National Preparedness Month and $25 Giveaway #2

By /

This month is National Preparedness month and I am excited to be working with Clorox and American Red Cross to share important information that will help us prepare for emergencies. This week, we’re focusing on Building an Emergency Preparedness Kit with your family.  Building a comprehensive emergency preparedness kit is an important component of emergency preparedness.  Here is a checklist you can use to start your kit:

  • Water (minimum three day supply for evacuations, two week supply for home, washing, and drinking)
  • Non-perishable foods (minimum three day supply for evacuations, two week supply for home)
  • Assorted battery pack (purchase the pack that provides a variety of battery sizes so that you’re prepared no matter the need)
  • Flashlight
  • Multipurpose tool
  • First aid kit
  • Medications (at least a 7 day supply)
  • Battery-powered or hand-crank radio (NOAA Weather Radio if possible)
  • Extra Clothing
  • Sanitation and personal hygiene items
  • Cell phone with chargers
  • Family and emergency contact information
  • Extra cash
  • Emergeny Blanket
  • Maps of the area
  • Copies of important documents – in case of emergency, you’ll need copies of birth records, household lease or deed, medications list, passports and homeowners insurance policies. If you cannot locate your insurance documents, contact your homeowners insurance company and they should be able to provide a copy for you.
  • Household liquid bleach.  Did you know that bleach, like Clorox Liquid Bleach, can not only disinfect surfaces but also can be used to create drinkable water?  Here’s how:

To Disinfect Surfaces:  Use 1/4 cup bleach to 1 gallon of water, or as directed on the label, to disinfect hard, non-porous surfaces in your home.

To Disinfect Water:  If you need to purify water during an emergency, (and do not have the means to boil it for 3-5 minutes), you may disinfect your water using bleach.  If water is clear, add 8 drops (1/8 tsp) of bleach per gallon of water.  If water is cloudy, add 16 drops (1/4 tsp) of bleach per gallon of water.  Mix the solution thoroughly and let it stand for about 30 minutes before using it.  Properly treated water should have a slight chlorine odor.  If it doesn’t, repeat dosage and allow water to stand an additional 15 minutes.  The treated water can be made drinkable by pouring it between clean containers several times.

Check out your local home supply store.  Many of them sell pre-assembled emergency preparedness supplies that provide a great foundation for the full kit you will need to build.

When disaster strikes you could ANYWHERE, so make sure you have either a full or abbreviated emergency preparedness kit (i.e. food, water and change of clothes) at work and in your vehicles.

Make sure the members of your household are aware of each kit, its content and its location.  In the event of an emergency, its essential to make sure everyone, even the children, are prepared.

Do you have pets?  Are they included in your preparedness plan?  If not, they should be!  You’ll find out more about creating a plan for your pets in next week’s blog post!

For more information, please visit www.clorox.com/redcross and download the preparedness guide: Prepare Yourself Now for Peace of Mind Later.

GIVEAWAY

1 lucky reader on The Mommy-Files will win a $25 gift card to use towards their emergency preparedness kit!!!

WIN IT!!! (MANDATORY ENTRY)

– Tell me in a comment what natural disasters have happened in the area where you live.

EXTRA ENTRIES:

– Vote for The Mommy-Files on Top Mommy Blogs (simply click on the button on the sidebar) – 1 ENTRY
– Follow The Mommy-Files on Twitter – 1 ENTRY
– Tweet about the giveaway – 1 ENTRY DAILY
– Become a Fan of The Mommy-Files on Facebook – 1 ENTRY
– Follow me through Google Connect (new on the right side of the blog) – 1 ENTRY
– Subscribe to my blog – 1 ENTRY
– Add my Mommy-Files button to your blog and include the URL – 1 ENTRY
– Comment on any Non-Giveaway post on The Mommy-Files – 1 ENTRY per post comment (no limit)
– Blog about this giveaway and include the URL – 5 ENTRIES

RULES:

– Contest will close at 11:59 p.m. PST on Tuesday, September 21st, 2010! Any entries after this time will be deleted!
– Contest open to U.S. residents only.

As a blog tour participant, I received information and giveaways from The Clorox Company and Consumer Queen at no cost to me.  I was compensated for my time by The Clorox Company for participating in this project.  All views are 100% my own.

513 thoughts on “National Preparedness Month and $25 Giveaway #2”

  10. Sunshyn V

    We’ve had a couple of blizzards and just recently have had tornado warnings nearby. Aside from that, its typically flooding near the river.
    chainmail(at) iwon(dot)com

    Reply
  15. Christina G.

