I’ve been sorting some things out in my house over the last few days. Moving items around and just generally tidying up. I’m looking at staying at home after an event and want to make sure that the important stuff is at the front and ready to go when required. It has involved a lot of heaving and rearranging.
I drew a map of the house then looked at events. What can happen that are just general issues. Power cut, gas cut, water cut, a fire, etc. They require certain procedures and tools to be available. I then decided where I wanted each item to go. They are stored in the electricity cupboard or in the utility room. I’ve done fire drills and for the others that is generally simply evacuation whilst I have fire extinguishers which I would consider. I don’t consider food issues as we have access to sufficient food and water for consumption. For more serious events, like we prepare for and have put on our list, I then allocated the items in more out of the way locations with a few in easy to get to places. I’ve a door to the back that when opened shows several pre filled bags. One is a BOB, another food and water for quick access and laminated instructions with additional tools such as knives, radios, cooking tools, etc.
Part of the laminated instructions shows a map of the house with locations of the remainder of the stores. Water here, X marks the spot, food here, another X, tools here and so on with all hazardous materials and items identified. The contents of caches are fully identified so that they do not need to be accessed until they are required. Each cache is self contained so that opening one should give several weeks supplies and you should not need to open more than one at once except under exceptional circumstances.
I’m still working on the instructions for this kit, which will try and get over OPSEC, water use, cooking as well as toilet use and interacting with neighbours. Basic instructions supplemented by the books where more detailed instructions are available when needed. I even put the priority books at the front of the book section and marked.
Of course not everything will be easily accessible but the items that are required quickly will be and this should make a significant difference in any emergency. The other items can be identified and recovered as needed.
When I add new items I’ll make sure they are documented and located correctly. It’ll make reacting to events that much easier.