Week 11-Earthquake Kits & Supplies - Excellent Christmas Gift Ideas!

By Jackie Kloosterboer -Earthquake Preparedness Specialist, Speaker & Author - My Earthquake Preparedness Guide

Only a few more sleeps till Santa will be delivering presents underneath the Christmas tree. It seems like the holidays come quicker each year – and each year it’s harder to buy for the special people in your life.

So you already probably know where I am going with this but before I get there consider this.

80% of us living on the West Coast are not prepared to survive in the aftermath of an earthquake. That is incredibly scary when we know one day we will be faced with an earthquake. Are you and your family prepared? What supplies do you have to survive and what supplies do you need to add to your kit?  I am assuming you have a kit.

You are not going to be able to run out the grocery store to grab what you need – stores will be closed, our hospitals and clinics will be overwhelmed and our roads and bridges may be damaged and closed making it impossible to travel by bus or car to get home to our loved ones.  What will you do then?  How will you survive?

Off my soapbox – let’s think about this.  Dad really doesn’t need another tie, mom can probably do without the soap and the teacher at school doesn’t really need another box of chocolates.

What if you gave them an emergency kit or emergency supplies to put in their earthquake kits or a book to help them get prepared?

This could save their life and significantly improve their quality of life in the aftermath of an earthquake.  They will truly thank you - especially when faced with an earthquake.

Some items that may help your loved-ones better survive the aftermath of an earthquake! 

Grab & Go Kit:

Great for small spaces making it easy to store.  This kit contains the basics to help someone special survive. Your Grab & Go Kit is what you would Grab & Go with when evacuating your home. Prices start at around $45.00 and go up depending on what the kit contains.  You will need to add personal items such as meds, change of clothes, toiletries etc.  You can also build your own kit using a back pack and puchasing the supplies individually. 

Two Person Emergency Kit

This is the kit that you need to keep safely stored away in your home so when facing the earthquake you have the supplies you need to better survive - it.  Like the Grab and Go Kit – personal items would need to be added to the kit. These kits can be purchased or you can build your own kit using a rubbermaid type bin.

Work Kit 

This is a Grab & Go Kit but with a twist.  It contains additional items you would need if facing an earthquake at work.  You want to make sure you include a pair of walking shoes (you are not going to get to far in a pair of high heels) and a light jacket along with other supplies you may need to stay and survive at work or if you need to walk home.

Pet Kit

Don’t forget those furry friends – if you need to evacuate you will need to have a Grab & Go with the supplies they will need ready to go.  Pet Kits can be purchased as a kit or you can go to your pet store and get the required items they will need to better survive it following the earthquake.

Stocking Stuffers Ideas

A few suggestions:

My Earthquake Preparedness Guide – A collection of Simple Steps and checklists to help get you, your family and pets prepared. It covers the steps you need to take to ensure you, your family and pets will better survive an Earthquake.

Light sticks – a valuable source of lighting when there is no power. Works well for power outages as well

Poncho - throw a few of these in your familys kits.

Headlamp – very useful to free up your hands so you can provide assistance if needed.

Foil Blanket – works wonders in keeping you warm.

Hand Warmers – can be very useful in cold weather

Cell Phone Chargers - portable devices you keep charged and when the power on your phone is out they can provide extra power.  Also works well in power outages.

Christmas is the time of year to show people how much you care and what better way than giving them the emergency supplies they will require when facing disaster. Definitely a great choice.

When purchasing these supplies you have a lot of choices and this will depend on where you live.  Earthquake Preparedness Stores, Hardware Stores, Pet Stores and even Dollar Stores are great places to go or you can shop online. You have a lot of choices.

In Janaury we are going to look at how you can better prepare your home to protect your family and pets?

Wishing you a Happy, Healthy & “Earthquake Free” Holiday!

Jackie Kloosterboer - BIO

Jackie Kloosterboer has been leading the way in earthquake preparedness for 2 decades presenting more than 100 Earthquake Preparedness sessions each year to groups and businesses. She is often interviewed by a variety of media outlets across Canada as she promotes the importance of earthquake and disaster preparedness.

