So, is it just me, or did you LOVE going to the science center/museum when you were a kid? Wow, I would get so excited when I found out we would be going there on a field trip! Ok, so I have to admit, it wasn’t probably for the same reasons everyone else liked to go there. I liked to go to the science museum because it was the only place I could find freeze-dried ice cream! Yes, I was addicted, and I love it to this day. I was so thrilled to be eating the same stuff that astronauts ate it space…and it tasted great! Although, I always wondered how they got that ice cream to fit in an aluminum package and not melt somehow in the process. Well, I finally found out how that process works…

Freeze-drying was first developed during World War II to preserve blood plasma for emergencies without the use of refrigeration. (Yes, the freeze-drying process can be used for many things other than foods.) After the war was over, the process was then used for food products. Coffee was the first manufactured product that was sold on a large scale.

All food is tested and checked for purity before it goes through the freeze-drying process. Meats and fruits are checked for bacteria before they are used. Seafood and meat must be pre-cooked before it is freeze-dried. That way, when you open the package to use it, the meat requires no cooking to eat it…only the addition of water to re-hydrate it. After the foods have been checked and tested, they are spread out flat on metal trays. Then the trays are wheeled into a huge walk-in freezer where the temperature is around -40degrees. The food is frozen quickly. After they are frozen, the foods are wheeled to vacuum drying chamber. In this room, a process called “sublimation” is used to force solid material to change into a gas material without ever having turned into a liquid. This can be achieved by evacuating the air with a vacuum pump to reduce the air pressure. Once the pressure falls below the point of sublimation, the water vapor from the food is drawn away from the food, leaving the dry food behind. The dry food retains its original size and shape. The food is then packaged into airtight containers so that moisture from the air will not re-enter the food. The whole freeze drying process can take anywhere from 4 to 12 hours.

So, yeah, it’s a bit complicated, but fascinating all the same. Freeze-dried food has so many advantages to other food storage options. It is extremely light-weight, requires no refrigeration, and the food retains its color, shape, texture, and most importantly…flavor! Freeze-dried food may cost a bit more to start with because of the complex equipment that is needed to make it, but in the long run, it will be an asset. Freeze-dried food can last up to 30 years and sometimes longer! I challenge anyone to show me a can of mushy green beans that can do that! Freeze-dried food is definitely the way to go for emergency food storage.

We don’t want to think that bad things will happen and the thought of our children being scared or hurt is a painful thought to parents.  But you can prepare your children by discussing possible scenarios and how they should respond.  Our children mirror our own emotions.  If we are upset and panicked, our children will be too.  If we are calm and thoughtful, our children will act the same way.

Do regular drills.  We try to do fire drills at least twice a year as well as earthquake drills since we live in earthquake country.  We remind our children never to return to a building that is on fire as well as our family emergency plan.

Play the “what if” game.  Ask your kids, “What if there was an emergency and you were stuck at school?  What would you do?”  Or, “What if you came home from school and mom wasn’t there and the house was locked?  What would you do?”  Talk about family rules and who they can go to if they are in trouble. 

By talking to our children and giving them information, we give them the power to make smart choices in whatever situation they may face.

I often ask parents what their child’s school emergency plan is and I am shocked that most parents don’t know if the school has one, never mind what the safety plan actually is.  The same goes for the workplace.  Do you have a safety plan at your place of employment?  If your school or work doesn’t have a plan, volunteer to help set one up.

Does your city have an emergency plan based in scenarios most likely to occur in your area?  If not, go to a city council meeting and bring it to the attention of the mayor and city council.  Coordinate with the police and fire chiefs to help your city develop a realistic plan to help all its citizens.  You will need to take into account the various businesses such as nursing homes and preschools to make sure that everyone is accounted for and assisted to the level they need.

Talk to your neighbors about their plans and what assistance they may need.  Partner with a friend so that if you aren’t home when a situation occurs that she will care for your children and commit to do the same for her children.  You can lessen the impact the disasters will have on you by taking the tine to get involved in planning for the inevitable.

