Personal Disaster Planning

I suppose it is hard to think about, but personal disaster planning is a very good idea, and one I hope to act on in the near future. This post at the excellent blog, The Well-Timed Period, got me thinking about it, and it makes alot of sense.

By personal disaster planning, I just mean a few simple things, as mentioned in the post. Put together a box of goods, and store it away. Of course, you have to both remember you have it and remember where you put it:-) And even though we live in New England, away from the coast, an area not prone to huge disasters, it still makes sense. It is very conceivable to lose power for a few days after a big snow storm, and we have been known to have minor earthquakes, so why not be ready?

Here's a list off the top of my head:

• Canned, ready-to-eat foods (and can opener!) like soup, beans and the like.
• Flashlight. Maybe get one of those "forever" flashlights that charge by shaking it, as batteries have a shelf life and we're trying to make a "file and forget" box here
• Radio - one of those hand-crank ones for the same reason
• Swiss army knife
• Wipes. A friend of mine gave me a couple of boxes of "adult" wipes that they use at the Boston Marathon for body cleansing. Not sure where you buy these. And maybe throw in a box of regular wipes.
• A couple of gallons of water
• Small bag of dry dog food, as we have a dog and probably always will. And we're not going anywhere without him, either!
• Granola bars. Those sealed packages probably will last a long time too.

See, nothing huge and everything pretty much something you can put away and forget about. Find some kind of box to put them in - not a cardboard one, though, something a little sturdier. Stash it in the cellar or attic and you'll be ready to hunker down for a few days.