How Prepared for Natural Disasters Are You?

Natural disasters can really spring up on you. Even if you think you’re going to be okay you should get prepared. You never know when you and your elderly family member, or someone helping your senior, will have to evacuate in a hurry.

Gather Necessary Items

There are some basic necessary items that everyone in the household is going to need. A few changes of clothing, food, and water are just a few of the things you’ll need. Identification and any medical information are also important. Favorite items and things that can help to pass time, like books or hobby projects that are portable, can help to fill time later.

Determine What Your Senior Needs

Your aging family member may need some very specific extra items. Medications, spare hearing aid batteries, and incontinence aids are just a very few of the items you might want to stock up on and pack. Take a look at what your senior absolutely cannot live without and make sure you pack a bag with those items.

Develop an Evacuation Plan

Your senior’s evacuation plan is likely to have several steps and stages in it. For instance, there may be some situations in which the power goes out and you just need to go to an emergency shelter. Or there may be other situations in which you and your senior need to evacuate much farther away. Start with the smaller situations and work your way up. State and local agencies can help you to develop a full emergency plan, so don’t be afraid to reach out for help. Once you have a plan, it needs to be accessible to elderly care providers and to anyone else who helps your senior.

Know When to Put the Plan in Motion

There’s a lot to keep up with as a caregiver, but you should make it a point to keep up with what’s going on around you. If you live in an area that is prone to flooding or to certain weather conditions, for instance, keep an eye on that news. This is going to help you to be able to decide when you need to put any evacuation plan into motion.

You and your elderly loved one may need to adjust the plan over time. It’s a good idea to set aside time regularly to assess the plan and to determine what needs to change. Don’t forget also that you’ll need to rotate out supplies from your go bags and from any food and water stashes.