Doing inventory can help you use your resources more effectively when you are preparing for emergencies through emergency preparedness and food storage.  Do you buy the same things over and over while other sections of your preparation are lacking?  Do you have a dozen emergency blankets, but not a first aid kit?  Do you have a way to heat your home, but no plans for sanitation?

The best way to do an inventory is to sit down and pull everything out.  I know this may seem like a daunting task, but if you don’t know what you have, you don’t know what you need.  I did this recently with my sister and brother-in-law.  While they were pleasantly surprised by the amount of things they had in their 72-hour kits, they found they were lacking in some areas.  They had a portable potty lid and bags, but needed toilet chemicals.  They had several tools, but no matches and no 115 hour Ready candles.

Once you know what you need, you can break it down into categories such as light and communication, food storage, first aid, etc.  Then you can figure out what you need in each area and make a plan to acquire those items.  With a little time and effort, you can make sure you are ready for whatever circumstances you may encounter in an emergency situation.

While we may think of food, water, and shelter as being important in an emergency, we may overlook the necessity of tools.  Whether you are turning off your gas due to an earthquake or just trying to open a can of food, there are essential tools we should have.

I believe that every home should have a gas shutoff wrench.  This one comes with a zip tie so that you can tie it onto your gas meter.  No more worries about where the toolbox is or if the kids have run off with it.  Another important tool is work gloves.  Disasters create big messes and those messes have to be cleaned up.  Having good work gloves can prevent injury and speed the cleaning up process.

Another basic is a manual can opener.  Freeze-dried food in #10 cans can be hard to get to if you don’t have a can opener to open them up.  Scissors are also a fantastic all-around tool to keep in your 72 hour kit.  Another helpful tool is a folding shovel.  I keep one in my car so that if we are stuck in snow, we can dig ourselves out.  The shovel is also very compact since it folds into thirds.

Other tools you might find useful are 100 ft. of nylon rope as well as a Leatherman tool.  These can serve multiple purposes, making them essential in an emergency situation.  Having the knowledge to deal with a crisis is essential, but so are the right tools to help you deal with that situation the best way possible.

Water is the most essential thing you can store in times of emergency.  Let me say that again, water is the most essential thing you can store.  You can live for weeks without food, but only about 3 days without water.  Think of the ways you use water every day:  to brush your teeth, to wash your hands, to flush a toilet, to wash dishes, to run your washing machine, to fill a pot for dinner.  We use water and we use a lot of it.

It takes about 35-40 gallons of water to fill a bathtub and we use about 5 gallons a minute when we shower.  Because water is so accessible and so cheap, it is often hard for us to imagine a time when water might not be available.  In areas that have had to enact a boil water order due to an emergency situation, it takes about an hour and a half for bottled water to sell out.  Make water storage a priority.  30 gallon drums, 5 gallon stackable water containers and filters such as the MSR miniworks are great ways to get your water storage going.

We need to store a minimum of 14 gallons per person in our household which equals out to a 14 day supply.  Half of that is set aside for drinking water and the other half is for things like bathing, laundry, and food prep.  Take steps to make water storage a priority and make this essential resource a necessity for your personal preparedness program.

Many of us work on our emergency preparedness and food storage a little at a time. A first aid kit here, some freeze-dried fruit there. But often we fail to properly inventory and track what we have and we often fail to think about how much food we really need and set a goal with a due date. So, I guess my challenge to everyone is to first, truly assess what you have and what you still need. Do you have a dozen flashlights, but are missing essential sanitation supplies like a portable potty lid with chemicals and bags? Do you have a 72 hour kit, but need to put one in your car? Do you have MREs for your 72-hour kit, but are lacking in longer term food storage? So now that you know what you have, you can better determine what you need.

