Disaster Preparation For Your Elderly Parents/Grandparents

Disaster preparation is vital, and blissfully simple. As this hurricane heads to NY, residents have probably given some thought to their parents, grandparents and elderly neighbors. This is commendable, and if the storm hits as hard as some are predicting it will be your responsibly to step up and become a first responder. Emergency personnel could be swamped with other calls and cut off from you in the short term. With your neighbors it is not complicated. You make sure to stockpile a few extra perversion and if the power goes out you can walk across the street to make sure they have enough food and water. If you have enough space, you can even collect them bringing them back to your place if they should not be alone. With your parents this is not enough.

Let me repeat that; when it comes to making sure your parents and grandparents are ok after we get hit, it is insufficient to just have extra supplies for them with you. The five minute drive to your folks place on a good day could easily turn into a nightmarish drive that could get you stranded. With winds as high as projected the large fallen branches could be the least of your concerns with whole trees blocking the road. Depending on how rural your area is and how bad the storm gets, you could easily not have clear path to their house. Even if you do, how would you go about finding it; randomly driving around in the back roads hoping for the best? A five minute drive is a lot longer of a walk then you would think even on sunny day. If you find the gallon container of water heavy bringing it from your car to your house, imagine needing to measure how far you have to carry it in terms of miles instead of feet.

You need to call them right now. Ask if they have enough provisions for a few day. Ask them what they have, and if you do not think it will be enough bring to them what you bought with them in mind to them before the storm hits. If you can convince them, it may be better to bring your folks back to your house so you can keep an eye on them. Be sure to bring their medications with you back to your house, enough medicine for at least a week just to be overly cautious.

If you still have not prepared for the coming storm you are running preciously low on time. Even if you think it will all blow over, what is the harm of being ready. It is much worse to have the supplies and not need them then to need the supplies and not have them.

One final note; be sure to 'gear up' before the storm hits. That means putting a small flashlight in your pocket or clipping it to your belt along side a multitool, and putting your emergency gear (radio, bigger flashlight...) in a central easy to access location. Knowing you have a radio and flashlights 'somewhere' or even 'the closet in the...' is not the same as actually possessing it. It is much easier to dig through a closet with your lights on then after the power goes out.