As an Emergency Preparedness Specialist and an Instructor with the Justice Institute of BC Jackie travels across Canada teaching people how to respond to disasters to help those who have been displaced. Throughout British Columbia Jackie has taken on leadership roles assisting those who have been impacted by disaster.

Contact Jackie to speak at your next group or business event to help you get prepared for earthquakes or whatever disaster comes your way. Jackie will lead you through the necessary steps helping you identify what is important to you and your family or business.

  
Contact Jackie with any questions or to book her for your next event at jackie@survive-it.ca or call (604) 355-2414

Week 10 - Earthquakes! What is the most dangerous room in your home?

By Jackie Kloosterboer -Earthquake Preparedness Specialist, Speaker & Author - My Earthquake Preparedness Guide

After an Earthquake your number 1 concern will be your family. Where are they? How are they? These questions will flood your mind until you can make contact with your family.

Over the past weeks we have looked at several ways to connect with your family after an earthquake.  For the next 4 weeks we will focus on how to better protect your family and pets inside your home.

There is a lot that can be done to make your home safe to better protect your family which leads to an important question.  Where do you start?   Let me ask you this:

  

What is the most dangerous room in your house?

For most of us the answer will be “Our Kitchen.” 

If you are at home, go into your kitchen and take a look around – if you are not at home, think of your kitchen - your counter tops  - coffee makers, blenders, juicers, toasters and many other items that are stored on the countertops.  What about the cabinets over your counters - is that where you keep your heavy items like our Corning Ware and glass serving dishes? 

What if the cupboards fly open when the ground starts shaking and all the items tumble to the floor smashing into thousands of pieces.  Those countertop items now become projectiles  shooting across the room?  

Your appliances – are they secured in place – probably not – and they can easily break free and bounce across the kitchen.  Your kitchen is not where you, your family or pets want to be during an earthquake.

So how do you make our kitchen safe?

Today, I am going to select one task to get you started to better protect you, your family and pets. For more tasks you can check my book – My Earthquake Preparedness – Simple Steps to Earthquake Preparedness. There is a check list of many steps you can take to keep your family safe.

When our kids were small we placed our Tupperware in the low cupboards so they wouldn’t get hurt if they got in the cupboards. We were thinking of their safety but now we need to also think about their Earthquake Safety.  A great place to start to make your kitchen safer is to simply  move heavy items from high cupboards down to the low cupboards and put the lighter up high.  If your cupboards fly open and you get hit with a piece of Tupperware – that is not going to injure you like a heavy casserole dish.

For those of you with small kids this may not be quite so simple, as we need to protect our families day to day. A great solution for you is to invest in child proof latches that attach to the cupboards making them difficult to open. These latches will help to keep your cupboards closed when the earthquake happens. They are a bit of a struggle to use at first but you will soon get used to them.  Remember we are talking about the life safety of our families and pets and we need to ensure they will be safe! 

Your Task for Week #10

• Move heavy items to lower cupboards
• Move lighter items to higher cupboards
• If moving items is not an option or you want to keep your kids out of the cupboards, purchase child proof latches and install on cupboards to help protect your family and pets
• Remove what you can from your counter tops

 Week 11 we are going to look at how you can incorporate Earthquake Preparedness into Holiday Gift Giving for those you care about. Until then stay safe and get you, your family and pets prepared!

Jackie Kloosterboer - BIO

Jackie Kloosterboer has been leading the way in earthquake preparedness for 2 decades presenting more than 100 Earthquake Preparedness sessions each year to groups and businesses. She is often interviewed by a variety of media outlets across Canada as she promotes the importance of earthquake and disaster preparedness.

As an Emergency Preparedness Specialist and an Instructor with the Justice Institute of BC Jackie travels across Canada teaching people how to respond to disasters to help those who have been displaced. Throughout British Columbia Jackie has taken on leadership roles assisting those who have been impacted by disaster.

Contact Jackie to speak at your next group or business event to help you get prepared for earthquakes or whatever disaster comes your way. Jackie will lead you through the necessary steps helping you identify what is important to you and your family or business.  

Contact Jackie with any questions or to book her for your next event at jackie@survive-it.ca or call (604) 355-2414

Week 9 - Whats left undone in your Family’s Earthquake Plan?

