Emergency Preparedness Check-list

Are you really prepared for an emergency?

The importance of emergency preparedness hit home last week when we woke to this ...

Source Daily Mail

A burst water main left our little area of south London under over a metre of water.

We're a very close community centred around three short streets of shops. All but two of our shops are traditional independent stores & cafes run by incredibly hard working families.

These stores are what makes our community special ... the florist, the butcher, the baker, the green grocer, the guys in the hardware store, the fish monger and the mini market all know my 3 year old by name as she marches in on her own to buy things.

The stores on the worst hit street will be shut for 2 to 3 months. And, although, the water company admitted liability it's going to take a lot of energy and personal faith to rebuild their businesses and our community.

Seeing the store owners wading through their wrecked properties really got me thinking how prepared we are ourselves for an emergency.

The community is built on top of an old - now underground - river and our old house was flooded 10 years ago. But it's so easy to get blase about these things and think it will never happen to us.

Last week we were lucky ... I dread to think what would have happened if the flood had been just one street further down where there are lots of basement flats ... but it was a wake up call and so I am going through all our emergency preparedness plans.

This is my emergency preparedness checklist that I am working through ....

Please do add your own suggestions to the list ...

Emergency Preparedness Checklist

Up to date home insurance with sufficient cover for everything in your house
An inventory of household belongings with photos of high value items
Check insurance small print - are there exclusions? are you violating in anyway?
Install & test smoke & carbon monoxide alarms throughout house
Get a dry powder home fire extinguisher - ensure it is full as they can discharge
Write an escape plan for getting safely out of all rooms in the house
Ensure all family old enough understand the escape plan
Keep a secure out of home back-up of all important computer files
Put all emergency contact details in phones, e.g. personal, insurance, utilities
Establish a secure contact e.g. parents to store document copies & contact lists
Put insurance contact details on phones & with secure contact
Keep an emergency cash supply - £/$200 - in small notes
Store copies of key documents e.g. birth certificate, passport, with secure contact
List of all financial accounts - excluding passwords - with secure contact
List of all utility accounts - excluding passwords - with secure contact
Create an "emergency folder" containing key documents, financial account list, utility account list
Create a comprehensive & small portable first aid kit - keep them up to date
Keep torches with spare batteries on all floors
Stock emergency blankets - look like foil - for each member of house
Stock water purification tablets
Create an emergency back-pack containing emergency folder, cash, first aid kit, torch, emergency blankets etc
Keep emergency back-pack where it can be easily grabbed on way out of house
Stock emergency food supplies e.g. canned, long life food for family for 3 days
Stock emergency water supplies for 3 days - 3 gallons / 12 litres per person
Take a first aid course

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