8 “Golden Rules” of Disaster Preparation

Disasters are some of the inevitable things that we may face during our lifetimes.

Out of the many things that people do to manage disasters, those who prepare end up on the winning side. Read on to find out about disaster preparation rules.

Natural disasters take place at any given time. Some of them, e.g., storms that precede floods give warning of impending danger whereas others give no warning, e.g., earthquakes. However, as much as the two types of natural disaster are on the opposite end when it comes to alerting people before they take place, they have one thing in common. This is that once they happen, the time for you to prepare disappears. It is therefore prudent for you to always have a plan of how you will cope with natural disasters before they strike because prior planning is the single best way to survive in such ominous times.

Disasters are of various sizes, from the smaller kind of events like storms that affect suburbs too much larger events which can affect an entire city or massive areas which can even cross state boundaries. Among the many outcomes of disasters, the most significant ones include: people getting killed or injured and others losing their valuable possessions and homes thus bringing them to the point of building their lives from scratch.

How Can You Prepare for Disasters?

With all the above in mind, it is in a person`s best interests to protect his/her family, assets, business and home from such grotesque events. It is crucial for us to point out that insurers provide members of society with ways of doing this. After natural disasters take place, insurance companies pay claims to all policyholders (with the appropriate policies) and are victims of a disaster. This, in turn, assists the community to rebuild itself.

As much as subscribing to a disaster-management insurance policy sounds like an exceptional idea, it is good to note that preparing yourself for disasters will help you to get back on your feet faster. The people that are unprepared often experience deep financial loss and devastation which is magnified by their inability to have a means of returning to their normal lives. In case you find yourself in such a situation, you can count yourself lucky because this article will expound on some of the most foolproof ways of making disaster preparation.

The Best Disaster Preparation Rules

  1. Learn Your Area`s Shelter Locations and Evacuation Routes

The time for you to figure out your place`s evacuation routes and shelter locations isn`t in the midst of a hurricane bearing down on your house or once a tsunami warning has been sounded. In your disaster preparedness plan, it will do you well to know about the details of evacuations (which are fairly common) ahead of time. It is also prudent for you to master any escape route from your house, even the obscure ones such as your bathroom`s ground-level window.

What Survival Secret We Lost To History

In case you have children, you shouldn`t take any chances with their disaster preparation details. Ensure that you have drawn them several maps of the protocol they should follow and pin it near where they mostly hang around in the house. In addition to this, you should also have a plan of the place your family will go to regroup when evacuating the house.

It is advisable to pick a location outside your house and another one outside your neighborhood (In case you will be required to leave the area). You should decide beforehand the place you`d want to escape to in case of an evacuation, be it Red Cross shelters or even relative`s or friend`s home.

  1. Know What You are Facing in Your Preparation for Natural Disasters

When you set to prepare to disaster management, it is wise to know exactly the kind of disaster that you are likely to face as well as know what you are required to do in every situation. An example of this is, if you live in Montana, you shouldn`t be worried by hurricanes. If you live in California, you should be ready for earthquakes while also not overlooking the likelihood of severe weather pandemics taking place when preparation for natural disaster.

  1. Plan on How You Will Reconnect With the People That Matter

In case a disaster affects cell networks, you shouldn`t be only worried about how your Hulu or Netflix stream will get affected. Instead, you should be more concerned about how you will regain contact with your roommate or family. How can you let the important people in your life know you are doing good? By figuring this out beforehand, you will be creating a suitable platform for maneuvering through difficult situations. This should not miss in your disaster preparation checklist!

The Red Cross advises people to use a contact that`s based outside the area of emergency to coordinate the family members that will check in with him/her. This is one of the most thoughtful ways of how to survive a disaster because it is simpler to make calls to long-distant destinations. In your home disaster preparation kit, ensure that there is an emergency contacts list as well as numbers for local emergency services.

  1. Sign Up for Emergency Alerts

You can easily get emergency alerts on your mobile phone to prevent the hazards that come with lack of disaster preparation. These alerts can be quite annoying as they are capable of overtaking your phone`s silent mode. However, it is good to note that when looking at how to survive a disaster, there`s little room for comfort. By alerting you in such a manner, you are better placed to come up with effective natural disaster preparation because you will constantly be learning about emergencies through your phone (Which is often likely to be next to you).

This system for emergency alerts also broadcasts over television and the radio and can inform you whether severe weather should be expected in a matter of hours, days or even weeks. This, in turn, gives you enough time to grab your home disaster preparation kit and activate the other disaster preparation protocol you had already put in place beforehand. You can also use social media updates, but you shouldn`t rely on them exclusively because your internet connection may break down during an emergency.