 

By Jackie Kloosterboer – Earthquake Preparedness Specialist & Author – My Earthquake Preparedness Guide

It should be no surprise that after an earthquake you will likely not be able to reach for your cell phone and call your loved ones. I am still surprised by the looks on people’s faces when they hear this. Many people just don’t think about how an earthquake will impact them and their families. 

This happened at a presentation I was giving on Earthquake Preparedness. I had just finished answering questions on how to connect with your family after an earthquake when a lady raised her hand. “Jackie – let me ask you this. My husband works 5 blocks from here and our kids are in daycare across the bridge – what if I can’t reach my husband how do we connect? If I start walking to his office and he starts walking to my office we may take different routes and never connect.  What do we do?” 

IDENTIFY A FAMILY MEETING PLACE NEAR YOUR WORK SITE.

Just like at home - identify a Family Meeting Place near your work sites.  Following a major earthquake or disaster when you are unable to connect you would go to your Family Meeting Place. 

It could be somewhere between your two work locations, it could be on the corner, it could be in front of your favourite Starbucks or Tim’s. The key point is to make sure your Family Meeting Place is a pre-identified location.

Once you have connected with your family at your Family Meeting Place, then you can start making decisions on what your next move should be.  There are many variables that come into play that will factor into the decision making:

• how bad is the earthquake/disaster, 
• are roads and bridges closed, 
• can you walk home or walk to daycare (make sure you have walking shoes in your grab and go kit – as you know walking in heels can be difficult).

Consider all your options and then make the best decision you can.

You’re Task for Week #8:

Identify Your Family Meeting Place close to your work

1.  Sit down with your family and identify your work Family Meeting Place.

2.  Review the process – if unable to connect using your cell phone, work phone, social media etc.             you would go to your Family Meeting Place and wait for your partner.

3.  Remember to wear walking shoes and bring your work grab and go kit with you.

 
4.  Determine with your partner what your next move will be based on the current information.                Thinking through some of the challenges you may be faced with, can help you develop a better            plan – consider the following: 

a.      Do you stay at work or do you need to return home?

b.      How will you get home? 

c.      Is transit running?

d.      Do you stay with friends?

e.      Do you or can you walk home?

We are all going to have different answers – and these answers are what will help you develop your plan.  Having a Work Family Meeting Place and knowing the challenges you could be faced with can be a vital part of your plan.

As with all preparedness if this doesn’t work for you adapt it to work for your situation.

Week 10 we will look at some steps you can take to help make your home is better prepared for an earthquake. Until then – stay safe and get you, your family and pets prepared.

The time to prepare is NOW – once the earthquake strikes it will be too late!

______________________________________________________

Jackie Kloosterboer - BIO

Jackie Kloosterboer has been leading the way in earthquake preparedness for 2 decades presenting more than 100 Earthquake Preparedness sessions each year to groups and businesses. She is often interviewed by a variety of media outlets across Canada as she promotes the importance of earthquake and disaster preparedness.

As an Emergency Preparedness Specialist and an Instructor with the Justice Institute of BC Jackie travels across Canada teaching people how to respond to disasters to help those who have been displaced. Throughout British Columbia Jackie has taken on leadership roles assisting those who have been impacted by disaster.

Contact Jackie to speak at your next group or business event to help you get prepared for earthquakes or whatever disaster comes your way. Jackie will lead you through the necessary steps helping you identify what is important to you and your family or business.  

Contact Jackie with any questions or to book her for your next event at jackie@survive-it.ca or call (604) 355-2414.  

www.survive-it.ca

Week 8 - After an Earthquake is Facebook part of your plan to connect with family?

 By Jackie Kloosterboer – Earthquake Preparedness Specialist & Author –  My Earthquake Preparedness Guide

If I have said it once I have said it a thousand times:  After an Earthquake or any significant disaster your family will be your number one concern.  You will want to find out quickly if they are ok.  To make this happen you need to identify a number of different ways to connect with your family.

Over that last few weeks we have looked at ways to connect with family - Your Family Meeting Place when you have to evacuate your home, your Out of Area Contact if you are not together when  the earthquake or disaster strikes, but there are still many other ways to connect.  

Option! Options! Options! The more options you have the better your chance to connect with family and loved ones following an earthquake or disaster.

