Home emergencies can transpire without warning and in most circumstances a rapid call to 911 will bring help quickly. When a widespread catastrophe affects an entire region, emergency response teams will be overcome and you may possibly have to rely on yourself to deal with at least some of the difficulties that may arise.
With an appropriate plan of action, the right tools, and superior preparedness, your home emergency kit should have your back in a time of need. When a big weather event like a hurricane looms overhead, people panic and it doesn’t take much longer for them to use up local supplies such as lumber and foods or emergency equipment.
Electricity powers our world and we don’t think about it very much until we miss it . It retains pumps working, food cold, and furnaces providing heat. When an outage happens, your family will be protected within your residence with a standby or portable generator to retain the power online and keeping you comfy till the power is restored.
A generator takes time install or put together, and attaching it appropriately to your home demands a transfer switch. Have an electrician set up a manual transfer switch for a portable generator or an automatic transfer switch for a standby generator and you’ll be ready to stand up to a power outage in comfort and security.
If you are making use of a portable generator be sure to retain your fuel in a 5 gallon container, rotate it on a regular basis, and use a stabilizer to keep it fresh.
When you are in the middle of an emergency, time is usually of the essence making a tool bag a handy thing to have in particular if you need to leave your home and bring it with you. Make sure you have an arsenal of screwdrivers, wrenches, adjustable wrenches, and an assortment of pliers. Ratcheting screwdriver sets with interchangeable heads are light-weight, tough, and don’t take up a lot of space. Small socket sets, Allen wrenches, a hammer, a hacksaw, and a hatchet are all good tools to have in an emergency. Purchasing and utilizing heavy-duty extension cords makes it easier for you to connect your tools to your generator and also insures safe operation.
Food is an obvious need, but maybe less obvious is water. Make sure that you have water storage containers on hand for the future. Gallon-size containers are not hard to move and fill, larger containers are less portable and harder to fill, but can store a good deal of water for use during a widespread disaster.
To turn a suspect water source into drinkable water, use a chlorine based water purification tablet which will kill bacteria, viruses and parasites to make water safe for drinking. A small camp stove can cook food and boil water to make them safe for consumption. You probably won’t run your electric stove from a generator, but you could power a hotplate, microwave oven, or toaster oven.
Simple supplies such as duct tape, rope, bungee cords, and lumber should not be overlooked as they will most certainly come in handy. Make sure to keep these stocked at all times and at your reach and resupply your kit when your items inside start to get depleted.
Battery driven lanterns, flashlights, and lights can get you through the night if you don’t have power or need to conserve generator power. Gasoline powered lanterns can provide a bright light, but can also emit dangerous carbon monoxide.
An inverter to link to your car’s battery can supply power for chargers and similar items. Better models with greater wattage can power much more items. The power they supply is usually not the greatest for running larger motors, so don’t rely on them to run refrigerators, freezers, or pumps. You’ll have to run your car’s engine to prevent the battery from running too low, but if it does happen, a battery charger you can plug into your generator will charge it up again, or you could link it to another battery with jumper cables to give your car a boost.
There is more that you need than just your emergency toolkit. Make sure that you have a solid plan and are ready to put it to work, and also, be aware of the most prevalent risks that can be found in the area you live. Formulate your plan around your local dangers and you should be well ready if and when an emergency happens.
For more info go to: www.NPSGenerac.com