Living in California earthquakes are our big natural disasters, and after a high alert warning, I realized my family wasn’t prepared. I did a bunch of research and talked to the kids and here are a few tips:
Emergency Kit
- You can purchase one or make your own.
- At the minimum, you need 3 days supply of food and water.
- You also want to include a first aid kit, flashlights, a crank radio.
- If you have an infant you do need to pack things like formula, bottle, extra diapers.
- You need to be able to get to it! A lot of people store them in their garages or even outside in a safe place.
Talk To Your Kids
- You should talk to your kids about what to do in an emergency. I didn’t want to scare them, but they didn’t know what earthquakes were, so I wanted them to feel a little bit more ready.
- Drop to the floor, cover your heads and get underneath something sturdy. We went through each room and figured out where we would go.
- If there’s a big sturdy table you go underneath it.
- If you’re in your bed you cover your head with a pillow.
- Show the kids where their flashlights are (by their beds).
- The kids should stay in their bed until an adult comes to them.
Meeting Spots
- Come up with a meeting spot that’s outside the house like a front yard.
- Also, pick a spot that’s outside your immediate neighborhood like a nearby library or school.
Misc. Checklist
- Make sure to share all of these plans with your nanny or caregiver.
- Scan all of your important documents and upload them to the cloud.
- Overall, prep your house. Again, for us, it’s earthquakes so we bolted everything to the wall and put sticky tape on the pictures.
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