This week we will look at Social Media and how it can be used to connect your family. You have a lot of options with Social Media, so I encourage you to select the ones that work best for you and your family. 

Facebook will be the focus of this post and we will also take a slight detour from earthquakes and look at the success of Facebook in connecting families and loved ones following the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.

After these horrible attacks people around the world were concerned about their loved ones and friends in Paris.  Where were they?  Were they ok?  Facebook played a huge role in connecting families around the world.

To help people connect Facebook immediately activated their crisis-focused “Safety Check” feature so Facebook users who were visiting or lived in Paris could easily notify their Facebook Friends that they were safe.   

This was launched on Friday night which was a very quick response and it allowed friends and families to check on their loved ones.  I know people who used it and it was so simple and nothing feels better than finding out your friends and family are safe.

Success was also seen using the “Safety Check” feature following the Nepal Earthquake a few months ago.  In Nepal more than seven million people used “Safety Check” to let their friends and family know they were safe after the earthquake that devastated parts of Nepal.

Twitter has also added features for sharing important information during disasters which you may want to investigate further.  

Remember – Preparing for earthquakes is all about having options. If Plan A doesn’t work, try plan B and so on. The more options you have the easier it will be to connect with your loved ones when facing an earthquake or disaster.

Your Task for Week #8:

1. Sit down with your family and talk about your Social Media Options.
2. Select the Social Media Options that work best for your family (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
3. Write down your password and keep it with you. If you are unable to use your device and need to use a different one – you may need your password.

Week 9 we will look at how to connect with your family after an earthquake if you are at work.

Until then – stay safe and get you, your family and pets prepared.

The time to prepare is NOW – once the earthquake strikes it will be too late!

______________________________________________________

Jackie Kloosterboer - BIO

Jackie Kloosterboer has been leading the way in earthquake preparedness for 2 decades presenting more than 100 Earthquake Preparedness sessions each year to groups and businesses. She is often interviewed by a variety of media outlets across Canada as she promotes the importance of earthquake and disaster preparedness.

As an Emergency Preparedness Specialist and an Instructor with the Justice Institute of BC Jackie travels across Canada teaching people how to respond to disasters to help those who have been displaced. Throughout British Columbia Jackie has taken on leadership roles assisting those who have been impacted by disaster.

Contact Jackie to speak at your next group or business event to help you get prepared for earthquakes or whatever disaster comes your way. Jackie will lead you through the necessary steps helping you identify what is important to you and your family or business.  

For more Earthquake Preparedness Tips

Follow Jackie at twitter.com/EarthquakeGuide

Connect with Jackie at www.facebook.com/jackie.kloosterboer

For bookings and other information visit www.surviv-it.ca or email Jackie@survie-it.ca or call    604–355-2414

   

Week 7 - Where will your family meet after an Earthquake?

By Jackie Kloosterboer – Earthquake Preparedness Specialist & Author – My Earthquake Preparedness Guide

The shrilling noise of your smoke alarm jolts you from a deep sleep. You can smell and taste the smoke as you leap from your bed.  You realize this is really bad as you scream for your family to get out of the house immediately. There is no time to check on them or help them - you all need to get out NOW.  You rush to the nearest exit praying your family will do the same. 

Outside, your heart is racing as you frantically search for your family. You rush from your back yard to the front yard searching desperately for them as you watch your house go up in flames. Where are they? How are they? Did they make it out safely?   

How different this situation could have been if you had sat down with your family and identified your Family Meeting Place before being faced with a fire. Your Family Meeting Place is a pre identified location where your family will meet when you have to evacuate your home.  

Usually a Family Meeting Place is located across the street from your home in front of your neighbour's house making it an easy location for all family members to report to when being evacuated. If you and your family meet there you will very quickly know who has made it out safely and who has not. You could then let the fire department know and they may be able to help that person.

When evacuating your home if anyone leaves by the door where your Grab & Go Kits are stored grab the kits if it is safe to do so.  If it's not safe to grab your Grab and Go kits simply leave the house. Life safety always comes first!

Your Family Meeting Place is a crucial part of your plan making it easy to reunite your family. We all need to remember that earthquakes can cause secondary disasters such as fires. So whether the fire you are facing is the result of an earthquake or whether it's a house fire - you are going to be thankful you have your Family Meeting Place. 

