Worth Repeating
Survival and the Next Big Disaster: Rely on Yourself, Not the Government
Emergency kits and first aid supplies can keep your family alive when food, water, gas, electricity, or medical services are disrupted by disaster
(PRWEB) November 29, 2005 — Think you can rely on the government for your family’s survival after a disaster? Consider the Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Wilma, and the Kashmir earthquake in the last year alone. While governments strive to help, downed gas, water, electric, phone, and medical services, not to mention roads, may delay help for days or weeks. And government services may be overwhelmed. Meanwhile, you and your family must fend for yourselves. Will you be ready?
“The country is really just not prepared for a major catastrophic event,” said Dr. Irwin E. Redlener, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, in a recent BusinessWeek cover story. “Whatever it is — the Big One in San Francisco, a terrorist attack — it doesn’t matter. The unfortunate truth is our ability to imagine and plan for catastrophic disasters is woefully inadequate.”
 It’s 2:00 a.m. and a flash flood forces you to evacuate your home — fast. There’s no time to gather food from the kitchen, fill bottles with water, grab a first-aid kit from the closet and snatch a flashlight and a portable radio from the bedroom. You need to have these items packed and ready in one place before disaster hits. |
A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) brochure puts the burden of preparedness on individuals. “It’s 2:00 a.m. and a flash flood forces you to evacuate your home — fast. There’s no time to gather food from the kitchen, fill bottles with water, grab a first-aid kit from the closet and snatch a flashlight and a portable radio from the bedroom. You need to have these items packed and ready in one place before disaster hits.”
While most disasters can’t be avoided, you can prepare for them. According to FEMA, there are six essentials you should stock in your home: food, water, first aid supplies, emergency supplies, tools, special items, clothing and bedding.” FEMA suggests at least a three-day supply of food and water, adding that food requiring no refrigeration, preparation, or cooking is best.
MRE, or “Meals Ready to Eat” — a staple of US military and rescue operations for decades — are a popular way to provide survival food supplies. “Because the MRE are pre-cooked, they’re ready to eat right from the pouch,” says Thomas Sciacca, a former marine, outdoorsman, and President of CampingSurvival.com. “Unlike freeze dried alternatives, the MRE are designed to retain moisture, gravy, and sauces with maximum nutrition, variety, and a five to ten year shelf life.”
Since evacuation or travel may be necessary, it’s also wise to include emergency kits or survival supplies in each car, as well as the office, school, or wherever significant time is spent, suggests Sciacca. The best kits are lightweight, avoid duplication, and suited to the users and environment used in.
While emergency kits and survival supplies can be assembled one item at a time, Sciacca understands that few people set aside the time to do an adequate job of it. “Important items get left out, items get scattered or get old and need to be replaced,” he explains.
Sciacca designed CampingSurvival.com as a one stop shop for survival supplies and emergency supplies — from pocket sized kits to The SuperArk, from family first aid supplies to organization-sized trauma kits, from rain ponchos to solar powered wind up radio. For free Disaster Analysis and promotional pricing, visit the CampingSurvival website at www.campingsurvival.com.
For More Information Contact:
Tom Sciacca
Phone: (800) 537-1339 ext. 222
Fax: 315-592-4796
28 W First St South
Fulton, NY 13069