A Survival Preparedness Challenge

Take the survival preparedness challenge!

Can your family survive for 72 hours, or even 36 or 24 hours without electricity, water, or gas?

Have you stored enough emergency preparedness supplies to provide food, water, shelter, and sanitary facilities for an extended period of time?

Have you learned enough survival techniques to improvise if necessary?

A disaster can strike with little or no warning at any moment. 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?

What if your community gave notice to you about a water contamination problem? What if there was 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? It could happen.

So here's the big question: How Ready Are You?

Today I want to challenge you to test your emergency preparedness skills; take the Survival Preparedness Challenge. You choose the time period - 24 hours, 36 hours, 72 hours - or a full week if you're in need of a significant challenge.

Here's the Challenge:

Although it’s fairly simple to start, when you start trying to do things like wash dishes, prepare food or even get ready for bed, that’s when things get challenging.

Oh, and here's the catch: once you start the challenge, you’re not allowed to travel anywhere to gather supplies. You must use only the emergency supplies that you have set aside. 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 survival preparedness, the safer everyone will be. If you are uncertain about the impact it could have on your children, remember that they practice for earthquakes, fire, and other emergency drills at school already. Your kids will probably be excited to use the skills they've learned in school and it might even feel like a game to them.

One option for this challenge would be 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 survival challenge will be. This is a great opportunity to get the whole family working together — not to mention a way to teach your kids first aid training.

Another benefit that comes from doing the challenge is the opportunity to make sure you know how to prepare your dehydrated or freeze-dried food to make it edible and delicious, as well as what supplies are needed.

When my family and I tried this test a few weeks ago, we found that it was best to eat as normally as possible, and having a few "comfort" foods handy helps release the stress and tension that always accompanies a disaster. This Survival 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 do to keep everyone calm and healthy.

So, try it out! Do the Survival Preparedness Challenge with your family. When you’ve completed your challenge (or if you’ve already done something similar), we would love to hear about your experience! Please comment here and give everyone some input on how you handled the situation.

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