thoughts for thursday.

my entire week has been spent thinking about all things emergency management related.  i promise i will not bore you to death talking about emergency management.  hmmm.  or should i? 

emergency management.  it's my job.  thrilling stuff, i know.  as you are reading this and commenting on the post, i will be having a review of our county's emergency operations plan.  let's just hope and pray i do not fall down the stairs on my way to the presentation (been there, done that, don't ask), throw up on the laptop during the presentation, or pass out halfway through the review.  so is this where they say you better knock on wood?  :)

anyways, this has got me thinking about all of you.  why?  because i care gosh darnit.  there are many resources out there that can help families prepare for an emergency.  in minnesota, they are on top of their game when it comes to emergency management from the local level up.  however, the most basic planning starts with an individual.  geesh, i'm starting to sound lame.  let's get to the point here.

here are a few questions i have for you:

• does your family have any type of emergency plan?  for example: what to do in the event there was a house fire - do you have a meeting place outside or know the basics about fire safety?  does everyone know who to contact and what numbers to dial in case something has happened? 
• do you have any type of food or supply storage for a disaster/emergency?  i can honestly say that we don't.  i should really do it (i mean, it is part of my job to promote this).
• do you have things like a first aid kit or a fire extinguisher available to members in your household?  if you have a fire extinguisher, does everyone know how to use it?
• is your famiy informed about the types of emergencies that could happen?  i found this checklist about basic safety for cold weather.  hey - i know it is basic, but some people really have to be told, kwim?  just this week, i saw a woman pushing a baby/toddler in a stroller and the kid only had socks on!  it was maybe 20* out!  freakin' crazy!
• parents - if you get a teenaged sitter, do you leave them instructions on what to do if something happens, or do you trust they will do the right thing if something does happen?  in my case, i guess i leave them numbers where to contact me or family that lives nearby, and i make sure they are old enough to have common sense if something were to really go wrong.  i'm comfortable enough with that (all my sitters are family members so i'm super lucky.  gotta love having lots of cousins!).

i know minnesota has a great site to help a family plan for emergencies, but you can also check this out.  it might be something that is important in your household, or it might be something you haven't given much thought too.  i just thought i would throw this out here today to get you all thinking.  on this thursday, i'll be doing a lot of thinking about emergency plans so, i figured you all should too!

i'd love to hear what you've done, what you're doing, or what you will do...to plan for an emergency! 

here are a few other thoughts for thursday bloggers: jessica, kristi, stacy, april, emilie, heather, and michelle.

Comments

[Robyn]

You've got me there. Nothing, Nada, I have a better plan at work than at home, how sad. Seeing as I've had the ems training. We do have a fire extinguisher, and probably enough food for a week or so. I've been meaning to get a fire ladder. We don't have a sitter, but if we did I would leave numbers. I'll have to check out the sites you listed.

[Nicole Barczak]

Nope... we have no plan. What a great topic! I'll have to go through those links.

[amy]

We don't have any food stored. But we do have our "meeting" place and a first aid kit. And my sitter, who is usually my oldest daughter, has a list a mile long of phone numbers!

[MrsPop]

My basic plan is to panic and throw a bunch of sh!t in a bag that sits at the foot of my bed.

I'm terrible.

Oh, and I meme'd you. ;-)

[Mel]

I do not, I'm gonna go with "run like hell" for my plan, after, of course waking my roomates up. If there were to be a fire in the kitchen, however, I do believe I would die because our second story (where all of our bedrooms are) is really high up there with no way to get down!!! We're pretty safe though:) Good luck with your presentation!!!:)

[Cass]

I'm kinda nuts that I'm a huge planner and I in order to be calm (which I like to be) I have to have a plan for worst case scenerio.

We have an emergency plan for the following situations
- Terrorist attack while I'm in the city
- Weather emergency while we're at work in lower Westchester.
- Home based emergency.

I have a first aid kit both in the upstairs bathroom and in the basement. A 10 day supply of bottled water and food in our basement.

In both of our cars we have 2 gallons of water, 1 box of energy bars, extra set of cold weather gear for both of us (hat, gloves, scarf, old sweatshirt), matches, empty gas can just in case, first aid kit and outdoor blanket. And a bag of dry cat food - just in case the boys come with us.

I'm probably still not as prepared as I should be - if something awful really did happen....so I'm going to check out that site.

[michelle]

Yeah, I have nothing. I hate to say that too! I always freak out about how I would get all of us out in case of a fire, all of us sleep on the upper level and it's a long way down out a window. We have 1 flashlight, somewhere. No food stored, nothin! I know we should, and hopefully I will find time to implement something, it could mean my families lives. Thanks for putting these thoughts into my head, it's really something to think about!

[heather]

What a great post Jenny!
Good luck today with everything!!

We don't have real plans in place for anything. It crosses my mind every once in awhile that we should probably do something about that. We do have fire extinguishers on each floor and flashlights strategically stored around the house. Savannah's learned her phone number and address and parents full names things like that. There's one first aid kit upstairs in the linen closet and one in the car (has been great for days at the playground!!). Hmm... that's about it. I need to look over the links you gave us and get on all this! Thanks Jen!!

[jenny's mom]

i really don't have a plan for an emergency. i think when we build our house i will put one into effect because at that time i plan on having grandchildren spending time with us. i want them to know just what to do. so untill then no. i should carry an emergency kit in my truck, i carry extra jackets and a flashlight, and a couple blankets but i should add a few things. it get's rather cold up here in the northland!!!

[jessica]

great, jen, more things to add to my to-do list. ha ha. we don't have a house fire plan. but that would be important, huh. we DO have a plan (given to us from the school) in case of something terrible happening with the nuclear power plant that's like five miles from our house. i should get on the rest of those things. because you just never know. good topic.