Vancouver Home Emergency Preparedness Kit – By your Vancouver Mortgage Broker

Vancouver Home Emergency Preparedness Kit – By your Vancouver Mortgage Broker

If a catastrophe were to hit Vancouver in the next few minutes would you be ready to deal with it? If you were going to be without hydro, water, heat, and maybe even be forced to leave your home immediately, would you be able to survive these dire circumstances?

As we all know,Vancouversits on a major earthquake fault, a fact which of which we are occasionally reminded about. It’s one thing to see major disasters devastate other cities in remote countries, but it can happen anywhere anytime. We’ve seen them happen inCanadaso we aren’t immune to nature’s wrath or natural disasters.

To deal with these terrible situations we need to be prepared. Everyone should take the time to put together an emergency preparation kit. We need to be prepared to survive on our own and be able to so for at least 72 hours. We cannot afford to be naïve and simply assume that the local relief authorities will be there to help us out.

Your survival kit should be gathered together and mobile because you may have to vacate your home, and this could occur without warning and be immediate. You also need to have supplies for your survival within the home as well. You can purchase these kits, make up your own, and get some good ideas on what to include from organizations like the Red Cross or B.C. government agency web sites.

Here’s the basics of what you should have on hand both at home and as a ‘grab and go’ kit.

Stay at Home Emergency Preparation Kit

It’s a good idea if you can keep this kit altogether in a one or more transportable storage containers as they will be easy to load in your vehicle and can be use as part of your ‘grab and go’ kit if you have to vacate your home.

• 72 hour of water – at least 4 litres of water per person per day for all your water needs.
• Candles (lighter and/or matches), storm lamps, Coleman style lanterns, flashlights and batteries (remove from flashlights when not in use).
• A manual can opener and bottle top opener.
• Cooking camp stove, plastic and paper utensils
• Dry food goods for at least 72 hours (rotate these dry food goods on a regular basis).
• Emergency cash.

 

Grab and Go Emergency Kit

Along with the above you might also want to make sure that each member of the family has their own accessible separate kit containing;

• Clothes and shoes for all seasons.
• Medication
• Blanket (regular or thermal) or sleeping bag
• Important personal documents and cash
• Dry good foods which don’t require cooking
• Flashlight/candles and lighter or matches
• Batteries and a radio
• Toilet paper and personal hygiene supplies
• Other suggestions – You might want to gather important documents together which can also be taken with you at a moment’s notice such as birth certificates, bank books, passports etc.
• You might need a tent and air mattresses.

 Don’t forget about your pets and have special kits for your babies and very young children. If you have to use the car then remember a vehicle should also have special emergency equipment.

Everyone hopes we never need an emergency preparation kit but take it from your friendly Vancouver mortgage broker that you’ll be glad you took the time to put one together if you need it.