Preparedness and Self-reliance: Stock-up on Supplies

Almost all people residing in Manila experienced the wrath of typhoon Ondoy in September of 2009. Me and my family was only affected although not in a major way like other people especially those living in low lying areas like Marikina and those people who were stranded in their offices, malls and some on the streets. We were lucky to not experience floodwater coming into our house, which is a one-storey apartment. Just imagine if it did, we might have been also forced to evacuate or stay on the roof!

Though it was only a day of rain, it was estimated that the amount of water poured all over Manila was equivalent to the amount of rain we get in a month. Imagine if the same kind of typhoon and effects were to happen again, but, will continue for 3 days. What do you think will happen to Metro Manila and other areas of the country that will be affected?

Are you, your family, neighbors and community ready to respond if this happened today? And there was silence in the crowd. I'm sure, 99% will respond with a big NO. Why is this so? Well, based on my observation, and I know you will agree, most of us Filipinos are happy go lucky people in general. We don't really care what will happen tomorrow. We mostly care about our school, work, business, our ka-chikahan, ka-chismisan, ka-tong its, our classmates, schoolmates, the daily noon-time shows, soap operas, and the bad news that we get on TV, friends, barkada, gimicks, tambay that we really don't plan ahead on being prepared for emergencies and disasters. That we rely on the government, NGO's and private entities and corporations to help us. That's why when Ondoy hit, we were caught by surprise and a lot of us did not have preparation. Not even the government during that time had any real preparation.

One purpose of this blog is to convince people to be prepared and self-reliant, especially during the first 24-72 hours of any emergency, calamity, disaster or mass catastrophe. The time when government agencies, local government units and other organizations are scrambling all manpower, equipment and resources to evacuate, help and rescue that most affected places in Metro Manila.

The best shelter is always your home, but if you don't have the basic necessities to survive and if you are not able to get them and help not being able to get to you immediately, your home could also become a deathtrap. 

For a detailed list recommended by the Philippine National Red Cross, check my other entries or go to www.redcross.com.ph but here are the basics that you should have for a family consisting of 3-5 persons.

1. Food and Water - these are the most important items that you should have. Crackers, biscuits, canned goods, rice grains. Also keep about a gallon or two of purified bottled water for drinking, there are times especially during floods that the water from the faucet becomes contaminated.

2. Lighting, Illumination and Communications - during natural disasters, the local electrical company shuts down power to affected areas so as to limit accidents from electricity so you need to have a source of light in your home during the night. Have, at the least, 2 flashlights in the house. I would recommend buying flashlights that uses AA batteries which are much cheaper. Also a must is an AM/FM handheld radio that uses 2-AA batteries to be able to listen to news and updates. Keep a handful of extra batteries for the flashlight and radio in the event that you would need to use them longer. Make sure that you use the same kind and size of batteries for all these gadgets so you won't get confused. And if possible, always have an extra battery for your cellphone fully charged and not used accompanied by at least 100php call card for your network.

3. Medical Kit - this is also very important to have, even if there is no disaster. You can buy a small one from the local Mercury Drugstore or Watson's or better yet, you can build your own med kit. Please refer to my 72 hour emergency kit or www.redcross.com.ph.

These are the basic items that you should start with if you want to prepare. You can always include things that your family specifically need and you can add more. It would always depend on your budget and how prepared you would want to be. Preparedness and self-reliance is a mindset that everybody should have if you want to survive a disaster. And you need to start now, now that there is no chaos in the streets, now that there is no panic buying yet, now that the prices are normal. But of course you don't need to have them all now. Start little by little, like I said from the other blog, and soon you'll have all that you would need in case of any natural disaster or emergency.

Always remember that some preparation is always better than none at all.