Resolve to be ready

As a public relations practitioner, one of my job duties is to prepare for crises. At the bank I work for, I keep our communications plan updated in the event that we have a robbery, natural disaster, employee violence, data failure, breach of privacy--you name it.

Yet when it comes to personal emergency preparedness, I am seriously lacking.

In a time when it seems like natural disasters are increasing (in the past two months alone, we've seen earthquakes in Chile and Haiti, along with massive flooding in Portugal), am I prepared to make it through one?

I live in Utah, which seismologists say is long overdue for a big earthquake.

What have I done to prepare? Embarassingly, not much. I've got a pretty good supply of food storage tucked away, but don't have much water to get us through more than a week or two. Some cash is stashed away in case electronic payments (currently how I pay for everything) can't be made. But that's about it.

Last year, hubby and I went crazy and bought a six-month supply of food storage, stashed away in our guest room closet.

Problem is, most of it is raw ingredients, like sugar and flour...meaning I have to know how to use such ingredients...

We've also got a huge (50-gallon?) water container in our garage--which has been sitting empty for the past several months.

A few years ago, I read that one should photocopy the contents of their wallet in case it gets lost or stolen. Still haven't done that. I bought waterproof  bags for document storage (I guess a ziplock bag would also do the trick) that have been sitting, empty, in my filing cabinet for years. Why is it so hard to fill those bags up? Not sure, especially since I really am not a procrasinator, I promise...

Perhaps most importantly, I don't have a plan. What if my family and I get separated and communications are down? Where would we meet? How would we get a hold of each other? Could we survive if we had no access to stores or banks for an extended period of time? Do I know enough first aid to help my family and others?

Maybe this all sounds doomsdayer to you. But maybe it sounded that way to all those people before they actually experienced a disaster in their lives.

Better safe than sorry, right?

I'm vowing to get prepared and think you should, too. Here are two sites that might be helpful:

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 
• Centers for Disease Control (CDC)