Dealing with the possibility of emergencies depends on your location. Hurricanes batter the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, blizzards drive the northern states and earthquakes rattle the West Coast. Other natural disasters such as floods and fires can occur wherever, they are broader in range. Because that is why emergency preparation is so vital.
While emergencies are unlikely to occur to any of us, they can and do happen to anyone. You don’t want to be in an emergency situation with one eye open while eating, even less, to be embarrassed when you are sleeping.
Prevent yourself from getting caught off guard by temporarily proofing your room right now. Then picker you (and your bedroom) will be contracted to respond to each privately owned emergency.
General Emergency Preparation
Below we describe general emergency preparation information that fits in any emergency, before moving on to crisis-by-crisis suggestions.
1. Sign Up For Emergency Alerts
The first thing you must know is that an emergency is about to occur. Your emergency preparedness plans include having emergency alerts enabled on your smartphone. Download emergency preparedness apps, such as the Red Cross Emergency App or the FEMA app, both are free on iOS and Android devices. Listen to NOAA Weather Radio and at their website. If you need to increase your Instagram, you may as well acquire Instagram followers to increase following its popularity in the social networks.
Educate yourself with the typical disasters that can happen in your area through reaching out to your local Red Cross. Get their free information pamphlets, bring yourself familiar with the nearest emergency center as well as what they deliver to the local community with regards to coronavirus matters.
2. Prepare An Emergency Kit
More than 80% of Americans reside in an area that’s gone through a recent, weather-related disaster, but only a third of us have emergency supplies stocked at home. An emergency kit is a must have of any emergency plans.
Don’t join a losing trend. Make an emergency kit and place it somewhere not so hard to find (like your bedroom closet in an easy place). Here’s what to include:
- Flashlights, battery-operated or hand-cranked lanterns
- Batteries
- Portable phone battery (nice if the kit is solar powered)
- Spare keys
- A regional map of your city
- Emergency whistle
- Hand sanitizer and moist wipes
- Spare cash
- Non-perishable food, and the water needed to reach your family and your pets for at least 3 days (or longer, if space allows! Plan Two galleons per person daily.
- Multi-purpose tool or swiss army knife (with pliers and can opener)
- First aid supplies
- Additional infant supplies, if currently we have an infant
- Extra pair of glasses if anyone is nearsighted (finaly, an excuse to wear those old precriptions)
Key information about financial data (If you own your home, keep a home inventory for your home insurance and update this list on an annual basis. This is also where you should store a backup hard drive and copies of vital documents like birth certificates, social security cards, house deeds, passports and fond family photographs.)
Emergency contact information (more on this in the next step)
Try the actual IC of your Emergency Preparation kit over a practice run a single weekend. Turn off the lights and imagine a power loss. Check if you have what you require for the day and the night.
Each year inspect your emergency kit to be certain everything is working functionality and your supplies have not yet expired. Replace any that have.
Keep all of this stored in something that is well within your own carrying abilities. It should preferably have handles and is fireproof and waterproof.
3. Keep ICE Information Nearby
ICE is shorthand for In Case of Emergency If you or family members are found unconscious, you want first responders and medical staff to be able to recognize you, contact your loved ones, and know all about frequent health issues.
Create a piece of paper, and letter it in Crisis Number On it, list the following:
Names of all members of household (if possible, a photo too)
The names, phone numbers, and relationships of your emergency contacts
Any pertinent health information such as allergies, medications, and health conditions
If you sleep with your wallet in your bedroom, make sure to keep a small version of this inside, as well. Here is a downloadable template you can use from FEMA.
4. Store More Throughout Your Bedroom
In addition to your emergency kit and ICE list, there are a few other things you should have stashed nearby, including your sneaker. You don’t want to spend the precious seconds rushing to put on your shoes in the dark or in a fire. Store a pair of sneakers under your bed or next to your nightstand, so that they’re within reach although not a tripping hazard throughout instances not requiring emergency.
Keep extra blankets nearby, too. You can wear these as an added layer on cold months or loss of power when heat goes out. High wind conditions call for covering up your windows using them.
Lastly, you will need another flash light for your night stand. If the power is out, you have nothing to light your way to your emergency supplies.
