Friday, September 10, 2004

Shelter in Place Kit

The Shelter In Place Kit is primarily for ride-it-out disasters, such as blizzards and blackouts.

Since you will be riding it out in your home you have a relatively large amount of space to work store things. Mostly you have everything you need already but getting it all organized beforehand gives you greater peace of mind.

A two week supply of food and water plus other supplies for your entire family. Two weeks is a good length since many of the disasters I have been part of and researched is about how long it takes for things to return to normal. For example the Northeast Icestorm of 1999 shutdown several major cities in the Northeast and Canada for nearly two weeks before they could restore basic services.

Most people have about two weeks supply of food at home at any given time, though they are often missing a staple or two, so keeping a staples list handy and up-to-date is important. Plus a few things like powdered milk and extra frozen meat.
I would also suggest to lay in a three day supply of "sick" food, food that is good when you are sick, such as cans of chicken soup, Gatorade, crackers and Jello. There have been occasions where my family has been really sick, I get something at work and I pass it to my wife a couple of days later who passes it to our daughter and then it mutates and it circles around again the other way. This cycle can take weeks and no one has the energy or desire to make dinner or go even go shopping.

You need to store enough water for everyone the basic amount is 1 gallon per person per day or 14 gallons per person for a two week period or 56 gallons for a family or four for two weeks.
For storing water you already have a nearly perfect storage device right now. You hot water heater. This will give you 30, 40 or even 50 gallons of good drinking water. The only real issue is in the case that the drinking water supply is contaminated. Yes, you can purify most things or boil them out but having am offline backup clean supply is better.
We like to use 2 liter soda bottles, we don't drink that much soda, but when we do we try to get 2 liter bottles which we then clean with hot soapy water dry and then add water and put a couple under every sink for easy access and the rest wherever it will fit.

Most homes have a gas grill for summer-time outdoor cooking, keep an extra bottle of fuel for such occasions when you may have to use it to cook all your meals.

No comments: