2012 is Your Year to Prepare!

Emily Kerby

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to become more prepared for emergencies.  I’m excited about it!  Have you set a similar resolution?  It’s hard to become prepared all at once, but we can accomplish so much in a whole year.  This is our year to prepare!

Of course, it’s important that we become more specific about our resolution.  Vague ideas don’t usually lead to much accomplishment.  What do you want to achieve by 2013?  Do you want to have a certain amount of food storage?  Do you want to be prepared for different sorts of disasters?  Maybe if you already have your food storage you would like to learn how to cook with it.  What do you know you should be doing, that you haven’t done yet?  What simple steps could you take so that a year from now you can feel confident and peaceful about your capacity to live normally (or even just to survive) during an emergency?

Here are some suggestions for how you can implement a goal to prepare for emergencies during 2012:

-       Have you seen The Stowaway food storage plan from eFoodsDirect? It’s such a good idea!  You don’t have to spend a whole lot, you don’t have to go shopping, or lug big cans around…just pay a little every month and by the end of the year you will have accumulated a whole year’s worth of food storage.  This is such a great idea for anyone who wants to have a food storage goal and wants to stick with it.

-       Cook with your food storage. You might try cooking from food storage for one meal per week, or cooking with food storage for one month straight.   This could be a valuable (and fun) experiment!

-       Make yourself and Emergency Preparedness calendar. For each month, choose a different theme, like “Emergency Supplies,” “First Aid,” “Business Preparedness,” “Financial Preparedness,” “Gardening,” “Fire Safety,” or “Winter Weather.” For each month, focus on your chosen theme, and select a few relevant tasks to complete during the month.

-       Choose a theme for the whole year. Maybe you already have a bigger goal in mind, which could take a whole year to complete.  The Red Cross has many free classes that they offer for volunteers.  If you wanted to become really involved with them, you could take one or two classes each month of the year.  They would love you for it, and by the end of the year you would have learned an awful lot.

-       Read a preparedness related book each month. Especially if you already have a reading list you’ve been meaning to tackle.

-       Develop a habit of being prepared. Decide that every week you will complete at least one task to help you prepare.  You could list these tasks all at the beginning of the year, or come up with them each month.  The important thing is to keep actively preparing.

-       Start a neighborhood preparedness group. You can be the one to make a difference.  Plan a meeting for everyone on your street to attend.  Decide what you want to discuss ahead of time.  Maybe survey your neighbors about their preparedness (eg, what skills do your neighbors have that would be useful in an emergency).  Meet quarterly for short meetings about emergency preparation.  Consider planning a fake emergency.  If there is enough interest, maybe arrange a CERT training for you and your neighbors.

What are your preparedness goals or resolutions for 2012?  How do you plan to achieve them?

This article was posted: Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 1:33 pm

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