My second challenge is to set a goal. If you are just now starting, set a date to have your 72-hour kits completed. Then when you have that done, turn your attention to having a 2 week supply of water. Finished with that? Look at the needs of your family. Do you need to stock up on freeze-dried fruit or do you have a bunch of dinner choices, but no breakfast options stored? Set a goal and stick to it. We often think that food storage is a good idea, but how often do we make it a priority and say, “I will have a year supply of food by June 30^th?” We have to make it a goal, make it a priority, and then take steps to make it a reality.

We don’t know when a disaster like a flood or earthquake will hit or when a personal disaster such as a disability or job loss can strike, but we can take steps to prepare ourselves and our loved ones so that we can be ready for whatever may come our way.

I sometimes have people ask me why they should store food. “Why should I store a year’s supply of food? Isn’t that a bit much?” The truth is a number of situations could occur that could cripple the food system in our country. By taking precautionary steps, you can feel secure that your family will survive in times of need.

A drought like the one that occurred during the Dust Bowl could lead to a famine. It’s hard to imagine since for many of us we have always seen fully stocked grocery store shelves and never a lack of food to buy. But various situations from trucking strikes to a pandemic to crop failure could lead to a lack of food. How long could you survive with the food you have in your home right now? A few days? A couple of weeks? A month or two? We have become so far removed from our food since it is shipped to grocery stores in brightly colored packages that we may not realize that crop failures can directly impact us.

I see food storage as a type of insurance plan. I don’t know if we will be hit by a massive earthquake, a flood, or a worldwide pandemic, but I do know that I have taken steps to care for my family if any of those situations occur. I am a mother and am driven by a mother’s need to care for her family. The thought of my children calling out, “What’s for dinner?” or pleading with me that they are hungry, and knowing that I have nothing to feed them, that we have no food, is a horrifying thought to me.

By eating out one less time a month, I can put an extra can of food in our food storage. By making small changes, I know that I can take steps to prepare my family and ensure their safety in times of distress.

The number 3 is a magic number when it comes to emergency preparedness. You can survive for about 3 hours without shelter, about 3 days without water, and about 3 weeks without food. So, to keep with the magic number, we should try to find 3 ways to deal with each of those situations.

For shelter, there may be circumstances where we can shelter in place and use our home as a shelter. Other times we may be stuck in our cars. Keeping some basic items in our car in case we need to use it as a shelter can be life-saving. Some water pouches, survival food bars, hand warmers, emergency blankets, a Ready candle, and waterproof matches can help us keep warm in a winter storm situation. And what if a major earthquake made sleeping in your home impossible? Consider a backpacker dome tent or even a tube tent plus emergency sleeping bags.

Next is water. You can store a lot of water in your home by using the 30 gallon barrels and then adding the water preserver so you only have to change the water every 5 years instead of every year. You can also think about portable water in case evacuation becomes necessary. The 5 gallon stackable water containers are great for this purpose. And what if you had access to water, but it was contaminated? Think about potable aqua and an MSR miniworks water filter. The miniworks can filter up to 500 gallons of water, so it is a great tool to invest in.

Last is food. Survival food bars are compact enough to store in your car or even in your desk at work. You can store MREs and freeze-dried pouches in your 72-hour kits. And the #10 cans of freeze-dried food are terrific to store in your home for longer term food storage.

Emergencies and disasters don’t always happen how we plan, so by taking steps to resolve these 3 essential issues in at least 3 ways, you can feel secure in your emergency preparations.

I recently took a winter survival course and learned how well emergency blankets actually work!  Originally invented for NASA, the reflective material of the blanket reflects up to 90% of your body’s heat to keep you warm!  I learned that it could even prevent hypothermia and post-traumatic syndrome.

During some of the winter simulations I went through, I used my emergency blanket several times and was pleasantly surprised at how warm it kept me.  I noticed a warm feeling within seconds of wrapping the blanket around me.  Instead of my body heat escaping into the air, it stayed within the emergency blanket and radiated back at my skin.

