Is Your Emergency Kit Complete? Week 12 is Here!

Well, it looks like the last segment of Emergency Preparedness Shopping Tips is upon us. I’m sure that these past 12-ish weeks have been nothing short of awe-inspiring, mind-expanding and full of untold glory. I know they have been for me. Perhaps, that’s a slight stretch, but if nothing else, I hope I have at least brought about some awareness of the importance of keeping a well-stocked disaster supply kit on hand.

Even if you are just a little better prepared than you were before, I feel like I’ve done my job. So, what do you need this week to round out your emergency kit? How about some games or books to pass the time and keep the kiddies entertained? What better time to finish that classic tome you started in college and swore you’d finish? You can trust that the only time I’d ever delve into some Thoreau or Faulkner again would be in a desperate emergency. Just think, if you had to shelter in place in your house for a week, you could finish all those classics and begin conversations with “Well, Tolstoy always said…” or “Don’t you find Hemingway’s stories rife with psychological manipulation and hedonism in post World War I America?” Then you can laugh pompously and adjust your monocle.

But I digress; also make sure you have local road maps in case you have to come up with a secondary exit strategy from your current location. Also, toss in some cash. You remember cash, it's the green paper stuff that used to live in your wallet before debit cards were around. I am terrible about carrying cash, but in the last 6 months I made a conscious effort to stash $100 away in case there is an extended power outage and my ATM card doesn't work.

Lastly….the crème de la crème of emergency supplies….the item so versatile that it can be used for makeshift first aid supplies, repairs, restraints, the list goes on and on….you know what I’m talking about…DUCT TAPE! It is useful in so many capacities that there are entire websites devoted to counting its virtues. And never forget, in the words of some guy named Carl, “Duct tape is like the force. It has a dark side and light side and it holds the universe together.” True that, Carl, true that.