It's Emergency Preparedness Week from May 4-10 here in B.C., and this is the perfect time to sort through your household emergency supplies (has anything expired? Is anything missing?) or gather an emergency kit together if you have never done so.
Here in Cariboo-Chilcotin, we must be ready for wildfires, landslides, floods, extreme weather and heat. (And when I'm in Victoria at the Legislature, I have to think about tsunamis and earthquakes too)
It's important to be ready at a moment's notice, and to have already thought out and discussed evacuation routes and family meeting spots before a disaster strikes. Even better? Have these plans written down and shared among family and neighbours.
If you have children in daycare or school, or a parent in long-term care, review what the evacuation plans for these facilities are. If one of your siblings or parents is disabled or requires mobility assistance, coordinate with your network as to how you will account for these loved ones.
This is the reason why we have an Emergency Preparedness Week every year: to ensure we re-familiarize ourselves with our plans and update them if necessary, as well as to spend some time checking on our inventory of supplies.
It is crucial to ensure items such as non-perishable food, water bottles, medications, toiletries and first aid equipment are at the ready in a grab-and-go bag. There are full suggested packing lists available online, and organizations like the Canadian Red Cross sell pre-packed emergency backpacks. My constituency office staff can assist you in locating these resources as needed.
By ensuring that you have a sufficient extra supply of food and water for every member of your household, and by asking your neighbours if they have done the same, your entire community will be better prepared to face a crisis, and strife over limited resources can be avoided.
Also, consider where you store important documents such as wills, ID, insurance papers, irreplaceable photographs and sentimental items. Are they scattered and buried among multiple closets and drawers, or are they bundled and accessible to grab in an emergency?
It's not fun to visualize emergency situations. But just by thinking about them and planning accordingly, you are ensuring that you will not be left helpless and powerless if you ever face a natural disaster or evacuation order. Because if you find yourself in an emergency event that you hadn't done any preparation for, your chance to plan is immediately over, even though you had years to do so!
