How to Prepare Your Home for Emergencies

Money Crashers, On Wednesday 23 March 2011, 2:31 SGT

The worsening crisis in Japan has caused many people around the world to pause and consider their own preparedness plans. For instance, if Japan’s crisis was happening close to your home, would you be able to cope? Do you have enough supplies on hand to keep your family safe and fed through a disaster?

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Many people don’t, in large part because no one wants to think about the worst happening. But as we’ve seen time and time again, sometimes the worst does happen. Whether you get stuck in a winter snow storm emergency, or you face a large-scale disaster like what’s happening in Japan or what recently happened in New Orleans, preparing for such events is not only smart but it could save your life. So how can you prepare your home for emergencies?

Step 1: Prepare an Emergency Kit
The Federal government’s emergency preparedness site, Ready.gov, recommends that every household have an emergency supplies kit on hand. The kit’s purpose is to have everything you would need to survive for several days in one central location. If you have to leave quickly, you can grab your kit and go. Or if you end up sheltering in your home, you’ll have your supplies in your home waiting for you. So what should be in your emergency kit?

• Water. You should have one gallon per person, per day, in your kit. And, don’t forget to have enough water on hand for pets as well.
• Food. You should have enough non-perishable food to feed your family for at least three days.
• A hand crank or battery-powered radio.
• Flashlights and extra batteries.
• Plastic sheeting and duct tape in case you have to shelter in place.
• A first aid kit.
• Moist towelettes and garbage bag for personal cleaning and sanitation.
• Local maps.
• A can opener for food.
• Cell phones and chargers. If you have a solar charger, even better.
• Prescription drugs and medication, enough to last for a week or more.
• Cash or traveler’s checks.
• Pet food and supplies for your pets.
• Household bleach, for disinfecting water, and a medicine dropper. Use 16 drops of bleach to treat one gallon of water.
• Sleeping bags or blankets for everyone in your home.
• Infant formula, diapers, and other baby items – if you have infants or small children.
• Paper plates, cups, and utensils.
• Matches in a waterproof container.

It’s also important to consider your area. For instance, are hurricanes a threat where you live? What about winter storms? Flooding? Every year we see people scrambling to buy plywood for storms at the last minute, or they’re stuck at home without a snow shovel because the hardware store sold out. Don’t wait until the last minute to stock up on emergency supplies. Buy them now so you’re prepared for natural disasters that might hit your area. It might also be a good idea to look into homeowners insurance coverage options if you don’t already have a policy in place.

Step 2: Create a Plan
In the event of an emergency, do you know how you’ll connect with your family? For instance, who will pick your kids up at school? Will you all meet at home, or in another location? What if cell phones aren’t working? Creating a plan to connect with your family is vital, especially if the disaster won’t allow you to return to your home. Start by agreeing on two central meeting points where you’ll connect if there is a sudden emergency. The first choice will likely be your home.
But what if that area is being forced to evacuate? If that’s the case, then you should always have a secondary meeting place where you’ll all go in case your home is off-limits. It’s also important to choose a friend or family member outside the area who will function as a central contact person. Sometimes in emergencies, it’s easier to make out-of-area calls than it is to call locally. This person can help relay messages to your other family members in case you’re separated.

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Step 3: Know in Advance
In the event of an emergency, you might have to shut off your home’s electricity, gas, and water. Find out now where those shutoff valves are located, and learn how to turn them off safely. You don’t want to have to learn how to do this when you’re facing an emergency situation. It’s also important to find out where the nearest emergency shelters are, what your city’s warning signals sound like (and what each one means), and any evacuation routes you might need to take. Learning all this information before an actual emergency will help prevent panic and give you and your family a feeling of control.

Final Thoughts
An emergency situation will always be a stressful and sometimes difficult situation to endure. Why not reduce your panic level and the potential for preventable mishaps by taking some steps to prepare for an emergency situation? All it takes is some careful planning and communication between you and your family and friends. Then, in the unfortunate event that a catastrophe does strike your area, you will be extremely thankful that you and your family were prepared and ready to respond.

What are you doing to prepare for potential emergency situations?

Heather Levin contributes regularly to Money Crashers, one of the top personal finance blogs. You can also read more of Heather’s work related to green living and saving money on The Greenest Dollar.

Ideas to Handle Daily Problems

Ants Problem:
Ants hate cucumbers.
Keep the skin of cucumbers near the place or ant hole.

To get pure and clean ice :
Boil water first before freezing.

To make the mirror shine: 
Clean with sprite


To remove chewing gum from clothes:
Keep the cloth in the freezer for an hour.


To whiten white clothes:
Soak white clothes in hot waterwith
a slice of lemon for 10 minutes


To give a shine to hair :
Use one teaspoon of vinegar on hair, then wash hair.


To get maximum juice out of lemons :
Soak lemons in hot water for one hour,
and then juice them.


To avoid smell of cabbage while cooking:
Keep a piece of bread on the cabbage
in the vessel while cooking.


To avoid tears while cutting onions:
Chew gum.


To boil potatoes quickly:
Skin one potato from one side only before boiling.


To remove ink from clothes :
Put regular white toothpaste on the ink spots generously
and let it dry completely, then wash.


To skin sweet potatoes quickly :
Soak in cold water immediately after boiling.

To get rid of mice or rats :
sprinkle black pepperin places where you find mice or rats.
They will leave.

Did You Know?

DID YOU KNOW? Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster. Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef.It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mintsin double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simplychop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Reheat PizzaHeat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs - Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding FrostingWhen you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving. Reheating refrigerated bread To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds awayStart putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet news-papers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers. Broken GlassUse a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes - Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away! To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuum - To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling - Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and... ta da!... static is gone !

Measuring Cups - Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, suchas peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield? Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the window s fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope - If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

Conditioner Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Goodbye Fruit FliesTo get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of AntsPut small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERSThe heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink andran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material... I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like.

Well... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box.. well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down wi! th it!&nbs p; He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very longtime (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter outand wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months.

He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!

Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy waterand a nylon brushand I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it... the water ran right thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about! PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO OTHER PEOPLE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK. NOT ONLY COULD IT SAVE SOMEONE'S HOME, BUT IT COULD SAVE SOMEONE'S LIFE.

Goodbye Stains

Wish to remove stubborn blood stains on white cloth? Best of all, this method doesn't require you to do any washing. Simply purchase hydrogen peroxide from a pharmacy and use a cottton ball to absorb throughly. Then rub on the stain and leave to dry. The stain will be gone in a flash and by the way, the hydrogen peroxide can also be used to clean wounds.

Soup It Up

To make a zipper slide up and down more smoothly, rub a soap bar over the sip teeth.