Preparedness display up in City Hall

Went to go pay the water bill today and noticed a KnowWhat2Do preparedness display out in the hallway.  DVDs, pamplets, and a small booklet for kids.

KnowWhat2Do is a north central Texas regional emergency response effort for citizens.  The DVD mentioned above is streamable online.

IMO the most important takeaway is the emergency kit planner (pdf).  You may also hear these referred to as 72-hr kits or, if easily portable, bug out bags (BOBs).   I have found that this kind of kit is conveniently storable in a a 5gal "homer" or "pickle" bucket.   One per person.  Stack'em up in the corner, tape the contents list (with expiration dates) to the outside, and remember to rotate food stocks in/out.  A $3 bucket opener will save your fingernails and cussing.

There's also an online emergency planner that you can populate with your specifics, but I am cognizant that not everyone feels comfortable submitting their personal data to quasi-governmental sites.  I got about 3 pages into it and went, "nahhh, I'll do that in OpenOffice instead."

If you need a little bit of motivation, consider these non-paranoid scenarios:

• A run of 100F days cause massive increase in load on the electrical grid, causing rolling blackouts in DFW.    Your house is without power for 48hrs.  Can you get around?  Cook?  Feed your kids?
• Trucker's strike causes infrastructure slowdown.  Grocery stores keep about 3 days of rolling inventory on hand.  Can you feed your family?
• Gas line break disrupts natural gas to your home for 48hrs.  Do you have a way to cook or enough food that can be eaten without cooking?
• Some kind of water main problem disrupts water to your home for 24hrs.  Do you have a bit for hydration, cooking, and hygiene?
• Some kind of algal or other contaminant gets in our water supply from Lavon.  Water flows but is not safe to drink untreated.  Do you have water for hydration?   Have a way to boil or otherwise treat water?  What if there is a simultaneous electrical or gas outage?  

Just like we wear seatbelts but don't plan to get in a wreck, we plan for emergencies we hope never happen.  I humbly suggest that duty to one's family can require more than providing iPhones and Xbox games.  Our fantastically high and thoroughly enjoyable standard of living is a precarious balancing act.  A three legged stool is stable so long as all three legs are present...