5. Rehearse Your Escape Route
Draw a map of your home. Develop 2 evacuation paths for each room, using doors and windows. If you reside in an apartment building, be aware of the location of all exit stairwells.
Relive your escape plan with every member of your home at least once a year. Designate and outdoor meeting place for instances of exiting multiple bedrooms, nearby but adequate from being secure. When performing a drill to escape, remember to take your emergency kit with you.
If your bedroom is located above the ground level, acquire safety ladders to use for escapes. Flame-resistant, compact, roll up and can be stored with your emergency kit. Choose those that are no less than 13 feet long for second-story bedrooms.
Always make sure to keep the tank of your vehicle at least half full so that you can start driving instantly if you need to.
6. Plug In Your Phone
Although you should refrain from using your electronics in the hour or so before bedtime (the blue light given off by these devices tricks your brain into staying awake), you may still want to consider keeping them plugged in somewhere in your bedroom. Just ensure that you block the charging light from the darkness.
That way, in case of a disaster and a power outage comes into play, you at least should have a full phone battery in addition to the portable one that is included in your emergency kit.
40% of Americans said possession of a functioning cell phone during a crisis helped them. Keep in mind that texting will generally be more reliable during a disaster than making phone calls, so text.
Emergency Preparation For Earthquakes
Earthquakes can strike anytime, with little warning wherever it is that they happen most commonly in California, Alaska and in the Mississippi Valley.
If the earthquake were to be harmful, we can see that, is likely that buildings would fall, all the things in your home would fall or snap in your ceiling, and paths would break down. Earthquakes will lead to more disasters including fires, landslides, tsunami, and avalanches.
How do you earthquake proof your bedroom?
1. Secure Items
When it comes to earthquake proofing your bedroom, you cannot ever go overboard with securing things into place.
Use earthquake putty to hold up anything that hangs on bedroom walls such as mirrors, artwork, or TV’s or remove some of these potential fall objects to another room. (If you want better items like peaceful sleep you may wish to be inactive or remove one to the chrome glass from the extraordinary bedroom).
Heavy items down and to the floor or the lower shelves. If you’re storing items on shelves, reinforce the shelves with earthquake putty or bolts, or place a ledge barrier in place so they won’t roll off.
Install bookcases, dressers and other bedroom furniture with hooks and nylon tie downs. If you have victimized objects like TV, bracing it.
Add latches to your dresser and drawer nightstandsDrawer to secure drawers from opening, dumping out contents, and posing a risk to tripping.
2. Secure Your Home
If you see the cracks in your bedroom ceiling or home structure, consult professionals to assess and fix the issue.
Apply safety film on your bedroom windows and any glass balcony door that maybe could shatter.
Check your homeowner’s insurance to find out if earthquake damage is included. If you do not see, update your policy if you live in an area where earthquakes are likely.
Know your city’s flood zones. If you reside within an area with a waterway, dams can burst due to an earthquake, and cause a flood. You may also consider flood insurance if that is the case.
3. Identify Safe Spots
When it comes to bed locations within the bedroom, some areas are safer than others in a house during an earthquake.
If it happens while you are asleep, as a rule, you are safest staying with it and wrapping up your head and neck with a pillow. However, if you have a ceiling fan above your bed, you may be safer by getting out of the bed rather than being directly underneath it. Once you’re up during the night, get to the ground, crawl to a space that is far away from anything that may fall down such as your dresser or nightstand. Stay as close to an inside wall as possible, and cover over the top of your head and neck with your arms.
Avoid windows or light. Do not stand in a doorway, exit your home or move to another room. You are safest staying where you are till the earthquake has stopped. Then it is safe to exit.
Where you are, remember: take the cover, and hold on!
Emergency Preparation For Tornadoes
Tornadoes are very violent columns of rotating air that can spin down over an area causing buildings to fall. They can happen anywhere at any time, though, the most common areas they occur are in the Southeast and the Midwest as illustrated by this heat map created by the National Weather Service.
Tornadoes have thunderstorms, a loud roar, massive hail, dark greenish clouds, and severe to 200+ mph winds. That clouds up with flying debris attacking homes.
