The First Bite - Where Do I Start?

Preparedness can be completely overwhelming. When I talk with people about preparedness, this is the one frustration that I hear. "I just don't know where to start." "I look at all that I need to do and I am completely at a loss as to what to do next". It reminds me of the story about eating an elephant.

How do you eat an elephant? One small bite at a time.

Take it one small piece at a time and over time, it adds up to a whole lot of preparedness. At first, it will seem as though you are not even making any progress at all. Then one day, you will look around and be surprised to see that you have 72 hour kits. Oh look, you have a 3 month supply. Water? I have water on hand for my family. It is mostly a matter of getting started, planning and then working on it regularly.

When I started I read everything I could find. And then I was completely overwhelmed by all that there was to do. In addition, I know that I tend to get distracted by everything and loss focus on the important things and the goals that I set. In order to combat this problem, I decided that I was going to have to set appointments with myself and treat them as though they are just as important as an appointment with someone else. I wouldn't put off meeting a friend for months and that is how I treat my appointments with myself. This may not work for everyone but it works for me. Each week I have 1 1/2 hours where I do nothing but work on preparedness. Sometimes it is planning what I need, sometimes it is organizing, sometimes it is going and picking something up. Remember when I planted tomatoes and peppers (which are doing great, by the way)? That was one of my appointments. Gardening is part of my preparedness plan.

To return to the elephant analogy, taking everything that the 'experts' suggested to I do to be prepared for an emergency, I broke it down into smaller, bite-sized areas and went to work. I decided which to work on, put them on the calendar and went to work. I am amazed at how much I have been able to accomplish in a short time. It has been about 3 years of constant focus and the reward has been peace of mind. We always have places we could do better but I do not worry because I know that we are getting there and eventually whatever is still lacking will be worked on.

The first thing that I worked on was getting a family emegency plan together. This helps my family know what to do if there is an emergency, who to call and where to go. BeReadyUtah.gov is a wonderful site to help with this. You follow the prompts and fill in your information and at the end it will print you out a page that has your family plan on paper plus it also will print out a wallet-sized card that folds up and you can carry with you that has all of the family plan information on it. I loved this! I now have this little card in my wallet that has all our contact information on it for my children, where they will be, where we met if there is a problem, etc. I think it will be helpful if there is a emergency and I forget everyone's phone number (if I can call) or where we meet if I can't get back to the house. And my children have one also. I thought this was a great idea because you could put it in your child's backpack and it would always be there if they needed it. It comes in handy even if there isn't a disaster if they need a family or work number that they don't remember.

Once my husband and I discussed all of the information on BeReadyUtah.gov and came up with a plan, filled out our plan information and printed off our cards, we then sat down with our children and had a family discussion. Realize that my children are teen-agers and college-age kids. They thought we were being a little on the loony side. We took a lot of hassling from them about being overly dramatic about the 'what ifs' and there was a lot of eye rolling and sighing. They are big people, you know, and can take care of themselves. They are grown but I still feel that by the end of the discussion, they learned something and to pacify their mom, they tucked their cards into their wallet or purse. Hopefully, they will keep it with them and never have to use it.

Here are some suggestions for making a family plan and discussing it with your family.

• Go to BeReadyUtah.gov and use their site. They have lots of basic information that is good to know. Their site can help you make an emergency plan, get a 72 hr kit together and has many other resources.
• Fill out your family plan
• Meet with your family members to discuss how to respond to the dangers of fire, severe weather, earthquakes, floods and other emergencies
• Find the safe spots for each type of disaster
• Discuss what to do about power outages and injuries
• Draw a floor plan of your home and mark two escape routes from each room
• Post emergency numbers near the phone
• Teach children when and how to call 911, police and fire
• Pick one out-of-state and one local friend/family member to call in a disaster
• Teach children your phone numbers, home and work
• Pick two reunion locations, one right outside your home, and one away from your neighborhood in case you cannot return.
• Take a basic first aid/CPR class ( http://www.utahredcross.org/general.asp?SN=3167&OP=3370&SUOP=12132&IDCapitulo=I2OD6QV708T ) and take a CERT class ( http://www.provo.org/fire.ppd_certprogram.html )

It sounds simple. It is simple. There's nothing to buy, you don't have to go somewhere to do this. You can do this at home with paper and pencil or a computer. It's just a matter of sitting down and doing it. I think when I did this, it took me about a week to do everything on this list that pertained to my family. Discussing it, finding the information, sitting down and actually putting it on paper, have a family meeting and then put the plan in our emergency binder. After I finished, I felt like a weigh had been lifted from my mind. Hopefully, if there is a problem, my family will at a minimum know where to go to meet and how and who to get in touch with so that we will all know that each other are safe.