So last week here in SoCal, we experienced several rattling earthquakes within less than a 24 hour period. When the first quake hit, I remember just getting into bed, drifting off to sleep only to be awakened by what I thought was a nightmare in which the whole house was shaking violently. Well sure enough, it wasn’t a nightmare. Before I could get up, my husband was in the nursery making sure Jai was ok. Of course he slept through it all just like baby and we checked out the house. Everything was ok. But it got me thinking, what would we have done if it had been worse? Are we really prepared for some freak natural disaster? And now that we have this little human who depends solely on us for his safety and well being, can we put off having an emergency plan any longer?
The next morning at work, we experienced another earthquake and after calmness resumed, I did a quick poll to see who actually had a family emergency plan in place. I was surprised to find that so few did. Most of us don’t plan for the worse case scenarios and don’t think that it can really happen to us. Still, I figured more people living in California would have some sort of plan, with this area and its predisposition to these awful, awful earthquakes that seem to come without any warning (and which I will never ever become used to).
But I guess no matter where you live in the world, the fact is you could encounter a disaster (earthquake, flood, snow storm, hurricane, tornado, power outage), which could potentially leave you and your family without the basics like running water and electricity for days and feeling extremely helpless. In doing some research online, I found that experts recommend that you prepare yourself to be self-sufficient for at least three days after a major disaster hits. They recommend creating an at home emergency kit and one for your car that should be kept in an easily accessible location and which is easy to move, if necessary.
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