Focus On The Minimum Calories Per Day To Survive

Let’s be clear here. The minimum calories per day to survive is very different from the number of calories you currently eat on a normal day-to-day basis. Having enough food to stay alive doesn’t mean that you’re always getting the nutrients your body needs to grow strong and stay healthy. It’s actually more about staying alive until you can better your situation and find more enjoyable foods. 

When starting your food storage it’s important to base your initial purchases on what you need to stay alive. The minimum amount of food you need to not die. After you have a decent amount of that type of food, then you jump to foods that are nutrient-packed. Then you can move on to foods that are more enjoyable to eat.

A lot of people get overwhelmed when they’re starting their food storage journey because they imagine having to buy one year’s worth of food to help carry on their current lifestyle. In most cases, that’s impossible. If people would focus their efforts on survival first, more people would have food storage.

 

My Recommended Food Survival List In Order Of Priority

1. Survival food first (Rice, beans, and wheat)
2. Nutrient packed food second (Fruits and vegetables)
3. More enjoyable food third (pre-packaged meals and sweets)

How Many Calories Do You Need To Survive?

It can be challenging to give a blanket statement to answer the exact amount of calories your body needs to survive because it differs from body to body. It depends on each person’s metabolism, weight, age, sex, and activity level.

The UCLA Center for Human Nutrition says that eating less than 1,000 calories per day has the same effects on the body as total starvation, so this survival information should be used only for that: survival.

Most of us consume between 2,000-3,000 calories per day right now. However, in emergency situations, most humans will be able to survive for short periods of time with a minimum of 500-800 calories per day.

What Are The Best Calorie And Nutrient-Packed Foods?

In a real emergency situation, you will definitely want to consume whatever food is available. However, you will want to store foods that offer the most amount of calories and nutrients.

Leafy greens are high in nutrients, but probably aren’t going to sustain you long-term because of the low calories they offer. At the same time, just eating higher-calorie foods such as chips and candy, also won’t give you the energy you need to thrive for longer periods of time. They can give you energy boosts, but the ultimate goal is to store foods that give nutrients along with higher calories. 

The following foods are calorie-dense, nutritious options for when you’re trying to stretch your energy as far as you can:

• Protein smoothies
• Milk
• Rice
• Red meat
• Nuts
• Nut butter
• Potatoes/Sweet potatoes
• Beans
• Protein supplements and bars
• Salmon
• Avocado
• Whole grain bread
• Chicken leg
• Tofu
• Dark chocolate
• Oats
• Cheese
• Whole eggs (yolk plus whites)
• Yogurt (full fat)

Do The Calories Required Differ From Male To Female?

Generally, males require more calories than females. Females are recommended to eat 1,600-2,400 calories per day, while males are recommended to eat 2,000-3,000 calories. This is very general and can look different from person to person.

In an emergency situation, males will probably require 100-200 calories more than their female counterparts to align with the numbers given above. 

Does It Matter What Variation Of Foods You Eat To Keep Your Calories Up?

As mentioned earlier, your body will best respond to calorically dense, nutrient-packed food. However, this won’t always be an option.

Your body will respond very differently to 500 calories of meat compared to 500 calories of candy or even to 500 calories of cheese. The macronutrients that make up all of the food that we eat, change our energy levels and body composition.

However, if you are literally trying to survive, a calorie is a calorie, and you will want to eat whatever you can. Again, I recommend you follow the 3 steps outlined above when starting down your food storage journey. Survival, nutrition, and then enjoyment.

What Do You Mean By Survival Skills?

Survival skills are a basic set of skills that could keep you alive in times of crisis. Survival skills require the knowledge of how to execute certain tasks as well as the practice to actually do them. What if the stores were to run out of groceries? Or if a massive storm were to hit and your house was out of power for months? Or you got lost in the woods? Or the cleanliness of drinking water was compromised? What if there was a massive political uprising and your stable access to resources was lost? What if you had to survive off of the land? Within the answers to these questions lie the skills necessary for survival. If anyone of these things happened–could you stay alive?

Where Can I Learn Survival Skills?

Survival skills can be learned in any number of places. The first step is to gather the actual knowledge of survival skills. There are many ways to do this. Reading articles online about basic skills is an excellent place to begin. YouTube is helpful for visual learners. You can search nearly anything and visually see how to complete a task. One way to begin building your “knowledge” toolset for survival skills is to watch YouTube videos demonstrating specific survival skills you want to learn.

My Favorite Emergency Preparedness YouTube Channels

Practice Makes Perfect

Reading articles and watching YouTube videos is only part of the equation. In order to get proficient in these outdoor skills, You will need to practice them. This leads me to the second step in learning survival skills. Practice, practice, and practice some more. This might be uncomfortable at first, but can be life-saving when you find yourself actually in a situation where they are needed. You can also look for local survival training near you or sign up for some online courses that will help educate you on all possibilities in your specific area.

Here are some recommendations:

• https://www.ready.gov/training
• https://training.fema.gov/
• https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/disaster-training
• https://emergency.cdc.gov/coca/trainingresources.asp
• https://rtcil.org/emergencypreparedness/onlinetrainings

What Are The Five Basic Survival Skills?

Trying to tackle all survival skills at once can lead to feelings of being overwhelmed and discouraged. Work first on mastering these five basic skills. Practice them in different conditions and with different tools until you feel confident that you could execute them if necessary in emergency situations. After you finish these five, continue to build.

