Beans & Legumes72-Hour Challenge
A disaster can strike at any moment little warning. If you aren’t already prepared, disaster can turn into a tragedy. So when an emergency does happen, how will you and your family cope with it? Do you have a plan for storms? What about earthquakes, or flooding?
Anything from a community notice about dirty water up to a full out disaster where you have no power, no water, and minimal contact with the outside world for days or even weeks at a time could happen. So the question for you today is, How Ready Are You? Today I want to challenge you to test your emergency preparedness skills in our 72-Hour Challenge. All you have to do for this challenge is turn off all your power, water, and gas in your home to simulate that some kind of disaster has happened; then, all you have to do is try to perform normal daily activities. Although it’s fairly simple to start, when you start trying to do things like wash dishes, prepare food and even get ready for bed, that’s when things get challenging.
There’s also another catch: once you start the challenge, you’re not allowed to travel anywhere to gather supplies. With the emergency supplies that you have set aside, see how you and your family cope with the situation. Before you do this, of course, you’ll have to sit down and talk with your family about what you’re going to be doing and why. This step is important both because it will be better if you get everyone in the household to participate, and because the more you and your family communicate about disaster and emergency preparedness, the safe everyone will be. Many parents I’ve talked to have expressed an unwillingness to do this because they say they are uncertain about the impact it could have on their children; however, with all the earthquake, fire, and other emergency drills they do at school, kids will probably be excited to take those skills and help others!
One option for the 72-hour drill is to act as though someone in your family was hurt or injured due to the disaster. Depending on your kids’ ages, you may have to warn them in advance, but the more surprised they are, the more realistic the emergency challenge will be. This is a great opportunity to get everyone working together–not to mention a way to teach your kids vital first aid training. Another benefit that comes from doing the 72-Hour Challenge is the opportunity to make sure you understand the preparation and the supplies that are needed to turn your dehydrated or freeze-dried food into food that you and your family can enjoy.
When my family and I tried this test a few weeks ago, we noticed that having “comfort” food around is a big help. It’s always best to eat as normally as possible, and imitating normal behavior helps release the stress and tension that always accompanies a disaster. This 72-Hour Challenge is a great way to make sure that you are prepared with supplies and tools like flashlights, radios, and anything else you may need, as well as ensuring that when a real emergency does happen, you’ll know exactly what to cook to keep everyone calm and healthy.
So, try it out! Do the 72-Hour Challenge (or if that’s too inconvenient, I’d recommend trying to go at least 24 hourse). When you’re done with your challenge or if you’ve already done something similar, we would love to hear about your experience! Please comment on the blog bellow and give everyone some input on how you handled the situation.
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Didn’t do the 72 hr challenge but recently went without water for 36 hrs due to a broken water main. Amazing how much h2o we went thru in that time period for 2 adults and 2 small children, 1 dog, and 1 cat. We thought we had a lot of water in storage (220 gal) but it was shocking how much we used for cooking, cleaning, and sanitation. In a real emergency, when there is a question of when water will be turned back on, stringent rationing will be required. Scary. Last summer we had a power outage that lasted over 24 hrs.. Luckily we had lots of batteries for lanterns, etc., and were able to cook with gas. The worse thing was living w/o AC when the temps are over 100 degrees but we did that fairly easily. Being prepared has made me breathe a little easier but I know I have a long way to go.
July 26th, 2010 at 5:33 amI found quite a few typos in the article (at least 4). It doesn’t matter to me, but I know some people that might not take the article seriously due to the errors. Good idea and information though!!!
July 26th, 2010 at 10:46 amWe have a generator (both on our home & our 5th wheel) & a working water well in addition to the community water which normally supplies our home. We have lived on solely generator power for over a week, once in the winter & once in the summer. We lived on the well water for years. Should these things be used when we do our test run?
July 26th, 2010 at 11:33 amWe lived through an ice storm years ago and went without power for a total of 9 days (over a 2-week period). We learned a lot about emergency preparedness during this situation. As temperatures outside were freezing, we were glad to have a wood-buring fireplace for warmth. We have a well for our water but quickly discovered that the pump runs on electricity. Once the holding tank was empty, we had no water. We cooked on a camp stove on an outside deck and also heated water for dishes and bathing. Because of the cold weather and snow outside, we were able to pack all the food from our refrigerator and freezer into coolers and pack them outside in the snow. We now have a generator that will run the refrigerator and freezer and (alternately) the heat system. Even though it was a tough experience, the ice storm taught us a lot and made us feel more confident about our abilities to get through a natural disaster. I think the 72-hour challenge is a great idea for anyone who hasn’t had this experience!
