Emergency Planning
Are you prepared for an emergency? I’m not talking about a job loss or injury, I mean a real emergency. An act of God emergency. Another Hurricane Katrina or 9/11. Is your family prepared to go days/weeks without running water, electricity, food, gas, using credit cards, etc.?
It just occurred to me this weekend that BabyGirl and I are not prepared. For reasons still unknown to me, our electricity went out on Saturday night. First thing came to my mind was “shyt, did I pay the electric bill?!” Back in the day, I couldn’t remember. I was known to slip a time or two. LOL But I quickly erased the thought and began playing eye spy private eye. Ya know, slide the mini blinds down very slowly to peek at your neighbors. That’s when I noticed the whole friggin neighborhood was pitch black. WTF!
After about 10 minutes of looking like Rose Holloway on 227, I noticed a line of cars backing up towards my building. Now that really piqued my curiosity. Forget being discrete through the blinds, I opened the damn door. Hmph! By then, I saw about six cars lined up. WTF again! I really didn’t care WHY the cars were lining up, I just panicked. *thinking* “Aww shyt, we ’bouta to get the hell outta here too!” Forget that!
You should have seen my azz stumbling over dog toys, books, remote controls and what not. Pitch black dark, I done dropped the damn flashlight and was trying to find my pants and shoes. I said “BabyGirl, get ya damn coat and come on!!” OMG, just typing this post is hilarious. I’m in tears right now. LMAOOOOOO!! You know black folks don’t need an explanation. When we see a large group of people hauling azz, we just peace the hell out too. Ye’en know! LOL
So we get ready in record time. I’m feeling all uncomfortable because we’re outnumbered in these parts…if you know what I mean. I was prepared to pull an Obi-Juan Kenobi if anybody tried to f*ck with us in the dark. But when I got outside, I felt like a damn fool. Here I am thinking something was going down in the neighborhood and these folks were trying to escape. The cars were lining up because the damn security gate wouldn’t open. *blank stare* I never thought there was a down side to living in a gated community. Then it finally hit me. When the electricity goes out, the security gate ceases to function. Duh! After further inspection, cars were lined up on the inside AND outside of the community. Folks couldn’t get to their own apartments. Damn!
It was pure chaos. Someone had already called the fire department and others were trying to reach emergency maintenance. All reasonable responses, of course, but I’ve never seen so many people under distress over something so minor. This whole experience made me think about how I would have responded if the situation was worse. It made me think about my non-existent emergency planning kit. It definitely made me realize that I better not panic anymore and scare the bejeebus out of my child who will cry uncontrollably because we forgot the dog in the house.
Sorry Precious, I love ya baby. But when it’s going DOOOWN, if BabyGirl forgets to grab ya fluffy azz, you on ya own…dawg. LOL! Sike, I’m just kidding! A little.
Ok, for serious. I went browsing the innanets to learn about emergency kits/plans. During my search, I ran across this post by Blunt Money and she linked to a Red Cross emergency tutorial. It includes an emergency preparedness shopping list based on family size and how many days the supplies are needed. I figured it covers enough of the basics to get started. Here’s another list of must have items that should be in an emergency kit too. Good stuff. Now that I’ve been scared into action, it’s time to start collecting our emergency kit items.
Are you ready for an emergency? What’s in your emergency kit?
[image credit: cityofdearborn.org]
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22 comments:
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Fabulous Financials v2.0 » Emergency Planning Kit - The List (Pingback), 16 February 2008, 15:56
[...] a recent scare, I realized that I’m not prepared for an emergency evacuation and I’m trying to do [...]
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Have you read the Fabulous Financials comment policy lately?
I’m so mad at this phrase, “Ye’en know!” LOL! And I know for a fact that dog is the last thing on your mind and you were not kidding about her being on her own.. LMAO. I can’t stop laughing at imagining you getting Baby Girl all worked up just b/c you saw cars lining up.. You have got to do better… Thanks for my Monday morning laugh.
I haven’t used a credit card in years; other than that I’m not prepared for an emergency. I certainly don’t have an emergency kit!
p.s. if you’re going to ridicule a FOUR HUNDRED square foot house, perhaps you can tell us a better way for someone earning minimum wage to build wealth?
ROTFLMAO HAHAHAAAA
Ah, what a great Monday morning laugh. I am woefully unprepared. For a hurricane, for a major illness, stuff like that.
I do have a bag of tealights if the lights went out and a case of Cheetos fiance ordered in bulk on Amazon.
SingleMa - I think you should ban Minimum Wage. Everywhere I see his comments, its always negative.. LOL! Maybe I’m being the devil, but he irks the hell out of me.
OMG thank you for the laugh this rainy Monday morning!!! I could just visualize you peeking out the blinds realizing something was up and leaping into action while mentally practicing your karate chop kicks. lol. i’m glad it was nothing serious and i’m glad precious didn’t get left behind!