• Water: Understanding how to purify and filter water for drinking and cooking is essential for any type of survival, as the human body shuts down after only a few days without hydration. You can practice this skill by purchasing a water filtration system of some kind. Find muddy water and pre-filter it by removing any large chunks. Filter the water through your water filtration device (or with water purification tablets). To purify the water, boil it for 3 minutes. This combination of skills should allow you to drink and cook with water from any number of sources and in any number of situations.
• Shelter: Staying warm, dry, and away from predators is also essential to survival. Begin by becoming well-practiced in putting up a variety of different tents. From here, begin to plan for real survival situations. This can be done easily in your backyard. Create a lean-to shelter by gathering a large, sturdy branch. Nestle it firmly between two trees with rope or by carving out holding divots for this branch to rest 5 or so feet above the ground between the two larger trees. From here, on one side, diagonally stack medium-sized sticks across the length of the branch (or at least a few feet of it.) This should create a triangle under which you can find shelter. Insulate with leaves and additional sticks.
• Food: Learning which plants in your area are edible is a great place to start. Gather knowledge about which insects and arthropods in nature will give you the most nutritional value. Practice fishing and gardening. Practice preparing simple food outdoors with very little preparation. Learn to be resourceful.
• Fire: In survival skills, fire is king. You need fire to purify water, keep warm and dry, and cook food. Begin by learning simple ways of starting a fire using dry debris for kindling, fanning the flames lightly, and catching larger pieces of wood–stacked either in a “teepee” or “crisscrossed” form–on fire. From here, practice the  “bow-drill” fire method for when you don’t have matches or a lighter.
• First Aid: Having the knowledge of how to do simple first-aid tasks will be life-saving in survival situations. Owning a first-aid kit is great, but not having the skills to actually use it makes it lose much of its value in emergencies. Taking a first-aid class as well as CPR training are a few ways to begin building up this survival skill.

How Do You Practice Wilderness Survival Skills?

The easiest way to practice survival skills is in your own backyard. Everything we discussed above can be done in many backyards. After you have mastered the skills in a safe environment close to home, go camping and practice them in the woods. From here, continue to try out different environments that are less and less familiar.

What Are The Top 10 Survival Items?

Consider putting together a “survival skills” emergency kit with these 10 items. Even with all of the knowledge and practice in the world, these 10 items could make a survival situation significantly easier than it needs to be:

1. Small first aid kit
2. Water filter
3. Flashlight
4. Waterproof matches
5. Compass
6. Map of area
7. Knife
8. Personal locator beacon or cell phone
9. Nylon braided line
10. Mylar survival blanket

These items are helpful for executing the 5 basic survival skills outlined above. The compass and personal locator beacon would specifically help you if lost, and the survival blanket could keep you warm either as a personal blanket or as shelter insulation. The knife could be used for whittling sticks to better create a shelter, hunting or fishing, and protecting yourself. Gathering these items and putting them in a small waterproof bag somewhere accessible could give you the peace of mind that you are well-prepared. Even more importantly, it could make survival situations significantly more manageable.

How To Teach Kids Emergency Preparedness

The best way to teach your kids emergency preparedness is to include them in your own preparation. Narrating what you are doing to the level of the child’s understanding will help them comprehend emergency preparedness at their level of growth and development. At a very basic level, you will want to start explaining to your kids what you are doing. For instance, you may say to a three-year-old: “We are buying food to put in our storage in case a storm comes and we are hungry.” For a five-year-old: “We are storing clean water to drink in case the stores run out of clean water to drink. Can you help me stack this water?” In the next level, you will want to engage your children in your preparation journey. Instead of just telling your eight-year-old about clean drinking water, teach them how to purify water from an unclean source using either your Sawyer Mini or LifeStraw water filters to make it suitable for drinking. Instead of talking about how to open cans, complete basic first aid tasks, and prepare basic meals from your food storage, make the child your partner in this preparation. This will ensure that they will value survival skills. In addition, they will be able to help in times of emergency. Of course, teaching and preparing every child will be different. Here is a list of basic topics to help you get started. At each level of development, work on furthering your child’s knowledge and skill:

• First aid tasks, such as applying bandages, sterilizing a wound, CPR, and responsibly handling medications
• Preparing basic meals
• Finding shelter
• Purifying water through a variety of methods
• Keeping warm when in cold weather
• Starting a fire
• Learning self-defense
• Storing food and water responsibly
• Helping and serving others

What Are The Five Basic Survival Skills For Kids?

Mindset

Teaching your kids how to stay calm in the face of an emergency is no small task, but one of the most important for any emergency. Teaching mindfulness skills in the midst of tantrums is a great place to start. One skill to begin teaching as soon as children are able to observe and communicate those observations is a simple “five senses” game. When your child is upset, ask him/her to communicate with you 5 things they see, 4 things they hear, 3 things they feel, 2 things they smell, and one thing they taste. This will help bring them back to the present moment. Teach children how to take deep breaths when they feel intense emotions rising. Talk openly about how to cope with stress in healthy ways.

Shelter

Showing children how to put up tents through camping or backyard sleepovers is a great place to start. From here, teach kids how to search to find small spaces that they could sleep outside if necessary. Teach them to make a generous layer of leaves to sleep on to conserve body heat.

Food

First, teach kids the importance of storing food for emergencies. Help them learn to independently prepare meals. This will help them get ready for an emergency where you still have access to food storage. In a real survival situation, teach them that insects and worms are edible and will provide protein. Show them in nature which plants are edible and which are poisonous.

Water

Water is one of the most important components of emergency and survival preparation. Children should know how to boil water for purification as soon as they safely can. Following a water source usually eventually leads to civilization, which you can teach your children in case they get lost in the woods.

Fire

Last, teach children how to start a fire in a protected location using tinder (dry grass), kindling (small sticks), and logs (laid criss-cross on top of each other so that air can still flow.) CONCLUSION Kids are going to be the most vulnerable during stressful times. It’s important to mentally prepare your kids for the possibility of these hard times. That being said, it is important to make this preparation age-specific. Be careful about how you talk to your kids about potential disasters. The last thing you want them to do is shut down because they are so scared of something that might not ever happen. You know your kids better than anyone. You choose how and when to get them prepared. Pro Tip: Making preparedness fun will help your kids retain important things better. For example, go camping to teach them how to start a fire. Go fishing to teach them how to catch, gut, and cook wildlife. Go hiking to teach them what vegetation they can eat in your area. The more fun you make it the better chance of them remembering during the upcoming stressful times.

