Are you ready?
It’s no secret that the storm season is well and truly upon us here in Queensland. The familiar morning weather report telling us that there is a chance of storm, hail, flooding, damaging winds, is something that we are all very used to. But are you prepared for what this really means to you?
Each year storms and cyclones are a part of living in the Sunshine State (beautiful one day, perfect the next they say), but few of us are actually prepared for what that means if the worst should happen.
Ergon Energy have released a really handy Storm Kit Checklist that will prepare your family for an emergency. Some of the items include:
Essential supplies – remember, power could be cut for several days so you need to be prepared:
- Battery operated radio – it’s essential for keeping updated about cyclone warnings and other essential information such as relief efforts.
- Battery operated torch
- Spare batteries
- Mobile phone – use your mobile phone only in emergencies to prolong battery life and to assist with congestion on phone networks. Remember cordless phones do not work without power.
- Portable mobile charger
- First aid kit and knowing how to use it can save lives
- Can opener
- Tinned and other non-perishable food
- Fresh drinking water
- Essential medications
Other important items:
- Copies of important documents eg. insurance details, birth certificates, prescription refills in sealable plastic bags
- Waterproof matches
- Self -contained cooking facilities including gas cylinders or coals & firelighters
- Fuel or gas lamp
- Filled water containers
- Supplies for infants including formula, baby food, nappies and wipes if required
- Special food for elderly or disabled members of the family if required
- Warm dry clothing and shoes
- Toiletries including toilet paper, toothpaste, soap, sun screen and insect repellent
- Food and medications for your pets and newspapers for their sanitary needs.
For myself, living overseas for over a year, another super important thing that we always had in our emergency packs were a list of contact phone numbers (local police, family contacts etc) which we had laminated. We are so dependent now on our mobile phones to give us that information, if you find yourself without power or signal, you will still need to be able to reach people using these numbers.
While we cannot claim to know it all when it comes to storm preparations (we leave that up to the experts), we do know a lot about first aid kits and the importance of having a well-stocked first aid kit at this time of year (and all throughout the year!)
We spoke to our Supply Chain Manager (and man in the first aid kit know!), Darryl Stewart about what we need to include in our storm preparation first aid kit. Darryl was only too happy to suggest that our Active Outdoor Kit is ideal for storm season as it contains the following:
- Small Ice Pack
- Various bandages
- Saline and swabs for cleaning wounds
- Wound dressings
- Scissors
- Biohazard bag for disposing of wound dressing items
- Antiseptic cream
- Resus mask
- Torch with batteries
- Thermal / shock blanket
Some really good information we found about storm preparation came from:
