What if?

Maria Christina Concepcion

LAST week, Cagayan de Oro and nearby Bukidnon and Cotabato was rocked by an earthquake. “What’s wrong with the earth?” I asked. Then I remembered the two articles I’ve written specifically on preparedness. I hope that the articles have somehow touched someone enough for them to seriously consider the suggestions on disaster preparedness.

I’ve known about the 72-hour kit for years now and to be honest, I have never perfected it. It has always been a challenge mainly because of lack of focus and determination. I always had an excuse or justification for not being able to really work on completing them. But with the recurring earthquakes in Luzon the past weeks and the one we just recently, I now strongly feel that time has come for me to get really serious about it.

For those who have not read my previous articles on preparedness, some of the suggestions there included having or creating an emergency plan for the whole family. This emergency plan includes identifying a place where all members of the family could meet or converge should a disaster or calamity occur. This is very important especially if communication among family members through mobile phones and other devices become impossible. Another suggestion includes identifying and assigning your family’s “first contact” and memorizing his or her contact numbers. This first contact should be an immediate family member or a close family friend who lives outside your area of residence and who will most likely be the first person to look for you and on your part, the first person you will think of to call for help.

Another suggestion I’ve written is to safe keep copies of your legal documents by placing them in wateresistant envelopes.

The 72-hour kit is your survival kit! It should contain ready-to-eat food, water, medicines (especially maintenance meds and allergy meds), matches, candles, flashlights, extra batteries, multi-purpose knife, ropes, clothes, blankets, and even needles and threads!

In a nutshell, to ensure our safety and our family’s during calamities and disasters, we should take a proactive stance and prepare ahead and prepare well. Let’s take personal responsibility by doing what we can, by preparing what we can.

Many might not be able to set aside food supply good for three days (the equivalent of 72 hours). It’s still okay to start with a 48-hour kit! Set aside a food storage that will feed you and your family for 48 hours in emergency situations. And what if the 48-hour kit is still a challenge? Then do the 24-hour kit! I’d say that’s still better than nothing at all.

Some families I know keep their food pantry stocked with “extra” everything and they say this serves as their food storage. To have more than enough is great but let’s not forget that when calamity strikes, panic strikes in too and we might not have the correct mindset to act fast enough to put everything we need to survive in a bag that’s easy to carry. Steven Cyros said: “Remember; when a disaster strikes, the time to prepare has passed.”

Let’s all take comfort in this passage from Proverbs 27:12:

“A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.”