How To Keep Your Kids Entertained During An Emergency?

Anyone who has spent any amount of time with children knows that it can be extremely challenging to keep them entertained, especially in times of stress. One great way to prepare for an emergency with children is to practice. Practice entertaining them without the power on, with few or little toys, and with disrupted schedules. Although this may create temporary stress, it can lead to greater flexibility and creativity for times that it matters most. If in an emergency situation with little or no toys, use your environment. Play the “I Spy” game with things around you, or count how many leaves on a tree, or say the colors of the cars that go by. Teaching kids to be aware and entertained by their surroundings is a form of entertainment that is not specific to any schedule or location. Another way to keep kids entertained with no toys is to play pretend. This can be easily tailored to the specific ages of your children and can entertain for hours on end. In cases when you would need your children to be quiet, practice playing “quiet games.” This could include challenging children to stay in the same pose for as long as possible or making no noise for as long as possible.

What Are Some Fun Outdoor Survival Games For Kids?

There are literally hundreds of games that you could play outside with your kids, either in times of emergency or calm. The list of a few favorites below should get you started. Consider printing out this list to work through with your children, and then help them play more and more independently from adults depending on their age and development.

1. Mother, May I: In this game, an adult or older child with their back turned grants or denies requests of the younger children in a line to move forward. In turn, the children ask one by one if they can move forward with the questions “Mother, May I _____.” The winner of the game is the one who reaches the “mother” first.
2. Sidewalk Chalk Art
3. Digging for bones: Buy fake bones at the dollar store, bury them, and let your children dig them out.
4. Bubbles
5. Simon says: In this classic game, one picked as Simon commands all the other children to do things. If “Simon” starts the phrase with “Simon says ___” everyone must do it and will be disqualified if not. If “Simon” does not start the phrase with “Simon says ____” but instead commands something directly, any children who do this task will be disqualified. The winner is the last one who has perfectly obeyed the respective commands.
6. Bocce Ball: One small ball is thrown as the goal or marker. The other children have two similarly colored balls to throw as close to the “marker” ball as possible. Whoever gets the closest wins the round.
7. Capture the Flag: A large group of children divide into two teams and try to capture the other’s flag without being caught. Read more on the official rules here.
8. Hide and Seek
9. Races, relays, and obstacle courses
10. Tug of War: For this classic game of strength, divide the children into two teams and have each team hold on to one side of a long rope. Both teams pull the rope as hard as they can to pull the other team over a line drawn between them.
11. Kick Ball: Set up three bases and a home plate in the shape of a large diamond. Divide children into two teams. Follow similar rules as baseball, except allow the pitcher to roll the ball to the “kicker” at home plate. The kicker at home plate will kick the ball and try to run the bases strategically. If the ball is caught straight from the air, this counts as one “out.” Three outs mean the defensive team changes to the offense and visa versa.
12. Soccer: All you need is a few sticks or rocks to outline a goal and a soccer ball of any kind!
13. Tennis
14. Four Square: Divide a massive large square into four medium-sized smaller squares. Find the rules on specifically how to play here.
15. Jumping rope
16. Climbing Trees
17. Limbo: You (or an older child) will hold a stick at a chest level, and all the children will walk under it. Every round, you lower the stick an inch or two until the children have to bend backward (without losing balance or using their hands) to walk under the limbo stick. The one who walks under the limbo stick when it is the lowest is the winner.
18. Water Fight
19. Kick the Can: This game can literally last for hours. The person who is IT tries to guard a can while those hiding throughout the yard try to race to kick the can. If the one who is IT sees any of the hiding children or beats those trying to kick the can to the can first, he/she says “Over the can on _____(the child’s name)!” and the child goes to “jail.” Read up on the official rules here.
20. Cloud Watching

This is a good list to start with, but the trick to entertaining kids during any disaster scenario is to help them stay positive and use their imagination.

A part of emergency preparation that is often overlooked is having proper documentation in a safe location. But in so many emergencies, if you hadn’t thought of it before, this is a step you will wish you had taken. Here is everything you need to know about what documents to keep, where to keep them, and why this is so important.

What Documents Should You Have In An Emergency?

The most important documents to keep safe in an emergency can be divided into a few groups: insurance papers, identification papers, personal documents, medical documents, and contact information. Insurance papers and financial records are critical for getting into contact with your insurance after a disaster strikes. In addition, you will want to keep these as proof that you were insured and what the specific insurance outlined, in case of losses. For your insurance papers, consider including:

• Household and place of business inventory
• Duplicates of all insurance policies
• Mortgage documents
• Real estate deeds
• First two pages of your previous year’s federal and state tax returns
• Title paperwork
• Motor vehicle titles and bill of sale, serial or VIN numbers
• Wills and trusts
• Safety deposit box, including the location, number, contents, location of the key, and authorized persons to access the box
• Investment portfolio
• Stocks, bonds and other securities
• Bank, checking, savings account numbers or certificates
• Credit card accounts

Identification papers are critical for your emergency kit, as these are essential for any unforeseeable tasks or travel necessary or resulting from a disaster. Within your identification papers file, make sure to include:

• Citizenship papers
• Birth Certificate
• Marriage Certificate
• Death certificate
• Adoption/custody decrees
• Military papers
• Passports
• Visas
• Social security card
• Employment records
• Photocopy of documents kept in your wallet or purse

Personal documents should be kept to protect irreplaceable items that would be devastating to lose. Personal documentation to keep protected could include:

• Family photos, videotapes, or heirlooms
• Important books
• Personal family history
• Family genealogy records

Medical documents can be kept to inform those caring for you in a potential disaster of any allergies, prescriptions, and/or pre-existing medical conditions. Medical documents to remember could include:

• Family health and medical records
• Employee benefits information
• Letter of instruction in case of death
• Funeral and burial plans
• Name, address, phone number of the attorney, financial advisor, and insurance agents

Contact information is critical to include so that people can contact you in case you are separated from your documents. In addition, it should include the contact information of people you would want to call during an emergency.

