UrlBlogGrey

I keep our supplies in 4 medium-sized plastic storage containers. These are lightweight, durable, and water-resistant. While I probably could have used 2 or 3 containers, I found that 4 containers allowed me ample space in each container and the ability to limit the container's contents (i.e. kitchen item, food, etc). All of the containers are kept in our garage. There's no perfect place to keep supplies - must be sheltered from the elements and protected from theft, but not be crushed in an earthquake or other structural failure.

The following is a list of articles and guides that I found useful in deciding what to include in my supplies:

• Ready.gov from FEMA - publication on household preparedness
• American Red Cross - Prepare at Home
• UC Berkeley Office of Emergency Preparedness (earthquake-oriented)
• Daily Kos (5-part series of articles)

Here's the list representing my actual supplies at home:

Emergency Supplies at Home Supplies Sleeping Bags (2) Plastic bucket with lid N95 respirator masks (20) First Aid Kit First Aid Manual Heavy-load Rope (200+ pounds) (3/8" x 100 feet) (2) Light-load Rope (75 pounds) (1/8" x 48 feet) (2) Duffel Bag (2) Lighting Battery-powered Lantern Heavy-Duty Mag Flashlight (D-Cells) Small Flashlight (2) LED Headlamp Chemical Light-sticks (6) (4-year shelf-life) Tea-light Candles (6) 9-hour candles (4) Candle lantern Electricity 50' Power Extension Cord Power Strip with surge protector 400 watt AC inverter in car AA Batteries (20) AAA Batteries (14) C Batteries (6) D Batteries (6) Communications Radio (battery-powered) (AM/FM/Weather/TV) Corded Telephone Portable FRS/GMRS Radios (2) Charger & Rechargeable Batteries for FRS/GMRS Radios Instant Hand Warmers (4) Waterproof Matches (4 boxes) Solar Emergency Blanket (2) Protective goggles (2) Rain Poncho (2) Work Gloves (2) Foam Ear Plugs (2 pair per set) (2 sets) Hammer Crescent Wrench Pliers Plastic Trowel Pens (3) Small notebook Electrical Tape Duct Tape Swiss Army Knife Padlocks with key (2) Playing Cards Plastic tarp Food 3 gallons of water per person (total of 6 gallons) Canned Soup (2) Freeze-dried Ice-cream (2) 72-hour food supply (2) Cat food Veterinarian suggested food (2 cans) Clothing (need more in this area) Sweatshirts (3) Baseball hat Personal Hygiene Toilet Paper (4 rolls) Facial Tissue Moist wipes (50 count) Tums Chewable Antacid Sunscreen SPF-15 (aerosol has longest shelf-life) Insect repellent Antihistamine (Benadryl or similar) Deodorant (2) Disposable Razors (4) Shaving cream Body soap Shampoo Toothbrushes (2) Toothpaste Cooking Propane camping stove Propane fuel canisters (3) Paper plates (54) Paper towels (2 rolls) Aluminum foil (50 square feet) Contractor-grade trash bags for clean-up and sanitation (15 minimum) Manual Can Opener Plastic Cups (50) Plastic Eating-Utensils (16 total) Nalgene bottles (2) Sierra cup (stainless-steel backpacking cup) Katadyn Micropur MP1 water purification tablets (30) Water purification filter Information & Resources Coins & cash Printed Emergency Contacts DVD containing encrypted financial records and home inventory Maps (local and state-wide, free from AAA) San Francisco Bay California Monterey Bay Oakland-Berkeley San Francisco

Posted by Scott at 7:34 AM | Permalink

One of my interests is being prepared for natural and man-made emergencies that may occur in the San Francisco Bay Area. I believe that preparedness should include one's personal finances. Keeping records that are current and available can lead to a quicker recovery and smaller loss.

I have used the Quicken software program from Intuit since 2001 to manage my personal finances. This includes tracking my investments, savings, and monthly bills. Loss or unavailability of Quicken would count as a real emergency for me. For this reason, I make quarterly backups of my Quicken information and keep them off-site

I've decided to use recordable DVDs for my data backups, with the reasons being:

• Highly accessible since most computers contains DVD-ROM drives


• Cheap to produce, at less than $1 per disc (cheaper than magnetic disk drives)


• Resistant to damage from water, magnetic signals, etc (not true for USB flash drives)


• Tamper-proof since the information can't be modified


• Can be encrypted to protect the contents


• Can store up to 8 GB of data, which makes them preferable to CDs.

A popular software program for recording DVDs on the Mac OS X platform is Toast from Roxio. It provides support for encrypted disk images (supported natively in Mac OS X) and disk spanning. I highly recommend it.

The information I include on my backups is:

• VMware Fusion virtual machine of Windows 2003 Server with Quicken program & data


• VMware Fusion installer & serial #


• Home Inventory in Circus Ponies Notebook format


• Home Inventory exported to HTML


• Circus Ponies Notebook installer & serial #


• Text document describing how to use all of these things in a "sh*t hits the fan" scenario

All of these files are stored in a password-protected, AES 256-bit encrypted disk image on the DVD. I'm limited to using a Mac to access my backups, which isn't a huge deal since I have access to Macs at home & work. I make 5 or 6 identical copies of the DVD and keep them in various places that would ensure I'd have at least one copy of the DVD, except in the most dire of circumstances. The encryption is military-grade and is strong enough that I don't lose sleep over not having the disk in my physical possession at all times. It's important to keep off-site copies of this information in case of a fire, theft, hardware failure, or other catastrophe. I repeat this on a quarterly basis since I'd prefer to have a backup no more than 3 months old. Copies of the backups are destroyed one year after creation.

