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Emergency Preparedness Insight Articles
"Preparation through education is less costly than learning through tragedy" - Max Mayfield, Director National Hurricane Center

The following articles have been produced to help you. You may use them for non-commercial applications. Every effort has been made to be accurate in the information presented. If errors are found please email us at sales@beprepared.com.

Information provided is not comprehensive but designed to give helpful hints and suggestions. Any ideas for more articles please email us at the above email.

Education and Planning

• Emergency Education Quiz
  How's your preparedness savvy? Take this quiz to find out what you do and don't know about being prepared.
  
  
• Evacuation Plan
  This explains how to make your own home evacuation plan in case of fire or earthquake.
  
  
• Be Prepared!
  Appreciate modern conveniences but still learn to be prepared for anything.
  
  
• Emergency Phone Numbers Bring Quick Response
  We have put together an easy-to-use form with our suggestions of important numbers to have, as well as spaces for your own numbers.
  
  
• Preparing the Family Pet for an Emergency
  Getting your family prepared for emergencies should be your foremost preparedness concern, but what about the family pet?
  
  
• Emergency Preparedness at Work and School
  Emergencies and disasters can occur at any time and anywhere.
  
  
• New Year Preparedness Goals
  Gain insight into planning and accomplishing preparedness goals, not just for the New Year.
  
  
• Taking Baby Steps in Preparedness
  Learn how to build food storage when money is tight.
  
  
• Disaster Preparedness For Your Home in Three Easy Steps
  This will help you make an emergency evacuation plan and give you tips on seeing the dangers that exist in your home.
  
  
• Holiday Safety Tips
  With a few simple precautions, your home can be safe for your family.
  
  
• Emergency Fire Safety
  Do you have a fire evacuation plan for your family? Did you know that according to experts, fire is a major cause of death in North America?
  
  
• Car Preparedness and Safety
  The unexpected can happen anywhere. With the increasing amount of time we spend in our car, it is wise to have an auto emergency kit. A suggested list will help you get started.
  
  
• Emergency Financial Planning
  Steps are outlined to help you be wise and get in control of your finance
  
  
• Don't Forget, Check your Emergency Kit!
  It is important to check your emergency kit to make sure that it is fresh and in usable condition.
  
  

The First Three Days of an Emergency-72 Hour Kits

• Sleep When the Wind Blows
  A classic story helps you understand the wisdom of preparing ahead of time.
  
  
• 72-Hour Food Planning
  If you plan ahead, you can have meals that are not only high in energy, but also nutritious.
  
  
• 72-Hour Check List
  A checklist of suggested items for your 72-hour kit.
  
  
• Outdoor Cooking Tips
  It is important to learn to cook without electricity before the loss of this important resource. Have fun learning to cook outdoors and gain the skill before an emergency occurs.
  
  
• Special Considerations for Emergency Kits
  Babies and small children, the elderly, and those with special medical needs should be considered when preparing your 72-hour kits.
  
  
• Preserving and Proving Your Identity and Worth in an Emergency
  This article stresses the importance of storing documents in your 72-hour supplies.
  
  

Water Storage and Replenishment

• Water Storage Options
  In most emergency situations, fresh drinking water is the most important item you can store. It is recommended at home to have both portable and stationary emergency water storage.
  
  
• Practicing Water Conservation
  We take many things for granted, but when they become scarce, we sit up and become aware. One of these commodities is water.
  
  
• Water Filtration and Purification
  Water is so essential for survival, it is wise to have both a stored supply of drinking water and a way to acquire water for your continuing needs.
  
  
• Emergency Essential's Water Challenge-One Gallon of Water for a Day
  It is far less stressful to challenge yourself and your family to survive on your supplies voluntarily than to have to turn to those supplies during an emergency.
  
  

Food Storage

• The Wisdom of Food Storage
  Having food storage is another form of insurance for you and your family.
  
  
• Eat What You Store, Store What You Eat
  Simple suggestions to help you incorporate food storage items into everyday cooking, and help you understand why you should.
  
  
• Making Food Storage Not So Scary
  Overcome your fears about investing in food storage.
  
