Emergency Preparedness

We are all so relieved. My sister, Rachel down in Houston got through Hurricane Ike relatively unscathed! Well, they still don't have power and likely won't for a few more weeks, but their situation is a lot better than most down there. I am glad they were so well prepared! They were able to secure the windows, have plenty of food and water on hand, power their fridge and cell phones with a generator, and cook on their propane stove. They even took in about 6 evacuees. Here's a picture of all the debris from their front yard. You're a rock star, Rachel!

On Sunday morning, the storm passed through St. Louis. It only lasted about 6 hours and resulted in about 2 1/2 hours of power outage and some minor basement flooding, but it was a real wake up call for us! We went to church as usual, except I had wet hair and probably looked like I had gotten dressed in the dark. My biggest worry was that the month's worth of groceries that we'd purchased at Sam's Club the previous day would go bad. But we were relieved to return from church and find that the power had returned and everything was fine! We felt so blessed.

I'm starting to realize that we'd be in pretty bad shape if we were to have a real emergency. We're starting to build up our 3 month food storage and water supply. But we don't have any way to cook food or power essential electronics should we lose electricity indefinitely. We have one flashlight and some propane lanterns. We also have plenty of blankets and basic first aid supplies. None of it is very organized. I guess preparedness comes with time and we're just getting started.

So, I want other people's thoughts about emergency preparedness. What have you done? What are you planning to do?