  1. Have Disaster Preparation Rules that Tell You What To Do in case You`re Caught Away from Home

You may not be at home when disaster comes knocking. In the case of unexpected emergencies, you should be ready to react from various locations such as your car or workplace among others. Have plans of how you will reconnect with kids who are in school or daycare. Ensure that you have talked to schools to assess whether they have the necessary arrangements in place of communicating with families during emergencies. Also, find out whether they have shelters in place; where people will turn to if forced to evacuate.

  1. Have a Home Disaster Preparation Kit and Know How to Use It

Your disaster preparation rules should include having a pre-packed kit that holds the essential items that can provide a means of how to survive a prolonged disaster. Some of its components should consist of; disaster preparation food, water, necessary first aid tools among other emergency equipment that you may need. Always ensure that it is already assembled and can be used immediately, not scattered throughout your house.

Ensure that everything`s working appropriately and that no one is sneaking out foodstuff from the finished kit. One of the essential points you should also have in mind is this; if you don`t know how to make use of the kit, it could end up being useless.

  1. Consider People That Might Need Special Preparation

Seniors, infants, kids and people with special needs require more attention when preparing for emergencies. In case you or a member of your family requires special equipment or medication, ensure that you bring it along to increase your family` likelihood to survive after a disaster hits. Ensure that you have also liaised with your neighbors to find out how you can assist each other during disasters and how to check on one another during emergencies.

  1. Learn Emergency Skills that Can Come in Handy

Ensure that your disaster preparation rules see to it that you have learned about the little emergency skills which can make all the difference in your survival following a disaster. Some of these skills include; use of fire extinguishers and performing basic first aid to an injured person. You can get some training in CPR which could end up being all that stands between a person departing from this world. You could also learn more about shutting off your house`s utilities in case of a disaster that could damage water, electrical lines or gas.

Conclusion

Disaster preparation rules are one of the crucial things that one should have in place to increase the chances of survival following a disaster. As we have seen above, a person best endures disaster by making adequate preparations and the eight points that have been expounded to give adequate information on how you can do so.

Have you ever been caught up in a disaster? How did you survive? Do you think disaster preparation rules have a role to play in recovering from a disaster? Please share your experiences with us by commenting below.

Written by

Malcolm Cano is a scientist on biology corner, professional angler, baseball and hunting lover. Malcolm also has some own projects, including fishing guide school and GearExpertGuides.

Latest comments
  • A bit of OPSEC should be thrown in for good measure. I’m not trying to be a ‘hard ass’, but…the moment you let people know that you are truly prepared for a disaster…you have become a target for those who are unprepared. It’s like this. You have prepared and have enough supplies for your family of four and all of a sudden…20 neighbors and ‘friends’ show up unannounced and expect you to take them in. At that point things are going to get dicey.

    • Yup…the Twilight Zone episode of the only neighbor who had a disaster shelter comes to mind……

      • Yes and that episode was on new years day…..

    • You are absolutely right, but also remember how many people are following the SHTF advise and taking measures like advised, but also remember that following these advises may get you killed. Its the very best idea that you use a portion of these ideas and create your own. Too many people are thinking that if they hide out in remote areas they will be safe, however just the opposite, many people will plan to go to the same areas you may plan to go thinking that nobody else would think or know of the same place you are. If you have a particular place in mind, spend time there, set up cameras, monitor that area, be intelligently mindful of your desired area, especially during certain hunting timeframes. If you use your head and prep your preps, you may save your and your family’s life, if you just wing it, good luck to you.

  • If you Do Not have your BOB (Bug-Out Bag) With you – then you have lots of problems – and No Solutions.

    • Train to survive without it, then do absolutely everything humanly possible to ensure you have it with you and never have to use those primitive skills

  • So if concerned the flight path of sparks with the HEAVY leather gloves while starting a fire. I’m sure all carry along.
    How about the bare knees leaning on a log?
    I don’t know if you choose the photo for your story.
    A little common sense exercise would make this a more convincing advice piece,which is well written by the way.

  • I would advise, in addition to knowing the main shelters and evac routes, to know at least one alternate shelter area and as many secondary evacuation routes as possible without causing confusion. I would also consider HOW we were going to evacuate, and what would happen if that wasn’t feasible. For example: our primary evacuation route is to drive 6 miles on state rt 30 but then again so is every other citizen of our town and St rt 30 is completely blocked because of an accident ( due to panic of course). So we deviate to county rt 15 and travel 3 miles only to slide into a deep ditch that has washed out. No matter what our on board equipment can do, there is NO getting our vehicle unstuck. Now we are on foot. Or are we? Did we plan ahead and bring our mountain bikes with tow behind bike trailers? Yes we did. We can still carry most of our gear just not in as much comfort and definitely not as fast. This is where OPSEC becomes MUCH MORE important. Whether on bikes, horseback, goat cart, dog-sled, what have you, unless you’re in a vehicle, you are exposed to danger in MANY more ways ( not that a vehicle is much more safe), than we ever think possible. The point is: plan ahead for the evacuation, plan for the worst case scenario and do everything in your power to hold off that worst case as long as possible.

