Since the majority of my family lives in Wisconsin, hurricane weather
is something we've never experienced, however, as my daughter pointed
out, there are other weather related disasters that our family of four
may encounter. At school, she learned about the importance of being
prepared for an emergency, and since she has a tendency to come home,
hang up her backpack, and leave it unattended for lengthy periods of
time, I was gratified when she asked me if I would help her with a
project.
My oldest daughter is in the sixth grade this year. Although she's
been a nature lover for as long as I've known her, and interested in
meteorology from a young age, lately she's shown a greater interest in
things like hunting, and archery. When we went shopping for winter
boots, she found a pair of green camouflaged Carhartt pants, and decided
that a pink camo John Deere shirt would be the perfect tee to pair it
with. Since that purchase, the shirt rarely, if ever leaves her. She
sleeps with a hat on, and wears either her red school hat, or the pink
double layered Columbia one we bought at a sporting goods store.
For the most part, I view my daughter as a fairly average eleven and a
half year old. She's popular at school despite neglecting to
thoroughly, or regularly comb and brush her mop of wilderness hair.
She's very petite, she plays soccer, and others have defined her
behavior as aggressive, and spunky. I think there were eight questions
on the list she asked me to review with her. This well intentioned list
described the minimum of emergency supplies that a household ought to
have on hand, just in case disaster strikes.
While my youngest daughter's handwriting is almost alarmingly neat,
we sometimes struggle to read things that my oldest has scrawled. I was
rather touched when she asked if I would help her write a list of things
that we needed for her assignment, she thought my handwriting was
neater than hers, but I also reminded her that this was her homework.
She nodded, shook her tangled Grizzly Adams curls, and said that we
needed to implement our emergency plan, so the list was actually for my
benefit, not hers.
Passion is hard to resist in adorable youngsters that you have had
tentative relationships with in the past. It is also a good idea to have
a plan, just in case something would happen. My aunt and uncle in New
Jersey were affected by the hurricane. The last time I talked to them
they had been without power for almost a week, and we do live in tornado
alley, not to mention that I can remember being snowed in several
times, once as recently as two years ago. So while my daughter drew a
map of our home to determine escape routes for our one story ranch home,
I found myself writing out a list of things we had, and another of
items to procure.
I thought I was doing an exceptional job putting down items such as
flashlights with extra batteries, toiletries, and a first aid kit when
my daughter, who was standing next to me announced that what our family
really needed was a bomb shelter. She wasn't kidding either. That
announcement, and I give myself credit for not laughing at her, led to
an involved detour where Google showed us many types of bomb shelters that were out there. This led to a discussion of
how likely a bomb raid was, and how terrible war can be for soldier, and
civilian alike, but eventually we were able to return to our
preparedness list.
Whenever a new L.L. Bean catalog arrives, my oldest daughter pores
over it. Much time, and considerable thought is given to each item, and
questions such as whether the royal blue or Hawaiian ice duffle would be
better are contemplated at length with the inevitable consultation of
her parents. This year she found an emergency radio that had two power
sources, although she wasn't sure whether the red one would really be
better than the gray. She told me that we really needed several LED
flashlights, and mentioned excitedly that they float so we would be able
to retrieve them in our inflatable raft. She added that to my list
since it was an item I had overlooked.
When I was in grade school, the town my grandparents lived in was
flooded. There are pictures of my dad paddling a canoe through the
streets of town. There were eleven feet of water in some areas, and the
damage suffered by some was significant. By this time, my daughter's
school book has been cast aside, my list now covers both sides of the
sheet I had been writing on, and we had returned to Google in search of a
greater depth of understanding as to what exactly we would need in the
event of severely inclement weather.
I found a site that suggested a compass, my daughter practically
yelled at me for not having this critical item on my list. I had also
forgotten guns, ammunition, 250 feet of rope, back packs, sunscreen,
dental floss, boric acid, money, and maps of our area that illustrated
where spring water could be obtained. We divided food into canned goods,
and dry goods. As I wrote I started to wonder, how long would three
hundred pounds of rice last? Years ago I had belonged to a food coop, so
I had seen fifty pound bags of rice, popcorn, and wheat. I added
popcorn to the list, scratched the wheat since no one in my family can
eat it anyways, but added it back after reading that our chickens could
be fed sprouted wheat, ignoring the fact that my family does not
currently raise poultry.
Chicken raised on wheat will grow to eight or nine pounds according
to a source I read. They are a source of protein, and we could use the
feathers for making our own pillows if it came to that. That started a
new chain of thought, maybe ducks would be better than chickens since
they could swim. The chicken versus duck debate became heated, but I
insisted that ducks were the better option. We have four sleeping bags,
although the girls have thin child sized versions. Fortunately for us,
LL Bean has an enticing array of flannel lined bags, although I made a
note to check out our local Army surplus store.
Sardines are a cheap protein source. My daughter normally doesn't
care for them, but nodded gravely when I put them on my list of canned
goods. We would need lighters, she mentioned that we could get some from
my mom who smokes. I said nothing, but added them to my growing list. I
put down things like tea, honey, and realized that no one in my family
has any real botanical knowledge about the herbs that can be used to
treat certain ailments. My daughter made a face when I put down brandy,
but I explained that it could be used to disinfect minor wounds in the
absence of professional medical care.
Rat traps were an inexplicable suggestion until I read that they
could be used to capture small mammals such as squirrels. When my oldest
daughter was a toddler, my husband lost his job. Being reduced to a
very meager income suddenly meant that I had to resort to things such as
reconstituted dried milk. She thought that powdered milk was an
astonishing invention, and when you don't have any other options, you
quickly become thankful for the things you do have. We added games, and
playing cards to our list. A copy of the Bible was another entry, and
I'm ashamed I didn't think of it earlier.
I knew things had gone way past where they should have when we
simultaneously read 'musical instruments', and my daughter eagerly
exclaimed that she could play her hated clarinet for us while we were
without power, heat, or running water. I'm not going to reveal what time
my daughter went to bed that night. It was much later than normal, and
we still had much work to do according to her. An interesting thing I
observed, after she took over my list, the items she added had been
neatly printed in a way that made me proud.
Probably the best thing that has come out of me and my husband taking
a parenting class has been the advice to really heap praise on children
in areas where they excel. My daugther and I probably went a bit overboard composing
our list, however it highlighted the sobering thought that my family
could be much better prepared for the possibility of a time where we may
not have many items we daily take for granted. We're going to start
small, but after listening to my daughter beg for inexpensive canned and
dried goods that she wouldn't eat normally at the store yesterday, I drove home thinking that surviving a hurricane might be just as
adventure filled as parenting a tempestuous, strong willed, life loving junior Doomsday
Prepper.