Marshalls Make A Plan

It seems only right to start this journey of preparedness with Making a Plan.  Without a plan, we are much more likely to fail in even getting started, much less making this an effective journey in becoming prepared.  

First, as a family, we'll talk through the many different types of disasters - man-made as well as natural, and establish whether those are of any significant risk in our geographical area.  We live near Washington DC, and so have some typical and even some of those atypical disasters for which we should prepare.  Getting a whole family to sit down and discuss ANYTHING can be difficult considering today's busy schedules.  But getting us all to sit down and talk through DISASTER Scenarios could be even more difficult.  We may try to make this a game of sorts, interspersing more UNrealistic scenarios (the kids LOVE to talk/joke about zombies!) with those more realistic ones, like loss of job, and loss of electricity.

We'll take some time to develop a simple "Shelter in Place" plan, in which we either shelter in the house in general, or even go so far as to shelter in one room within the house for certain disasters.  

As well, we will build  some simple to understand plans for where to go in evacuation-type emergencies.  Immediate threat emergencies might be a house fire or home invasion.  In these cases, our main intention should be to get to immediate safety to a nearby neighbor, and call the authorities.  It will be everyone's goal to get out quick and meet at that rally point.

Alternatively, we will make a plan for a longer distance evacuation.  This includes those cases in which natural disaster like hurricane or winter storm is headed our way, and the authorities have recommended immediate evacuation of the area.  It could also be a case in which terrorist threats have been identified and it has been required, again by authorities, that we evacuate the area.

We've already prepared an "in-vehicle" emergency kit, but we can fine tune that.  

Finally we will take some time this month to build up a solid "go-bag" for each family member.  It may take some additional planning and purchases, but we have most of the items that should go into each.  It's been pretty exciting so far...  we'll see how it goes.

The Marshall Clan