The Bristall Morgan Report Fall 2008

It's the Fall! Time to get focused back on work and school. Even though it comes around every year, a lot of people still have trouble getting back into the habit of packing lunches, changing schedules around and dealing with new habits and pressures. So once again this year we are proud to make available to our readers the Bristall Morgan Report's special Back To School PDF document. It has articles about safety, stress and all the other things that happen when the new school season arrives. To view the free Back To School Report, click here.

Creating an Emergency Home Evacuation Kit

The return of Hurricane season to the U.S. southern coast serves as a poignant reminder that sometimes we've gotta pick up and run. Nobody wants to think about thiugs like that, and of course, denial is a lot less work than planning.

If you had to leave your house in the next 20 minutes, either because of fire, earthquake, flood or an industrial explosion that puts unknown materials into the air - what would you do? What would you take with you?

Remember that during moments of extreme stress, your thinking mind is not at its best. It's hard to think clearly when all of your instincts are saying "get out!" That's why it's a good idea to sit down with your family and decide how best to identify, locate and prepare the following:

• Think about the most important things you own - these may not be obvious items like jewellery or money. Think about the things that would be impossible or extremely difficult to replace: passports, birth certificates, marriage licence, etc. Maybe these items would be better off in a safety deposit box at your bank.
• Think also about possessions with high sentimental value: photographs or videos of the family. Unique pieces of jewellery or toys that have a very special meaning to you. Where are they right now, and how easy would it be to throw them into a suitcase in under 30 seconds?
• What about medications: where are they? How much would you need to bring along if you had to evacuate for more than a week? What about copies of prescriptions?
• Your essential computer data: records, finances, work, your in-progress novel - could you snatch these up quickly? Are they backed up onto a jump drive?
• What about turning off all the major utility connections in your home? Do you know how to turn the water off? How about the gas and the electricity? Do your other family members know this? (Once useful technique is to mark each shutoff with a large red or yellow tag that clearly identifies what this shutoff does, and which other ones to go to next.)
• Finally, how will people find each other? Do you have a central person such as an uncle/aunt out of state that everyone should call into to report their whereabouts during times of great crisis?

These six points are just a few of the things that should be thought about and acted upon well before a crisis happens.

If you would like additional guidance on emergency preparation, check out our free emergency Blackout Guide, available as a Microsoft Word document here.

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