Store Non-food Items in Winter Months

Good sales on a variety of storable foods are more difficult to find in winter. The winter months are a good time to focus on essential non-food items. While a list of non-food items can be dauntingly vast, start with a simple list of the most important ones to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Click the link below to read more from this article posted in the Deseret News by Leslie Probert.

Store non-food items in

winter months

Your Family's Escape Plan

Every family should have a home escape plan and should practice it frequently.  Practicing a fire escape plan and fire safe behaviors can mean the difference between life and death.  Here are tips on creating and practicing your family's plan:

• Involve the whole family in planning.
• Draw a diagram of your home marking the locations of all windows and doors.
• plan two escape routes out of every room in your home.
• Designate an adult to help young children and others who might have a difficulty escaping.
• Every member of the family and frequent visitors to the home should know and practice the escape route.
• Teach children to stay close to the ground when leaving the home.
• Teach children to touch doors with the back of the hand to see if they are hot.  If they are, use a secondary escape rout.  If not, open doors slowly.
• Set up a specific meeting place outside the home for everyone to go to following an escape and teach children to never re-enter a home for any reason.
• Practice the escape plan at least once a month.  Try practicing a night to see if children wake to the smoke alarm.
• Smoke and fire can hinder sight so try practicing your escape route with your eyes closed or in the dark by feeling your way around your home.
• When in full gear, a firefighter may appear frightening to a child so teach them not to hide from them.  Try taking them on a tour of your local fire station.

Article posted from www.utahsafetycouncil.org

South Jordan Emergency Preparedness Fair

Tomorrow there is a Community Emergency Preparedness Fair in South Jordan, UT.  There will be a lot of vendors, classes, and opportunities to learn about food storage and emergency preparedness.  There will be products demonstrations and items available to order at show discounts, so hopefully you can make it.  Here are the details about the event:

South Jordan Community Emergency Preparedness Fair
January 26th, 2013
Early Light Academy - 10am-2pm
11709 S. Vadania Drive, South Jordan, Utah 84095


The community preparedness fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26 at Early Light Academy (11709 Vadania Drive) and will feature a variety of speakers, classes and activities to help everyone learn more about how to be ready for the worst-case scenario.

Scheduled speakers include Tony Wilde from Be Ready Utah, representatives from Utah Disaster Kleenup, volunteers from the American Red Cross and spokespeople from Questar.

In addition, public emergency first-responders from the South Jordan police and fire departments will be available to answer questions and provide information.

Classes will include first aid practices, how to filter water, proper sanitation practices, financial planning for an emergency, how to create a family emergency and evacuation plan and maintaining emotional wellbeing during a crisis. There will also be food storage meal cooking demonstrations.

Many of the classes will be given more than once during the event, so those interested are invited to attend and participate at any time their schedules permit.

Vendors will also be there with booths and demonstrations of products that can be purchased to prepare for an emergency.

Local businesses, such as Jenkins Soffe Mortuary, will also make presentations on topics such as how to plan for the death of family members.

Scouts are invited to participate during the fair in an emergency preparedness merit badge class and earn up to four hours toward a project.

AquaPodKit for Temporary Emergency Water

A simple, safe solution when emergencies strike, the AquaPodKit allows you to store up to 65 gallons of fresh water using an ordinary household bathtub. AquaPodKit is the easy way to store temporary water when the need arises. As everyone learned in recent hurricane disasters, municipal fresh water service is not absolutely assured. Don't be without it. Next time, don't rush to the store in hopes of buying bottled water. Buy an AquaPodKit now—and relax knowing that you're prepared for the next time.

See more videos and information at www.AquaPodKit.com.

Buried Hydrant Delays Firefighter Response

Please remember if you live near where a fire hydrant is located, always keep the surrounding area clear of vehicles, downed tree limbs, snow, and what ever else might slow down firefighters from reacting to an emergency.

Click on the link below to read the KSL.com article by Wendy Leonard:

Bus catches fire; 

buried hydrant delays firefighter response

Council Member Charlie Luke Newsletter

The following article from Salt Lake City Council Member Charlie Luke is posted from the District Six Community Update Newsletter, Winter 2012.

Council Member Charlie Luke

DISASTER: What If It Happens Here?

When we see or read reports of the seemingly more prevalent disasters that strike around the world, one simple question returns again and again: If disaster were to strike in Salt Lake City, are we prepared?  Do you know what to do in case of an emergency or disaster such as those mentioned above?

In taking a hard look at our City’s emergency preparedness posture, the answer is, we are much better off than we were five years ago, but there is much more that can be done. Salt Lake City’s Emergency Services personnel include the traditional fire, medical and police personnel, as well as nontraditional teams from Public Services and Public Utilities.

The Emergency Services teams are well prepared for dealing with both day-to-day “garden variety” emergencies and major emergencies, but disasters are different. Disasters cross geo-political boundaries and consume all resources within hours. If a major earthquake occurs, emergency response from official government sources will be overwhelmed and delayed due to the magnitude of such an event.  Residents could be “on their own” for days or even weeks.

