Emergency Kits for Your Home and When You’re On the Go

Karen Kage — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:11:22 +0000

Living in Japan makes you think about when the next Big Earthquake is going to hit. I started to research online on what we need to be prepared and decided to make my own emergency kit. Here’s what I came up with.

Emergency Kit For When You’re On the Go
First Aid Kit: AMA first aid book, tweezers, safety pins, thermometer, sterile vinyl gloves, instant cold compress, adhesive tape roll, cotton-tipped applicators, butterfly wound closure, finger splint, various sized bandages and gauze pads, burn relief gel packs, antiseptic cleansing pads, alcohol pads, antibiotic ointment, pain relievers such as aspirin or ibuprofen, petroleum or other lubricant, anti-diarrhea medicine, laxative, antacid, eyewash solution
Large Flashlight: LED and waterproof
Small Flashlight
Waterproof matches: matches in a waterproof container will do too
Glowsticks
Rain ponchos
Multi-tool: Make sure it has a can opener, knife, and Phillips and flat-head screwdriver.
Mylar space blankets: Good for both keeping warm and reflecting the sun.
Duct Tape: Good for…well….anything and everything!
Zip ties: Useful for a lot of different things including making splints, compression bandages, or tourniquets.
Garbage bags and ties: for personal sanitation
Dusk masks: N95 face masks
Water purification tablets
Work Gloves: Leather or Kevlar
Nylon cord: at least 50 feet
Tube tent
Paper and pencil
Scissors
Whistle: to signal for help
Hand crank radio: picks up TV and NOAA bands, cell phone charger, alert siren and lights
Extra batteries
Cups, plates, and utensils: I chose melamine cups because they are strong but don’t weigh much, paper plates, and plastic utensils
High calorie food bars: Like Daytrex, MayDay, and MainStay food bars, 3600 calories per person. I thought about putting MREs in my kit, but they’re too bulky and heavy.
Change of clothing: long sleeved shirt, long pants, underwear, socks, and sturdy comfortable shoes. In cold climate bring extra layers, jackets, hats, and gloves.
Personal hygiene items: Moist towelettes, toilet paper, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation, anti-bacterial gel, anti-bacterial soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, comb
Playing Cards or books: you may need some entertainment so you won’t drive yourself crazy
Cash: $500 in small bills and coins. ATMS and credit card readers won’t work when the power is out
Important Documents: Copy of your birth certificates, marriage certificates, wills, home insurance policy, medical insurance card, passport, driver’s license, social security cards, bank records, phone numbers to utility companies, immunization records, personal contacts, inventory of valuable items
Local maps
Compass
Spare keys
Survival guide
Water: They say you should keep one gallon of water per person per day (suggests 3 days worth) for drinking and sanitation stored in your house. I’m not sure how much you should have on you if you have to leave your home, but I would carry as much water as I could with me.

Other supplies you may need depending on your situation: feminine supplies, contact lens supplies, glasses, sunscreen, bug spray, infant formula, diapers, hearing aid, prescription medications, pet food, leash, bowls, pet immunization records, pet medication

Tips:

Copy your family photos to a DVD or thumb drive and keep it with your kit. If you have to evacuate the area, you probably won’t be able to bring all of them with you but at least you’ll have a copy to print out later.
Put your clothes into a large sealed plastic bag and use a vacuum cleaner to take the air out to make it more compact
Put your whistle and small flashlight on a lanyard so you have easy access to them
Store everything in plastic zip bags to protect them from water

Emergency Kit For Home
In addition to what you have for your “To Go” kit, you should have the following:

Fire extinguisher
Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
Crowbar
Hammer
Heavy duty aluminum foil
Staple gun
3 day supply of food, canned and dried foods or MREs
Plastic sheeting
Sleeping bag or warm blankets for each person
Unscented household chlorine bleach and medicine dropper: When diluted nine parts water to one part bleach, bleach can be used as a disinfectant. It could also be used to treat water by using 16 drops of regular household liquid bleach per gallon of water.
Tea bags: makes bleached treated water taste better
Tent
Long lasting candles
What You Need By Your Bedside
Flashlight
Crowbar
Slip on shoes or slippers with hard soles: In case an event happens when you are sleeping and there is broken glass or other dangerous debris on the floor

To Get More Detailed Information
FEMA website: http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/
Equipped to Survive: http://www.equipped.org/earthqk.htm

My Favorite iGoogle Gadgets

Karen Kage — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:39:58 +0000

iGoogle is a personalized home page for Google. You can add gadgets to personalize the content you want to see. and I can access them from anywhere I have an Internet connection.

Here’s my setup and my favorite gadgets:

Theme
I’m using the Studio Ghibli theme. I love Miyazaki, Hayao films! This theme changes throughout the day and displays many of my favorite characters. Shown below is Naushika from Kaze No Tani No Naushika (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind). They have many other great themes to choose from to spice up the look of your iGoogle setup.
I organize all of my gadgets by creating tabs for each of these categories: Home, Lists, Personal, and Business.

Home Tab
My home tab is the first thing I see when I open Google. I use it to display items that I use most often. I like to get a quick look at this first thing in the morning. I can see what is happening in the news and the stock market without a lot of clicking around. I can also check for new emails and see if I have any appointments that day.

Lists Tab
My lists tab is used to help me keep track of any short term tasks I need to take care of. I use the To-Do List gadget shown below.

You can drag and drop the tasks to reorder them as well as assign low (3), medium (2), and high (1) priorities. I also like that you can print from this list. There is also a Google Maps feature, but I haven’t had the need for it yet.

Personal and Business Tabs
My personal and business tabs are used to keep track of all my random notes. I use the Google Bookmarks gadget on these tabs to keep track of any websites I want to check out later. You can assign categories to your links and set the gadget to only show one of your categories for each tab. For example I saved the following bookmarks to my “Personal” category and selected it from the drop down box to only show those links on the Personal tab.

I am also using the Sticky Note gadget. It works like post-its! I like this tool a lot because I can quickly jot my thoughts down like a paper post-it, but it’s a lot more organized. My notes are categorized by whichever tab they belong to.
On the personal tab, I keep notes about things like when my magazine subscriptions are ending and how many frequent flyer miles I have. On my business tab I keep notes about business ideas and articles I plan to write in the future for my blogs.

Here is another similar tool called the Web Stickies Mod v3.1 gadget. I used to use this one instead of the Google version because I liked how you could place them anywhere and they overlap. It broke when I upgraded to Firefox 3 though and I’m not sure if it was ever fixed. I guess that is one of the risks you take when you don’t use one of the gadgets by Google.

Gadgets List
Here are the links to all my favorite gadgets.

Although these tools are really great, they can sometimes break. I usually only add gadgets that have good ratings by the users or created by Google. Also make sure you check out the iGoogle backup and restore features. This has saved me a few times.

I’m curious to know what your favorite gadgets are and how you use them. If you’re new to iGoogle, give it a try!

How to set up iGoogle: http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=25551

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Emergency Kits for Your Home and When You’re On the Go

My Favorite iGoogle Gadgets