Why Is It Important To Have Proper Documentation On Hand During An Emergency?

Proper documentation is critical to emergency preparedness. So much in our world is dependent on your identification documentation. Without it, you cannot drive, travel, start a bank account, access your bank account, or do too much of anything. If you had to flee your house quickly, or the original documents were destroyed, having identification documentation on hand would be necessary for rebuilding every part of your life. Medical documentation can literally save your life. In addition, they can help you continue to get your prescriptions and proper, personalized medical care. Financial and insurance documents, as well as personal and contact documents, can save you hours and hours of hassle and headache in an already stressful time. There are certain documents that are hard to replace. If all of your documents are suddenly destroyed, it is extremely difficult to “start over.” In case you have not prepared and end up losing important documents unexpectedly, the government has a program to help you start over. But still, this process is long, stressful, and difficult. It is worth the forethought to keep important documentation on-hand.

Where Should You Keep Vital Documents In Case Of An Emergency?

These documents should be uploaded digitally, downloaded onto a flash drive, and printed out as copies to be kept in a safe location. To ensure maximum safety, consider opening a safety deposit box at a bank in case your first set of documents gets destroyed or lost. For some legal purposes, digital documents do not suffice. At the same time, hard copies can be stolen or damaged. Having hard copies and a digital file of all of your documentation is the safest way to ensure that you will have all of the documents you need in an emergency.

How Do I Properly Store My Important Documents? 

Safe locations to store your important documents include a fireproof lockbox or safe, a safety deposit box, or a three-ring binder with plastic sleeves into which you can insert documents. You will want to store the documents in an easily-accessible place in your home.

Do I Need To Prepare These Documents For Everyone In My Family?

Start your documentation preparedness journey by collecting these documents for yourself, and then expand to your family members. Many of the documents will be replicas, especially if you have children, but some of them–such as birth certificates and social security cards–need to be stored for each person in the family individually.

Why Is Financial Preparedness Necessary For Disasters?

Although creating preparedness plans for likely disasters in your area may look different from incident to incident, there are a few common threads. Most of us know that you need to have food and water stored and hopefully understand the basics of first-aid. But one thing that is almost as necessary (but often overlooked) is the importance of financial preparedness. There are very few emergency situations that do not take a toll financially for individuals, families, communities, nations, or the global landscape. And although we know that this may look different for different people based on individual income and needs, there are ways that all of us can better prepare for the next crisis.

How Can I Prepare Myself Financially For A Disaster?

To begin your financial preparation for any disaster, remember that any small effort is better than none. You may not be able to complete each of the steps. The important thing is to do what you can and create a plan for what you cannot. Perhaps your small cash fund is $50, or even $25. Perhaps your emergency fund is small if money is especially tight. Start where you are, and build as slowly as you need. Preparing for a disaster can be broken down into 5 simple steps: create a small cash fund, create an emergency fund, have proper insurance, keep detailed records, and open a safe deposit box. 

• The first important way to financially prepare for any emergency is having a small cash fund on hand. Natural disasters can often wipe out the power in entire communities, which may lead to you paying cash for your necessities for a few days.
  • Ideally, you will have $200-$300 in your home in a safe location. In addition, you will want this amount to be made up of small bills, especially $1 and $5 bills. The reason for this is that businesses may not be able to give you change if there is a cash shortage.

• Second, save as much money in an emergency fund as you can afford. This fund should be budgeted in and set aside specifically for a disaster. Cut spending if necessary in order to protect this fund for when it is actually needed.
  • Having an emergency fund will make no small difference when recovering from an emergency. If you are suddenly unemployed, if your major belongings are damaged, and/or if the economy is suffering, your emergency fund in a reputable online bank will make a massive difference. Even more than this, an emergency fund could allow you to be prepared enough to help people who have been less fortunate in times of stress and panic.

• In the case of a disaster, you will also want to have proper insurance coverage. In addition to a basic homeowner’s insurance policy, you will want to get insurance specifically for a disaster or other loss.
  • To begin, go through your homeowner’s insurance with a fine-toothed comb to determine what is covered and what is not. You will want to make sure that you have flood insurance, disaster insurance, and disability insurance. You may think that disability insurance does not apply to you, but one out of every four people in America will become disabled before they retire, making this type of insurance just as important as the rest.

• Even with proper insurance, you may not get fully reimbursed without keeping close records in your home about what you owned before a loss. This can be done simply by making a video while walking slowly throughout your house. Pause the camera on different belongings and provide narration by stating the brand, approximate purchase date, and price for each item. This will be invaluable in the case that you suffer loss in a disaster.

• Finally, open a safe deposit box or buy a fireproof safe for all of your valuable documents. Keeping your important hard copy information in a safe deposit box at a local bank will increase the chances that this documentation will survive the disaster. In your chosen location, consider including the following:
  • Birth certificates
  • Marriage and family records
  • Adoption papers
  • Property deeds
  • Wills and trusts
  • Insurance policies
  • Passports
  • Social security cards
  • Immunization records
  • Bank account information
  • Credit card account information
  • Important Contracts

What Is A Good Amount For An Emergency Fund?

An emergency fund is a fund set aside for an unexpected emergency. It is not money that you plan to spend or money for large expenses like a house or a car. The more robust your emergency fund, the greater chances you have for financial security in any disaster. But don’t be intimidated by where you want to be; starting small and building from there is sufficient. Every small effort counts when it comes to being financially prepared. But with all of this, is there an ideal number of how much we should try to save? The ideal number for you will be what you and your family need to survive for six to eight months. This number will vary widely from person-to-person depending on lifestyle, dependents, debts, and expenses. To begin, track your expenses closely for one month and work on creating a one-month emergency fund based on this number. From here, build as you can. Remember not to get overwhelmed, especially if money is tight. As in any emergency preparedness, any little effort can make a world of difference.

