In light of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and the nor'easter on Sandy's heels, it really got me thinking about how truly prepared we were to face a natural disaster that could leave us without power for days or weeks.
In all our efforts to live sustainably and self-sufficiently from our own land, I'm not sure my family has truly examined our level of preparedness if something were to occur in our region. Sure, we have canned food and extra water, but we haven't stockpiled necessities like batteries, flash lights, gasoline, and other essentials. And what we do have we certainly don't have enough of to last several weeks.
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| some of our canned food rations in our pantry |
A few advantages to our ability to survive on our own would be that we have working fireplaces and firewood stocked up that could supply heat if our heating system failed, we have a battery powered radio set up and ready to go, and as long as our chickens are here with us and fed, we could live off our garden, wild greens and other forest edibles, and the hens' eggs/meat for quite a while.
With that said, I'm taking some steps now to prepare an emergency box or case with several needed items corralled together all in one place.
Our list of emergency supplies will include:
-Berkey Water Filter (this can turn any type of water into potable drinking water)
-flash lights, batteries, candles and matches
-a supply of seasoned firewood
-gasoline
-non-perishable canned food and water, manual can opener
-blankets and/or sleeping bags
-plastic tent or other protective covering
-sanitation and first aid supplies
-toilet paper
-knife and shotgun
-paper and pencil
-cooking oil
-aluminum foil
-garbage bags
-tools
-basic baking/cooking supplies
-salt
-fishing supplies
-duct tape
-baking soda and white vinegar (can be used for so many things)
-small safe with important documents
-survival guide book
I'm sure there is so much more I could add to this list. Every so many months, we will try to use up what is in our emergency kit in terms of food and resupply it. We also plan on investing in a generator. Although expensive, a generator is something we could desperately need since our water runs on electricity.
We have most of these things in the house already, but the difficulty is having them grouped together in a way that would be easy to grab and go if our house were to become damaged or uninhabitable.
So, what about you? Do you have an emergency disaster kit already prepared? I'd love to hear your suggestions of other items that would be important to add to this list!