Not only is the blanket waterproof, but it is windproof too.  This is important when it comes to how warm the emergency blanket will keep you.  Even through wind simulations during my survival course, I found that the emergency blanket kept me warm.  Because the blanket material is windproof, my skin kept its insulating ability and I was able to keep myself warm just from my own body heat.

After going through the survival course, I will never go without including one in my car or backpack.  I recommend them to any outdoorsman and believe every car and home should have several within reach.  You never know when an emergency can come up and having one of these blankets handy just might save your life!

Emergency water storage is very important in our home.  We live in Las Vegas and plan to for the rest of our lives, however, knowing our city is constantly battling water shortages doesn’t help matters.  We always have plenty of clean water stored in our home in case of dire water shortages and emergencies.

We keep several 15-gallon water barrels in our basement ready and waiting whenever an emergency situation may come up.  We also keep the Aqua Blox Water Boxes on hand too!  Both of these are important for emergency water storage and give us different options depending on when and what we need them for.

The most important thing to think about when storing your water for emergencies is the shelf life.  Our 15-gallon water barrels and our Aqua Blox Water Boxes have a 5-year shelf life if used with the Water Preserver.  While normally you may need to rotate your water storage every 6 months to a year, the Water Preserver is a small bottle of liquid preservative, which will treat up to 55 gallons of water and extend the shelf life to 5 years!

The storage life of water can be affected by many different things like intrinsic parameters, ph and moisture content and environmental factors, so it’s important to purchase water storage that is packaged in accordance with FDA processing, like the options mentioned before.  Also remember to store water at room temperature (or cooler), away from things like solvents and gasoline or other chemicals, and out of direct-sun light.  All these tips will help you to extend the life of your water storage and be prepared in case of an emergency!

My husband and I started camping when our kids were really young.  One year we brought along a couple MREs, which are Meals Ready to Eat.  We wanted to be prepared if for some reason we ran low on food or needed extra because we stayed longer than we had originally planned.  And of course, we did end up using them and from that day on have never gone camping with out lots of MREs.  We bring them along just to enjoy easy, hot meals that don’t required any work or dishes to wash!

MREs are an easy way to bring healthy and enjoyable food with you whenever you venture into the outdoors, especially if you don’t want to be a slave to making a fire every time you want to cook a meal.  To cook an MRE, simply use an MRE flameless heater.  With a few ounces of water, the flameless heater will cook your MRE to over 200 degrees and you will have a steaming hot meal ready in no time!  Perfect to end a day of any outdoor activity!

The great thing about the MRE flameless heater is you can use it anywhere at anytime.  All you do is slide your MRE food packet into the MRE flameless heater pack and walla!  The safe and effective chemical reaction between the water and the flameless heater is what heats your food.  Although MREs don’t have to be heated to eat, the flameless heaters are inexpensive, completely safe, easy and lightweight, have an unlimited shelf life and are ready whenever you are!  Why not take extras for you and your family to enjoy for fun or in case of emergencies?

I sometimes have people ask me why they should store food.  “Why should I store a year’s supply of food?  Isn’t that a bit much?”  The truth is a number of situations could occur that could cripple the food system in our country.  By taking precautionary steps, you can feel secure that your family will survive in times of need.

A drought like the one that occurred during the Dust Bowl could lead to a famine.  It’s hard to imagine since for many of us we have always seen fully stocked grocery store shelves and never a lack of food to buy.  But various situations from trucking strikes to a pandemic to crop failure could lead to a lack of food.  How long could you survive with the food you have in your home right now?  A few days?  A couple of weeks?  A month or two?  We have become so far removed from our food since it is shipped to grocery stores in brightly colored packages that we may not realize that crop failures can directly impact us.

I see food storage as a type of insurance plan.  I don’t know if we will be hit by a massive earthquake, a flood, or a worldwide pandemic, but I do know that I have taken steps to care for my family if any of those situations occur.  I am a mother and am driven by a mother’s need to care for her family.  The thought of my children calling out, “What’s for dinner?” or pleading with me that they are hungry, and knowing that I have nothing to feed them, that we have no food, is a horrifying thought to me.