What Is a Family Plan For Emergency Preparedness?

A family plan for emergency preparedness outlines what you and your family members will do to survive and stay safe in an emergency. Specifically, the plan should include details on communication, shelter, and evacuation. The plan, once written, should be practiced and reviewed often.

How Do You Prepare A Family Emergency Preparedness Plan?

To prepare a family emergency plan, first, consider which types of disasters are most likely to strike in your area. Ready.gov lists the following disasters as ones to consider. Choose a few initially from the list below that you feel are most likely to happen in your area or your home, and begin your plan there:

• Active Shooter
• Attacks in Public Places
• Avalanche
• Bioterrorism
• Chemical Emergencies
• Cybersecurity
• Drought
• Earthquake
• Explosion
• Extreme Heat
• Floods
• Hazardous Materials Incidents
• Home Fires
• Household Chemical Emergencies
• Hurricanes
• Landslides and Debris Flow
• Nuclear Explosion
• Nuclear Power Plants
• Pandemic
• Power Outages
• Radiological Dispersion Device
• Severe Weather
• Snowstorms and Extreme Cold
• Space Weather
• Thunderstorms and Lightning
• Tornadoes
• Tsunamis
• Volcanoes
• Wildfires

After choosing a few in this list that you feel are the most likely, discuss with your family how you will communicate, how you will evacuate, and how you will find shelter in each of these different emergency scenarios. When considering communication, make sure to discuss how you will communicate with each other in the case that phone services are down. In addition, a plan for receiving emergency alerts and updates. As you plan for evacuation, choose an emergency meeting place both inside and outside of your neighborhood, map out primary and secondary emergency evacuation routes, and pack a bag full of three days worth of necessary supplies to grab as you evacuate. When discussing and planning for shelter, familiarize yourself with different shelters recommended for different disasters–sheltering-in-place vs mass sheltering, for instance. Plan for each of these events.

What Are The Four Phases Of Emergency Preparedness?

The four phases of emergency preparedness planning include questioning, personalizing, writing, and practicing. Step one of emergency preparedness planning consists of discussing with your family, friends, or household members four major questions:

1. How will I receive emergency alerts and warnings?
2. What is my shelter plan?
3. What is my evacuation plan?
4. What is my household’s communication plan?

Write down and discuss the answers to these questions, and incorporate them into each of your specific preparedness plans for different disasters. Step two of emergency preparedness is to take into account the specific needs of your family. You will want to consider family size and ages of members, dietary needs, pets, medical needs, disabilities, unique challenges, and cultural considerations. This discussion will help assist you in the next step, which is writing a family emergency plan. Step three is to actually sit down and fill out your family emergency plan. You can use this one as a guide, or create your own from scratch. This plan will consist initially of emergency meeting places, taking into account if you are indoors, outdoors, outside of your town or community, or in your neighborhood. Even further than this, this family emergency plan will include a family emergency communication plan, which is critical in every emergency. Step four of our emergency preparedness plan is to practice your plan with your family. Although we would all like to think that we will react calmly, collectively, and with generosity in moments of great stress, we really have no idea until we practice.  Practicing is critical in emergency preparedness because it gives us the opportunity to do a real-time run through so that we can perform well and with greater intentionality in the face of an emergency. The more that we practice, the more consciously we can react when emotions are high.

Why Do You Need To Have A Plan In Place In Case Of An Emergency? 

A pre-outlined plan in an emergency is absolutely critical. This plan is essential because so many resources could be cut off in an emergency. We need to know beforehand how we will communicate, where we will meet, what we will do, and how we will react before it is too late. Even more than this, in the moment of panic, it will be nearly impossible to act with reason if you have not thought through situations beforehand. As we work through with our families our own personalized plan, we can become empowered to respond in ways that are safe, smart, and aligned with our values. And for all those who are parents: we will not always have direct access to our kids in an emergency. Perhaps they will be in a different room during an earthquake, or there will be an active shooter at their school, or they will get lost while camping with friends. The best thing that we can do as parents in a world where we cannot control risk for our kids is to prepare them. We can do this through writing plans with them, keeping open communication, and practicing, practicing, practicing. Although it can be terrifying to consider our kids being in danger, communicating and preparing them is critical.

Who Should Be Involved In Making The Plan?

Those within our household, or those whom we are responsible for, should be included in making our emergency preparedness plan. Involve your kids at all ages, tailoring the discussions to their level of understanding.

Why Is It Important To Practice An Emergency Plan With Your Family?

The “practice” part of the plan, although often overlooked, is just as important as all of the other parts. Preparedness is only as good as your practicing. For example, you can read 100 books on how to start an effective fire. But the moment that you are lost in the wilderness, the book knowledge is hardly as important as the actual practice of building the fire. The same is true with any emergency. Practicing for each part of an emergency with your family or household members will help you be able to actually execute the necessary steps towards survival and safety in the emergency situation.

