Get the Skills To Be Hard To Kill with The Family Preparedness Workbook TPS-0127

https://tacticalpermaculture.com/pdfs/Family-Preparedness-Workbook-V1.pdf

FAMILY PREPAREDNESS WORKBOOK INSTRUCTIONS

72 Hour Backpack Emergency Kit Inventory (Page 4)

Use this worksheet to build and maintain your 72 hour backpack emergency kit. Basic recommended items include a first aid kit, dry food, canned food, water, water purification/filtration devices, mess kit (utensils, cup, plate, bowl, cooking pot), warm clothes, tarp, multiple means to make fire, headlamp, maps, evacuation/emergency contacts documentation, bug spray, sun block, cordage, reading material, toiletries, hand-crank radio, etc.

Emergency Contacts (Page 5)

You'll want to use the "Type" fields to distinguish between family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc. and the "Notes" field to specify if you've arranged to stay with them in an emergency, if there are any limitations, or considerations such as medical needs, conditions, etc. Be sure to designate a primary and secondary “out-of-state” contact that can serve as a relay point so that members of your family can check-in with status updates and check the status of other members. These contacts should be aware of their role and be agreeable to serving in this capacity. You may want to offer to act as one of their out-of-state contacts as well.

Emergency Services (Page 6)

Look in your phone book or search online to fill in the fields on this worksheet and add whatever custom services apply to your specific personal, family, or regional needs. Post a copy of this on the refrigerator and/or near phones for easy access, as well as in all emergency kits.

Evacuation Location Plan (Page 7)

You can use this worksheet to identify meeting places directly outside your home such as a local park, the front yard, a neighbor’s house, etc. in the case of a fire, or other emergency that affects only your home. Be sure to evaluate the meeting area and make sure it is clear of potential hazards such as falling trees, power lines, etc.

For the "In City" meeting/sheltering areas, you'll want to identify places where you can meet up with your family members or evacuation partners in scenarios where your home or a section of the city are not safe to stay in. These meeting places can either be temporary "rally points" such as a park or they can be friend’s/relative’s houses or other buildings/establishments where you may plan to stay in temporarily.

For the "Out of City" meeting/sheltering areas, identify places where you can stay for short and long term duration in the evacuation scenarios where your whole city/region has been affected.

For both the "In City" and "Out of City" meeting/sheltering areas be sure to print 3 sets of directions for each location with a main route and two alternate routes to ensure synchronization of routes in the event that roads are blocked. You may want to go further and print directions not only from home, but also from work places, schools, etc.

Evacuation Packing Checklist (Page 8)

By doing evacuation drills you'll be able to determine exactly how much you'll be able to pack with you in an emergency evacuation. You'll also know how to prioritize the gathering and packing of your possessions based on how much time and how much space you have. Furthermore, you can practice variable drills that anticipate different types of threats such as fire vs. flooding where different parts of the house may be damaged in different ways. After you've done the first drill, you'll be able to fill out this worksheet, and each subsequent drill can be based on both the Evacuation Procedure Checklist and this checklist.

Evacuation Procedure Checklist (Page 9)

Use this worksheet to create a list of prioritized procedural steps in your evacuation. During your first evacuation drill you'll want to take notes and use them to create this checklist for subsequent drills and for real emergencies. Use the check box to check each action off as it's completed. By using the numbering box, you can split the list between multiple people and delegate a range of numbers to each person.

Family Caloric Needs Worksheet (Page 10)

Use this worksheet to determine the rough amount of daily calories needed by your family. With this number you can determine the approximate number of days your current non-perishable food supply would suffice for your family’s needs. You can set goals to incrementally build up your supply to cover you for weeks, months, or even years just keep a running count of the calories you add to your short and long term food storage areas/containers.