  
• The Seven Major Mistakes in Food Storage
  Variety, extended staples, vitamins, psychological foods, balance, containers, and using your storage are the areas where mistakes are most often made.
  
  
• Emergency Comfort Foods
  When disasters occur, they can completely change the way you live your life. In order to make the situation easier for you and your family, we recommend storing some "comfort foods."
  
  
• Keep Life in Your Food Storage
  Your food storage program must be designed to sustain life. Here are a few suggestions for keeping life in your food storage program.
  
  
• What Are Your Priorities?
  It is wise to evaluate your priorities and make a decision about purchasing emergency supplies and food storage?
  
  
• Planning to Use Your Food Storage
  Four questions you should keep in mind when planning your food storage so you'll learn to rotate and not waste this emergency resource.
  
  
• Storing Non-Food Items
  Remember to plan to store more than just food in your one-year supply.
  
  
• Making Cents with Good Nutrition
  Eating well is a real challenge these days. An even bigger accomplishment is eating well on a budget.
  
  
• Which Method of Storing is the Best?
  Many people want to know which method is the best for storing their food, and depending on whom you ask, you will probably get a different answer.
  
  
• Storing Your Food Storage
  When considering where to put your food storage, there are a few very important facts you need to remember.
  
  
• Storage on a Shoestring
  With the daily cost of living tugging at their pocketbooks, many people wonder how in the world they can afford one more item to be added to their budget.
  
  
• Food Dehydration
  There is nothing perhaps so satisfying as "putting up" your own food.
  
  
• Recognizing the Importance of Food Storage
  We challenge you to live off your food storage for one week.
  
  
• Rotating Your Food Storage
  Learn how to rotate your food storage and maintain your investment.
  
  
• Outdoor Cooking with Food Storage
  Rotate your food storage on camp outs. Includes recipes.
  
  
• Growing Your Own Food
  If you don't have a lot of space or the soil in your area is poor, you may want to consider growing your garden in containers as an alternative form of gardening.
  
  
• All About Wheat
  This teaches what wheat to store and how to store it.
  
  
• Wheat's a Treat
  This discusses the health benefits of wheat. Recipe included.
  
  
• Breads and Cereals
  This helps you understand the healthful nature of grains in your daily life and the varieties available.
  
  
• The Natural Sweetness of Honey
  Making honey a part of your food storage will provide many benefits.
  
  
• Bean Cuisine-Bean Flour!
  Dry beans ground to a flour in an ordinary wheat mill or grinder can be turned into fantastically delicious fat-free soups, gravies and sauces in only 3 minutes!
  
  
• Textured Vegetable Protein… What is it?
  Why and how to use Textured Vegetable Protein-includes recipes.
  
  
• Textured Vegetable Protein: A Meat Substitute Your Family Will Love!
  Explains how Textured Vegetable Protein is made and its many uses.
  
  
• Meat Substitute
  How to get protein in your emergency diet without using meat.
  
  
• Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MRE's)
  What they are and how you can use them. Includes a storage chart based on storage temperature.
  
  

Warmth, Shelter and Clothing

• Emergency Warmth
  You can get hypothermia in as little as 20 minutes if you are not dressed properly.
  
  
• Emergency Shelters
  After food and water, shelter is the top priority in survival. A shelter will not only provide you with protection from the elements and possibly animals, but will provide you with warmth.
  
  
• Staying Warm
  Few discomforts are more annoying and potentially dangerous than being cold.
  
  

Light, Tools, Communication

• Light During an Emergency
  Light is crucial during an emergency. A review of different light sources is given in this article.
  
  
• Communicating During and After a Disaster
  Learning how to communicate during and after a disaster will help you gain confidence in your ability to survive an emergency.
  
  

First Aid and Sanitation

• First Aid First!
  Answers to common questions about first aid.
  
  
• First Aid for Wounds
  The sight of blood coming from a wound--whether it is yours or someone else's--can be very upsetting for most people.
  
  
• How Staying Fit Will Help You in an Emergency
  Having and maintaining a healthy body is one of the best ways you can prepare yourself for emergencies.
  
  
• A Life-Changing Experience
  Would you know what to do if someone needed medical assistance?
  
