I recently sat down again with Shaun Koopman, protective services coordinator for the Strathcona Regional District.
This time it was to tell the community some things about fire evacuations and preparedness – just in case.
You see, with much of the province currently on fire, I thought it would be useful for people to know, should it ever happen here, what to expect.
But every time I talk to that guy, no matter what the reason, I walk out of the room afterward feeling terrible.
It’s not his fault.
It’s not that he’s a fear monger or that he shames people into being ready for the worst – and he’s the first to admit there are serious barriers to preparedness (financial, mainly) – but whenever we talk I still feel like I’m not doing enough to be ready.
Like the time we talked about how to earthquake-ready your house by – among other things – bracketing bookshelves and hot water tanks, etc. to the walls. I got my parents to get two sets of brackets (one for each of our homes) for our hot water tanks the next time they went to the U.S. (they’re about a quarter the cost down there for some reason) but they are all still in their boxes even to this day.
This time, however, I actually did something.
Okay, I half-did something. Maybe three-quarters did something.
I took a couple hundred dollars and went to the big-box store. Each member of my family picked out the roomiest backpack we could find that we liked and we went around the store talking about what we’ll need to have in them if we have to leave suddenly and they are all we’ll be taking with us.
We got flashlights and extra batteries, cans of food we don’t hate and can openers, a backup power supply for cellphones and electronics, some basic first-aid kits and a 24-pack of bottled water to split up between us.
That’s right. We finally have our Grab & Go bags ready.
Well, almost. We still have to actually put everything into each backpack, add a spare set of clothes to each one and get a few more supplies – paper plates, a crank-powered radio, some walkie-talkies and an envelope of small-denomination money – but we’re a heck of a lot closer than we were to being ready should we need to leave in a hurry.
But maybe more importantly than the actual stockpiling of goods was the conversation we got to have while we were shopping. My seven-year-old son became quite concerned when we were talking about why we were doing this – and that was important. It gave me a chance to explain to him that it’s okay to be scared, but that the reason we were doing this was precisely so that there would be less of a reason to be.
You see, it may have cost us a couple hundred dollars – and probably another hundred or more to finish the process – but the peace of mind it’s going to afford us is worth much more than that.
If you have the resources to do so, I strongly recommend it.
If you don’t, just start and do it a little bit at a time like I really should have.