When I got started in emergency preparedness, I was overwhelmed with all the different elements to pan for. Do I need to have an evacuation route? A shelter in place plan? A winter storm plan? What about a supply line plan? Do I really need a faraday cage? Nuclear shelter? Gas mask?
I was flooded with information from the mundane to the apocalyptic. I spent hours and more $$$ than I should have on gear that wasn’t essential. If you feel that same overwhelm, never fear! You don’t have to have a plan for every possible scenario. In fact, you really can’t have an emergency preparedness plan for every scenario – life is too unpredictable. But that doesn’t mean you can’t plan for likely scenarios.
Start with making a list of the 3-5 most likely scenarios. Storms, fires, floods, winter weather, heat waves. Look at your local area and what the big weather concerns are for you. Consider personal catastrophe, like job loss, accident or illness. You should also consider human-made disasters like civil unrest, industrial accident or infrastructure failure.
Focus down to the 5 or 7 most likely scenarios for your specific area. Don’t stress about unlikely situations like an EMP or nuclear fallout; instead, focus on the likely emergencies.
What do you need to ride out those likely scenarios? Food and water, fuel and illumination, first aid and medication. My 5 Fundamentals are a great place to start. Grab the free checklist here.
The goal for all our planning is to focus on the things you need now – the essentials – that will serve you through multiple emergency situations. Then, as you have time and money to spend, you can layer more specialized gear (like solar panels, gas masks, generators, etc).
Don’t let all the information (and some apocalyptic talk on the internet) overwhelm you! The best emergency preparedness plan will have layers that are built out, laying a foundation that will serve you though most scenarios, and adding in the specialized gear later on.
Want more info? Check out the full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5pn-eNn51XI
Comments are closed