In life, everyone has to face some challenges. Whether it’s natural disasters or massive destruction, or severe illnesses, each of you has experienced emergencies. In life, it is obvious that you cannot prepare yourself for everything. However, there are also things in which preparation and protection planning can make a significant difference and save lives.
It is not always easy to deal with life’s challenges! But preparing for them and developing a coping mechanism will help you to cope with them.
Although it is impossible to be fully prepared for these unfortunate events, a little planning can help you overcome them. You can certainly take a number of positive steps to protect your family and prepare for the worst.
Let’s dig deeper into the steps!
1. Know Your Risk and Hazards
The first and foremost to prepare and protect your family from any unexpected, unfortunate event is to identify the risk areas and hazards you are likely to encounter. These hazards can be related to weather, natural disasters, and at times human-related. Figure out if you are living in an area that is flood, wildfire, or earthquake zone.
In other cases, determine if you are more prone to topical or winter storms,tornados, power outages, civil unrest, and vandalism. Is your house vulnerable to break-ins? Is there a heightened radiation threat?
The way each of these emergencies affects humans varies with the specific circumstances and location. After analyzing these factors, individuals can draft more effective strategies to reduce exposure to these scenarios and protect themselves against the potential damage. At the same time, they can mentally and physically prepare themselves to cope with them and their after-effects in a better and safer way.
2. Minimize the Risks Where Possible
Certain scenarios are not in our hands. We cannot prevent them from happening or put an end to the damage resulting from them. But there are places where we can minimize the risks, damage and prevent some tragedies from happening by adopting good management practices. Always try to fix the risk areas ahead of time before they become potentially damaging. Minimizing the risk is always better than coping with the deadly consequences!
For instance, if there is any hazardous or flammable material in your house, even slight negligence can put your family at stake resulting in irreversible damage. So, first of all, try to remove any combustible material in your home. If not possible, then store it in appropriate containers and at a place far from the reach of children. If you have oily solvents in your homes, preferably store them in metal containers. Furthermore, always keep the paths of emergency exit clear to counter any sort of situation.
Try to maintain an up-to-date and quality supply of emergency response tools and items. Moreover, cut down any tree that is too big and keep the tree limbs away from your home. Always conduct the drills pertaining to fire evacuation to train your children and family.
In this way, they can better get through any worst situation and can protect themselves. Never forget to install fire alarms and burglar alarms in your home! Always keep the fire extinguisher in working condition. Plus, fix your leaking gas connections, if any. Moreover, it is also very crucial to fix all the frayed electrical wires.
3. Reinforce Your House
You can always avail yourself of the opportunity to renovate your home to protect it against any crisis, whether it is a human-related hazard or any natural calamity. If you think that your home is more prone to break-ins, then go ahead and fix it out!
You can build a fireproof safe on the lowest floor in your house to keep your jewelry and other valuable belongings safe and prevent any potential loss of money in case of break-ins.
Moreover, if you reside in an area prone to hurricanes, build the floor and walls that are made up of concrete-filled forms composed of recycled plastic and polystyrene. They have the ability to withstand heavy rains and winds of greater magnitude safely. If you are constructing new roofs or even if you are replacing the older ones, always go for ultra-strong connectors. Furthermore, install high-security windows and doors. In areas where tornadoes and severe storms are expected, you can construct a storm shelter to accommodate and protect yourself.
In addition, in areas that are vulnerable to wildfires, you can consider roofing material that is fireproof. Moreover, if there are any cracks on the roof, repair them to be on the safer side.
Therefore, by making small improvements in your home, you can mitigate the effect of any worst situation and can encounter it without any considerable loss. These precautions can have greater significance than you can even imagine. The better you are prepared, the better you can cope!
4. Establish a Plan
Though at times, it can be very difficult to contemplate traumatic and negative scenarios. But walking through an event mentally that will lead to a great loss and disturb many aspects of your life will help you better identify the things and the steps you need to take to weather that particular storm. So, always plan ahead! It is the best coping mechanism.
Think about what you would need professionally and personally if you encounter illness, disaster, or any personal tragedy. The next step is to plan the ways to emerge out of any unforeseen circumstances. However, the preparation of the plan depends upon the kind of worst situation that you encounter.
For instance, in case of a wildfire, you should know reliable sources of information to keep yourself updated. At the same time, you should have an evacuation plan to execute immediately, as things can change in seconds. Moreover, you should have a disaster plan to stay away from windows, glass doors and move outside in case of an earthquake. If you are in your room, cover your head with something sturdy to protect yourself from any potential damage.
Furthermore, your planning should include several possibilities, for instance, what are you supposed to do if your family gets parted, what should be the route for evacuation. Also, keep in mind the aspects that if your decided meeting place becomes inaccessible, how will you get along with the things. The power grids may go down, so always ensure to have multiple ways to reach your family as a part of your plan.
