As you put together a household preparedness plan, you’ll discover that three distinct components emerge: emergency preparedness, stocking up rainy day resources, and making self-sustaining home preparations. Although these three aspects of preparedness are interdependent, each area addresses a different set of needs.

Be sure to check out the “food storage section of the recommended books listed under resources (See Bea’s Book List). Having a handbook to guide you through the journey of establishing preparedness in your home is well worth the expense.

And check out PreparedTompkins.org’s “Food Calculators” post.  A food calculator will save you a lot of head scratching when you’re trying to figure out how much food to put away for long term storage.

Emergency Preparedness

This type of readiness allows you to respond to a short-term emergency or sudden crisis. Kits have been developed to address these situations. The kits are derived from basic household items that don’t require much more than a good checklist to assemble yourself or, with the exception of the flu kit, all of them can be purchased pre-assembled. (See Preparedness Vendors under Resources.)

  • Car Emergency Kit
  • EEK (Emergency Evacuation Kit)
  • 1st Aid Kit
  • Flu Kit (see Flu postings under Health)

Having the kit is one thing, having the skills to use one is another. Check out the Tompkins County Red Cross for a schedule on Basic 1st Aid and CPR training. And see the Gratton Woodson article Preparing for the Coming Influenza Pandemic for instructions on home care for flu victims.

Rainy Day Resources

Building resiliency into your home in the case of temporary or periodic shortages in the delivery of goods or services will require you to stock up on household resources. This area of preparedness assumes you will make do with what you have in your home for a finite period of time. There are several levels of preparedness in this category:

  • 72 Hours: The bare bones minimum.
  • 14 Days: Currently recommended by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). Remember that it can take this long for rescue efforts to reach you.
  • 3 Months: Affords a more comfortable time period for outside systems to recover after a disaster or for assistance programs to become operational.
  • 1 Year: Allows you to maintain your household through an entire growing season regardless of when the disruption hits, or makes transitioning to new circumstances less stressful.

When making your preparedness plan, first choose what your rainy day resource goal is, then build up to that goal by gradually putting aside enough water, fuel, food and special needs items (like supplements & medicines) to sustain your household for that period.

Here’s a tip from Bea Reddy (Martha’s closest friend): “When I was putting together our family’s 3 month supply of rainy day resources, I used the 72 hour and 14 day targets as milestones along the way. The key is not to have a lopsided preparedness effort. For example, in the case of a power outage in winter, if you have an electric dependent heat source, three days of water and six months of canned beans, you’re only prepared for about 8 hours, then you will have to evacuate your home…because your house will be cold.”

Self-Sustaining Home Preparations

This area of preparedness focuses on reducing your ecological footprint and your household’s dependence on centralized high tech solutions to produce the basic goods and services you need. These are long-term self-sufficiency endeavors. Many people enjoy taking on these challenges and rediscovering the trials and tribulations of providing for themselves. Obviously, building the infrastructure and gaining the skills necessary to make these projects a success can’t be done overnight — or all at once. Here are a few examples:

  • Alternative Energy Production
  • Root Cellars
  • Rain Catchment Systems
  • Gardening & Seed Saving
  • Food Processing: drying, canning
  • Raising Livestock
  • Non-fossil Fuel Heat
  • Non-electric Living Arts
  • Bartering
  • Building Cooperatives
  • Using local currency
  • Relocalization of Basic Goods & Services

As PreparedTompkins.org is developed over 2006, we’ll be adding posts to direct you to resources for these activities.

And last but not least, remember to include others in your planning. Incorporate your friends, family and community into your efforts by developing an outreach plan.

Outreach Plan

  • Network with other households who are actively preparing
  • Share what you’ve learned with others
  • Advocate for preparedness in your community