Anticipating Natural Disasters - My Family's Natural Disaster Recovery Plan

We all hate to consider the possibility of getting caught in a natural disaster, but it's naive to imagine that it could never happen. The recent tragic events in Japan have put the same question on everyone's minds: "What would I do if the same thing happened to me?"

Having a disaster recovery plan in paramount, and my family has had one ever since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Southern coast of the United States. Here's a look at our disaster plan.

The first thing you need to consider is what type of area you live in. Japan and other coastal areas are highly susceptible to flooding, tsunamis, and sometimes earthquakes. The Midwest United States gets hit pretty frequently by tornadoes, and colder climates need to prepare for blizzards, avalanches, and deadly freezes. My family lives in Costa Rica so our emergency preparedness plan is based on earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis.

No matter where you live though, you are going to need water, and plenty of it.

My family has approximately 1000 bottles of water stocked up in our basement, and we're adding to the supply whenever we can. We also have several shelves filled with canned food of various types. In the event that you get trapped in the house for days or even weeks after a disaster, the last thing you want to do is run out of food and water. Everything else is secondary. Whenever we are at the grocery store and see canned food items on sale, say buy one get one free for example, we'll grab several dozen of them to add to the growing store. At present we could definitely last several months without any outside resources. Hopefully it will never come to that, but the motto you want to live by when forming a contingency plan is: You never know.

A well stocked first aid kit is also absolutely necessary. We have two. It should include antiseptic, rubbing alcohol, gauze, iodine, and anything else you can think of. Again, think of your area when stocking this. We are in Costa Rica, and so we have added snake anti-venom, mosquito nets, and bug spray.

Flashlights always come in handy, but be sure to stock up on batteries. They can be used to see obviously but they can also be used to signal search helicopters. On the same token, every one of us has a cell phone.

Natural disasters are inevitable; nobody can predict when they will happen. What you can do is be prepared for any possible contingency to keep yourself and your loved ones safe.