Emergency Preparedness Phase One - The Foundation

Santosha12 · January 7

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1093959#Comment_1093959

I was interested reading your thoughts Steve. Have been mulling it over for weeks. I have two 'emergency' dog sitters, both of whom have recently agreed to come in the night if I needed to get the dogs anywhere. One has a licence to board 4 dogs. I also have the number for dog boarding kennels who I know well/used to use regularly. They'd said they'd help in an emergency. Not sure they'd answer the 'phone in the night but I'd keep ringing if needed. Also waiting for two others to come back to me too.

It all feels more vulnerable with pets, I feel I need more 'back up' plans in place.

StarryEyed · January 7

Hi Chris and thanks for your help.

Hi Steve. Wow, what dreadful experience you have. Quite the resume!

Santosha, transportation is totally on topic. I don't have a car. So on my contacts list I have put in brackets my friends & family with keys and friends & family with a car. Yes, emergency preparedness is a very overwhelming challenge. Especially for those of us with physical and mental disabilities. That is why I have broken up the challenge into smaller bites. That is how I approach everything in life when the challenge is too big all at once. The reaction to not plan at all can be a perfectly natural response as well, as it can be the 'freeze' response within the fight-flight-freeze response.

StarryEyed · January 11

@Santosha12 good luck with your car appointment tomorrow!! ✨🤞🏼✨

StarryEyed · January 22

Happily, I can report that I've been successful in drumming up support from friends and family on this project. We had terrible red alert floods from Storm Francis on December 27 and January 4, so that has put more people on alert as to the importance of preparing for emergencies. I'll be doing another presentation to friends in about 4 to 6 weeks, which will be from Phase 2. I'm not sure yet what the presentation will be.

There are two things I'm doing drills for in this phase - emergency lighting and living without water. I've done a three-day drill of emergency lighting and by the end I was totally adapted to it, with the added bonus of feeling grateful for having electricity, having lighting, having vision and having the mental ability to adapt to a new situation. All I did was put masking tape on all switches and used the emergency lights posted here. By the end of the three days, it was actually almost fun!

So now it's on to Phase 2, and I'm well on my way already. I'll start a new thread for that shortly, and post a link in this thread.

I hope you come back here for more. 😊