I have been into emergency preparedness for over a decade. More than ever before, the one thing I continue learning over and over again is that when the time for decision comes, the time for preparation has passed. Procrastination is simply not an option when it comes to being prepared for an emergency. When we think of emergency preparedness, we usually consider having food storage and supplies on hand. This is important, and it is a great first step if you are just getting started. But equally as important to this is creating proper protocols for specific situations that are practiced often with you and your household members. To more fully understand how important this is, let’s talk a little bit about how the human brain works. The decision-making part of the brain is called the frontal lobe. When the frontal lobe is filled with adrenaline, you no longer have the ability to make decisions. So when we feel the adrenaline from life-threatening or high-stress situations, our ability to clearly make decisions is impaired. You have probably experienced this in your life at some moment. If a dog is charging you with teeth bared, you do not have a clear and distinct thought process of exactly what you should do. You react almost unconsciously in a way that you hope will protect you. This reaction is not our fault. It is how we are biologically wired. Because we understand that it is difficult to make clear decisions in the moment of peer pressure or high stress, we start practicing with our elementary-aged children on how to prepare beforehand. For example, the well-known DARE program implemented in fifth-grade classes throughout American teaches kids to “Just Say No to Drugs.” The creators of DARE know that practice is essential to preparedness, and so they ask children to practice over and over again saying “no.”  They do this in the hopes that in the moment of facing crucial decisions, these students have practiced enough to be able to make decisions aligned with their values and what is best for them.  The examples, even from elementary school-aged children, are endless. Consider fire drills, lockdown drills, evacuations, and many other “practicing” type scenarios. These, along with the DARE program, are designed to push children’s decision making into the medial temporal lobe. Because our decision-making is impaired in stress and our frontal lobe is no longer able to function well, we hope through these drills that these students will use the medial temporal lobe. This part of the brain is designed for processing memory. Importantly, it is not affected by adrenaline in the same way the frontal lobe will be affected by adrenaline. This means that if you practice what you plan to do during an earthquake, you will have an easier time making the smartest decisions when that time comes because your practice is stored in your memory. Your brain is able to access memory, but not because you know what to do. Only because you have practiced what to do. The decisions that we make in these critical moments could be the decisions that end up saving our lives. 

What Is An Emergency Protocol?

Just like the drills talked about above for school-aged children, we need to prepare for any emergency situation by doing our own type of “drills” as adults. These drills are called emergency procedure protocols. To create and practice an emergency protocol, pick an emergency that you or a loved one could possibly face. Next, consider what you would need in the case of this emergency and plan accordingly. (Often, this is in the form of food storage, first-aid kits, “ready to grab” bags, and drinking water.) After this, ask yourself basic questions about how you will communicate in the face of this emergency, how you will receive alerts and warnings, how you will evacuate, and how you will seek shelter. Consider writing the plan in a document, or drawing pictures for young children. Finally, practice the plan through your procedural protocol.

This Protocol Should Be Practiced Often

To walk through an example of this, let’s consider a home fire. In the case of a home fire, we would want to make sure we have insurance in place, we would want to create a meeting place for our family members outside of our home, inform each child about primary and secondary evacuation routes, and discuss the best ways to avoid inhaling smoke. To follow through this protocol, you could have one night every few months where you spend an hour practicing. You could blow a whistle that signifies the start of the fire and have each family member follow their evacuation route. You could progressively make this more difficult by creating scenarios where the fire was more invasive and the evacuation more complicated. This emergency procedural protocol, specifically created by you and your family, will greatly increase the chances that in the case of a home fire, you and your loved ones would be safe. Many protocols for disasters will have overlap once you start diving into specifics. However, it is important to practice for specific situations even with this overlap, as our brains will have a higher chance of reacting to memory instead of reacting unconsciously.

What Is An Emergency Action Plan?

An emergency action plan includes every part of your own specific emergency preparedness. To read more about what to include in your emergency action plan, read here. (Link to the previous article.)

Who Needs An Emergency Action Plan?

Everyone needs an emergency action plan and emergency protocols, specific to their area and the risks they are most likely to face. As a starting point, pick a few disasters that could happen anywhere and to anyone, such as active shooters, home fires, and a pandemic. From here, start preparing for natural disasters that are most likely to happen in your area. Continue building your emergency action plan to be as all-encompassing and thoughtful as you can.

When Is The Best Time To Practice Your Emergency Protocol?

Emergency protocols should be practiced often. If you have children, practice your emergency protocols every few months to keep their growing memories fresh. As your children age, practice once or twice yearly to refresh their memories. In addition, practicing emergency protocols when those in your household do not expect it can be extremely beneficial. Similarly to how the school will do fire drills that students know about and fire drills that students are unaware of, parents can best prepare for disasters by routinely practicing their emergency protocol before their children have had a chance to prepare.  This way, parents can check for understanding and adjust their teaching accordingly.

What Other Emergencies Are Possible In Your Area?

The best way to prepare for whatever specific emergencies you may be susceptible to is to research a little bit about your area. To do this, look up what disasters have happened in your city and surrounding areas in the past, and then look up what may happen in your area based on the experts. In addition, you will want to consider and prepare for emergencies that can happen in any area, such as an active shooter, a home fire, and household chemical emergencies and more.

How Do I Begin to Plan For More Potential Disasters?

First, research the most likely emergencies in your area. Second, rank them based on the likelihood of them happening. Third, under each emergency category, create a plan specific for the disaster. For each of these plans, consider what financial, physical, and emotional losses these could bring and plan accordingly. As you carefully sort through possibilities, you will be better prepared when the moment of stress and emergency actually comes. Even mentally running through an event once will help you react more intentionally and with less panic. Below is a list of the most possible disasters for which you should consider preparing. Instead of letting this list overwhelm you, simply pick a few that seem most likely, think through them, create a plan, and work from there.

POTENTIAL EMERGENCIES

Although we can’t walk through each of these emergencies, some of the most commonly occurring emergencies are discussed below. According to Ready.gov, you should prepare for the following:

ACTIVE SHOOTER

If you come in contact with an active shooter, you want to 1. run, 2. hide, or 3. fight. Running away is your safest bet. Before anything else, you want to get away from the shooter if possible, leaving behind any belongings. Call 911 as soon as you are safe. If running is not possible, hide. Get out of the shooter’s view, and keep quiet. Remember to silence your electronics, lock and block doors, and hide with only yourself or one other person  If these two options are not possible, you will need to fight. Create a plan with others to ambush or distract the shooter, and be prepared to cause severe or lethal injury to the shooter.

