Rational Preparedness: A Primer to Preparedness

By Jane-Alexandra Krehbiel

Rational Preparedness is a book designed to help those who have never considered the need to prepare for natural or man-made disasters, to do so, in short order. A rational and sequential review of many of the key aspects of preparedness takes place, in tandem with pictures, and a quick conversant style. Reading the book and following the suggestions will help many families prepare quickly and relatively easily for all disasters whether they involve sheltering in place, or family evacuation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479740109

Jane-Alexandra Krehbiel

Jane-Alexandra Krehbiel was born in California. She is a former college instructor and a registered nurse. She also holds a degree in environmental studies. She also is the author of a number of wide ranging articles. This is her second book. Krehbiel considers her most important role to have been as a wife, and as a mother to five children, four of them biological and one through adoption. She divides her time between the family's Virginia farm in the US, and Canada. Daniel, as mentioned in this book, is her youngest son. Stephanie M. T. Krehbiel makes her home in Virginia. She is an illustrator, photographer, and graphic designer. She holds a BFA degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is also Daniels sister and took many pictures and made many illustrations of him throughout his life.

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Jane-Alexandra Krehbiel.

Photography by Stephanie M. T. Krehbiel

Library of Congress Control Number:   2012920085

ISBN:                       Hardcover             978-1-4797-4009-3

                                 Softcover              978-1-4797-4008-6

                                 Ebook                   978-1-4797-4010-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book is not intended to substitute for the care provided by your primary physician. Where medical topics are concerned, it seeks to be an adjunct to the good advice your physician can provide that is tailored to your family’s medical history and situation. Please seek competent physician input for specific medical problems, particularly with children and babies. Feel free to bring this book to your physician with you for his/her input, particularly in rehydration concerns during illnesses and emergencies and most especially for children with special medical needs.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

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Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 Accepting Our Own Role in Disaster Preparation

Chapter 2 Preventing Overreaction

Chapter 3 Starting Somewhere

Chapter 4 Evacuation versus Sheltering in Place

Chapter 5 Advance Planning for Family Evacuation

Chapter 6 Activating an Evacuation Plan

Chapter 7 Sheltering in Place

Chapter 8 Rehydration and Your Rehydration Kit

Chapter 9 Stocking Supplies at Home

Chapter 10 Considering Water

Chapter 11 Filtering Water

Chapter 12 Considering Home Defense

Chapter 13 Mitigating Home Hazards

Chapter 14 Special Pet Evacuation Challenges

Chapter 15 Assessing the Need to Relocate in View of Safety and Preparedness Issues

Chapter 16 The Human Response to Disasters: Mental Health Issues

Chapter 17 Vehicle Readiness

Chapter 18 Emergency Tool and Home Repair Kit

Chapter 19 The Many Aspects of Education in Disaster Preparedness

Chapter 20 When in Rome

Chapter 21 Conclusions

Biography

Dedication

To David and Stephanie, Adam, Matthew, Joseph, and especially Daniel.

Thank you all for your encouragement and for your understanding.

All of our family’s preparedness activities are dedicated to Daniel Krehbiel.

Preface

For all the books that tackle the varying aspects of disaster preparedness, there are few that tackle the urgent need for family preparedness. The book was designed to outline and prescribe rapid, immediate actions that would provide the most advance benefit in either rapid family evacuation or in sheltering in place. The book was designed to not only do these things in as brief and as a digestible form as possible but also to benefit those not only in the United States but in other nations as well.

Chapter One

Accepting Our Own Role in Disaster Preparation

Many of us grew up with the idea that life was good and that disasters and emergencies were things that occurred in other nations. We thought that if anything were to occur in the United States, then our generous government would take care of it, and we would happily move along just as before. Of course, this was never completely true. Emergencies can occur anywhere at any time, and governments, including our own, are not always able to arrive in a timely manner or are even able to completely assess or meet the complex needs of its citizens. This was hammered home to many Americans on 9-11. Among the many other things that happened that day, Americans began to notice some things. Following the temporary embargo on air traffic that day, many pharmacies were completely unable to provide prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medication to clients. For the first time, many Americans began to realize that for most pharmacies, a centralized warehouse multiple states away fills pharmacy orders and overnights them to pharmacies across the United States. Grandmother has twelve days of essential heart medication remaining, and Pharmacist Joe says that he hopes it will be in by Friday, but he cannot be sure. For the first time, Americans saw a glimpse of how vulnerable our essential delivery systems are to foreign and domestic terrorism. For just a moment, they allowed themselves to wonder what else could happen that could disrupt American supply lines of medicines, food, fuel, and maybe other items as well.

Hurricane Katrina also demonstrated that even when there is plenty of advance notice of an impending natural disaster, ordinary citizens, local emergency management, and even our Federal Emergency Management Agency may be faced with more than they can handle. This was likely the beginning of an uneasiness in America, which translated into a desire to better anticipate and better plan for, at least, our own family’s safety. Certainly, prior to this, there were families who practiced disaster preparedness, but 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina began to clear the way to make preparedness more of a mainstream consideration.

Social media and widespread media coverage of disasters, large and small, both within our nation and around the world, have also begun to erode the general feeling of security we may have once had. Most of us realize that at some point, our family may be impacted or even afflicted by a natural or man-made disaster. Economic and political rumblings here in the United States and worldwide have also shaken the confidence of most people. We worry that our governmental systems are overstretched on a daily basis and that a serious test of our government’s emergency system could come in the form of a disaster in itself.

The good side of this is that more and more families and individuals are assessing what reasonable steps can be taken to enhance their family’s safety and security during weather emergencies and natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, or wildfires. More and more people are questioning what they could do should their family be threatened by man-made disasters, such as a terrorist act, a chemical spill, a nuclear plant malfunction, or a nuclear plant meltdown. This journey can be a positive and an empowering one, not simply an annoyance or a chore.

Chapter Two

Preventing Overreaction

Although I am pleased to see families concerned enough to want to be making advance plans rooted in a desire to protect themselves, we need to guard ourselves against overreaction. This book, my former radio program, and the blog named Rational Preparedness were so named by me because I have been concerned regarding the overreactions to a need for preparedness. This year, multiple television programs have surfaced that focus on the more extreme practitioners of survivalism. We do a disservice to families and to our citizenry when we provide extreme survivalists as the template for preparedness. For most families, a fortified bunker is not only unnecessary but also a foolish waste of their money and a disruption of their lives. Raising a family in a bunker, in itself, can be dangerous as you may be also exposing your children to hazards there rather than teaching them to manage and mitigate the inherent hazards of modern living.

My perspective is that most families can be taught to fashion their own disaster plans within the context of their