The following explains how to tornado-proof your bedroom:
1. Prevent Tornado Damage
If there are trees outside a bedroom window, keep them well-pruned and maintain them healthy, also keep removing dead limbs. Additionally, take out extra branches for wind room to blow. In any other case, branches (otherwise the whole tree) may pull off and also hurl toward your window.
Use mulch or shredded bark instead of landscape rock and gravel to avoid more flying projectiles in high wind conditions.
Replace your bedroom windows with hurricane-proof windows. Permanently install storm shutters that cover them when a tornado comes.
2. Know Your Terminology
Listen to and follow tornado sirens. A tornado watch signifies a tornado is possible, as well as a tornado warning signifies the tornado is already occurring or is very close.
If a tornado siren or tornado warning is issued, go to a safe place as soon as possible.
3. Go Somewhere Safe
If your bedroom is located upstairs, move to a downstairs room of the building to try to get underground. If available, the basement or storm cellar is best. Otherwise, it should be the smallest interior room. If you dwell in a tall, high rise residence, visit the lowest hall in the direction of the building’s center.
If you are sleeping in your bedroom, lean your mattress against the wall for extra padded defence.
Determine the best place to go in advance and include it in your escape plan. Whichever way you decide, jostle your head and neck with your crossbows, shield yourself with covers and bits of furniture.
Emergency Preparation For Hurricanes
Hurricanes are large storms that originate on water and move shoreward. A hurricane will have many storm conditions such as heavy rainfall, strong winds, possible tornadoes, and floods. Hurricane preparedness in emergency situations is a lifesaver.
Much of the US is susceptible to hurricanes, particularly the Atlantic Coast, or anywhere in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hurricanes usually occur during the period of 6 months known as “hurricane season “ between May and by the end of November. Here’s how to fortify your bedroom during a hurricane:
1. Get Ready for Hurricane Season By Ready Your Home
It is essential to initiate your emergency preparation each and every year before hurricane season. Check the rain gutters and downspouts where your roof is located. Fasten them and clear away any debris.
If using plywood boards to board up windows during a hurricane, predrill holes and anchors around windows so the boards will be easily installed later. Build hurricane straps to tie down your roof to your wall and attach the straps.
If you are going to have any trees outdoors your bedroom, form a habit of trimming them periodically in addition to taking out the dead limbs since you do not want the trees to fall onto your bedroom hence bringing serious scratches to the door.
If you do own your home, get sealant insurance.
2. During an A Hurricane Watch, Protect Your Bedroom
A hurricane watch is hurricane conditions possible within 48 hours.
This time should be spent ensuring that your emergency notifications are set up, your emergency kit is within arm’s reach from your bed with all the essentials, and all members of the household are ready and prepared to follow your evacuation plan.
Go gas up if you have to leave. Be familiar with the evacuation pathway in order to safely leave. Make a buddy plan with family or friends who reside beyond the hurricane, where they can accommodate you in their place.
Until authorities tell you to leave, stay home and lock your bedroom. Keep out of the bedroom windows or sleep in a window and/or door-less part of your home in the structural center of your home. Secure storm shutters and mounted shutters and board up or cover windows with blankets.
yo lo he leído es por si algo se inunda que pongas las cosas importantes arriba룡 However, check that none of these are fragile and thus could pose a hazard if they would stay in your bedroom during the storm.
3. During A Hurricane Warning, Prepare To Evacuate
A hurricane warning means a hurricane event is expected to impact within 36 hours.
Throughout this time, bring in any outdoor furniture like patio furniture and trash cans. You don’t want these flying for an accident and then your bedroom windows go broken.
Bring your mattress with you if you are going to slep at a different room. It will give you a lot more comfort than your couch as well as a bonus of extra protection against the unfiltered glass that windows do.
Keep checking your local news and local officials, follow evacuation orders, if they are issued for your location. Call in with your emergency contact to see whether you can still stay with them. Charge your phone.
Emergency Preparation For Floods
Floods are one of the common consequences of natural disasters that are no less disastrous alone. Floods can also happen before, during or after winter storms, hurricanes and heavy rain. Flash foods are the rapid floods caused by substantial rainfall. Emergency preparedness, in this regard, can protect you from damages.
