Introduction
At this time, Europe is facing the implications of Russia’s war with Ukraine. These implications could include:
- Economic downturn and inflation in the cost of basic goods and services
- Disruption of supply lines of basic products like food, energy, gasoline.
- Hacked utilities resulting in water, electricity and gas supplies being compromised or banks and financial institutions being shuttered.
- Psychological assault via social media.
- Radioactive fallout – if a nuclear power plant were targeted or a nuclear missile were launched.
Depending on the circumstances, you may find yourself needing to either shelter in place (e.g. in your home, workplace, school) or evacuate.
This site has a unit titled “Shelter in Place”. That unit can guide you to prepare your home (or workplace) to shelter in place.
This site also has a unit titled “Evacuation – Travel Bags & Car Kit”. That unit has instructions on how to prepare travel bags in case you need to leave your home and go to a safer location.
How to Use This Site
Considering the world situation, we suggest you go to “Evacuation – Travel Bags & Car Kit” first and equip yourself as well as you can with what you have in your home or can purchase locally within the next several days.
Once your evacuation bags are prepared, then consider going to “Sheltering in Place” and following those directions to secure your home for at least a month.
For translation please use www.deepl.com. If you copy the English text, it will be translated into German.
Planning For a Disaster
It is important to think through your plans for the worst possible scenarios, so you are prepared. This is especially true if you have children, pets, elderly family members. In planning for the possibility of any adverse situations occurring, Here are the questions to think through for yourself, your household and other loved ones.
Sheltering in Place at Home or at Work
- Does my household have enough food and water (or a way to purify water) for at least a month? Do we have a way to boil water and cook basic foods, if we have to shelter in place for an extended time?
- Do we have the medications and personal care items we need for our extended family; elders, disabled, children, pets?
- For those of us going outside the home to work, can we talk to our employer/supervisor about what to do if either sheltering in place or evacuating is needed? What would that look like? Could we shelter in place at our workplace?
- If we needed to shelter in place at home or need to evacuate for an extended time period, would we possibly lose our jobs? Under what circumstances would we be willing to risk that? How can we be in partnership with our employer?
- If we could not work for a month or more, do we have enough cash, credit cards or savings to support ourselves without a monthly income?
Evacuation
- What is the right timing to leave? When would you want to leave? Did you involve your family in your thinking process?
- Do you need to leave your house, your city, your country, or your continent?
- If we needed to leave our home, where would we go? Do we have friends who could shelter us? Did you ask them if you can stay with them?
- Does anyone need to stay behind? What help do they need? Who can support them at home?
- If the location is overseas, what is needed to accomplish that?
- How would we get to our evacuation destination? Car? Public transport? Plane? Motor bike? Bicycle? On foot? What is needed to do that successfully?
- If I own a vehicle, is it well maintained? And if my vehicle uses gasoline, do I have at least a half tank full at all times?
- What are the different routes we could take to our destination? What if one route was blocked with traffic or debris, do you have plan B or C? Are there instructions from the authorities what route to take?
- Who would evacuate with us? If they are not able to walk, how do we transport them? What about children and pets, for example?
- What do you need to pack for your pets (their passports, vaccination certificates, food etc.) If they stay behind, who will take care of them?
- Whom do we need to notify of our plans? Our whereabouts? Our safety? Do we know how to communicate with a different party?
- If we are leaving our house for a longer period or indefinitely, how do we close it down? How will you guarantee the payment of the rent?
- Does everyone in the household have at least a “Go Bag”? And, if appropriate, do they also have a Computer/Business bag and a man’s or woman’s purse or waist pack?
- Are everyone’s important papers up-to-date? Are there copies in the bags we would carry with us?
- Does each of us have our passport in one of our bags? Is our passport still valid? For how long? Do you need to get it extended now?
- Are our cell phones always charged and do we have backup chargers in one of our bags?
Nuclear Fallout
- If radioactive fallout is a concern, do we know how to set up our home to carry us through 2-4 weeks while the fallout loses its toxicity? (See the unit “Nuclear Disaster Preparations” for detailed information about this topic.)
Answering these questions will help you figure out what to do in any situation where you need to decide, “Do I go? Or do I stay?” You may be afraid and you may not want to do this, but if you do prepare in these ways, you will be very glad that you did.
Disclaimer
The Center and presenters of this program are not experts in emergency and disaster preparedness; we have, however, done some homework in “preparedness” and want to share with you some of what we have learned so far. Our goal here is simply to introduce you to this important and timely subject, and inspire you to take the action you feel necessary. You, of course, are ultimately responsible for your own preparation and the well-being of yourselves and your loved ones.
Haftungsausschluss
Das Center of The Golden One und die Moderatoren dieses Programms sind keine Experten auf dem Gebiet der Notfall- und Katastrophenvorsorge. Wir haben jedoch einige Hausaufgaben auf dem Gebiet der Vorsorge gemacht und möchten Euch einige unserer bisherigen Erkenntnisse mitteilen. Unser Ziel ist es, Euch in dieses wichtige und aktuelle Thema einzuführen und dazu zu inspirieren, die Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, die Ihr für notwendig haltet. Natürlich seid Ihr für Eure eigene Vorbereitung und das Wohlergehen von Euch und Euren Angehörigen selbst verantwortlich.