By eating out one less time a month, I can put an extra can of food in our food storage.  By making small changes, I know that I can take steps to prepare my family and ensure their safety in times of distress.

Many of us work on our emergency preparedness and food storage a little at a time.  A first aid kit here, some freeze-dried fruit there.  But often we fail to properly inventory and track what we have and we often fail to think about how much food we really need and set a goal with a due date.  So, I guess my challenge to everyone is to first, truly assess what you have and what you still need.  Do you have a dozen flashlights, but are missing essential sanitation supplies like a portable potty lid with chemicals and bags?  Do you have a 72 hour kit, but need to put one in your car?  Do you have MREs for your 72-hour kit, but are lacking in longer term food storage?  So now that you know what you have, you can better determine what you need.

My second challenge is to set a goal.  If you are just now starting, set a date to have your 72-hour kits completed.  Then when you have that done, turn your attention to having a 2 week supply of water.  Finished with that?  Look at the needs of your family.  Do you need to stock up on freeze-dried fruit or do you have a bunch of dinner choices, but no breakfast options stored?  Set a goal and stick to it.  We often think that food storage is a good idea, but how often do we make it a priority and say, “I will have a year supply of food by June 30^th?”  We have to make it a goal, make it a priority, and then take steps to make it a reality.

We don’t know when a disaster like a flood or earthquake will hit or when a personal disaster such as a disability or job loss can strike, but we can take steps to prepare ourselves and our loved ones so that we can be ready for whatever may come our way.

The number 3 is a magic number when it comes to emergency preparedness.  You can survive for about 3 hours without shelter, about 3 days without water, and about 3 weeks without food.  So, to keep with the magic number, we should try to find 3 ways to deal with each of those situations.

For shelter, there may be circumstances where we can shelter in place and use our home as a shelter.  Other times we may be stuck in our cars.  Keeping some basic items in our car in case we need to use it as a shelter can be life-saving.  Some water pouches, survival food bars, hand warmers, emergency blankets, a Ready candle, and waterproof matches can help us keep warm in a winter storm situation.  And what if a major earthquake made sleeping in your home impossible?  Consider a backpacker dome tent or even a tube tent plus emergency sleeping bags.

Next is water.  You can store a lot of water in your home by using the 30 gallon barrels and then adding the water preserver so you only have to change the water every 5 years instead of every year.  You can also think about portable water in case evacuation becomes necessary.  The 5 gallon stackable water containers are great for this purpose.  And what if you had access to water, but it was contaminated?  Think about potable aqua and an MSR miniworks water filter.  The miniworks can filter up to 500 gallons of water, so it is a great tool to invest in.

Last is food.  Survival food bars are compact enough to store in your car or even in your desk at work.  You can store MREs and freeze-dried pouches in your 72-hour kits.  And the #10 cans of freeze-dried food are terrific to store in your home for longer term food storage.

Emergencies and disasters don’t always happen how we plan, so by taking steps to resolve these 3 essential issues in at least 3 ways, you can feel secure in your emergency preparations.

Whether you’re an avid outdoorsman or you just like to be prepared in case of emergencies, thinking about purifying water is extremely important.  Recently a neighbor of ours went on a family camping trip and one of his boys became extremely sick from drinking unpurified water from a lake nearby their campsite.  This type of situation can be easily avoided if you are prepared!  For an easy and affordable way to purify water, anytime and anywhere there are several solutions.

The Potable Aqua Water Purification Tablets can easily be added to water to make it bacteriologically okay for drinking…and it’s fast and easy!  There’s also a 2-step water purifier called the Potable Aqua with PA Plus, which include the disinfecting tablets and the PA Plus tablets to remove the iodine taste and color.  Both work great and are perfect to put in small places like a purse, backpack or glove box.

