Every Monday Matters #4

Prepare for an emergency

Appropriately enough, today was the day I received my Medic Alert bracelet, which alerts medical providers to conditions, allergies, medications, and contact information in the event I am unconscious. I realised that I had not told them I had sleep apnea, so I went to the website and added that, along with my use of a CPAP machine. While I was at it I put in my blood type, the fact that I'm an organ donor, etc. in. The only trouble I had is that I accidentally ordered the bracelet too large, despite measuring. It's about an inch too big, meaning it hangs too loosely. I'll see if I can get a jeweler to size it down. In the meantime I have a link from a key chain gathering it together. I expect tomorrow my insulin may change, so I'm glad I can update my health issues so easily. On the bracelet itself it says I have asthma, diabetes, and am allergic to latex and penicillin. Those were the main things.

In terms of preparing for a disaster, I've taken some steps. My apartment is all electric, so in the event of an ice storm or prolonged power outage, I have a flashlight that has a crank that powers it. It also has a radio, a strobe, a siren, a compass, and can charge a cell phone (with a lot of cranking) :). My old cell phone fit it as is. I'm going to see if I can find an adapter for the one I have now. This is especially important as I 1) don't have a car to charge one with and 2) don't have a traditional phone line. Mine piggy backs off my cable, so if the electric goes out, so does the router and cable box. That's a problem since cell phones jam easily in disasters.

As far as food, I've tried to stock up on ready-to-eat food such as canned vegetables, canned vegetarian chili, beans, crackers, etc. I really need to get together some water, though. The only water I keep in the house is distilled water for my CPAP humidifier. Unfortunately, in the event of a power outage, I can't use that machine. I've been lucky in ice storms to have only outages of a day or so. I also refrigerate my backup insulin--the current one lasts 28 days unrefrigerated, at least, and it's easily portable without a lot of syringes or phials.

I live in front of a creek. Although it would have to really come up high to flood, it could conceivably. I live within the New Madrid area of effect in terms of earthquakes, should a 'big one' hit. Tornadoes and ice storms are not uncommon. Fire is always a concern. The apartment complex provides a smoke detector in the apartment but I'm not sure if it's battery powered or electric--I need to check. I also live within a mile or so of a water treatment plant (i.e., chlorine spills) and within a few miles of a major military chemical depot full of things like mustard and sarin gas. So a shelter in place kit is not out of the question. Then there's always the possibility of terrorism, I suppose. So there's a lot to think about.

Mostly I'm concerned with power outages. They are the most likely issue. As far as tornadoes go, the one place that's 'safe' is my bathroom. I can get out of every other room in the house in case of fire easily, and I'm on the first floor.

One thing I also need to look into is renter's insurance. I couldn't practically replace my books and the artwork I have in the house (I have a lot of original pieces by a friend who's an excellent artist), but not having insurance is an issue in terms of trying to replace the necessities to start out again.

The Every Monday Matters website recommends a .pdf checklist for what should go into a basic home emergency kit. There are lots of resources from the government and other agencies available on the Internet.

Those are some of the things I'm trying to get together, anyway. Here's hoping it won't be needed.