CHEMICAL EMERGENCIES

A chemical attack is the release of a poisonous vapor, aerosol, liquid, or solid that has a toxic effect on people, animals, or plants. An attack of this kind could come without warning. People may react to a chemical attack by experiencing difficulty breathing, eye irritation, loss of coordination, nausea, or burning in the nose, throat, and lungs. In addition, if you see a group of dead insects of birds, this also may be indicative of a chemical emergency. To prepare for an emergency of this kind, you will want to build an emergency supply kit including duct tape, scissors, and plastic to cover doors, windows, and vents. In addition, you will want to create a family emergency plan that outlines what you will do in a chemical emergency and where you will meet. After you have a sense that you may be in a chemical attack, try quickly to find where the chemical is coming from, and take immediate action to get away from that source. Get out of the building or area and avoid contaminated areas, if possible. If you are not able to do this, you will want to move as far away from the source and immediately shelter in place. In order to shelter in place, close all doors and windows. Turn off ventilation, and seal the room in which you are sheltering with duct tape and plastic sheeting. In addition, turn off ventilation that could potentially cycle contaminated air to you. Listen to the radio for when you are clear to exit the building and contact medical professionals quickly when it is free to exit.

EARTHQUAKES

Earthquakes are one of the most common types of natural disasters. Your number one goal in the case of an earthquake is to protect yourself. Do not run outside or stand in a doorway. Instead, if you are in bed, turn over, face down, and cover your head and neck with a pillow. If you are driving, pull to the side of the road. If you are outdoors, stay away from buildings. The three basic steps to remember for keeping safe during an earthquake is to 1. stop, 2. drop, and 3. hold on. Try to burrow under a table or desk if possible, and hold onto whatever you are hiding underneath.

HOME FIRES

Since fires spread surprisingly quickly and are incredibly deadly, acting immediately in the case of a home fire is critical. Make sure that the fire alarms in your house are functioning and up-to-date. Create a plan with your family on what to do in the case of a home fire and practice it twice per year to ensure that all of you are prepared. In the case of a fire, drop to the ground and army crawl under the smoke. Touch the door and doorknob lightly before opening it. If it is hot, use another exit, if possible. If you choose to open a door, do so slowly and carefully. If you are unable to get to someone needing assistance, or you have a pet trapped in the home, tell the fire department immediately once outside instead of going after the person or pet yourself. If your clothing catches fire, stop, drop, and roll.

POWER OUTAGE

Chances are, you will experience a few power outages in your life. As a few basic tips, keep your refrigerator and freezer closed except to get the necessary food, as this will save energy and keep the food cool. Use generators outdoors and away from windows, and disconnect appliances to avoid damage from electrical surges. Try to have a few things in place before the power outage, such as a generator, battery-operated flashlights, and battery-operated medical devices.

SNOW STORMS & EXTREME COLD

Most everyone will experience a snowstorm at some point in their lives. The most important things to remember during snowstorms or extremely cold weather are to stay off the roads if possible and keep warm and dry. Having protective gear to keep warm is essential during extremely cold weather. You will want to keep dry at all costs, by wearing waterproof clothing and changing quickly when you do get wet. You will want to stay indoors if possible. If you do have to drive, drive slowly and carefully. Put your car into 4-wheel drive and put chains on your tires to lower your risk of sliding on the icy roads.

THUNDERSTORMS & LIGHTNING

When you hear thunder, go inside, as a general rule. Unplug appliances during a thunder and lightning storm, and avoid using landlines or turning on running water. If you are unable to reach a sturdy building, take shelter in a sturdy car, but avoid touching any metal. Immediately evacuate any pool or other body of water if you are swimming or boating, and find a building or a car under which to find shelter.

CONCLUSION

Being prepared for what emergencies are most likely to happen in your lifetime can be the difference between life and death. Keeping up-to-date on your emergency preparedness plans as an individual and a family is a critical component of any preparedness scenario. Aside from the previously scenarios, here is the rest of potential disasters we should prepare for. This list is given to us by Ready.gov.  

• Attacks in public places
• Avalanche
• Bioterrorism
• Cybersecurity
• Drought
• Explosions
• Extreme heat
• Floods
• Hazardous material incidents
• Household chemical emergencies
• Hurricanes
• Landslides & debris flow
• Nuclear explosion
• Pandemic
• Radiological dispersion device
• Severe weather
• Space weather
• Tornadoes
• Tsunamis
• Volcanoes
• Wildfires

BEFORE THE PANDEMIC

How Should I Plan For a Pandemic?

In order to properly prepare for a pandemic, you will want to have both a knowledge of skills and the resources necessary to sustain yourself, your family, and anyone else you have close to you. Although it can seem overwhelming to know where to begin, the good news is that a lot of preparing for a pandemic can also overlap with other forms of emergency preparation. 

What Can I Do Personally To Prepare For a Pandemic?

• You will first want to start by training your mind to handle stress healthily. One of the most important things you can do for yourself in times of collective, global unrest is to personally be in a space to be able to keep calm and manage your emotions and stress. With this, you will be able to think clearly, create plans, be resourceful, and make good decisions. In order to do this, try to increase your coping skills. Practice in your daily life with small stressors. Identify things that increase and decrease your anxiety. Altogether, work daily for your mental health.
• Next, prepare yourself physically. Exercise often, eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and learn to be flexible with what you eat and drink.
• Next, you will want to have enough water and food to sustain you and your family in the case that stores did close during a pandemic. Since water is a precious commodity in a time of any emergency, have clean water stored. In addition, have a water filter on hand. In case your water supply was to run out, you will want to be able to access water in any number of ways, including through filtration or purification. From here, build your food supply. You will want to have stored enough food for everyone in your family for at least one month, and more if you have the resources and space. Store nutrient-dense food that can give energy to everyone in your family.
• Next, prepare yourself financially. Create a savings account specifically for “a rainy day,” putting 5-10% of all of your earnings. Start now and decide not to dip into this fund unless there is truly an emergency, like a pandemic. In times of global upheaval, you may be out of a job. It may become difficult to make house payments. You may not be able to keep your business afloat. In addition to this saving account, you will want to have a few hundred dollars worth of small bills in a safe place in your home.
• Have toiletries, soap, hand sanitizer, a hearty first-aid kit, medical masks, and other preventive measures on hand.
• Find a local doctor who you know and trust. In times of a pandemic, there will be massive amounts of information in the media. Knowing where to find information and from what sources can save you headaches and stress.
• Finally, check the CDC website often for up-to-date information.