If water purification is something you do often, you can invest in a couple other options, which will add viral protection.  The MR Sweetwater Purifier System has a filtration system that dependably inactivates viruses, and removes other parasites and waterborne bacteria.  A fourth option is the MSR Miox Water Purifier, which is similar to the MR Sweetwater, but with no pumping required!  Both options are fast, compact, lightweight, easy to use and most importantly…reliable!

Whichever water purification system you go with, take the time to find one right for you!  Don’t let yourself or your family, get caught drinking unpurified water and risk the chance of getting really sick!

Emergency blankets may not seem like a big deal, but they can be really important, as I discovered recently.  Yes, you may have a couple lying around at home and one in the car, but is that enough?  No…you should have an emergency blanket for each member of your family and they’re inexpensive enough to have them in different places too!

We’ve always kept an emergency blanket or two in our car, thinking someday we may need them.  But, as we discovered during our unusually cold and long winter this year, only 2 in the car was not enough!

On our way home one night from visiting some family friends in the country, our tire went flat and it was too cold (5 degrees below 0) and too dark for my husband to change it safely.  Fortunately we were able to get some roadside assistance, but we didn’t have much gas left in the car so we decided to wait with the ignition off; hence no heat.  We were so glad we had our emergency blankets on hand, but with a family of 4…2 wasn’t enough!

Luckily, we only had to wait for about an hour for a tow truck to show up, but my husband and I gave the only 2 emergency blankets we had to our children while we waited, and only wished we would have had enough for all 4 of us!  Now we stock 4 emergency blankets every place we frequent because we now know the importance of each family member having their own!

    I’ve noticed that a lot of television shows and movies that are being shown these days have an end of the world type theme to them.  On each show a bomb goes off, a meteor hits the earth, or aliens land in their spaceships and start blowing things up.  luckily for the main characters, they always have a radio on hand to find out any relevant information from the government or whoever is now running the show.  It made me think about what type of radio I should have in case of an emergency.  I’m sure we all used to have an AM/FM radio with our tape players, but with the new technology of CDs and MP3s I think that radios are being used less.  There are also four different bandwidths for radio now, so I wanted to find out which would be the best option.  This is what I found out.

FM radio is the most popular when it comes to listening to music, but it’s not so great for an emergency.  The FM transmissions have a very short wavelength.  At most, they can only be received about 75 miles from the site of origin.  This might be ok if you live in a big city, but out in the country or in the mountains you would be out of luck.

AM radio has long been a source of news broadcasts and information.  Unlike the short wavelengths of FM radio, the AM transmissions use long wavelengths that can travel across the world.  AM radio is more prone to static than FM, but it is more ideal if you are needing to find out what is happening in your city, state, or country.  If a natural disaster wipes out your town, such as Hurricane Katrina did, then the local radio stations will not be broadcasting any information.  You would need a radio that would pick up a transmission from a neighboring town or state.

A relatively new band of radio is the satellite radio.  These are becoming more popular in both cars and homes and they are a great source of information.  With satellite radios you can receive real time weather and traffic reports for anywhere in the country.  This can be extremely useful if your town is being evacuated and you need to find a way out that isn’t so crowded.  The Red Cross has even started their own station on XM radio to provide important information to the victims and workers of Hurricane Katrina.  They are able to use it to give information, make announcements, and send messages to a large amount of people at the same time.

Finally, the shortwave radios is an option, especially if you plan on using a bomb shelter.  The shortwave radio can receive transmissions from all over the world.  You could be in Montana and find out what is going on in China.  So if something were to happen to the main broadcasting stations in our country, you could still find out what is happening by listening to chatter from other countries.

Satellite radios tend to be the most expensive and you usually have to pay a monthly service charge to have access to them.  They are worth the money though, especially if you travel a lot because the reception is great anywhere you go.  Most regular radios come with both AM and FM bands, and are the least expensive.  These will work well for most cases.  If you decide to go with a shortwave radio, you can purchase one for under $50.00, and in the mean time you’ll be able to listen to different types of music from all over the world.

