Questioning Your Readiness

For those of us who have been through a natural disaster, some are all too wise after the event – not having been truly prepared in advance.

The question that I would pose to you regarding your level of preparedness would be; Are you prepared for the disasters that are more likely for your area? Are you aware of the conditions and hazards specific to your community?

I hope these questions will make you look at your disaster preparedness kit and plan from a perspective that will allow you to actually be better prepared and therefore give you better outcomes.

For example, the natural disasters which the state of Queensland  (EMQ; http://www.emergency.qld.gov.au/emq/css/householdplan.asp ) is more prone to are;

• Cyclone
• Severe storm
• Flooding
• Tsunami

With your local challenges in mind, does your disaster preparedness plan cover the need to have regular access to the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia) http://www.bom.gov.au/ , and are you able to understand the reports/information and to have an appropriate plan in place to action if needed.

If the situation does require you to leave your home, are you aware of your local emergency support services and centres? Where would you go? There are many resources available locally to research that can save lives. Discuss your researched plan and detail with your family, rehearse your evacuation plan, who does what, where and when.

The sudden nature of these natural disasters would also mean that you would need a number of emergency kits;

• Comprehensive kit for home and family
• Individual “go kits” to leave urgently
• Compact kit in the car/office for use when needed when away from home

What are the requirements of the different kits? From the volume and weight requirements of storing/carrying food and water – to the need to actually store and carry volume – be aware of new technologies in these areas www.sureaqua.com

I hope that I have given you questions to help you “question”, questions that will give you the skills to prepare effectively.

Are you, in any way, prepared for some kind of disaster to hit your area?  If you stop 100 random people on just about any street in any town or city in any part of the country the answer you will get is, not only NO, but they will also tell you that they really don't know how to get prepared for a disaster coming to their area.  This a very sad but true statement of fact.

It was made very clear, just how unprepared for a disaster people are when it was displayed all over the TV during the Katrina Hurricane disaster that hit and devastated the New Orleans area.  It is also shown when the news reports hurricanes, tornadoes and earth quakes hit an area.  It shows how much people need the bare necessities brought in to them just to be able to survive.  We see these things every year on the TV news.  After seeing these things happening so often you would think that people would want to prepare at least a little, but they haven't.

The very first suggestion I want you to think about is finding out just exactly what kind of natural disaster could hit the part of the country you live in.  Search the Internet to find the history of the area you live in to see what sort of disaster has come to your area in the past.  By knowing what has happened in the past where you live you can prepare to survive that kind of disaster should it return to hit your area again.
If you live near the ocean, a freak hurricane could visit you or even a huge tsunami that came across the ocean from another part of the world, could come crashing in the area where you call home.

Some areas are prone to having tornadoes hit their area fairly regularly, so the people that live there, or move into that area, should prepare to survive a force 5 tornado, and hope they never have to try to live through one, or the mess of the after-mat of something like that.

You will also want to make what preparations you can to survive a not so natural disaster the comes to your area.  Just ask the people in New York about how fast they learned about that with the 9/11 Twin Towers terrorist attack and the after mat of that huge mess. 

Now that you know why you should have some kind of disaster preparedness handy, let's talk about what you need for your emergency supply survival kit.  First you need some kind of water filter or a safe supply of clean drinking water, food (preferably the kind that you can, but don't need to cook or warm up), some means of emergency shelter (like a tent or materials that you can make some sort of tent out of), a light source (candles and flashlights (with the right size batteries)), tools (knife, ax or hatchet, shovel and things like that) and clean changes of clothing.

There are many portable water filter devices available in the market that claim to be able to remove bacteria, giardia, cryptosporidium and viruses out of water.  You do need to read the fine print.  Most won’t guarantee to acceptable levels of 99.99% and above (when including manufacturing quality) nor most have safety switch off mechanisms.  Also make sure the products have been independently tested. 