READ MORE: What Can I Do To Prevent The Coronavirus Disease At Home?

What Can I Do For My Neighbors During A Pandemic?

The best thing that you can do for those around you in a pandemic is to follow the guidelines of the CDC. If the CDC requests that you stay away from others, please do so. There are still ways to connect and help, such as sharing your food and supplies, offering financial support, and offering whatever unique talents and skills you have. Just make sure that whatever you do, you do it from a safe distance. Sometimes we miss the point of preparedness in the midst of stress and fatigue. The point is not every-man-for-himself. The point is that we do everything in our power to prepare for ourselves and those around us so that we can be in a position to assist the most vulnerable in our communities.

Why Should I Practice Good Health Habits Now?

The health of our bodies and minds are strongly linked. Being able to think clearly and calmly, stay on top of your mental health, and fight disease can be linked to the healthy habits you have created for yourself. To begin, incorporate movement into your day for 30 minutes a day, 5 times per week. This has been proven to help fight mental and physical diseases. Next, increase eating foods that boost your immunity and help you feel clear, energized, and happy. Incorporate healthy mental habits, such as meditation in any form, spirituality, and stress-management.

READ MORE: Should I Wash My Hands Or Use Hand Sanitizer?

How Can I Help When I Can’t Physically Be There?

Start by asking yourself what skills you have. Are you a painter? You can paint something for someone. Are you a writer? Write encouraging notes to friends. Are you a medical professional? Offer information to those around you. Can you create music? Sing from a distance or online to people who are lonely. You can make goals to send encouragement, Facetime, offer your skills or product for a reduced price if possible, and spread hope in any number of creative ways.

How Do I Create An Emergency Pandemic Plan?

As mentioned above, during a pandemic, the best plan that you can have is to be mentally, emotionally, financially, and physically in a place to stay calm and hopeful. From here, listen to the guidelines by officials in your country. From here, have a family-wide plan, often called a protocol, that has been pre-discussed and decided upon, on what you will collectively do to get through the pandemic. Answer questions for yourself and your family like: How will we get groceries? What will we do to sustain ourselves financially? What should we do if stores close down? Where will we meet if we are out of power? Once you have these decisions made and written down on paper, practice them with your family. Get it into their heads so everyone knows exactly what to do, even if they don’t have that paper next to them when the time comes to follow the plan.

How Can I Prepare For Temporary School Closures?

Although nothing can fully prepare us for this, a few things can help.

• Be involved in what your child is learning at school. Help with homework, or at the very least, take note of what your child is covering in each class.
• Continue your own learning, alongside your child. The new form of long division may be hard, but you can learn it together!
• Have a relationship with your child’s teachers and administrators.
• Know specifically where to find streamlined information for your child’s school.
• If at all possible, make sure you have a computer at home. Chances are, schools will be taught using Google Classroom or some other form of a digital platform that allows teachers to communicate with their students.

READ MORE: What I Wish I’d Known Before The Coronavirus

How Can I Prepare for Changes at The Workplace?

The best thing to do to prepare for changes in the workplace is to have a small emergency fund because your work will likely be affected during a pandemic. The next best thing is to simply think ahead. Ask yourself the question: what will I do if I were to suddenly have no income by my traditional job? Be creative with your answers. What could you do to support yourself? How would you handle the stress? What are the ways that you could offer your services virtually? If a pandemic happens, there will be hundreds of thousands of businesses that won’t be able to sustain themselves during a lockdown. If that happens, millions of people will lose their jobs You either need to have a side-hustle with a decent amount of income that won’t be affected by e-commerce shutting down a good savings account or some other plan to take care of your family in case this emergency becomes reality. 

How Do I Plan For a Potential Quarantine?

This, more than anything, is where mental practice, strength, and stress-management comes in. You will need to not only have the resources and skills necessary for survival, but you will also need the mental strength and stamina to survive isolation. This is not easy. Specifically, if you struggle with mental illness, this can be particularly dangerous and challenging. Give yourself permission to just survive, if that’s what you need to do. You don’t need to be creative or resourceful if your mental health is suffering. If it helps you to make goals, increase creativity, exercise indoors, and watch movies with your family, do so. Make sure to take time each day to practice mindfulness, through apps such as Headspace and Ten Percent Happier. As humans, we are hard-wired for connection, and quarantine can make this difficult. Recognize this, give yourself space to struggle, and do what is in your power to manage your stress.

DURING THE PANDEMIC

First and foremost, do your part to take action, helping to slow the spread of the illness. Follow the guidelines set out by medical professionals. It is their job to study and understand the virus, and it is your job to trust their research. Check the new, updated guidelines every day and adjust your activities accordingly. If the CDC asks us not to attend large gatherings, do not attend large gatherings. Do your best to make considerate, conscious decisions. Next, put your emergency plan into action, if it reaches that point. Stay calm. Know that you have planned for this. Finally, adjust accordingly as you may need. Perhaps you planned to go to the grocery store every week, but different stores are doing pick-up. Perhaps you need to order off of Amazon. Perhaps Amazon isn’t functioning and you need to eat your food storage. Every situation can be different, and your emergency plan needs to be flexible enough to account for those differences. 

AFTER THE PANDEMIC

After the pandemic passes, evaluate the effectiveness of your emergency plan.  Ask yourself and your family what went well and what you would do differently next time. Adjust your future pandemic emergency-plan with what you have learned, and carry on. *This site does not provide medical advice. I am not a doctor and all content on this site is of my own opinion. Please refer to your doctor or the official CDC website for more accurate information about this topic.