In a few days I’ll be traveling to North Carolina for a planning session with my friends and professional accountability partners Janine Adams and Geralin Thomas. I am so eager to spend some time with friends who both challenge and support me. Staying on the shore, for me, can really provide the right environment for…
Category Archives: Disaster
Got Soap? Go-Bag Contents for Personal Care
We take for granted certain items that contribute to our daily comfort. But imagine for a moment that you had to evacuate your home during an emergency and you were left without some basic supplies for personal care. No toilet paper? Not so pleasant. Take a moment to gather a few space supplies to add…
Parlez-vous Preparation? Thinking About Reaching Non-English Speakers in an Emergency
Earlier this month I attended Emergency Preparation Day at my county fair. As I strolled among booths offering information on CPR, earthquakes, and how to turn off your gas, one display caught my eye: the county government offered health information about Hepatitis B in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, and more. Recently a lady came to…
Water Bob
Atlantic hurricane season is here again, and while I don’t like to play “whose natural disaster is worse?” with my friends on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, I do have one thing good to say about hurricanes versus earthquakes and tornadoes: hurricanes come with a bit more warning. Rather than storing water for seven or…
Making a Family Communications Plan – Four Steps For Faster Reuniting
Making a family communications plan is an emergency preparation step that is fast, free, and can help to reunite you with your family members in case of emergency. Here are the four steps you need, and why it matters: What: Identify a local contact. Why? If a fire should occur at your home or a…
Emergency Prep On Your Smartphone
I love the way that smartphones bring libraries-full of information to our pockets. That includes the information we need to prepare for emergencies as well as instructions to respond to emergencies in the moment. For the iPhone, there is a wonderfully complete and easy-to-navigate app by evolvingmonkeys.com called simply Emergency Preparedness Checklist and Guide. Developed…
Where Do I Keep Emergency Supplies?
Oregon-based professional organizer and blogger extraordinaire Krista Colvin had the genius idea to do a series of peeks inside the homes and lives of other professional organizers. Today she featured a few of my tips on where to keep emergency supplies, with photos. Pay her blog a visit for the inside scoop on some of…
Homeland Security Asks Us to Use Social Media in an Emergency
This tweet came out this afternoon from @DHSJournal, the twitter account of the Deparment of Homeland Security: Quake: Tell friends/family you are OK via text, email and social media (@twitter & facebook.com). Avoid calls. Never mind the lack of a helpful hash-tag. This government agency clearly understands the uses of social media. When today’s earthquake…
New Emergency Water Storage
My tap water crosses two of California’s eight major earthquake faults before it arrives in my glass. Though many upgrades have been made, the aqueducts that deliver that water were not built with a major earthquake in mind. If a major earthquake struck right now as I type, the flow of water from the Sierra…