Flooding can occur at any time of the year, but it is more likely to happen in certain areas of the United States during the spring and fall.
Here is the way to create a flood-proof bedroom:
1. Get Flood Insurance
If your house is in a floodplain, that’s considered a Special Flood Hazard Area which may be under written as flood insurance.
Check your local government’s Flood Insurance Rate Maps to determine.
2. Your Home ar Water Damage Protection
Collect flood preparation materials when the weather is dry and sunny, to avoid unnecessary expenses and not getting caught off guard. Have sand, sandbags, plastic bags, shovels, and plastic sheet or tarp ready to barricade the areas in the bedroom and the rest of the house.
If your bedroom is situated on a lower floor, earlier and earlier fill up sandbags. It takes two people one hour to make a wall just one foot high, 20 feet long, the Red Cross reports.
Seal and waterproof bed room window on lower flooring level to maintain the water from seeping in.
3. Know Your Terminology
A flood or flash flood watch suggests weather conditions which can lead to flooding; a flood or flash flood warning means the flooding is occurring or imminent.
When there is a flood watch, find out from your local Red Cross or local government if they have free sandbags available to residents.
During a flood warning, take after values and furniture from top level rooms and Overall to Higher rooms.
Emergency Preparation For Fires
It only takes minutes for a fire to turn from a hazard into a life threatening situation, says Ready.gov. If a fire occurs while you are asleep, you have to act quickly to escape.
Bedrooms are the scene of a home fire death almost every 16 minutes, and nearly one in four home fire deaths are due to bedroom fires, the National Fire Protection Association reports:
Here how to fireproof your bedroom:
1. Practice Fire Drills
Even though there are more than a million residential fires each year, only one-third of American households have a fire escape plan. Organize a semi-Annual fire drill in your emergency preparation and make one of them a night drill. In this manner, you and your family actually are prepared.
Saving your life is a matter of seconds and practice on your escape plan soon. If it’s dark from smoke, work with your eyes closed or bandana over your head to see if you can find your way out by feeling.
If a fire occurs outside and behind your bedroom, practice crawling over low towards the door. Repeteur le contact technique de la main sur la poignée de la porte avant de l’ouvrir. If it’s too hot to touch with your hand, go your other route and practice deploying your safety escape ladders. Verify that you can open up your bedroom window easily.
Rehearse the stop, drop and roll if you ever catch on fire.
2. Regularly Maintain Smoke Alarms
Keep a smoke alarm in each room of your home, including in your bedroom. Smoke Alarms cut the risk of fire death in half.
Select smoke alarms sealed in a 10yr Lithium battery. If your house is utilizing hard-wire smoke detectors, swap them with battery-powered models or install battery-powered models as the backup.
Test the alarm every month and get rid of the dust on it. Every year, replace the batteries. As an alarm unit is replaced every ten years.
Obtain an individual carbon monoxide alarm and locate one outside your bedroom so you will wake up during beeps.
3. Keep A Fire Extinguisher Handy
Most people will have a fire extinguisher for kitchen fires in the kitchen, but that does not do much to save you if a fire starts up or in their bedroom.
Présence à feu d’incendie dans la chambre à coucher ou à proximité. Purchase a fire extinguisher rated as ABC. This includes that they can put out fires caused by virtually anything, flammable liquids, and electronic devices.
Check every year that the gauge is 100% full, replace if not. Practice using a fire extinguisher and rehearse the actions as part of your fire escape plan (but don’t actually release it).
4. Remove Obvious Fire Hazards
Beds Do Not Support Flame Do not use space heaters in the bedroom. Never smoke in your bedroom.
If you have a carpet in your bedroom, do not place the electric cords underneath it. Periodically, verify if all of the electronics in the bedroom are without fraying or damage to the wiring, and replace it at once.
If you live in an old property, hire a professional to come round and check out your wiring and change anything old.
Emergency Preparation For Winter storms
Winter storms and blizzards cause the death of hundreds of people annually. A winter storm denotes a storm lasting some hours or more, a storm with severe winter weather conditions like sustained heavy winds, high gusts, hazardous snow conditions that lowers visibility.