    Tell me in a comment what natural disasters have happened in the area where you live.

    We have had tornadoes and floods. Thanks for the giveaway!

    Reply

  30. Pingback: Tweets that mention National Preparedness Month and $25 Giveaway #2 : The Mommy-Files -- Topsy.com

  33. Rhonda Mason

    We don’t have many disasters happen here in Maine but a few years ago we survived an ice storm which knocked out power for days, took down trees and stranded people all over the state. Being without power in the dead of winter is an awful scare! We learned then how to prepare and not to expect that we are safe from disasters. Thanks
    hondaray6 at hotmail dot com

    Reply
  62. Jackie

    Hurricane Floyd hit us a couple of years ago. The whole town flooded. We lost the police station (new one had to be built) and the library was destroyed and had to be renovated. So much damage was done. Thanks for the review and giveaway!
    jackievillano at gmaild ot com

    Reply
  65. Maureen

    Where I am we have had rains that produce flooding. In the winter we have had blizzards and snow so that you couldn’t get out of your house.

    Reply
  67. Karen

    The worst “disaster” we had was when the city declared our drinking water was contaminated with high levels of E Coli so we had to boil our water for several days until the City discovered it was all a mistake. What a huge waste of time, energy, and a huge financial loss to many restaurants who were closed-down until the water was declared safe to drink by the County Health Dept.

    Reply
  68. susitravl

    We have lots of tornadoes. My oldest niece’s car was just destroyed by one on 9/15. They showed it on all the local news channels and the weather channel it was on the front page of the paper. 🙁
    susitravl(at)gmail(dot)com

    Reply
  81. Karen M

    Here in the desert we have fires and during the monsoon season we can have occasional flooding, but it usually dries up fast.

    Reply
  82. DeeAnn S

    Here is southeast PA we have bad snow and ice storms, floods, side effects of a hurricane every now and then, and the ocassional tornado. Thanks.

    Reply
  84. Elaine Lund

    I live in Mass. so we don’t get tornados, hurricanes etc. But! Last year there was quite a bit of rain and lots of people had flooded basements and yards. Also, several years back, we had a downburst come through the neighborhood. The occasional blizzard….

    Reply
  97. Deb Anderson

    I’m in “Tornado Alley” so yeah, we get a lot of tornadoes. I’ve learned that in addition to all the wonderful things you mentioned above, when disaster strikes have an extra pair of shoes handy and ALWAYS have your ID on you.

    Reply
  100. Alicia

    For the first time ever, a tornado hit our town. It knocked down lots of trees,but, thank goodness no serious damage and nobody was killed.

    Reply
  148. shelly

    When I lived in Sault Ste. Marie, MI years ago we got six feet of snow in 24 hours-its wild what the lake effect can do. The national guard had to comein and dig out the town.

    Reply
  159. Jennifer Short

    Last year we had 300″ of snow, mainly in about six weeks. We got hit with a “snow hurricane” as the newsmen called it and had EIGHT FEET of snow in our driveway. Thankfully we didn’t lose electric, but were trapped in the house almost three weeks. To help spread the cost of getting ready for winter this year, I’m already buying a good many extra groceries each time I go to the store.

    Reply
  169. Alicia Webster

    Nothing so far in this area (Winchester, VA), but I have only lived here five years. But I was in two natural disasters where I am from, a flood and an earthquake (Santa Cruz, CA)

    Reply
  192. Kent O

    Down here in Georgia, we had a lot of flooding last year including my basement flooding twice and the kid’s stuck at school because the water was so high in the streets.

    Reply
  198. Theron Willis

    My community is hit by occasional earthquakes. I store water in two fifty gallon barrels with the addition of Clorox bleach to prevent the growth of bacteria. This amount of water can last a family of four for one week.

    I subscribe via GFC.

    Reply
  202. Pat

    At our house we lived through the Northern California earthquake in 1989. We had prepared our emergency kit and still have one today, just in case.

    Reply
  205. Christina

    Tornados, lots of high winds, and floods. At least we have a basement which is great for the tornados and winds, but not good for the floods as it can gather water down there.

    Reply
  241. Lisa Davis

    I can’t think of anything other than floods. We had a nasty storm last year that brought down a tree (which brought down the power lines) a block down from our house. Pretty eery looking down the street of live power lines draped over the trees. When I was little we lived in Tennessee for a bit and experienced a horrible storm that shook our whole house, I remember hiding under my bed paralyzed with fear. A tornado just missed us. To this day thunder and lightening really rattles me and the thought of tornadoes gives me goose bumps!