  
• Poison Prevention
  More than a million cases of poisoning are reported to Poison Control Centers annually in the United States.
  
  
• Feeling Burned?
  The value of a product called BurnFree.
  
  
• Sanitation and Hygiene During an Emergency
  During an emergency, it is important to your survival to keep yourself healthy. The best way to maintain health is to keep yourself and your living area both clean and sanitary.
  
  

Disaster Preparedness

• Evacuation Plan
  This teaches how to make your own home evacuation plan in case of fire or earthquake.
  
  
• Safeguard Your Documents Against Fire & Flood
  Your identity and other precious documents can sometimes be more important than your home.
  
  
• Signals and Sirens
  Understanding warning sirens and knowing how to signal for help are important facets of your preparedness knowledge.
  
  
• Child Safety
  Disasters can cause panic, fear, and greatly traumatize those involved. Preparation for these conditions ahead of time can minimize the stress of the event, and promote safety for you and your children.
  
  
• Preparing the Family Pet for an Emergency
  This will help you understand what you can do to prepare emergency supplies for your family pet.
  
  
• Being Prepared at Work and School
  Emergencies and disasters can occur at any time and anywhere.
  
  
• Preserving Sanity in a Disaster Situation
  How to recognize and deal with mental health issues after you and your family have survived a disaster.
  
  
• Evacuation
  If your family is faced with a disaster one of your first concerns will be where can we go for safety?
  
  
• Exchanging During Emergencies
  Many of us take for granted the ease with which we withdraw cash from an ATM, drive to the grocery store, and take food off the shelves in exchange for paper money. During emergencies that convenience is not always available.
  
  
• Returning Home
  If you think evacuating from your home when a disaster strikes would be difficult, how would you feel about returning to your home after a disaster has occurred?
  
  
• Earthquakes
  This helps you understand what causes an earthquake, and how to get prepared for one.
  
  
• Preparing for a Tornado
  This article will help you become aware of the safety risks tornados bring so you can be prepared to handle them.
  
  
• Hurricane Preparedness
  This article helps you understand the causes hurricanes and how to prepare for one.
  
  
• When Lightning Strikes
  Weather can change so quickly that wind, rain and lightning can become a threat sooner than one realizes.
  
  
• Floods: Before, During and After the Disaster
  Floods are one of the few disasters that can happen anywhere in the world. Included are some basic tips to help you prepare for a flood.
  
  
• Wildfire Safety
  One of the hazards of living in close proximity to nature is the possibility of wildfires. They can begin and spread rapidly.
  
  
• National Fire Prevention Week
  What can we do to celebrate? To help celebrate Fire Prevention Week, we want to give you the basic background on its beginnings, some tips and suggestions on fire safety, and some fun activities for you and your family that help you learn what to do in a fire.
  
  
• Emergency Fire Safety
  Understanding the basic characteristics of fire and learning the proper safety practices can be the key to surviving a house or building fire.
  
  
• Preparing for and Responding to a Power Outage
  Power failures can be for an extended period of time, or for a brief moment, but no matter how long they are, they cause a disruption in everyday life.
  
  
• Prevent Harm During Peacetime Nuclear Accidents
  The risk of exposure to radiation is often associated with nuclear war and fallout from bombs. But in reality, exposure from a nuclear plant is more likely.
  
  
• How to Build an Emergency Car Kit
  This will help you prepare a 72-hour kit for your car with a list of the things you may want to consider.
  
  
• Winter Auto Preparedness and Safety
  We have had record high temperatures across the nation, but winter will eventually come and we will need to be ready to handle driving in rapidly changing conditions.
  
  
• Traveling in the Winter
  Are you prepared to travel safely during the winter? Get some tips and ideas on winter travel safety.
  
  
• Winter Camping
  Camping is a popular recreational activity anytime of the year, but it is camping during the winter that requires the most preparation and special equipment.
  
  
• Hiking and Preparedness
  Hiking is a great way to practice your preparedness skills and learn to use your emergency equipment.
  
  
• 10 Tips on Hiking with "little ones"
  Good advice for parents before taking those little ones on a hike.
  
  
• Information on the Bird (Avian) Flu H5N1
  Information and Helpful links to help prepare for the bird flu.