Hurricane disaster kits can be fun, educational and a life long safety skill!
Just wrote this on27 Ruede Fleurus blog and thought it was something that should be posted here as well.
When it is your turn to host the neighborhood kids this summer or as a Father’s Day activity /gift, invite the children to start their own low cost emergency survival kit. See if the parents or local social organizations like the Lion’s Club, Rotary or PTA would help with the expenses and get supplies together so the kids can prepare a disaster kit of their own or at least the start of one. This is a great learning event about hurricane preparation safety and will be a way to occupy part of the time with a fun and helpful service to our children and to their families
They could start to fill out a disaster info sheet and have some coloring book pages included as well as color pencils (not crayons since they can melt easily depending on where they are store). Also ask for a picture of their family with the family names and emergency contact phone number at home as well as a cell phone and address on the back.
To help encourage the children’s parents / guardians to prepare for a disaster, have the kids start to make an emergency preparedness kits for the parents as well. Get copies of my free emergency preparedness checklist (http://hurricane-prepared-ness.blogspot.com/) to include in the kit as a way to help them start their own family / household emergency preparedness kits.
Grab your digital camera also and take a picture of the child up close as well as while they are preparing the disaster kits. This is a good keepsake as well as a very current picture of the child up close and in a social setting that could be available to post should the child ever get separated from the parents in a disaster situation.
During the Hurricane Katrina disaster this sort of separation happened often. Many families did not have a current picture of their missing child available with them and this would have been very helpful. Besides kids love to have their pictures taken and a modest size color photo on even regular printer copy paper is not too expensive.
In the kids disaster kits, maybe include a package of crackers and hard candy single wrapped. A tooth brush and tooth paste, comb and an individually wrapped moist towel for clean-up. Include in the disaster kit a small inexpensive age appropriate toy as well since they can get lost in a disaster sitution. These can be purchased cheaply at the dollar stores. Some of these items may even be donated by the business owner if it is explained what they are for.
Construct each emergency kit in a water safe plastic bag with a zipper lock to prevent the contents of the kits from getting lost or damaged. Teaching our children the importance of emergency preparedness is a import gift we can give them and a life time skill that could possibly save lives in the future!
Dr. Terrie Modesto
Dr. Terrie Modesto, PhD, author of Train For A Hurricane is an international expert in dying, death, loss and critical incident individual and community disaster preparation and response with 20+ year’s experience. She has over 60 courses, books and training manuals to her credit and is available for consulting, lectures and interviews. Blog: http://hurricane-prepared-ness.blogspot.com/
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