  • 9. Make sure you have plenty of bottled beer

    10. Make sure you have a small fridge (for the beer)

    11. Make sure you have a “churchkey” (for the beer)

    12.Make sure you have a solar powered generator (for the fridge)

    13. Make sure you have plenty of chips and salsa (for the “End of the World” party

    • Finally some common sense!

    • Have you talked to anyone about alcoholism?

    • Amen! While I’m a teetotaler, your above 5 comments sure put the perfect exclamation point on the article. To the author’s #1 in the article, I’d NEVER choose to go to an evacuation shelter, Red Cross or otherwise, with thousands of others. Disease City!!! No thank you. With that as starting guidance, I had a tough time reading any further with the article. Yep, I want to know every evacuation route I can find, most especially the ones the authorities are telling folks to take. That’s a sure stand still parking lot endeavor. The desired result is to get out of the area not be trapped in a vehicle on some asphalt or concrete parking lot that used to be a street, highway or freeway. When I’ve needed shelter from tornados I’ve gone to “evacuation” centers, as many did, but I never went to one where others went. I went to a natural underground area I knew of that seemingly no one else ever thought of using as an evacuation location. After multiple times in that shelter and more than safely surviving, even comfortably thriving, cooking many meals in there and comfortably sleeping on a cot I took with me during several tornados, I tried leaving a few little items behind to see if they would disappear. They never did until one day I removed them when I moved out of the area. It was in a location that was ansi safe to survive floods or flash floods. It was a perfect spot, well known to most of the locals, but no one else seemingly ever considered it a viable location to survive or thrive during tornados or floods.

      I also agree wholeheartedly with all the other commenters about OPSEC. For those who have questions about what OPSEC means, it means KEEP YOUR BIG FAT MOUTH SHUT, DO NOT ADVERTISE WHAT YOU HAVE. The goal is to survive, not make yourself the target everyone else is aiming at.

  • Hi folks.
    So when do we initiate our bug out or hunker down plan/s ?
    With a view to the current coronavirus ,at what point do you declare “it just hit the fan !”.
    Here in England we’ve just got a few cases in the last week confirmed, but this virus is being compared to the Spanish flu and claimed as a potential pandemic.
    I am alert to how quickly this virus is becoming a global concern but we’re only getting scant or vague reports of fatalities “so far”.
    With a potential of this magnitude , preparedness won’t save us if we don’t act “before” this virus is on our street.
    I’ve stopped (for now) using high density population areas,increased my use of hand sanitizer etc and prompting myself “not to touch rails,handles or my face”.
    I’m not ready to go full on survival mode “just yet” but I’m definitely rechecking my stocks and plans.
    I’m not sure what level of protection suit or mask is needed for this scenario,just glad I’ve already got various options. If this virus does progress you could find supplies quickly disappear.
    Are there any cases in the USA ?
    Comments welcome…..

  • 2 so far.
    No need to panic (Yet) but certainly should pay close Attention and Stay aware. Our CDC Is all over it. I trust them, but the Chinese are known liars. Stay Vigilant.

  • LOL, it’s funny reading these old posts from January. “2 cases so far”. What will it be like in another six months?

    • Well, it’s been nine months. There are 39.7 million cases today worldwide, compared to “2 cases so far” in the US. I wonder if China developed this virus to curb their own exploding population, and it just got out of hand and spread, or they just didn’t care if it did. Maybe in their twisted thinking, China thought they were doing the world a favor in developing the virus. Now that most of the rioting and looting has slowed, I fear that we should all prepare for what may happen after the election involving groups like the NFAC, ANTIFA, BLM and BOOGALOO who would rather stand with the closed fist of destruction rather than the open hand of acceptance and reconciliation. God help us if Biden and Harris get elected. The freedom and way of life we enjoy now in this country will become a thing of the past. We must put aside any dislike we have for Mr. Trump and consider the survival of our way of life. Voting for Biden is voting for Government take over and loss of our constitutional rights. We must vote for Mr. Trump to save our country….God help us.

  • Interesting comments.

    So, the Kremlin puts massive resources into support for someone to be U.S. president, and nearly half the U.S. voters don’t see that as an issue?