One such device that exceeds all internationally recognised guidelines, has been independently tested by various governments around the world and has a safety switch-off mechanism is the SureAqua filter. This is a great small device that you use like a straw to drink water through and it filters the water as you are drinking.  You can check out this device on the Internet at http://www.sureaqua.com/water-filters.  You will be amazed at how small it is.  You could keep several of these around for emergencies or just to take camping with you.

The emergency food that I recommend that you get and keep on hand is called MRE's (this means Meals-Ready-To-Eat).  They come in a variety of menus and can be eaten cold (right out of their packaging) or they have a tool for warming them that just takes a little water added to it while it and the main food package is in a plastic sleeve that is included.  This kind of food can be kept for 5 years or longer, depending on how you store it, and it will not spoil, it will be ready to eat whenever you want, or need too.  One web site (http://www.thereadystore.com/mre ) that also sells the food in kits for as few as 3 days or as much as a full years supply.  They also sell packaged water which is good to have in addition to any water filter that you have in your kit.

That web site also sells complete kits for multiple people groups from a couple to a family of 4 or even an emergency kit for helping as many as 50 people for 3 days to a week.

You will need to have a tent or tents capable of keeping you and your family out of the weather when you sleep at night.  Sleeping bags or extra blankets with some kind of waterproof cover will also be needed.

Besides your water filter or packaged water, food, shelter, lighting, a communication device (radio), waterproof matches and tools you will also want to figure out other things that you may find useful if your survival situation is for an extended period of time.  I keep three full kits (complete with MRE food and a portable water filter) packed away just in case I may need them some time in the future. You will probably want to get a small emergency kit to start with and add to it over time.  Then you at least know you will be able to survive should any kind of disaster visit you.

We have all heard it said from our local politicians that buying bottled water is bad for the environment, but, what about the argument that the Water Quality in these bottles could be equal to or lesser than your average tap water?     Take a little personal inventory and ask yourself if you buy the bottled water out of convenience, or, do you buy it because of the quality of the water?     If you answer the latter, versus the former, then pay close to attention to just what you may be ingesting.

For starters, it has been known for some time according to the Natural Resources Defence Council that the bottles from water contribute to the 60 million bottles a day that end up in landfills.     This fact alone would make the average consumer think twice about general Water Quality once the decomposing of the bottles hits the atmosphere.     The facts show that to have purer quality of water a home, attaching a filtration device to your tap is the best solution.

Bottled water may be clean enough when it is first filtered and put into plastic bottles but considering its container, it does not stay that way for long.     In a study that researched the safest known plastic on the market, there was still a high rate of synthetic chemicals leached into the water from the bottle.     Contaminating the Water Quality was unavoidable even in the popular refillable polycarbonate water bottles.

From the website www.WaterWarning.com it is noted that there is no chemically-free way to get great Water Quality from a these plastic bottles.     The facts are that it takes 7 times as much water to make a plastic bottle then the water that it can hold.     Not only is this a waste of our precious resources but of time and money as well.     The best way to get clean drinking water at home is from a home filtration device.

But do you do when not at home?     There is a cost effective solution!   At less than 1 cent per litre, SureAqua have developed a portable water filtration device, unlike many others that truly removes bacteria, viruses and protozoa’s out of water and has a safety cut-off mechanism.    

The way it works is that there is a specifically designed membrane that only let molecules and particles through that are smaller than 0.01 microns that’s an amazingly 5 times smaller than the smallest known virus and a massive 100 times smaller than the smallest commonly known bacteria (1 micron).* 

The most economical, safest and most convenient way to get the best Water Quality to your door, is simply to invest in a home water filtration device and have portable water filtration devices in your handbag, briefcase, car, backpack when not at home.       Take this into consideration for your home and out-of-home needs when you determining whether to purchase a water filtering device or bottled water.    For the fraction of the cost of water bottles, less contamination and less environmental impact these are a real and effective alternative.

Note:  Viruses and bacteria are being discovered every day and this may be inaccurate at the time of reading