    My earliest memories of eating freeze dried food was from when I was 7 years old.  My parents had taken me and my siblings to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  After taking a tour of the museum we stopped off in the gift shop.  We were each allowed to pick out one small item.  When I saw the freeze dried ice cream that was the same ice cream used in space during the Apollo missions, I knew I had to try it.  I instantly fell in love.  It was a block of Neapolitan ice cream with the strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate flavors.  I broke off a bite and it slowly dissolved in my mouth, releasing the most amazing flavors.  It was like nothing I had ever had before and I couldn’t get enough.  To this day I still buy packages of freeze dried ice cream any time I find them at a museum or store.  My husband even bought me some for Christmas once.

Although Neapolitan ice cream is probably the most recognized flavor of freeze dried food, there are many varieties of food available these days.  You may have already eaten freeze dried food without even knowing it.  Some instant coffee is freeze dried, as is fruit that is sometimes included in breakfast cereals.  With freeze dried food now being used not just for missions in space, you can get freeze dried food for any meal of the day.

Some of the popular flavors for different meals are:

• scrambled eggs with ham or bacon
• granola with fruit
• bananas, cinnamon apples, peaches, pineapples, strawberries, blue berries, or raspberries
• potatoes, broccoli, rice, green beans, peas, or corn
• dice beef, diced chicken, or ground beef
• beef teriyaki
• pasta primavera
• chicken and rice
• seafood chowder
• spaghetti with meat sauce
• sweet and sour pork
• vegetable stew
• beef stroganoff
• chili mac
• mac and cheese
• blueberry cheesecake
• raspberry crumble
• and many more

As with the ice cream, some items such as the fruit can be eaten as is without preparation.  The other items couldn’t be easier to prepare.  Simply boil water, add it to the food item, and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes.  The food tastes great and can be stored for up to 30 years.  So if you are planning a camping or hiking trip where weight of your gear is a concern, or you want to have quick and easy meals on hand, then freeze dried food is an excellent option.

We all remember exactly where we were on September 11, 2001. That terrifying, devastating day will stay with us forever. An attack on our soil, an attack on our freedom, an attack on Americans. What if it happens again? We’ve been told to prepare for “not if, but when.” Today, it is still a scary thought. Many people just want to put terror out of their minds, just not think about it and hope it goes away. I wish we could.

Today people are expressing concern over the threat of “dirty bombs.”  These weapons are not nuclear, but can still do massive damage to life and property. Dirty bombs are bombs that are made by using an explosive, combined with radioactive pellets or pieces. When the bomb ignites, the small radioactive pieces are hurdled through the surrounding area, making buildings and lands unsuitable to use for a long time. Not to mention the damage that can be done to human life. Hopefully, these types of attacks will never happen. In the chance that they do though, this information may help you be a bit more prepared for how to best handle the situation.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that nearly 70 percent of all terrorist attacks in the USA between 1980 and 2001 were bombings. This is why it is very important to always have a family plan for emergency situations. Go through the plan with your family at least once a year to keep it fresh in your minds. Make sure you have emergency contacts, places to meet up in the chance that you get separated, and 72 hour kits on hand and a portable radio in case you need to evacuate quickly.

If you are in a bombing, leave the area immediately. Avoid crowds as much as possible. If the attackers are still in the vicinity, a large crowd of people might be where they attack again. Stay away from damaged buildings that might contain broken glass or falling debris. Follow directions that are being given by people in authority: Police, Fire Rescue, or Military. Help others who are hurt if you are able to do so without endangering your life. Follow your family’s disaster plan and meet at your designated meeting area when it is safe to do so. Use your portable radio to find out more information when possible. If you are hurt, go to a hospital or clinic.

No one likes to think about the possibility of another terrorist attack. It is frightening and hard to process. The best way to prepare is to be informed. Know the dangers involved and talk with your family and loved ones about them. Make a plan in case of emergencies, terror attacks or otherwise, and it will give you some much needed peace of mind in these troubled times.