Emergency Preparedness and Home Safety: A Guide to Protecting Your Loved Ones

The world is safer today than it has ever been before. Federal data shows that violent crime has fallen by 49% since 1990 and that there is 59% less property crime today than there was 30 years ago. Data gathered by our World in Data also shows a steady decline in conflict-related casualties since WWII.

Guest post by Katie Brenneman

However, the general trend towards a more peaceful, prosperous world doesn’t mean you can overlook your responsibilities to your loved ones. If you’re a homeowner, you must take proactive steps to prepare for an emergency before a disaster occurs. This will help you respond rationally in a crisis and keep your loved ones safe when the path is uncertain.

Properly preparing for emergencies is particularly important today. Global warming means that the risk of natural disasters like wildfires or severe hurricanes has been heightened and that millions of people now face real danger due to storms and heat waves. Preparing for these eventualities will help you make the right call in the heat of the moment and keep your family safe.

Climate Resilient Weather Proofing

Without international cooperation, the world will continue to warm. Climate change presents a serious threat to everyone’s health and wellness, as severe weather is sure to follow rises in temperature. This sentiment is echoed by data collected by NASA Science, which predicts:

Hurricanes will become stronger and more intense;
Droughts will become more common and last longer;
The wildfire season will last longer;
Uneven precipitation rates will increase the risk of flooding;
Rising sea levels will threaten coastal regions.

While we should all do our bit to lead more sustainable lives, the reality is that you will create an appropriate climate-related natural disaster response plan. This can feel daunting at first, but it is all part of protecting your loved ones in the age of climate change.

Get started by properly weatherproofing your home. There’s little you can do in the face of a disaster like a hurricane, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t waterproof your house and garage. Use sealant like caulking to close up any gaps in the floor/foundation of your building, and apply a weather strip to your doors and windows.

You can also take proactive steps to protect your home against wildfires. If you live where wildfires are likely, create a “no burn” zone around your house that extends at least 15 feet in all directions. You’ll want to trim overhanging trees and should cut grass low during fire season. Switch your roofing to a compositional shingle and screen any openings to prevent the fire from spreading inside your home.

First Aid Response Plan

If disaster does strike, you need a first-aid response plan that works. You can’t waste time searching for the tourniquet when someone has an open wound and should know where items like asthma inhalers and bandages are at all times. Get the ball rolling and make a first aid kit that includes the following:

Bandages, tape, and gauze;
Antibiotic ointments;
Aspirin;
Fire blankets;
Breathing barrier for CPR;
Thermometer.

You’ll likely need to customize your first aid kit based on the needs of your loved ones. For example, if you have a child with asthma, your first aid kit will need to assemble a kit with spacers and adrenaline injectors. You should also include written information to ensure that anyone who opens the first-aid kit knows how to use it.

As a responsible adult, you should seek regular first-aid training. This is particularly important if you live in a rural area where lengthy response times mean that you’ll need to double up as a first responder in an emergency. Regularly re-upping your skills can help you stay calm in an emergency and ensure that you take the proper measures if one of your loved ones falls ill.

You should also take a few proactive steps to improve your public safety and awareness. Practice defensive driving when your loved ones are in the car, and consider signing up for some BJJ, MMA, or Muay Thai classes to enhance your self-defense skills.

Creating a Health-Boosting Home

The family home should be a safe space where everyone feels secure and cared for. However, many homes contain harsh chemicals and hazards that can seriously jeopardize the well-being of your loved ones. If you do keep harsh chemicals in the house, ensure that they are secured in a locked cabinet far out of the reach of young children.

The best way to reduce the risk of poisoning or chemical exposure is to eliminate harsh chemicals from your home altogether. For example, if you’re an avid gardener, use safe alternatives to herbicides. Remove weeds naturally with a trowel, mix acidic herbicides from vinegar, and mulch your empty beds during the winter to suffocate new weeds. This approach is more sustainable and reduces the risk of harm coming to your loved ones.

You can clean up the air quality in your home by growing indoor plants. Indoor plants purify the air and are proven to reduce stress for folks in your home. Common houseplants like snake plants and spider plants are relatively cheap and will survive well in rooms with low light. They are perfect for rooms like home offices or bedrooms where folks spend plenty of time.

Crime Prevention

Violent crime and burglary have been steadily falling in recent years. However, that doesn’t mean you should overlook the risk of a crime occurring in your neighborhood. A few proactive steps can significantly diminish the risk of a break-in and ensure your loved ones are safe while relaxing and reconnecting in your house.

Install a few visual crime deterrents like alarms and surveillance cameras. These needn’t be bulky fixtures that undermine your home’s design, either. Many modern doorbells now feature cameras that will record all comings and goings. You should also install automatic lights that will come on at night to further deter would-be burglars.

If you’re a parent, you’ll want to strike a healthy balance between instilling safe habits and causing your child undue stress or anxiety. To do this, you can involve them in completing a checklist for securing your home whenever you leave the house. Ask your kids to:

Close and lock their bedroom windows;
Double lock doors;
Secure valuable items like laptops away from windows;
Check gates are closed;
Draw the curtains and turn a light on.

These steps deter burglars and ensure you can leave your house with peace of mind. It’ll form strong safety habits in your children, too. This will serve them well in the years to come when they will need to create an emergency preparedness and safety plan for their own home.

Protecting your loved ones from every eventuality is impossible. However, as a responsible adult, you should take a few proactive steps to guard against common accidents, illnesses, and threats. Get started by properly securing your house with weather strips, window locks, and caulking. Clear a 15 ft radius around your home to reduce the risk of a wildfire consuming your house, and install security cameras to deter criminals. When you leave the house, ensure your valuables are kept away from windows and secure harmful chemicals in locked, hard-to-reach cabinets.