This is how to blizzard-proof your bedroom:
1. Prevent Storm Damage to Your Home
Seal any gaps around bedroom windows using caulk and weatherstripping and make sure they are well insulated against the cold from the outside.
Maybe install storm windows in your bedroom windows for additional insulation. You can also attempt the DIY approach and cover them with plastic on the inside during a storm.
2. Get Creative With Bedding
Cold winter storms often bring power outages. If that is the case, you will need immediate preparations for providing alternative means to this warmer.
Wrap up in bedding, and have nearby heavy coats, gloves, scarves and thick socks. Feel free to use a sleeping pad instead of, or in combination with, your regular bed. These are designed to trap the heat of the body.
You can also purchase winter bedding, which is thicker than normal bedding, well before winter hurrinar Fortune and also Southwest, and mount heavy drapery for terrain.
While in a storm, sleep as much as you can in the bed to keep the body warm, even if you eat in bed. Like that, food maintains your energy levels with your body being able to thermoregulate properly.
3. Prepare An Alternate Heat Source
You can also use an electric space heater along with the bedding for extra heat. Without a safe use, however, this can be a fire hazard, therefore use only when the storm occurs and take away from your bedroom immediately after.
With safe usage, anything that might cause a fire to start must be at least 3 feet away. Do not plug electric space heaters into an extension cord when in use. Should you start drowsing near the heater, flip it off and pull the plug.
4. Know Your Terminology.
Keep an ear on local authorities and listen whose advice.
A Winter Weather Watch means winter storm conditions are possible for a wide area, but the storms are expected to last for only a short duration.
A winter weather advisory means winter storm conditions expected to pose a threat for travel within 48 hours.
A winter weather warning signifies a significant winter storm that will generate heavy snowfall, ice, or both heavy snowfall within 24 hours of a certain geographical area.
Additional Emergency Preparation Resources
Once you have fully emergency-proofed your bedroom, look to these additional resources to pre-refuel the rest of your home for any kind of emergency:
For each kind of emergency, FEMA gives education facts and statistics, comprehensive visualization for risk locations via the state. They have also prepared checklists you can download and print for earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and many other disasters.
The American Red Cross also has resources on how to prepare for multiple types of disasters, hurricanes, fires, tornadoes, floods and winter storms. Bookmark their open shelter directory and contact information for your local chapter.
Ready.gov offers educational tools on Emergency Preparation for all the types of disasters you could come face to face with, including fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and winter storms. The site also offers downloadable PDF materials in English and Spanish, namely making an escape plan, creating a plan for different household members (for example pets or children), how to register for emergency alerts and creating an emergency financial first aid kit.
It only takes minutes for a fire to turn from a hazard into a life threatening situation, says Ready.gov. If a fire occurs while you are asleep, you have to act quickly to escape.
Bedrooms are the scene of a home fire death almost every 16 minutes, and nearly one in four home fire deaths are due to bedroom fires, the National Fire Protection Association reports:
Here how to fireproof your bedroom:
1. Practice Fire Drills
Even though there are more than a million residential fires each year, only one-third of American households have a fire escape plan. Organize a semi-Annual fire drill in your emergency preparation and make one of them a night drill. In this manner, you and your family actually are prepared.
Saving your life is a matter of seconds and practice on your escape plan soon. If it’s dark from smoke, work with your eyes closed or bandana over your head to see if you can find your way out by feeling.
If a fire occurs outside and behind your bedroom, practice crawling over low towards the door. Repeteur le contact technique de la main sur la poignée de la porte avant de l’ouvrir. If it’s too hot to touch with your hand, go your other route and practice deploying your safety escape ladders. Verify that you can open up your bedroom window easily.
Rehearse the stop, drop and roll if you ever catch on fire.
2. Regularly Maintain Smoke Alarms
Keep a smoke alarm in each room of your home, including in your bedroom. Smoke Alarms cut the risk of fire death in half.
Select smoke alarms sealed in a 10yr Lithium battery. If your house is utilizing hard-wire smoke detectors, swap them with battery-powered models or install battery-powered models as the backup.