    Reply
  249. Cynthia C

    We had a terrible storm in my area that left us without power for four days. Being on a well, that meant we were also without water. It was truly miserable.

    Reply
  271. Lim

    I’m in VT so the worst we normally get is bad winter storms. Occasionally we have some flooding that isn’t the anticipated spring thaw flood. We did get a down wind? down surge? wind surge? Something that was a just shy of a tornado a few years ago. It only damaged a small area along a back road. No deaths and I don’t even think there were injuries.

    That being said. Winter can be pretty harsh and some storms are more severe than others.

    Reply
  274. Jessica Gragg

    Here in Arkansas we had flooding this year, a major ice storm that knocked out the power for two weeks last year, and an F4 tornado the previous year.

    Reply
  275. Jammie

    We had really bad flooding in may, we also have straightline winds. When my husband was younger they had 90 tornadoes in one night hit the surrounding area

    Reply
  287. Kelly

    We’ve been hit by a couple of hurricanes and an occasional tornado in the time that I’ve lived here. I wish I could find a place to live with a great climate and a lack of scary storms, though!

    Reply
  288. Peter G

    Hurricanes!! Living in Florida, the first year we were here four came through. High winds, so much rain. A store in St Petersburg had the roof collapse and the whole area flooded. Trees went down and we couldn’t get out for three days. Power came back on and it was strange to see that lamp posts were bent at exactly the same place.

    Reply
  306. Jessica

    I just moved to Virginia from Wisconsin. In Wisconsin we would get flooding every spring. Every 2-3 years FEMA would actually get involved and declare it a “disaster area”. I’m not sure what to expect now.

    Reply
  329. Erica C.

    We had the terrible east coast blizzard last year. This year, we’ve had tornados, hurricanes, and even an earthquake…all very minor though.

    Reply
  330. Jill Myrick

    Fortunately we don’t have to contend with hurricanes or tornadoes in NC but we do have trouble with flooding and large amounts of snow.
    I have seen several homes wash down the side of a mountain due to rain and up to 42in. of snow at one time. With the power being out for up to three weeks. We now have generators and gas logs just in case.

    jweezie43[at]gmail[dot]com

    Reply
  336. Kelly Ann T.

    Flooding both flash floods and the river by my house will overflow its banks. This has never affected us because we live on a huge hill, but it has hurt those who can least afford it. Tornados have hit the area too, but we have always been lucky.

    Reply
  361. barbara wright

    Sorry for the duplicate comment, but I got a page of html errors when I hit submit, so I thought the first one hadn’t worked.

    I Follow The Mommy-Files on Twitter – bsw529

    Reply
  371. Joanne Schultz

    We’ve had some hurricanes in the past, but nothing recently. Some snowstorms early in the season cause power outages – people who live more in the country sometimes lose power for a week at a time.

    Thanks for the giveaway!

    Reply
  384. Melanie

    I used to live in Louisiana, and I was one of the areas affected by Katrina.
    We were somewhat prepared, but we had no idea what to expect and didn’t have
    everything we needed.
    Right now I live in TN, and Im in “Tornado Country”, so a kit like this
    would be great to have.

    Reply
  385. sarah

    I live in Upstate NY and we don’t get much in the way of natural disasters. Two summers ago there was a minor tornado that did practically no damage but throw lawn furniture around. But we can get some pretty nasty winter storms.

    Reply
  400. Christine

    I’ve lived in Southern Cal my entire life, so earthquakes are a regular occurrence. They don’t (excuse the pun) rattle me.

    Reply
  403. Rosey

    We moved shortly thereafter, but we lived in Palm Beach County for eighteen years. The last year we were there, 3 major hurricanes in a row hit where we were. We were without electricity for 21 days straight.

    Reply
  417. Kirsten T.

    Very rarely, a tornado is around. Every 7-10 years we get mounds of snow (2-3 feet like this Feb – yuck) . Overall, a pretty safe place to live.

    Reply
  426. brian e.

    Thanks for the giveaway…I was living in the SF area during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, 6.9 on the Richter scale !

    senorpiero [at] yahoo [dot] com

    Reply
  447. Breanne

    Hmm in like 1974 there was a tornado and a few people died. My senior year (2 years ago) there was a little earthquake! I slept through it and most people did too. There was also a bad flood that year.

    Reply
  476. Tammy Greer

    We have wildfires here because when it’s dry and hot it doesn’t take much for a fire to start and spread very quickly.

    Reply
  477. Pamela S

    I live in the Midwest so our most common emergency is tornado. Luckily we’ve never been affected too much, but I had a brother who was affected for about 10 days. Thanks.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top