Family Medical Worksheet (Page 11)

Use this sheet to document any family medications, conditions, and needs that emergency personnel would need to know about to safely treat illnesses and injuries in disaster situations. You can also use it to make sure you’ve got back-up medications and medical gear/equipment such as reading glasses, wheelchairs, and other mobility and home healthcare products.

Family Storable Food Preferences (Page 12)

This worksheet will help you and your family identify which foods you like that are suitable for long term storage. In emergency situations when people panic they often raid the shelves of supermarkets without forethought as to what they’d actually want to eat. By slowly and sensibly adding to your food reserves you'll be able to focus on getting a nutritionally balanced array of foods that you know you'll want to eat. After filling out this worksheet, be sure that whenever you or anyone else goes shopping they have this list and are looking out for deals and sales.

Home Emergency Kit Items Inventory (Page 13)

You can either assemble a home emergency kit yourself piece by piece or buy a pre-made kit. It's always better to build your own kit because you'll become more familiar with the exact contents and you'll save money. However building your own kit requires that you take the time to learn exactly what should be included. For basic recommended kit items go to www.RedCross.org. You should use this worksheet both to build the kit and to do regular inventory checks if you use and cycle through its contents.

Neighborhood Networking (Page 14)

This worksheet will help you build community and create co-reliance and interdependence between you and your neighbors. By actively working to build trust and knowledge/resource sharing in your neighborhood, not only will you be better prepared for any emergency situation, you'll feel safer and more connected and potentially save money by lending and rotating items rather than each household purchasing the same item.

Prepping Goals Checklist (Page 15)

Emergency/Disaster Preparedness is a life-long process of acquiring skills, knowledge, equipment, and other resources. It's never enough to just buy a kit and put it in the closet. By maintaining and acting on a list of goals, you can hold your self accountable to keep growing and progressing. A few goals may include setting up disaster/emergency text message alerts to your cell phone from your local emergency service providers, setting up a text message group list including your family and close friends to quickly notify them in emergency situations, schedule various drills, etc.

Threat Assessment (Page 16)

Use this worksheet to develop a heightened awareness of the specific threats you face in your area and in your life. The “Primary Threat” field should include natural and human-made disasters as well as political/military threats. The “Scale Field” should be used to help you have a sense of the geographic range of a given threat. Ranges may include personal, family, home, block, neighborhood, district, city, county, state, region, nation, continent, etc. By considering the scale of impact, you'll have a better sense of how fast aid may arrive and from where, where to position your evacuation location, even have a better sense of where to move if you're planning a local move (e.g. above the tsunami inundation zone or away from wild fire zones).

Filling out the “Probability Field” will help you organize your list of threats from most probable to least probable. There's no exact science to this, but a 1-10 ranking system will do. Using your best judgment, try to rank each threat you've listed. The “Duration Field” will help you develop a sense of how long the actual event will last and allow you to better prepare mentally and physically.

The “Secondary Threats” field should include as many of the after-effects of the initial event that you think of. Often the panicked human reaction after the actual event is more dangerous than the event itself. By considering the secondary threats, you'll realize that just being prepared for the event itself, but not the secondary threats can leave you vulnerable. For example, social unrest, looting, and rioting caused by any type of infrastructure breakdown and ensuing interruption of systems of support such as the food supply, electrical grid, water supply, etc.

Vehicle Preps Inventory (Page 17)

Use this worksheet the same way as the Home Emergency Kit Items Inventory, however you'll want to add vehicle specific items such as extra fuel, spare parts, maps, flares, extra water, etc.

Water Sourcing/Purification/Storage Worksheet (Page 18)

Use this worksheet to identify a list of local water sources such as rivers, streams, springs, reservoirs, water heaters, pools, etc; identify the purification methods you have available such as boiling, filtration, chemical purification, etc.; identify the storage containers you have or may need to procure such as rain catchment barrels, 5 gallon jugs, bathtubs, etc.. You can then use the formula provided at the bottom of the sheet to determine how many days of water self-reliance you have with the water storage reserves you have on-site.