July 26th, 2010 at 2:02 pmWith temps now running near 100 degrees, we might wait a while before we try the 72-hour challenge, but we are thinking about doing it maybe this fall with more temperate weather. We also experienced a power outage for over a week in January-February 2009 from a major ice storm. No power, except for generators, that ran our refrigerator and freezer, and powered our central heat for short times to warm up. That REALLY sold me on making emergency preparations, with thanks to The Ready Store. Thankfully, we had continuous water from the county water system, and had LP gas to supply our gas hot-water heaters. (We had all of our grandchildren over for bath time!) But we live in the New Madrid fault zone, and we realize that those luxuries would also be gone in a large quake, and travel would be severly limited if road and bridges were out. Also, during the ice storm of “09, gas stations that were able to get power restored quickly ran out of gas, as this storm affected several states. Cash only business, as ATMs and credit card networks were also down during that week.
July 26th, 2010 at 4:52 pmAlso, remember if you have an automatic garage door; know how to release and lock it with out power.
July 30th, 2010 at 11:48 pmI took a real time 2 week test , I live in KY and we had a ice storm in 2008 in winter time . It took all power lines down in the western part of KY then the phones when then the cable TV the the water when out about 3 day later when the water storage tanks when dry in the city. We live in a city of 3000 + people and was the only house with power as I had a honda gas 3000 watt generator and I had it ready to go it lasted about 10 hours with 4 gal of gas, but we then had to start draining gas from the cars we had that lasted about 3 day with around 20 gal we got. But keep this in mind we couldn’t get money from ATM machines as all systems when down for 2 weeks but we did have cash onhand around 1000.00 that got us by until the power came back up 2 weeks later. With no power there will be no gas pumps open or stores, they had line at stores only letting in 1 person at a time and they made them wait in cold winds in temps of 30 degs. We when to TN about a drive of 100 miles to get food water and gas, but the big problem we had was no gas cans was to be found anywere so we had to make a extra trip in the next week for gas. Most people wasn’t lucky as we was they didn’t have cash in hand. They called FEMA in to help which was a joke, they had a warehouse of food and water and bankets cots and MRES but guess what? if you didn’t go to the shelter they made you didn’t get any help , As they never told anyone were water and food could be picked up at. They made money from the goverment for each person they took into a shelter so they wanted people to come to them. A National Guard Member told me he was doing what the state wanted them to do but said it was a mess because the people wasn’t getting supplys but he had to do what they wanted him to do. People got sick because the water they got in here was old and some had germs in it as it was old GOV warehouse water. But I found out people that was in the EMS or DES was letting family members drive right up to get what they needed without waiting, as one member told me my family was fixed we had water, food, blankets, cots, and even a generator at the house from a family member that worked at the DES office and even talked to others who asked for a case of water at a RED CROSS station and got turned down? FEMA don’t count on them at all ,as I found my generator a few 5 gallon gas cans and the water I had onhand to be my friend along with a 1000.00 cash. This only go to show you you need Cash onhand, a generator no juck get a honda, 8 5gal can, some water cans and a little food on hand around 3 to 4 days maybe a week even can food from the store is ok just date the top of the can for storage and rotate it each year use it and buy new. I learned a lot mostly about the bigheads the local goverment gets when they see something like this storm, goverment loans and free money to the citys and stores but never the people.
September 9th, 2010 at 9:56 pmWow 36 hours with no water… that can be a real eye opener! especially with the 72-hour challenge is a Planned emergency & not dealing with a real one. That’s great that you had 220 gallons in storage but just think how the people next door or down the street handled the situation with not having water storage. I am happy that you have the comfort in knowing that you have supplies in the case of that next emergency.
September 10th, 2010 at 10:19 amBecky,
I would say try your best not to be dependent on your well water but it depends on how rough you are wanting to do it. Maybe try 24-36 hours with no well water. But a big thing with Gas Generators, in the case of a disaster that the power goes out or what ever the situation might be. The Pumps that pump your gas at the gas station might not be working so it just depends on if you keep some gas in supply at all times.
September 10th, 2010 at 10:50 am