    Russia pays bounties for confirmed kills of our soldiers, the president says nothing – and nearly half of U.S. voters don’t have a problem with that, while claiming to care about the future of our country?

    Russia hacks into the Department of Homeland Security, the DIA, CIA, FBI, Pentagon, even our Nuclear defense and development systems, verified by his own Secretary of State, and the president says nothing – and nearly half the country still want the guy to stay in office?

    I may not agree with the Democrats on many of their positions, but I love my country first, before any party affiliation. Trump is not a patriot. Trump is not a good man. Trump doesn’t give a damn about you, me, our children, or the stability of the United States.

    At some point, a spade is a spade.

  • Amen, Phil! I’m surprised that now, three months after your comment, no one has posted a reply. Maybe the events of January 6th, when Trump put together a mob of white supremacist insurrectionist fascists to try and destroy the U.S. government and keep him in power so that he could set himself up as Hitler 2.0 has something to do with it? Hmmm . . . Do ya’ think? Regardless, maybe now people are beginning to see Trump for the danger to life, liberty, and truth that he truly is. If they don’t, then they’re hopeless fascists and Nazis, and they should just get the hell out of America! We don’t need them, or their kind! We fought WW II from 1941 — 1945 to defeat the powers of fascism and Nazism, and a POS like Trump fans those same flames into life, here, in America! What does that say about half this country?!

    • No proof whatsoever that Trump assembled that mob. There were a few people killed and both were unarmed civilians.

  • A spade is a spade. To finance his new media venture, Trump has teamed up with a Chinese investment group, that has a history of stiffing investors and having their shell companies delisted from the stock exchange.

    Regarding Jan 6 capital attack, numerous Trump advisers and cabinet officials are or have stated they will, plead the Fifth Amendment, in the face of subpoenas.

    Some things are just not that hard to figure out.

  • The problem isn’t that things are hard to figure out, Phil. It’s that some people refuse to accept the truth. You know the old saying, “There are none so blind as those who will not see?” Well, that saying applies to roughly half of America! They refuse to see that Trump doesn’t give a damn about them, or America. He’s an egotist and a narcissist who craves power and cares only for himself. Remember when he stood, looking over the graves of the soldiers who died storming the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and called them “suckers” and remarked “What was in it for them?” How the hell can ANYONE who claims to love America, the Constitution, and freedom, support a jackass like Trump?! His supporters are blind with hatred. They hate blacks, hispanics, Muslims, Jews, gays, and on and on. They want to rid America of anyone who doesn’t look like them and think like them. The easiest way for them to do that is the same method the Nazis used during World War II, when they murdered 6.5 million people who didn’t fit in as a member of their blond-haired, blue-eyed “ubermenchen.” But, in order for them to do the same thing here, in America, first, they need an American fuehrer. Enter Trump — wannabe Hitler 2.0. And, just as Hitler had people around him to prop him up so they could share in his power and take advantage of it for themselves, Trump has his Republican allies, judges, and assorted sycophants. They’ve been busy spreading the lie that Trump won the election and re-writing the voting laws in Republican states to suppress the minority vote and prevent anyone who might vote for a non-Republican from voting in order to make sure that only Republicans who support Trump will be elected. Their goal is to turn the United States into the Nazi States of America.

    • I know a lot of Trump supporters and none of them are what you describe. Heck, he even has a Jewish son in law. Trump may not be a saint, but he was certainly way better than this Biden clown now in the WH. And Mike Pence a quantum leap better than Heels-up Harris.

    • Skip, I just watched Trumps entire June 6th 2019 D-Day speech in its entirety. I think you might do the same. He does not refer to anyone as “suckers” or “What’s in it for them”. Check the facts before spewing forth information. At least one male member from every generation in my family has served since the American Revolution., including myself. I will stand behind my Brothers In Arms no matter what race, religion, democrats, republicans, etc, in a time of need. I will stand against tyranny’s door to keep our country free. And I will stand to allow individuals, like yourself, to speak freely, right or wrong. I ask you one question, Have you served this great country that gives you all the liberties you have. If you have, thank you if you haven’t, then I suggest you first walk in those shoes and face the enemy, as I have over 22 years of military. service as millions of others have, before you pass any type of judgement. I support, defend and love this country, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights and all they stand for. I think in the near future, that you, and anyone like yourself are in for a tremendous awakening. There’s a Storm coming and I hope many hold fast to the “Iron Rod”.
      I believe that the truth will eventually prevail and show us all just just that, “The Truth”.

  • Ha! Reading these uninformed posts about Jan. 6 is funny! The Pelosi/FBI staged riot is now well known. How do you like your savior Biden now? People from the moronisphere should not be allowed to vote.

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