Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Be Prepared

The Girl Guide motto, "be prepared," did not mean much to me as an 11 year old girl. It was just another phrase that we repeated each week along with any other verses we had to learn by heart ("I promise to do my best, to do my duty, to God, the Queen, and my country..." -- that was the verse in the 70s. I sincerely hope they've revised it since).

Well, the Girl Guides would be proud now since I'm about to "be prepared." db and I are putting together an emergency kit so that we're prepared for an earthquake should it occur. 
 
I don't need to tell you what's going on in the news right now, and I'm not going to talk about Japan at all except to say that it has brought home the idea of being prepared for such an event.

I had an emergency kit made up, but I've been pilfering items from it for the last few years. Candles, matches, the first aid kit, flashlight, and even the emergency blanket (took that with me to Portland just in case I didn't have something warm to put on immediately after the race) all have been moved or used at some point. So the kit has been depleted and now we're starting over with a checklist.

The emergency kit will be useful as long as we're home but if we're not then what?  I'm also going to put together a small bag of supplies that I can stash at work just in case (this might include running clothes since I can see myself wanting to run home rather than walk).

So tonight is step 1: we're developing an emergency plan and beginning to assemble our emergency kit.

Is there a Girl Guide badge for this? 

5 comments:

radioactivegan said...

I'd be very interested to see your checklist or your completed kit. I don't remember pledging to anything as a Girl Scout, but we did have the same "be prepared" motto. I guess that's a popular one ...

Wandering Coyote said...

This is excellent to hear! I know so many people at the coast who don't have emergency kits. Not good, especially as we've all had such a huge amount of fair warning, even way before the Japan quake the other day. I do know you can buy emergency kits from the Red Cross, and I think they provide a list if you want to do your own.

Karen said...

That's a great idea SP. Sadly, most people won't bother or will tell themselves they have plenty of time to prepare one "soon". Please share your list once you've put it together!

Sadly, Japan is probably THE most earthquake prepared country in the world and if this quake had hit on land, the damage would still have been devestating but there's just no way to prepare for the tsunami that resulted from it striking offshore. If Japan is any example, saying the west coast of North America is unprepared is the biggest understatement ever uttered.

redjane Stephanie Belding said...

yay! Thank you- it makes me anxious, having you guys west side and in the earthquake zone. But what a fun project. I love assembling my First Aid kits and replenishing them; and over the years, I've needed them time and time again. I'd love to see the final product, as well. I think a great list would be a fabulous thing to publish.

S.M. Elliott said...

Good idea, guys. I don't think you get a badge, but you get to be relatively calm and prepared rather than freaked-out if anything happens. I keep a lot of emergency stuff at hand even though not much happens in the prairies; I guess that comes from growing up in ice-stormy and blizzardy Minnesota.