... Fill your bathtub(s) with water.
... Fill empty containers with water and set them aside: Milk jugs, soda bottles, jars, buckets, coolers, etc.
... Buy water storage bags and fill them
Make sure you have a home water filter that doesn't need water pressure to operate: A gravity filter or hand-pumped filter is best. I like the Katadyn brand for portable water filters.
Is your immune system ready?
If you think about the stresses put on you by a disaster scenario, many of them impact your health:
... Sleep deprivation
... Adrenal gland depletion
... Stress-induced nutrient depletion
... Stress from cold temperatures
... Possible spread of infectious disease
... Anxiety
All of these can be prevented, in part, with immune-boosting nutrition. So this is a time when you really want to boost your intake of superfoods, immune-boosting herbs and nutritional supplements. You want to make sure your body is ready for the stresses and uncertainties it will soon be experiencing.
Remember: Good nutrition will also help you think better, because food affects your brain function. The cleaner your diet, the clearer your thoughts, and the better decisions you'll make in a crisis.
Staying physically safe
Do you have a fire extinguisher? Fire trucks won't be able to get to your house during a storm, and indoor fires can rage out of control for hours or days before help arrives. So make sure you have at least one fully-charged fire extinguisher at the ready.
What about physical safety? Do you have a way to defend yourself and your family in case looters start going door to door, demanding money, jewelry and anything else they want? Remember, if the power grid goes down, all the street lights will be off, too, plunging your city and neighborhood into darkness. Criminals love darkness. In their minds, that's time to "loot and pillage."
Massachusetts is very much an anti-gun state, meaning only the citizens are disarmed, but not the criminals. When the police are too busy responding to other emergencies, the green light is on for armed criminals to go door to door, robbing (disarmed) citizens at gunpoint. This doesn't fly in Texas, where the average looter is met with a 12-gauge shotgun shoved in his face; but in Boston, it's a free-for-all for the criminals.
Even if you don't own a gun (or can't legally own one), you can still have bear pepper spray -- a large-sized canister of pressurized pepper spray which will strongly dissuade bad guys from hanging around and bothering you. (Check your local laws, please.)
Forget about calling 911. Virtually all emergency services will be tied up dealing with other emergencies. Just because YOU have an emergency doesn't mean it's THEIR emergency. By law, fire, police and ambulance services are under no legal obligation whatsoever to respond to your call. Think about that as you plan for preparedness.
For me personally, I don't call 911 and wait to die. Instead, I call on Mr. Benelli. If you don't know what "Mr. Benelli" means, here's a picture that explains why Mr. Benelli instantly stops all looters.
Hurricane Sandy "monster storm" survival checklist by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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