Lessons from the 2017 San Jose Flooding
If the San Jose floods have taught us anything, it is that Mother Nature can, and will, strike without any warning. Quite often, she won’t show any signs of her impending danger and this really is where the problem lies for many families.
As the old saying goes: ‘Fail to prepare; prepare to fail.’ Even with planning, the unexpected can happen. Just ask San Jose’s city officials. An oversight on their part about the capacity of Coyote Creek led to the ‘sudden’ overflow in the first place.
For many, therefore, the flooding came with no warning. No sirens. No emergency warning systems. Indeed, the first they were aware of the danger was when firefighters arrived at their doors by boats to evacuate them. With such little warning, many of the estimated 50,000 evacuees were left with little to no time to gather even the most basic necessities, let alone any irreplaceable or priceless possessions.
Evacuations are much more common than most people would believe, with fires and floods being the main cause. It is up to you and your family then, to be prepared for any and every eventuality.
An Emergency Preparedness Kit and a corresponding Emergency Plan is something every family should have and everyone should be familiar with. You hope you will never have to use it, of course, but, should you have to, you will be eternally grateful that you had the foresight to prepare in advance.
There are a number of items that an emergency kit should contain, from the obvious to the not-so-obvious, though these are no less important. Each kit should be tailor-made to each family’s needs but the essentials stay the same for everyone: emergency food and water are arguably the most important contents; first aid supplies come a close second, whilst emergency contact information and important documents (passports, insurance details, prescriptions, and the like) could also prove to be invaluable in a crisis.
In addition to these well-known essentials, there are a number of items that often go overlooked. Cash or even traveler’s checks should be pre-arranged to provide funds for several days of living expenses. A credit card is an option too but should be exactly that: another option. In the case of a flood, a water-damaged credit card is going to be of no use to you.
Clothes, too, are an important omission from many emergency kits. Whilst, the kit should be as compact and easy to carry as possible, the addition of a few extra items of clothing far outweighs the need to save on weight.
Perhaps the most important item is your memories, in the form of photo negatives. Even if your prints are damaged or destroyed, the option to reprint them from negatives is sure to put a smile on your family’s faces even in a time of such despair and desperation.
The composition of a comprehensive, ready-to-go preparedness kit can be somewhat time consuming and, unfortunately, this will often lead to families putting it off over and over again until it is simply too late. Thankfully, the team at FirstMyFamily.com have handily combatted this potentially deadly problem by assembling a range of Emergency Preparedness Kits, each compiled by emergency and disaster preparedness professionals.
Along with one-person and two-person Deluxe Disaster Preparedness Survival Kits, a four-person Premium Disaster Preparedness Survival Kit is also available, providing 72 hours worth of survival and first aid supplies.
When combined with your own personal documents; emergency contact details; and clothes, the First My Family survival kit is the perfect all-in-one, ‘Grab-N-Go’ solution for your family's emergency preparedness needs.
Stay safe, we're here to help.
Susie Plascencia
Author