Are YOU Ready?

After last night, I realized more than ever that I'm not!  Ready for a natural disaster, that is.  I guess I feel pretty ready for a major power outage or storm that confines me to my home for a long period of time.  We have a generator which powers our well so we can have water.  It can actually power the whole house for short periods of time (minus microwave, dishwasher, clothes washer & dryer...but those I can live without for a while.)  We have plenty of food in the garage including meat in the freezer.  We have a wheat grinder to grind all my wheat. 

What I'm not ready for is an event that causes my family to have to leave our home.  At last night's Relief Society activity, we discussed 72 hour kits and emergency preparedness.  Thanks to Pam Keyes, emergency prep. guru of BI, and Mary Bell, Theresa Oliver, and Mary Pat Caine, we had a very entertaining, informative evening.  Several women brought their 72 hour kits to show and they were ready.  They could leave their home with their family and feel at peace.  They would have food and water, bedding and clothing, fuel and light, first aid and personal supplies to last them at least three days.  One kit I examined had enough food (in MRE form) to last a family of 6 teenage boys at least two weeks. 

Here's what I have in my 72 hour kit:  three liters of water, four power bars, three MREs, three packets of oatmeal, a brick of "emergency rations" (from 1996, handy as a hammer or weapon I suppose), a rain poncho, some sterno (that I don't even know how to use), a shoddy first aid kit, and a roll of toilet paper.  

I have enough food and water that I wouldn't starve or dehydrate, and I could wipe my...nose, and put a bandaid on a scratch, but that's about it.  I would have to eat the MREs cold since I really don't have a way to heat them.  I learned last night that they have to be submersed in boiling water for about 10 minutes and I don't have a container to do that.

I've come to the conclusion that I need to either beef up my kit, or hope and pray that the disaster that causes me to use the kit happens on a Sunday afternoon (the only time most of my family is likely to all be home together), when I'm fully dressed, and during the summer (so I don't have to worry about keeping warm.)