General
Our activities and actions taken to be ready for a specific event fall into this category. Good preparedness can be described in terms of having a plan, executing that plan, and good time management. Specific guidance on preparations can be found on the “Resources” page.
What’s in the Plan?
The plan should outline what you need to do and what you need to have. This will depend on the kind of event you’re facing. We won’t make the same preparations for a hurricane as we would a pandemic.
First, make sure the plan is simple. It should guide you through your activities so that you are confident that you have your work done. The major headings that I use are the following:
- People: Make sure your emergency contacts are up to date and you’ve been in touch with work and others.
- Stuff: What do you need to have on hand in order to be ready. This may include supplies for certain kinds of preparations (like lumber) or more general things like water and easily-prepared food.
- Spaces: What do you need to do in terms of preparing the house or outbuildings?
- Information: Do you have alternate ways to get information if the phone or internet connections are broken?
- Services: Is there anything you need to do in order to keep services going? For example, you may want to consider paying bills in advance of the event just in case you can’t later. You may also want to make arrangements for fuel deliveries, etc. if you think the impacts of the event might last a while.
The “Resources” page will have links to places that have suggestions for things like emergency kits and the like. The only thing I would recommend for rural residents is don’t think that 72 hours will be enough. Plan for twice that.
Phases of activity
Breaking down your preparations into logical phases of activity can save you missing something. I use three phases of activity:
- First, do your shopping and things like that early. This is because you want to be ahead of any rushes but also because if something has run out, you need time to find a new source of it. Plan your trips and get things back to the homestead early.
- Second, take care of the longer or more difficult jobs first. These include yard clean up, cleaning out drainage ditches or culverts, and so on. You want these done early so that you know they are taken care of.
- Finally, the work right at the house. This may include basic tasks like ensuring that vital documents are accounted for an protected or larger tasks like boarding up the windows.
Give yourself time
Think of this like a foot race. On one hand, the event is likely to arrive in a certain amount of time. Keep an eye on alerts and forecasts. On the other hand, there is the time we need to do work. We want to have all our preparations done about 24 hours ahead of the event. Why? It gives us a buffer in case the situation changes and it allows us to get our energy back up.
Consider the graphic below. It shows that we might have a few days before a rather significant storm appears. We can easily spend 30 minutes going over the plan and then getting down to work. As the storm gets closer, we will have a better understanding of what is likely to happen. Finally, when it’s close, we should be done our preparations and just getting ready to ride it out.
Community
Taking this approach also gives you a bit of time to check in with the neighbours to see if there’s anything needed there. See if there’s anything that can be done to help others get ready around you and have a way of checking up on each other as needed.