As individuals, families and neighborhoods, everyone must come to the firm realization that the first and most important line of emergency preparedness in Salt Lake Valley is the individual.  Each person is responsible or preparing for a disaster.  Much can be done for little expense and a small investment of time.

Salt Lake City’s Office of Emergency Management is an excellent source of information for emergency preparedness and offers the following recommendations: three items that should be immediately available are a battery powered flashlight, a battery powered radio and a well stocked first-aid kit. Keep at least a half tank of gas in your car at all times. Next, store a 3-7 day supply of water; at least one gallon per person in your household per day.  Seventy-two hours is a minimum planning figure used to prepare a supply kit for each person  in your family.

You should consider assembling kits with items you will need to sustain yourself for 120 hours without outside assistance, utilities, or human needs supplies.  Be sure to include an extra pair of glasses and medications for any conditions you may have, such as diabetes, heart conditions, or asthma as these medications may not be readily available.

Consider the time of year when assembling your kit.  As we are moving into the winter months, think about including an extra coat, blanket, and boots in a kit for your vehicle; it could save someone else as well as yourself. Your “Emergency Kit” should be portable in case you need to evacuate your home in situations such as a chemical spill/release, ruptured gas mains, structural instability, or flooding.

After gathering emergency supplies, develop individual, family, and neighborhood emergency preparedness plans that account for time at work and school.  The plans should outline what each participant should do before, during and after an earthquake or disaster, no matter where you are!

Finally, know where to go for accurate information.  In times of emergencies, stay off the phone, except for 911 life-or-death matters.  Surviving phone lines will be desperately needed by emergency responders.   Send runners to check on family and neighbors.  For disaster information and instructions, turn your battery powered radio to 1160 AM (KSL).  This is Salt Lake City’s primary Emergency Alert System station.

For details on how to prepare yourself and your family, please contact John Flynt, Preparedness Coordinator at john.flynt@slcgov.com or 801-799-3604.  He can provide an excellent assortment of free emergency preparedness information or, visit www.slcgov.com/em or www.slccert.org. Sign up to receive updates and stay informed during an emergency at www.slcalerts.com.

Lessons from Hurricane Sandy

Article posted from TheReadyStore.com.  Click on the title below to read from their website and see the follow-up comments.

26 Lessons from Hurricane Sandy

This week, we were forwarded an email from a family that lives in New Jersey that dealt with the power outages as the result of Hurricane Sandy.

This family made a list of lessons they learned during the storm. We wanted to pass along some of the points on their list so that you and your family could learn from their experiences and be better prepared for a power outage...

1. The excitement of a power outage wears off around day three.
2. Just because your generator runs smooth, does not mean it’s producing electricity.
3. A couple of cases of bottled water is NOT water storage.
4. You should have as much fuel as water. That includes:
• Propane
• Gas
• Kerosene
• Firewood
• Fire starter (kindling, paper, etc.)
5. If you are not working, chances are nobody else is either. Don’t just sit around, go out and work.
6. You eat a lot more food when you are cold or bored.
7. You need more food than you think if your kids are out of school for 2 weeks.
8. Kids do not like washing their face in cold water.
9. Your 1972 Honda Civic gets to the grocery store as well as your 2012 Escalade, but the Honda allows money left over for heat, food, water, a generator, fire wood, a backup water pump … you get the idea.
10. The electrical grid is way more fragile than I thought.
11. Think of the foods that calm you down and help you think – a cup of hot chocolate, a glass of milk and a ding dong before bed, etc. You’ll need comfort food.
12. You quickly become the guy in the neighborhood who knows how to wire a generator to the electrical panel, directly wire the furnace to a small generator, or get the well pump running on inverter power.
13. A woman who can cook a fine meal by candle light over the BBQ or open fire is worth her weight in gold.
14. It takes a lot of firewood to keep a fire going all day and into the evening for heat.
15. In an emergency men stock up on food, women stock up on toilet paper.
16. I was surprised how many things run on electricity!
17. You can never have enough matches.
18. All of the expensive clothes in the closet mean nothing if they don’t keep you warm. The same goes for shoes.
19. You cannot believe the utility companies. They are run by politicians! Or so it seems.
20. “A man with a chainsaw that knows how to use it is a thing of beauty”.
21. Most things don’t take much power to operate. Things like:  
• Computers
• Phones
• Radios
• TV
• Lights
22. Some things take a ton of power to operate:
• Fridge
• Toaster
• Freezer
• Hot plate
• Microwave
23. It gets darker a lot sooner than you think.
24. Getting out of the house is very important. Even if it is cold. Make your home the semi-warm place to come home to, not the cold prison that you are stuck in.
25. Someone in your family must play or learn to play guitar.

There were also many things that were not learned from Hurricane Sandy, but reinforced. Those things were the importance of my family and their love and support, especially my lovely spouse and that I am very thankful for the upbringing and experiences that have taught me and brought me to where I am.