I hope that I never have to actually rely on my backups, but I take comfort in knowing they exist!

Posted by Scott at 4:02 PM | Permalink

I've built a well-stocked 3-day emergency kit for our home, and have put smaller, more portable kits in each of our cars. This works fine to sustain us for a while with the most basic requirements. But in the event of an outage affecting power running to the house, it would be nice have a power source that could last a day or two. The communications devices people rely on these days typically provide their own power source, unlike the corded telephones of the past which drew their power from the communications lines themselves. I'd like to have a way of charging cell-phones, and of powering our cable modem (provides Internet & VOIP service) and wireless access point. We've got a corded phone that could be connected to the cable modem during an emergency. This would allow us to communicate by cell, land-line, and Internet provided that the infrastructure supporting those systems is functioning.

One of the toys Natalie gave me for Christmas was the P3 Kill A Watt 4400. The Kill A Watt reports the number of watts used by whatever electrical device is plugged-in to the receptacle. A quick check of the Linksys WRT54G wireless access point showed that it consumes between 7-8 watts. Our cable modem uses about 7 watts. By adding up the energy usage for the devices I'd like to run during an outage, I can determine what my overall energy requirements are.

I'm looking into getting the Xantrex 600 watt Power-pack. It provides 600 watts of electricity through AC & DC outlets, can be recharged from household outlets or a 12-volt DC car outlet, and is capable of jump-starting a car. Amazon has the Duracell-branded model for $130 with free-shipping, which seems like a good deal. Just plug this in year-round, and take it out should the power fail. It might also be useful to bring in the car while camping or on a long road-trip. Unlike gas-powered generators, battery packs are silent, safe to use indoors, and don't rely on a fuel that's difficult to store & acquire during emergencies. Recharging the battery pack could be accomplished by plugging it in while running the car, or even by attaching to renewable energy sources like solar panels or wind turbines. I think that's a little beyond our requirements, since an outage lasting longer than 3 days would provide us with enough reason to get the hell out of Oakland and not wait around for the battery pack to recharge via solar panels!

Posted by Scott at 12:17 PM | Permalink

I've posted photos on Flickr of the disaster kits that I assembled for Natalie & I. Many people would be afraid to admit to having such kits, but I think that such attitudes do nobody a service. It's important to share information about what should go into a kit.

Here's the go-bag that I keep in the trunk of my car. It's got enough water to last me at least a day, but is currently missing food items. Food is a real priority since my cognitive abilities vanish in the absence of food. I'm apt to be the "Best Equipped Idiot on Earth" if I forget to include food!

Also, here are the supplies included in the household disaster kit. These items are stored in an 18-quart plastic bin, such as the kind you might find for $5 at home stores. It's important that the container be water-resistant, portable, and sturdy.

Posted by Scott at 7:23 PM | Permalink

For the last couple weeks, I've been assembling supplies for our home disaster preparedness kit. I've never had such a kit before, and I now realize that I was pushing my luck by doing so. Earthquakes are the most eminent threat in the San Francisco Bay Area: they occur with little or no warning, they destroy structures and interrupt public services over a wide area, and can play havoc with the construction techniques employed in many parts of the Bay Area (liquefaction is a major risk in the Alameda area where parts of the Bay were reclaimed using fill). Other disasters can occur, of course, but few are as likely and hazardous as earthquakes.

Before purchasing items for the kit, I performed a lot of research on-line. This was a good idea since it made me aware of issues I would have otherwise ignored. I made a lot of purchases through on-line retailers like Amazon.com to keep the cost of the kit low. Here is a list of considerations that I found interesting:

• Water service may be disrupted or unsafe, so it won't be possible to rinse off plates and eating utensils. Instead, keep some paper plates, plastic cups (red party cups!), and plastic utensils in the kit. They can be used and disposed of without using water.
• Earthquakes can occur in any weather, so prepare for the worst weather in your area. Your home may be uninhabitable, so that could mean being kept outside in rain or extreme heat. Include rain ponchos and sunscreen in the kit to address these possibilities.
• Because an earthquake doesn't wait for you to get home, you should include some basic supplies in your car and/or at work. This has been referred to as a "car-kit" or "go-bag", and should consist of:
  
  
  • battery-powered radio
  
  
  • flashlight
  
  
  • batteries for both
  
  
  • pocket knife
  
  
  • dust masks
  
  
  • some food & water
  
  
  • maps of the local area
  
  
  • heavy gloves
  
  
  • rescue blanket
  
  
  • rain poncho
  
  
  
  
• Include food and a leash for your dog or cat since they'll need to get through the ordeal, too
• Store as much cash as you might take out for a long weekend. ATMs and card readers don't function well without power, so having cash will put you at an advantage.

I've found some excellent resources on the web for assembling a disaster kit:

• San Francisco Office of Emergency Services - 72hour.org


• U.S. Geologic Survey - Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country


• Homeland Security - Ready.gov

Also, here are some blogs addressing the need for a disaster kit:

• "Of Earthquakes and Disaster Planning"


• "If the House is A-Rockin'"

I find it disturbing that so many government agencies - local and federal - have put so much effort into creating websites that target those with access to a computer and the Internet. I can't say I've seen any of the information available on the FEMA website elsewhere. People without access to this information in advance will be the most devastated from a disaster. I think this information should be more widely disseminated, perhaps by mail or some other widespread channel.

Posted by Scott at 9:11 AM | Permalink