@ Minimum Wage, I find you quite comical, but your negativity is affecting the Fabulous Financials community. We’d all appreciate your input more if it was constructive or value added. In fact, you and I had an email conversation recently and I invited you to write a guest post about mininum wage concerns that are often overlooked in the financial industry. If you would like to take me up on that offer, I will be happy to facilitate the discussion for you. I am also willing to explore any other topic that may concern you, so feel free to send me any ideas for future articles. You know how to reach me.
Now with that said, your constant negativity is useless and no longer welcome. So cut it out or consider this warning as strike 1. By the way, Single Ma only gives 1. K’thanks!
I usually don’t post comments but I just wanted to say that I enjoy reading your blog. Thanks for brightening my Monday morning.
awesome post - you’re right that the vast majority of people are NOT prepared for this type of situation. I’m a Red Cross volunteer so while I know the drill, I always need the reminder of how important it is. I have an emergency kit and communication plan, but I do NOT have my financial/personal docs backed up so reading your post made me think of this: http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/beprepared/FinRecovery/FinPlan/.
Oh My Goodness! Your post had me rollin’. I’m with ya’ when your right though, cause if chaos comes my way our fish (little beta & fishy louie) will have to fight it out in the same bowl.
“Sorry Precious, I love ya baby. But when it’s going DOOOWN” ….LOL spoken like a true sister.
Awww man, Minumum Wage got to you ! LOL I guess it started on my blog last week. I told ya~
Ha…that is funny, but shows that you are serious about protecting you and yours. Think of it as a drill. If you are truly serious, you should maybe practice gettin out quickly, plan routes, and teach BabyGirl what to look for and what to do if she were alone.
Alot of bloggers have about run out of patience with Min. Wage. I’m sure Min. has valid points and a unique perspective, but it’s hard to see that given the ’stuck’ mindset exhibited. I’d be very interested in seeing a post, or even a blog, describing the challenges Min. faces, and all the attempts to get OUT of a min. wage job.
Oh, and sorry to pick, but I think you meant ‘piqued’ for ‘peaked. I’m a spelling nazi, forgive me, I can’t help myself.
Fixed it, thank ya honey! [-SM]
All I can say is that you should read “Owning an inexpensive home is conducive to wealth-building” on Moneymonk and decide for yourself who made a constructive comment and who went negative.
You were warned. Bye bye!
Thanks for the mention
(And doesn’t your gate have a manual override? Or would that defeat the purpose of it being a gated community?)
Yes, only maintenance can do it. [-SM]
Girl you are hilarious! I imagined poor Precious’ face when she realized yall left her azz. LMAO. She probably plotting on yall right now. LOL.
After Florida got hit with 4 hurricanes in a 2 month span a few years back, I compiled my own emergency kit. It consists of all the essentials (flashlight, water, canned food, lighters, first aid kit etc). I go through my kit every 3 months or so to change out any food or water that may have expired. I also have $10 in ones in the kit (I don’t know how I came up with that number). After reading your post, I don’t think I am as prepared as I would like to be. I definitely plan on using the websites you gave and making sure my kit is up to par.
Thanks for the laugh chica.
Oh you are funny. I am going to have to take you camping. Without BabyGirl though. I can only handle one diva at a time.
Miserly Bastard and I have great emergency kit posts. His are different from mine, but read as many lists as you can to build up what you think you need.
Camping really helps clarify what is actually going to be useful, especially if you need to shelter in place for more than a week. Trust me, the things you think are a big deal are not. The things you think are not, are huge.
I love your site and today was a classic. You need to write a book.
I don’ t know about going weeks with out electricity or running water and certainly not without credit cards (have a bad habit of not carrying cash or keeping any in the house.) But I can say that during hurricane season 2004, we did manage to make it about a week without electricity and potable running water. We had and continue to maintain at least several gallons of bottled water, and we also have a gas grill out back. Not the best in emergency prepardeness but I’m sure also not the worst….
Thanks for cracking me up! I burst out laughing when I got to the part about the gate not working. As for emergencies, my husband has had one since we met (he had to deal with the aftermath of Northridge quake) so we keep our kit pretty stocked and update it once a year or so. The “grab-and-go” bags have clothes, flashlights, radio, first-aid kit, prescription meds, and a few things I can’t think of off the top of my head. The larger kits have some food, toilet paper, work gloves (for removing large chunks of fallen building), surgical masks (in case there’s lots of dust in the air), and more. And of course, we always have lots of bottled water.
LMAO….this is too funny. Am visualizing you taking a peep out the blinds. As a person has gone through 9/11 and the 03 blackouts in NYC, you would think I would be more prepared. Not so.