by Ray and Sally Strackbein
www.EmergencyKitchen.com

If you think your emergency preparations are complete and you haven't tested your plan, you are in trouble.

Begin testing long before your preparations are complete. Testing early reveals flaws in your plans and assumptions while you still have time and resources.

Our first test last winter opened our eyes to a number of areas that needed more attention in our home. Your test will do the same. Here are your choices:

Find out early - avoid foolish, wasteful or impractical preparations.
Find out now - while you can still take care of the problems and get what you need.
Find out later - when your choices are non existent.

Ray and Sally's Suggested Emergency Test

1. Do not turn your electricity, water or gas off. There is no reason to lose the food in your refrigerator or freezer. Just don't use them. Notice how many times you are tempted. You may want to tape them closed.

2. Do your test on a weekend or other 2-day period when you do not have obligations which require you to use your car or public transportation.

3. Record a message on your answering machine stating: "We are testing our emergency plan and will not be answering our phone until [your day and time]." Pick up or return calls only if it is an emergency. If you don't have an answering machine, ask the caller if the call is an emergency. If it isn't, state the above message and ask the caller to call back after your test is over. Do not allow yourself to be drawn into a long conversation. Let the most assertive family member do "phone duty."

4. Do not open your refrigerator or freezer. Eat only non-perishable foods.

5. Unplug all televisions, clocks, radios, stereos and anything with digital displays or cover them to reduce the light in the house at night.

6. Do not use electricity for light. Keep track of your lighting supplies and how much is used up in your test. If you have bright street lights, or other outside light, cover your windows with black plastic. You need to see how your lighting plans hold up in total nighttime darkness.

7. Use only water you have stored, unless you have an emergency compliant water supply. Keep track of how much you use for each purpose.

8. Do not use your toilets or unless you have emergency compliant ones (composting, septic, etc.). Most people have not spent much time on this topic. See the paper on waste at: http://www.EmergencyKitchen.com/html/wa ... posal.html

9. Do not use your sink drains and do not use your garbage disposal. Sink drains may be used if emergency compliant (septic system or other non-municipal waste system).

10. Do not listen to radio or watch television or participate in any gatherings that would be unlikely in an emergency scenario.

11. Pay close attention to your interaction with those around you. Do not use television, radio, computer, Internet, telephone or Nintendo. People, books, games, housework and emergencies may be your only relief from boredom.

12. Keep track of fuel usage on your alternative cooking sources. This will help you gauge your needs.

13. Cautions: make sure you have fire extinguishers, battery operated smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Clear any flammable items away from any area where you plan to burn anything for light or cooking (or anything else).

14. Do not use your regular heater or air conditoner unless they are emergency compliant.

15. Keep notes about what you need to do to make your plan complete and do what needs to be done to be prepared.

Remember that this will only be a drill and a drill is not the real thing. The psychological reactions to the drill may be significantly different than the reactions to the real thing. For example, when our power failed because of the ice storm, our resident teenager was ready and willing to chop wood or do whatever was necessary to keep us warm and alive.

You will probably have more people in your home if there is an emergency. Your relatives and friends probably will not come to participate in your drill, but they will come when they need to. You may want to use your drill time to plan strategies for maintaining healthy relationships.

Good luck in your emergency test. Do it soon!

Yep, recall, the devil is in the details.

My experiences from Ike?

1. Forgot to store ground coffee. Our coffee pot grinds the beans first - beans only stored. A hammer and a ziploc bag work great to "grind" coffee beans.

2. Dark in the house. It still amazes me how dark it got in the house and how quickly that happened. We now both have headlamps to use in the house.

3. Doing dishes in the dark is no fun at all! See #2 above re: headlamps. You may want to make your biggest meal at lunch instead of dinner due to the dish problem.

4. Garbage. Sigh! This was/is an ongoing problem. It was after Rita when so many folks stayed in my home and it definitely was after Ike. Can goods are great in a disaster situation. They are easy to open, easy to prepare (some ya just stick a fork in and go). Even military MRE's present a waste problem because each and every item is wrapped and then put in a box!

And don't EVEN get me started on the dad gum water bottles and plastic ice bags.

So if you don't have garbage collection for a week or two - what ya gonna do? What ya gonna do when they come for you?

Sorry! Couldn't help myself.

We began rinsing cans (still need to get a can crusher), placing vegetable matter into the compost bin and were going to burn trash (you need a sturdy, metal barrel for this) when - voila - here came a garbage truck down our street.

So I don't (yet) have a solution for this one.

Thanks, recall!

Yep, I'm looking for a plain ole can crusher - no power needed!