Jul292010
Be ready for the next disaster
Print 
PDF
image by jcantroot
What natural disasters are most likely to affect you and your family, and are you ready for them? Walk through this simple exercise, and you’ll soon have a master disaster plan in place. First, check out the top disasters that affect the United States.
- Floods
- Hurricanes
- Droughts/water shortages
- Earthquakes
- Tornadoes
- Wildfires
- Blizzards
Other possible disasters include landslides, sinkholes, tsunamis, heat waves, and volcanic eruptions. Take a minute to rearrange these disasters in the order of most likely to least likely where you live. My list looks like this.
- Heat wave
- Drought/water shortage
- Floods
- Tornadoes (In my case, our wild thunderstorms sometimes toss out a microburst or two.)
- Wildfires (Not in my neighborhood but highly likely if we were vacationing in the mountains.)
- Earthquakes
- Blizzards (Again, only if we were up north in the mountains.)
- Hurricanes (Not a chance. Ever.)
Once you’ve identified the most likely natural disasters that might affect you, determine your level of preparedness for at least the top three. The beauty of having a preparedness mindset is that the steps you take to prepare for one type of disaster overlaps and helps you prepare for others.
In my case, a long-term heat wave might result in a power outage. This is my very top concern since it takes two to three weeks for the human body to naturally adjust to higher temperatures. Back in 1995, 700 people died during the five day Chicago heat wave. Imagine how many more people in the Phoenix area would die during a hot summer heat wave without air conditioning, swamp coolers or even simple electric fans. So, our summertime practice is to keep most of the windows covered on hot days and have battery-powered fans on hand. Our portable swamp cooler could run on a generator. I’ve stored water, which is a huge help in staying cool, and our gas grill outside would be helpful in cooking, especially all the meat that would be in our freezer. We might also have the ability to escape the heat by traveling to the mountains for a while. (You’d better believe during the first few minutes of a power outage I’d be checking to make sure it wasn’t an EMP!)
I have plenty of water stored, but long-term droughts have wiped out entire civilizations! It’s not possible to store enough water to last for months or years, and drilling a well on our property isn’t feasible. Our best bet is to relocate to an area not susceptible to this particular disaster. Just a week ago, our local newspaper published a story stating that nearly every county in Arizona is facing a water shortage. When that happens, our first steps will be the logical ones: stop watering the yard and garden, stop washing our vehicles, limit the amount of laundry we do and how often we flush the toilets. I was encouraged to see that our state has a Drought Plan already in place, but I’m not depending on any authorities to do what’s best for me and my family.
It sounds strange that floods would hold such a high place on my list considering that droughts are a real and present concern, but the fact is that in the desert, even a little extra rainfall can result in flash floods. I’ve seen our riverbeds go from dry to roaring rivers, and all that water has got to go somewhere! Our best bet in being prepared for floods is always keeping a close eye on weather reports and being ready to evacuate, with a destination in mind! I can’t overstate how important it is to stay informed.
What are the most likely disasters in your area, and how well prepared are you?
© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.
(17) Readers Comments
Leave a Reply
Advice for new Survival Moms from those who have been around a while
RE: TP storing enough toilet paper for a short term emergency makes s
Even if you aren't living in a car, you need to read these terrific survival tips!
Stopped by to get some information. Right now I'm planning to move t
Walking Onions Invaded My Bug-Out!
Just go out and grab a few whenever you need onions. It is that simple
J. Acevedo
Disasters & emergencies never tell you they are coming. They just drop on your lap like some unwanted relatives!
Being ready should be a part of living. Thanks for the posts!
Le Loup
How about BP oil disasters?!!!
TheSurvivalMom
That's definitely a concern of those who live anywhere near offshore oil rigs. Thanks for the reminder!
rightwingmom
Near the TX coast we mostly prep for hurricanes (which always have several smaller tornadoes), floods, heat waves and droughts.
My most recent concern is also a long-term power outage during a heat wave. Homes and suburbs are no longer designed for ventilation. Exactly the opposite. Any modern home prevents drafts. Subdivisions pack as many homes as possible on tiny lots which creates a wind block.
In my grandmother's day, homes were spread out and you opened up the house and allowed the afternoon breeze to cool it off.
Don't get me started on the radiant heat from asphalt and concrete!
Barbara
Blizzards. We get a couple of small ones every winter, of course, but about every 5-8 we get a real whopper. Just two yrs ago we got 48 inches in 48 hrs. It takes 3 days to shovel out your drive but the city has only plowed the major streets, so if monster truck maniac hasn't been down your street you still can't get out. When you finally can, the trucks haven't made it in to the stores yet, and they are out of everything but the strange stuff.
yeah, Blizzards and drought is my primary concern until the government starts sending out the jack-booted Gestapo, that is.