Having responded to many house and apartment fires over the years, I have seen first-hand the importance of having a Family Meeting Place. I see the panicked faces of parents frantically searching for their kids not knowing if they have made it out safely, the fear of kids who can't find their parents. 

They don't know if they are still in the burning house or apartment or if they have made it out to safety because they never identified their Family Meeting Place. This works - but like anything else it only going to work if you have taken the time to put it in place.

Sit down with your family today and identify your Family Meeting Place.

Your Task for Week #7:

1. Sit down with your family and identify your Family Meeting Place.
2. Explain that this is the location you will meet if you must evacuate your home quickly.
3. Practice evacuating your home by setting off the smoke alarms.  Have family members located in different parts of your home and when they hear the smoke alarm have them go to your Family Meeting Place. 
4. Remind your family if they are going past the location your Grab & Go Kits are stored to grab them if safe to do so. 

Week 8 we will look at how to connect with your family after an earthquake if you are not at home.

Until then – stay safe and get you, your family and pets prepared.

The time to prepare is NOW – once the earthquake strikes it will be too late!

______________________________________________________

Jackie Kloosterboer - BIO

Jackie Kloosterboer has been leading the way in earthquake preparedness for 2 decades presenting more than 100 Earthquake Preparedness sessions each year to groups and businesses. She is often interviewed by a variety of media outlets across Canada as she promotes the importance of earthquake and disaster preparedness.

As an Emergency Preparedness Specialist and an Instructor with the Justice Institute of BC Jackie travels across Canada teaching people how to respond to disasters to help those who have been displaced. Throughout British Columbia Jackie has taken on leadership roles assisting those who have been impacted by disaster.

Contact Jackie to speak at your next group or business event to help you get prepared for earthquakes or whatever disaster comes your way. Jackie will lead you through the necessary steps helping you identify what is important to you and your family or business.  


Contact Jackie with any questions or to book her for your next event at jackie@survive-it.ca or call (604) 355-2414.  

www.survive-it.ca

Week 6 - Earthquake Preparedness and the Time Change

By Jackie Kloosterboer – Author – My Earthquake Preparedness Guide

Last week I ended this blog post saying Week 6 our focus would be looking at methods to connect with your family after an earthquake or disaster, but I am going to postpone that to Week 7. 

Instead, we are going to look at how you can use the upcoming Time Change to help you, your family and pets get better prepared and stay prepared for an earthquake or any other disaster you may be faced with.

 

Spring Forward – Fall Back – yes its that time again to change our clocks Saturday night before going to bed.  In addition to setting our clocks back one hour we need to test our Smoke Alarms and check our earthquake supplies. If you don’t have earthquake supplies this is a great weekend to get them in place so you, your family and pets will be able to better survive an earthquake.  

When facing an earthquake we need our earthquake supplies, but more important - we need supplies that haven't expired.  You don't want to be looking at your medications that are 13 months past their expiry dates, wishing you had updated them.  You must do it now!

When teaching Earthquake Preparedness Workshops to families and businesses I encourage everyone to go through each of their kits (don't forget your work kit) and create a list of items that have an expiry date and either attach this list to the outside of your kits in a pouch or put inside right on top of the kits - so you have easy access to the list.   

When the clocks change you can easily refer to the list and see what needs to removed and replaced. It really doesn’t get any easier than that.  Some of the key items with expiry dates are:

1. Food
2. Water
3. Medications
4. Light Sticks
5. Batteries
6. First Aid Kit
7. Any other Items with an Expiry Date

Your Task for Week #6:

1. Go through each of your Earthquake Kits and create a list for each Kit of the items that will expire along with their expiry date.
2. Attach this list to each of your kits so its easy to access when the clocks change.
3. Replace all of the items that are expired or will expire before the Spring when you will once again check your Earthquake Kits.

Week 7 we will look at how to connect with your family after an earthquake including identifying your Family Meeting Places.  

Until then – stay safe and get you, your family and pets prepared.

The time to prepare is NOW – once the earthquake strikes it will be too late!

Happy Halloween to all!

