How To Prepare Your Home For Emergencies and Disasters

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Our home is our fortress. It’s where we feel most comfortable, it’s where we store our stuff, where we sit in our underwear and relax. The last thing we want to come to terms with is either leaving our home or having our home destroyed.

Bugging in, as we like to call it in the prepping community, is the best first option when it comes to riding out an emergency or disaster. It’s not the only option, but of course, we would all prefer that. The second we step outside of our homes, we enter the zone of the unknown.

We have a lot of control within our own homes that outsiders don’t and never will. If we plan it right and prepare, we can fortify our home and prepare it for whatever may come our way.

Here’s how to prepare your home for emergencies and disasters:

Know the potential emergencies and disasters. First bit of business is to understand what could potentially cause harm to your area. This would take place when you’re writing up your emergency disaster plan. Tornadoes? Wild fires? Hurricane? Nuclear power plant? Floods? Blizzards? Asses your local threats.
Keep a well stocked pantry. If COVID-19 has taught us anything it’s that we could be stuck in our homes for an extended period of time. Regardless how you feel about the lockdowns, what if it were the type of disease that you couldn’t even wash your hands in order to get “rid” of it? Keep a well stocked food supply of food and water. Take a look at this list for some ideas.
Increase home security. An emergency could be anything, including someone trying to break into your home. Increase your security by installing motion sensor cameras, motion sensor lights, window and screen door security bars, a kick plate and in general, clean up the outside so there’s nowhere for anyone to hide.
Make a power outage kit. Keeping a blackout kit ready to go is essential. You’d keep things like flashlights, batteries, lanterns, candles, lighters, matches, portable solar panel, external battery pack to charge small devices such as your phone and a radio, preferably one with AM/FM, at least, or a ham radio.
Keep the basics around. A fire extinguisher, first aid kit, carbon monoxide detectors, fire alarms, emergency gas shut off valve tool, manual tools, tarps, tape, extra hygiene supplies and so on. Walk around your home and see what things you use on a daily basis and which things
Have a NOAA weather radio handy. One of the best ways to keep tabs on a storm is with a NOAA weather radio. It can be plugged in when power is available or it can use batteries.
Be prepared for summer and winter. Power was just shut off to hundreds of thousands of people in California (not the first time, either) in the middle of a heat wave. Would you be prepared to live without air conditioning? Do you have battery powered fans? What about if a huge winter storm came through and knocked out power? Would you be able to stay warm without power?
Talk to your insurance providers. Get to know what type of insurance you have and for what type of damage it’ll cover.
Hold onto important documents. Keep all of your important documents together, preferably in some type of safe or fire resistant/water proof case.
Stay entertained. Even during an emergency or disaster, we need to keep morale up. Keep entertainment items around that the whole household will enjoy. Books, journals, craft items, board games, deck of cards and so on.
Stay up-to-date with home maintenance. One of the best ways to strengthen your home and making it an asset to you during an emergency, or to help keep it standing after a disaster, is to keep up with maintenance tasks. Cut back over hanging branches, clean gutters, remove dead trees, fix broken fence boards, repair roof shingles and so on.

Keep your home well stocked, but of course, always be ready to go at a moments notice.

Remember, although we love our homes, it’s just a home and it’s just stuff. You and your family are more important. If you ever need to leave in order to be safe, then leave.

See you in day 26!

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