Being Prepared: Ready.gov

Ready.gov

"Prepare. Plan. Stay Informed."

The FEMA website has several major links from the homepage: Ready America; Ready Business; and Ready Kids. The last one's got some moderate entertainment value in its splash screen, by the way.

And, there's a three-part generic plan:

• "Build a Kit"
• "Make a Plan"
• "Be Informed"

Pretty good advice, I think. That "be informed" part acknowledges that the sort of disasters folks living in, say, Los Angeles, need to prepare for aren't quite the same that we should be concerned about here in the heart of darkest Minnesota.

I may want to review my household's plan. We did some serious evaluation back when the Y2K situation made temporary collapse of the power grid and a few other systems - not likely, but possible. Because of where we live, and the way we live, our 'preparedness plan' was to drain the pipes, except in the basement, put a sheet of insulation over the stairway, and wait it out in the basement.

We live in central Minnesota: so we didn't need to worry much about keeping the frozen food frozen. Not in January.

What we don't have, I see, is a "Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both" I suppose that could be remedied.

If I sound blasé, unconcerned, I'm not. But we live on a low, sandy ridge toward the top of the Mississippian watershed, in an area whose wild climate encourages a fail-safe approach to house construction.

A few houses blow up toward the start of each heating season: but that's happening less often these days.

As far as being able to seal up a 'safe' part of the house, if we had to protect ourselves from something lethal in the air? We get a sort of practice run for that sort of thing, each time someone upwind turns their manure pit.