Patty's Preparedness Tips

Patty's Preparedness Tips

Submitted by Patty from Utah

While living in Southern California and learning how to prepare for emergencies (earthquakes for one), I have learned several tricks along the way. Here are a few of them:

1. When storing home canned goods, put the filled bottles back in their original cartons with the dividers intact and be sure to store them on the lowest shelves. This will keep the bottles from rattling against each other and breaking. Storing them low will prevent them from falling off the shelves. If storing them low isn't possible, be sure to put up a sturdy guard board on the front of the shelf.


2. We learned that having a sturdy pair of shoes by your bed and a crow bar are life saving devices. Doorways tend to move and you don't want to walk on broken glass with bare feet. The crow bar will also help open that window that moved and broke.

3. Even though a glass framed picture makes a pretty decoration over your bed...don't hang one there. When the shaking starts, you might end up with it landing in your face. The danger from broken glass isn't something you will want to deal with.


4. If you are still using regular flashlights you are always told not to forget batteries. But what if you drop the flash light and the bulb breaks? Be sure to store bulbs along with batteries. You may want to upgrade old bulb flashlights to new LED models.


5. Storing water in those 55 gallon containers? Be sure to have a way to get your water out when it is needed. A clean piece of hose to use as a siphon or a water pump made for that purpose is a good idea. The barrels are far too heavy to tip to access the water and you just might dump it all. Keep the openings in the hose/water pump protected to keep the creepy crawlers out while not in use (the Emergency Siphon comes in a zip top bag to keep the bugs out, etc.)