Jackie Kloosterboer

Jackie Kloosterboer has been leading the way in earthquake preparedness for 2 decades presenting more than 100 Earthquake Preparedness sessions each year to groups and businesses. She is often interviewed by a variety of media outlets across Canada as she promotes the importance of earthquake and disaster preparedness.

As an Emergency Preparedness Specialist and an Instructor with the Justice Institute of BC Jackie travels across Canada teaching people how to respond to disasters to help those who have been displaced. Throughout British Columbia Jackie has taken on leadership roles assisting those who have been impacted by disaster.

Contact Jackie at (604) 355-2414 or email her at jackie@survive-it.ca to answer any questions you may have or to book her to speak at your next group or business meeting or event. 

www.survive-it.ca

Week 5 - Will your Family Survive the Earthquake?

By Jackie Kloosterboer – Author – My Earthquake Preparedness Guide

Sitting at your desk when all of a sudden the ground beneath your feet starts to shake - with each passing moment the shaking grows stronger and stronger. Your heart sinks as you realize your worst fears are being met. This is an Earthquake!

Immediately your thoughts race to your family.  Where are they?  How are they?  Have they even survived it?

You pick up your cell phone and hit send and nothing – your phone is dead. You wonder how you will find out if your family is OK.

Week 3 of my Blog was about the importance of having your Out of Area Contact in place for your family to connect when phone lines are down after an earthquake.  Simply put, your Out of Area Contact is a friend or family member who lives out of the province or state that you and your family will call if unable to connect using local phones. Often long distance will work when local lines do not work. You call in and get updates on family members who have already called in.

Following an earthquake there is no guarantee what will be available for you connect with your family. Until the earthquake happens we just don't know.  What we do know is - you need to have options!  If plan A doesn’t work, you have a plan B, a plan C and so on and so on.  The more options you have the better your chance to connect with your family. 

Today the focus is on some of the additional options you and your family need to put into place so you will have the ability to connect following the earthquake.

Social Media 

With many recent disasters around the world we have seen and heard the success of people being able to connect with their families and loved ones using a variety of social media channels. With so many options you need to plan with your family how you could best connect using Social Media.  It is important to remember that when planning with your family you need to do what works best for you.

We have seen success with FaceBook in connecting people.  You post on Facebook advising your location and that you are ok. This information gets out very quickly - keep checking back until you hear from your family members.  You also may see updates from other people you know and may be able to help others connect.  However - like anything there is no guarantee this will work.

Texting is another great option that may be available to you and your family. A word of caution – don’t assume the person you are texting has received your text.  Just because you were able to send it doesn't mean he or she have received it.  They may not have their phone with them or their battery may be dead. You need to receive a response back.

Social Media is not only an excellent option to connect with your family, it can also provide you with important information about the earthquake or disaster you are facing. A word of caution. Make sure the reports you are reading are from a reliable source.  We have seen situations using social media where people are receiving information that may not be correct.  Be Cautious!

Your Task for Week #5:

1. Sit down with your family to identify what your best options would be to connect - FaceBook, Twitter, etc. 
2. You may want to include your extended family - they will want to know how you are doing after a major earthquake.  Keep in mind if someone doesn't have a Facebook account that may not be your best option. Remember its about doing what works for you and your family.
3. Kids spend time with two parents - make sure your plans will work at both homes and have a conversation with your kids about this. 

Next week we will look at additional ways to connect with your family including identifying your Family Meeting Places.  

Until then – stay safe and get you your family and pets prepared.

The time to prepare is NOW – once the earthquake strikes it will be too late!

Jackie Kloosterboer

Jackie Kloosterboer has been leading the way in earthquake preparedness for 2 decades presenting more than 100 Earthquake Preparedness sessions each year to groups and businesses. She is often interviewed by a variety of media outlets across Canada as she promotes the importance of earthquake and disaster preparedness.

As an Emergency Preparedness Specialist and an Instructor with the Justice Institute of BC Jackie travels across Canada teaching how to respond to disasters to help those who have been displaced. Throughout British Columbia Jackie has taken on leadership roles assisting those who have been impacted by disaster.  

Contact Jackie to speak to your group or business or to ask any questions at (604) 355-2414 or jackie@survive-it.ca

www.survive-it.ca