A good plan can mitigate the damage and interruption of any worst scenario. At the same time, it helps you recover from any sort of damage quickly and efficiently. You also need to update the plan with the change in circumstances periodically. Practice the plan several times for its better execution!
5. Collect the Essentials
In any worst situation, an essential supply of personal needs is the key to getting through them. In the moment of any emergency, you will probably not have the presence of mind and time to gather the essentials for your survival. So, don’t wait for that moment and do the preparation ahead of time. You should always pack the recommended essential items discussed below to help you and your loved ones survive through the hard times. By doing so, you will always have the things you need at hand!
First of all, keep a first-aid kit ready! You cannot imagine the tremendous help it can render in case of any calamity. Moreover, keep your water supplies and food supplies ready. Try to go for non-perishable food, for instance, canned food. Opting for canned food is always preferable because it requires no refrigeration. It is always advisable to stock food in an ample amount in case of any catastrophe. Don’t forget to keep your pet supplies.
Moreover, always remember to pack your batteries, flashlights, and chargers. If you are going through some severe illnesses, then medications are a must-have for you, so keep them in your kit too. It would be best if you had the prescribed medicines that can last for two to three weeks at least. Also, make sure that you have filtered masks for the mouth and nose.
Furthermore, cash, some warm blankets, suitable clothes, and copies of the important document should be lying inside your bag. Your basic supply kit should always be ready!
Related: 12 Must-Have Items for Your Home Emergency Kit – Be Prepared for Anything
6. Effective Family Communication
The coping mechanism needs effective family communication to work! Communicate the plan through your family and make them aware of the actions to prepare themselves for emergencies and tackle them. Always take the family members with mobility restrictions or special needs into account and encourage them to make management plans for themselves. Try to keep track of all the family members during any emergency to determine if anyone is missing. Communicate at least two meeting points and decide on a person in your family whom you can approach if you get separated.
If you have effective communication among your family and everyone knows its job, things will work in a much better way.
7. Handle Crisis Calmly
Always prepare yourself to handle mistakes and crises in a calm manner! Only then will you be able to protect yourself and withstand them effectively. Usually, in case of any worst scenarios, everyone is stressed out. So, what we do is we always want to blast others for their mistakes. Try not to do that! Errors are usually compounded as temper flares. As you are walking through a crucial time, keep yourself calm and decide what can be done with a cooler head. Don’t get terrified, and try to control your nerves! Only then you can come up with a strategy to cope.
Furthermore, experienced people can always prove valuable for such scenarios. The reason is they have a better and deeper understanding of every aspect as they have gone through it. Undoubtedly, they have a better insight to tackle the situation in a more productive way! You may consider the solution presented by them to be old-fashioned and traditional, but they actually work! So, their opinions are always worth considering.
Moreover, invite all the family members to discuss the course of action by which you can reduce the fallout when everyone is calm. Everyone has their stance to get things to work. Consider and employ them in a calm manner!
3 Great Survival Books
Alive After The Fall
The worst possible fear for a common person is facing the apocalypse. No matter how hard you deny it, you would accept that we all are a little worried. The book Alive After The Fall is a complete survival guide uniquely written by Alexander Cain.
This book is perfect for god-fearing people and comes with step-by-step guides that will help you in the ultimate survival and to protect your family from the EMP, which is made to control electronic devices.
When the tech giants and mass companies fail to protect you, this book will become your savior and survival.
Bulletproof Home
There is nothing wrong with protecting yourself and your loved ones for the very best. And in the worst of times, those who prepared will survive. Luckily, Steve Walker, a US Army veteran, compiled a great guide, Bulletproof Home, that unravels all the safety secrets that he discovered and jotted down the complete set of instructions that he gained from professional preppers.
The book informs you and prepares you to keep your home safe not only in extreme conditions but also in your daily life where you have to face burglars, thieves, and whatnot. With complete guidance and instructions, it is sure to keep you and your home safe.
The Lost Ways 2
It is sometimes hard to imagine how our forefathers lived when no facilities are available. However, you must know that we will have to resent those ways in emergencies. But how will we be successful in that? The Lost Ways 2 has everything you need to know.
Claude Davis explores the old days in this book and brings back the best survival hacks that were used in the old ways. Moreover, that’s not all. He even unmasks special secrets that allowed the people to stay alive, including super foods, secret medicines, old hacks, and much more. Who knew finding the lost ways could be so worth it?
Conclusion
A little planning on preparing for the worst-case scenarios and protecting your family can go a long way in making things less vulnerable and less damaging. Preparing yourself and devising a protection strategy can save lives without a doubt! Different scenarios require different preparation and different protection techniques. There are always better ways by which you can tackle a situation more effectively without going through any deadly consequences.
So, go ahead, identify the one that you are prone to, and adapt all the possible measures to get yourself ready to withstand it in the best possible way without any hassle!