How Prepared Are YOU?

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We're somewhat prepared for basic supplies. We have two sources for home heat and our house is wired for a generator (although we've yet to purchase one). My special needs child is diaper dependent so I guess I should make sure his supply is always plentiful. I can barely make it through some days … can't imagine how difficult it would be for parents of more medically challenged kids. This is a very good topic.

One thing I learned this past summer when were evacuated during a fire was to pack the bag with you if there is the slightest chance of being evacuated! I went to work in the next town, the bag was packed and in the kitchen, with all my diabetic supplies. By the time I wanted to come home from work I could no longer get back into town and didn't have any of my supplies with me. I was fortunate that it only took twelve hours for a family member to get out of town with my bag and meet up with me. So lesson learned. When your area is faced with their season of natural disaster carry the medical supply bag with you! and a case of water with some protein bars is also good to have handy.

[...] has started this great discussion over at 5 Minutes for Special Needs. Families with special needs have extra work to get prepared, but all families need to take [...]

We lived in the "when there is an earthquake" zone for 2 years. We were told to prepare to sustain ourselves for 72 hours without outside assistance, including medical. Evacuating is not an option for some disasters.

I was anxious living there then. Tammy's post brings those fear feelings back. A certain amount of problem-solving - for what you don't prepare for is sometimes necessary (Sparks comment above).

Having a discussion with your spouse and other close relatives about the 'what ifs' is good - minimally necessary. Esp if communication systems (cell phones) are impaired also.

Thanks for an important (if nerve-wracking) post, Tammy.

Being that we just went through Hurricane Ike (direct hit), we are REALLY prepared now. We found out after what changes/additions we need, and with the exception of ice and some food as well as clothes, we are completely prepared with a special section in our garage.

When my medically involved son passed away we couldn't find anyone to take our medical supplies and actually dumped what friends wouldn't take. I actually called the oley foundation and they hooked me up with someone who took some of our extra zevex feeding bags otherwise I donated alot to special needs camps-chai lifeline and camp simcha. My friends are constantly asking me to hook them up to people who need equiptment and alot of times my son's therapists were able to find another family.

Mrs. Mac, how did you get your house wired for a generator?

Sparks: Great idea to have a mini bug out bag with you at all times!

Barbara: I won't lie. This subject has kept me awake many, many nights.

Carrie: Spill your guts! What changes did you make? What do you have stored? How is it stored? We wanna know!

As far as being prepared for an emergency, NY State medicaid always gave us enough medical supplies to last 48 hours without electricity. Yes, my son's meds had to be refrigerated so we kept a stash of ice packs in the freezer always and we always kept an extra case of formula and a few cases of bottled water. He on 4 liters of continuous O2 so we had tons of tanks, his concentrator and a huge backup tank both by our apt and my parents house. His feeding pump would have died after 24 hours of not charging so we tried keeping it plugged in as often as possible and I ended up buying a second one for emergencies. After 48 hours I would have to bring him to the hospital, but we were always warned of dangerous whether by our electric company when we signed up for their program to come to medically involved home first in a power outage. He also always had his diaper bag packed with as much medical supplies as possible (hey, my friend a PA actually used most of them one time when treating a car accident victim!) and neurotic me kept a tank in every room in a carry bag with syringes, mask, gloves, scizzors, tape, medicalert printout (my son always had the bracelet on)…etc. just incase we had to evacuate immediately but I had to take the extra tank out of the car when it kept opening when we went over bumps. OH, and medicalert is always really important, it helped us when one of our moronic nurses forgot to turn on his oxygen on a walk and only noticed when a passerby told her my son was blue (he was sating 25) and then she panicked and forgot all his info when 911 arrived.

THERE IS A WEBSITE CALLED…

http://WWW.DIFFERENTNEEDZ.COM

WHERE YOU CAN SELL YOUR SUPPLIES THAT YOU NO LONGER NEED OR EQUIPMENT TOO. I THINK THERE IS A FEE TO SELL (SUCH AS E-BAY) BUT I'M NOT CLEAR ON THE SPECIFICS TO SELL THERE.

We live in New Hampshire and have had 2 natural disasters only 5 months apart. A tornado in July which is totally abnormal for us and an ice storm only a few weeks ago. Both left us without power for 5 days and some of those days we were unable to leave our street because of downed trees and power lines. My 2 yr. old daughter has severe food allergies so we really had a hard time feeding her once our supply ran out. I now have a rubbermaid container full of non perishable food her along with an epi*pen and benadryl.

Well…we haven't gotten our son home from the hospital yet (so far, the emergencies have been whether we can get to the hospital with all the snow!) but it's a good subject to consider, amongst all our planning to get him home. The biggest risks here in Detroit are snow and electricity - our two longest power outages have been summer time rather than winter, so that's a factor to consider.

I have my own medicines together in one place so that they can be retrieved quickly. I've had a medic alert bracelet for years; we have one for the baby when he comes home (though at the rate he's going, it'll need to be bigger by the time he wears it). They have all our emergency info, so worst case we'll have access to that.

We have a generator. We've used it a number of times since we bought it in 2003; it gets started monthly. We'll be on the power company's list for needing power ASAP when we escape the NICU though. We run extension cords from the genny for the important stuff when we're out of power, rather than doing the whole house to conserve power.

We have a gas fireplace which keeps the living room toasty warm if need be, plus enough blankets and what-not to keep the heat confined to the living room if it came to that.

We have a fair amount of food in the freezer and pantry. So, with a generator, we'd last a good long while in that respect. Formula for my son, along with his medical supplies will need to be planned out (though we're rapidly approaching the point where solid food is an option too, so that will change things somewhat).

We have numerous friends within a 5 mile radius, plus the hospital he's currently at is about that same distance. If need be, those friends would let us crash with them, or would help make sure we got to the hospital if we were in danger of running out of supplies.

[...] has started this great discussion over at 5 Minutes for Special Needs. Families with special needs have extra work to get prepared, but all families need to take [...]

Good question. We talk about it alot. When we eventually buy a house we have even talked about buying materials and building a house resistant to wind, fire, earthquake etc. But no, we don't have a plan or supplies.

We get the survival catalogs that sell the knapsacks of supplies or the 1 week to a year supply of food etc.

We will soon, its more important when you're not one or two but an entire family. We do have an apartment with two doors - one in the front of the house and one in the back so that eases our mind a bit.