasant, it could become life threatening.

How much water do you need in a kit? The American Red Cross recommends a gallon per day, but if you have to hoof it out of Dodge, are you going to be able to carry that much, especially if you have to carry for children too? My wife and I each have four liters in our packs, and my older children have at least two liters. Why liters you ask? That bottle of soda you finished off just needs a soapy rinse and some hot water put into it and you have a safe bottle of water. Probably better than the bottled water from the store. One word of advise. Don't use anything but a clear bottle. It is not that other bottles won't work, but you can't see what's growing in it if it isn't clear.

For water storage in your home, you can also use these bottles as a cheap alternative to more expensive water containers. Don't store them directly on concrete. The lime in the concrete will leach into the container. I use the boxes the bottles come in to stack them, and I got some second hand rubber tiles to cover the floor in my storage room to create an extra buffer.

- Mark

Value is based on perception.

72 Hours of Fun and Excitement

It is often said that everyone should have a 72-hour emergency kit. "Why 72 hours?" you might ask. The general rule is that it takes about 72 hours, or three days, for services to begin to be restored. If services such as water, gas, electricity and cable TV are missing from your life for more than a day, how excited will you be?

Are you willing to leave your children without food and clean water for that long? Do you think that the government will be there to save the day when it happens? After hurricane Katrina, probably not. If many of the people who sat at the Super Dome for three days had possessed a 72-hour kit, their experience would have been vastly different. I believe that two main factors kept them from being prepared, namely ignorance and apathy.

I hope to help provide information to remedy the first problem, but the only person who can resolve the last is yourself. Tomorrow I will go through some of the things I have learned in creating 72-hour kits for my family. Note that it is a plural noun, not singular.

- Mark

Value is based on perception.

What's the Emergency Today?

Too often we think that an emergency is going to be a major disaster for everyone, but sometimes the emergency that you need to be prepared for is just your own. Local emergencies get really nasty when they only effect you.

What would you do if you had a fire that only partially destroyed your home? What if a water line broke, or the plumbing backed up? What if your spouse became ill suddenly and you had to fend not only for yourself, but also for her and your children for several days? How often have you just worried about an earthquake, wild fire, or hurricane?

Emergency preparedness is a mindset, not just physical preparation. Having a plan is probably more important than having stuff ready to go. Without the plan, where are you going, besides insane? Try to take of five children for several days without their normal caregiver and you may quickly learn what an emergency is like.

Even if the emergency is different than what you have planned for, the preparation you have made mentally will pay dividends. Having and knowing your plan will bring a sense of structure and hopefully some peace when things go wrong. Having worked through what you might need to do can help calm you when things happen, even though you didn't necessarily plan for the current emergency.

Definitions of Preparedness

Some might wonder what preparedness is about. It might help to define what it means.

Preparedness applies to many things, and I try to make it as broad as possible for my family. You can prepare for emergency situations caused by natural disasters. Preparing for hard times caused by job loss is another important effort. Preparation for unexpected illness can save you and your family a lot of heartache when trying to deal with the stress of the illness.

What will you do if the economy tanks? How will you deal with emotional loss? Do you know what to do in case of civil unrest? How do you deal with unexpected changes in government or politics? Will you retreat from society at the loss of a loved one?

Over the next few days, I will start to explain some things that we can all do to prepare for emergency situations. We'll see where things go from there.

Intro to Preparation

At the request of several friends, I am endeavoring to provide a blog of useful information on how to be prepared in our current economic state. Though I have been working at preparing my family for years, I have tried to do so following some very simple guidelines. I hope that you may find my ideas of use in your own life.