LizLong
One other one is low probability, but so deadly if it happens that anyone near a probable target should be prepared for it: nuclear bomb or power plant accident. We live close enough to DC that an attack there would definitely affect our area. I have family not far from Three Mile Island. If you're actually in DC, well, good luck. But if you're at least a little outside, the precautions aren't really terribly expensive or difficult in advance, so I do think it bears inclusion if you're in a probable target area.
elt2jv
I wouldn't worry about power plant accidents. I work at Wolf Creek in Kansas and am familiar with the design. Accidents like Chernobyl-4, Windscale and others are not possible with NRC approved designs. Plants can suffer casualties, but not explosions resulting in radiological release. I know people at TMI; nothing to fear there.
Accidents with waste transport, dirty bombs or full scale atomic war are more likely than a power plant disaster that endangers the surrounding area. I agree that you'd want to be out of a target area. D.C. might as well ave a bullseye painted on it. Kansas is nice if you're looking to relocate.
MikeLaws
My three are:
Blizzards
Tornados
Flood (But this is a rare one)
I live in OH so not many other concerns. I'm lucky to have a fresh water spring on my property so any water shortage might not affect me as hard.
Gabriel
Being ready helped me to live by the 8.8 earthquake on 02/27. Besides the earthquake there was water shortage, no electricity, no ATM, no subway. But I had stored water, flashlight, emergency cash and a good pair of trekking shoes (priceless).
TheSurvivalMom
Wow! That was quite an earthquake, Gabriel. Are you currently in Chile?
Gabriel
Yes, I live here in Chile.
Hawaii Honey
Living on an island in the middle of the Pacific, we have had our share of hurricanes, earthquakes, and most recently, a tsunami scare in Feb. generated from the giant earthquake in Chile. You would think that most people would be disaster ready from past history, but by the long lines at the gas station at 4 AM (we have "vertical" evacuations here) that Feb. morning, and the bare store shelves by mid-afternoon, the fact is , most people are not. Unfortunately, the daily gorgeous weather gives a false sense of security here. One of the scariest things with the most recent earthquake 2 years ago, was that the Utilities Co. shut off the water to prevent damage to the pipes, so by 6 PM, we had no water running out of our faucets. Do you think that propelled people into preparedness? Nope! When I talk to my neighbors, they are still in denial. I think these are just little warning thumps up the side of the head to prepare for the bigger disaster that might be ahead of us. Not to be pessimistic, but an EMP would be an unthinkable disaster on this island of a million people. I pray that our upcoming political race yields a leader with a plan of action for a disaster such as that. I would like to think we would all still show the "Aloha" spirit, but desperate times produce desperate people.
Harold
hmmm…. Tornadoes for sure. Heat is a problem; 106 today and we're good on water unless the lake goes dry. The real problem is winter. Not all the roads are paved and there is no way to go to town without negotiating a hill. Easy to slide into a ditch, with spotty cell coverage you might be there for awhile. Good exercise.
MamaLaundry
Topping my list is:
1) Hurricanes
2) Heat, heat and more heat
3) Water/Shortage Drought
What a good exercise. I'm new to the whole preparedness mindset and didn't think to rank them in order of most to least likely.
In fact, I've just checked up on Hurricane Earl and it looks like he might possibly pay us a visit. (I'm in NC). So that is definitely on my to-do list today: to ensure our water storage is a-okay and see what kind of meals we are eating if the power goes out.
-Lauren
Freddie
Sometimes it is too frightening to think about disasters and most often depressing especially if you are located in disaster prone areas and you don't have much resources to help you get prepared. Mitigation and preparation although pays-off in the long run it is still costly and oftentimes forgotten. Thank you for the simple tips and the reminder.
Mark
Sometimes we strive hard to prepare for disaster yet the main problem is that we live in high risk areas. If we can only have the resources to relocate to less prone areas and has the resources to build more resilient homes we can be at a higher percentage of keeping our families safe. Disaster risk education is one thing, resource availability is another and sound disaster management policies and programs in the community is of vital importance.
christopherclausen
There are a couple of disaster types not listed –
solar storm
crop failure
oil and gasoline shortage
This is definitely a good list though. I have a blog which focuses on tracking potentially distasterous scenarios. You can take a look at http://christopherclausen.wordpress.com/