Test the alarm every month and get rid of the dust on it. Every year, replace the batteries. As an alarm unit is replaced every ten years.
Obtain an individual carbon monoxide alarm and locate one outside your bedroom so you will wake up during beeps.
3. Keep A Fire Extinguisher Handy
Most people will have a fire extinguisher for kitchen fires in the kitchen, but that does not do much to save you if a fire starts up or in their bedroom.
Présence à feu d’incendie dans la chambre à coucher ou à proximité. Purchase a fire extinguisher rated as ABC. This includes that they can put out fires caused by virtually anything, flammable liquids, and electronic devices.
Check every year that the gauge is 100% full, replace if not. Practice using a fire extinguisher and rehearse the actions as part of your fire escape plan (but don’t actually release it).
4. Remove Obvious Fire Hazards
Beds Do Not Support Flame Do not use space heaters in the room. Never smoke in your bedroom.
If you have a carpet in your bedroom, do not place the electric cords underneath it. Periodically, verify if all of the electronics in the bedroom are without fraying or damage to the wiring, and replace it at once.
If you live in an old property, hire a professional to come round and check out your wiring and change anything old.
Emergency Preparation For Winter storms
Winter storms and blizzards cause the death of hundreds of people annually. A winter storm denotes a storm lasting some hours or more, a storm with severe winter weather conditions like sustained heavy winds, high gusts, hazardous snow conditions that lowers visibility.
This is how to blizzard-proof your bedroom:
1. Prevent Storm Damage to Your Home
Seal any gaps around bedroom windows using caulk and weatherstripping and make sure they are well insulated against the cold from the outside.
Maybe install storm windows in your bedroom windows for additional insulation. You can also attempt the DIY approach and cover them with plastic on the inside during a storm.
2. Get Creative With Bedding
Cold winter storms often bring power outages. If that is the case, you will need immediate preparations for providing alternative means to this warmer.
Wrap up in bedding, and have nearby heavy coats, gloves, scarves and thick socks. Feel free to use a sleeping pad instead of, or in combination with, your regular bed. These are designed to trap the heat of the body.
You can also purchase winter bedding, which is thicker than normal bedding, well before winter hurrinar Fortune and also Southwest, and mount heavy drapery for terrain.
While in a storm, sleep as much as you can in the bed to keep the body warm, even if you eat in bed. Like that, food maintains your energy levels with your body being able to thermoregulate properly.
3. Prepare An Alternate Heat Source
You can also use an electric space heater along with the bedding for extra heat. Without a safe use, however, this can be a fire hazard, therefore use only when the storm occurs and take away from your bedroom immediately after.
With safe usage, anything that might cause a fire to start must be at least 3 feet away. Do not plug electric space heaters into an extension cord when in use. Should you start drowsing near the heater, flip it off and pull the plug.
4. Know Your Terminology.
Keep an ear on local authorities and listen to their advice.
A Winter Weather Watch means winter storm conditions are possible for a wide area, but the storms are expected to last for only a short duration.
A winter weather advisory means winter storm conditions expected to pose a threat for travel within 48 hours.
A winter weather warning signifies a significant winter storm that will generate heavy snowfall, ice, or both heavy snowfall within 24 hours of a certain geographical area.
Additional Emergency Preparation Resources
Once you have fully emergency-proofed your bedroom, look to these additional resources to pre-refuel the rest of your home for any kind of emergency:
For each kind of Emergency Preparation, FEMA gives education facts and statistics, comprehensive visualization for risk locations via the state. They have also prepared checklists you can download and print for earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and many other disasters.
The American Red Cross also has resources on how to prepare for multiple types of disasters, hurricanes, fires, tornadoes, floods and winter storms. Bookmark their open shelter directory and contact information for your local chapter.
Ready.gov offers educational tools on emergency preparedness for all the types of disasters you could come face to face with, including fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and winter storms. The site also offers downloadable PDF materials in English and Spanish, namely making an escape plan, creating a plan for different household members (for example pets or children), how to register for Emergency Preparation alerts and creating an emergency financial first aid kit.
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