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