Home Emergency Preparedness

This is an article I have updated a few times over the past few years.  I thought that it is worth posting again.

Are you prepared for an emergency?  There are some areas of the world where they have become accustomed to evacuating their homes at a moments notice.  Hurricanes, tornadoes, and forest fires are just some of the   natural disasters that affect people’s lives annually.  As a result, people who live in areas plagued by these events have 72 hour kits that allow them to leave home quickly, and be prepared to live away from home for at least 3 days.  Many have suitcases packed to help them live for up to a week without access to their home.

The basics around a 72 hour emergency kit are:
1. Know the risks
2. Make a plan
3. Get a Kit

Business Emergency Planning

In the past I have posted articles about being personally prepared for an emergency, and my focus was specifically on 72 hour kits and evacuations, whether because of an emergency in your home or a more widespread emergency in the community.

As we have seen in this past couple of weeks, it is very important to be prepared personally, but it also important to have your business prepared for a disaster.

Developing The Plan
Here are some points to consider when developing your Emergency response Plan or Business Continuity Plan:

 - Identify the purpose of your business, who you serve and what you do for them.

 - Identify the critical services you must provide and the resources you need to provide them.

 - Identify the most probable disasters, such as fire, flood, snow storm, electricity outage, phone service outage, lack of staff (sick or can’t travel…).

 - Look at the impacts of the disasters on your business.  Many impacts can be grouped into a few categories: 

• no reduction in resources, 
• a reduction in resources, 
• complete or almost complete lack of resources.

 - These impacts then determine what you can do:

Prepared for an Emergency?

This is an article I have updated a few times over the past few years.  I thought that with the hurricanes shutting down much of the eastern coast this week that it was worth posting again.

Are you prepared for an emergency?  There are some areas of the world where they have become accustomed to evacuating their homes at a moments notice.  Hurricanes, tornadoes, and forest fires are just some of the natural disasters that affect people’s lives annually.  As a result, people who live in areas plagued by these events have 72 hour kits that allow them to leave home quickly, and be prepared to live away from home for at least 3 days.  Many have suitcases packed to help them live for up to a week without access to their home.

The basics around a 72 hour emergency kit are:
1. Know the risks
2. Make a plan
3. Get a Kit

72 Hour Emergency Kits Are Important

This is a repost of an article I wrote back in Nov of 2009.  I thought that with the recent evacuations around Alberta and the Rocky area that it was worth posting again.

Are you prepared for an emergency?  There are some areas of the world where they have become accustomed to evacuating their homes at a moments notice.  Hurricanes, tornadoes, and forest fires are just some of the natural disasters that affect people’s lives annually.  As a result, people who live in areas plagued by these events have 72 hour kits that allow them to leave home quickly, and be prepared to live away from home for at least 3 days.  Many have suitcases packed to help them live for up to a week without access to their home.

The basics around a 72 hour emergency kit are:
1. Know the risks
2. Make a plan
3. Get a Kit

72 Hour Emergency Kit

Are you prepared for an emergency?  There are some areas of the world where they have become accustomed to evacuating their homes at a moments notice.  Hurricanes, tornadoes, and forest fires are just some of the natural disasters that affect people’s lives annually.  As a result, people who live in areas plagued by these events have 72 hour kits that allow them to leave home quickly, and be prepared to live away from home for at least 3 days.  Many have suitcases packed to help them live for up to a week without access to their home.

The basics around a 72 hour emergency kit are:
1. Know the risks
2. Make a plan
3. Get a Kit

Know the Risks – Each person and home is subject to different risks.  While the Rocky Mountain House Region isn’t likely to have a hurricane, we have seen some pretty powerful winds that could knock out