Earning my merit badge...

Emergency preparedness
With all that is happening in the world, I am reminded of the “tornado kit” we had when I was young. It was in the basement. Mom and Dad put together cans of food, blankets, first aid kit, flashlight & batteries… under the pool table in the basement.

I carried those preparedness “genes” with me as I got older and out on my own. My grad school friend always referred to is as a “KP plan – and a map”. That makes me smile.

When we moved to Belgium I felt very safe. My ears peaked a bit when the military flights from the Brussels area increased in frequency during the peak of the Bosnian Crisis. I still have no clue where they originated from. Then the Twin Towers. If you’ve ever lived overseas, you know the State Department warnings… change your routine, blend in, and don’t gather with other Americans or westerners. For those of you with children, you can imagine it’s not exactly stealth mode when you go to the market and your 4 year old absolutely insists on wearing his superman cape and yellow rain boots. Not exactly blending in. Even without the costume, even in Belgium, the little tyke still was loud enough to be noticed. (he was loud in English, not French!). But still, I had an evacuation backpack packed with a map, first aid kit, some snacks, copies of passports & other key pieces of paper… ready in the garage. No, I wouldn’t call myself paranoid, just prepared.

When the Joey was in scouts years later, he did the “Emergency Preparedness” merit badge. He had to plan for an emergency kit to sustain our whole family for 3 days - now we were up to 6 people in the family. He purchased a case of MREs, few jugs of water (that’s a lot of water actually, for 6 people), packed a duffle. It took up a whole shelf in the garage.

Ironically, when we moved to India, the packers said “no food” but funny, that MRE case was in the shipment. Our evacuation pack was a little more important to me there. I had traded some collapsible water containers and water treatment tabs for jugs of water. Not that we felt threatened or in danger, just cautious. Friends laughed when I told them it was upstairs. We lived ON THE BEACH. I was a bit worried about tsunamis. After all, there was a white line on the wall of the lot behind ours marking where the tsunami had peaked in 2004. I found a group you could subscribe to receive text message alerts with warnings, we receive warnings from all over the world. (I think it was www.cwarn.org )

Hubby’s text message alert is a ping – like the “one ping only” of a submarine. Very distinctive sound at 2 AM!!! Last night, I heard the ping. Saw Japan. Felt ok – not toward India, not toward Texas, prayed for friends on the fringe –in Taiwan and California.

Now I sit – watching the news, Japan, pacific, California… then friend in Africa with threats of kidnapping Americans. My emergency kits need to be revamped (it’s about time for Jamie to do that merit badge). It’s on the to-do list!!

Then I’ll hear hubby’s blackberry ping in the middle of the night. I'll worry a bit and pray and let God take it –I know where my emergency pack is!