Emergency Preparedness

For my church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), we all get different callings or assignments of things to do.  In Korea, I was Sunday School teacher for the basics class of our church for people just joining our religion.  Back in America, I got called to be an emergency preparedness specialist.  You learn new things with each assignment you get and here are some of the things I have been learning so far and links to different sites for preparedness!

1)  Our church has a website called Provident Living that has a lot of tools for becoming more self-reliant:

http://www.providentliving.org/?lang=eng

Summary:  It emphasizes seeking stable employment, developing a supply of food storage for emergencies (72 hour kit, then 3 month supply), and creating and living within a budget with savings for a rainy day.

Tips:  Here are some interesting things I found while looking around the site that might be of use to a poor college student:

a)  There's a set of financial calculators that might give you a basic idea of things like how long it will take to pay off student loans or get out of credit card debt.

http://providentliving.org/self-reliance/finances/financial-calculator?lang=eng

b) There is a guide to starting food storage (a starter kit of canned food items is about $27).  You can find the items that the church storehouse has on the order form.

https://www.lds.org/topics/food-storage?lang=eng

http://providentliving.org/self-reliance/food-storage/home-storage-center-order-form?lang=eng

c)  There are a lot of resources for job hunting and job development at:

https://www.ldsjobs.org/ers/ct/?lang=eng

2)  Here is the government's website

http://www.ready.gov/

Summary:

They suggest having an emergency plan with your family (Where you'll meet up, what you will take for food, having your prescriptions and copies of important documents etc.)  They have a quick checklist for an emergency kit:

http://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/documents/files/checklist_1.pdf

3)  For those with a little bit more cash on hand (and less time to spend) there are websites that will send you freeze dried or packaged long-term foods.  Here are a couple I have heard of:

http://www.thrivelife.com/foodstorage
http://www.wisefoodsupply.com/