• Preparations often focus on individual preservation and downplay how to help others. This concept is introduced early in the article and is (unsurprisingly) accurate. Most public messages and training materials emphasize what people and their family members need to do in order to be personally prepared for a disaster. It is reasonable to add on to these preparations the logical next step of knowing how to help your neighbor or anyone who happens to be in harm’s way during a disaster event. The expat context for this lesson is to be able to communicate effectively so that you can ask for assistance, or offer it, during a crisis.
• Collect your thoughts and then use the tools you have on hand. The article points out that the supplies the author had on hand were appropriate for the situation of an earthquake: “a logger’s first aid kit, a flashlight, the new Army bayonet (designed mainly as a tool), a folding shovel, and Vibram-soled boots.” The idea, it seems, is to think about how you can use the materials you put aside for yourself to benefit others who might be in more desperate need of assistance. Taking the time to have an emergency kit in your car, office and home is sound guidance – especially if you have recently relocated overseas and are still getting settled in. Consider the purchase or assembly of your emergency kits as a critical part of your move-in process.
• People often survive in collapsed buildings and need to be found. Imagine the scenario where you found yourself trapped (a potentially horrifying situation) and heard someone walking around near the rubble but not saying anything. Is it a rescue worker? Another injured and confused person? Or perhaps it is a passerby who can render assistance merely by asking if anyone is trapped and then offering words of reassurance that help is on the way? The point is that when searching collapsed buildings it is imperative that you call out to see if anyone who is trapped can hear you and respond and then offer reassurance that the cries for help have been heard and will be answered. For expats, this reinforces the importance of knowing how to communicate through more than sign language or relying upon your native tongue as ‘good enough’ when living overseas. You should ask yourself if you would be able to communicate your need for assistance, or understand someone else’s pleas, in the local language.
• Fire is a primary factor in the aftermath of an earthquake. Since the ground is no longer moving, the collapse of buildings moves into second place behind the threat of fires. Broken gas lines, downed electrical wires and a variety of fire-causing situations makes it likely that you will need to be prepared for handling a fire in order to save yourself or render assistance to others. Here there is no distinction for expats or native residents.
• Tools are always needed and should be scavenged, if necessary. The damage caused by an earthquake can be extreme and typically requires tools to cut through wood, metal or break stone. For expats living either temporarily or long-term overseas, this is a good reason to spend some time and resources acquiring critical tools (e.g., saws, crow bars, shovels, axes, etc.) and adding them to your household. Avoid being caught without the tools you would normally store in a home workshop or tool shed.
• Communication between rescuers and those being rescued is critical. The article describes a desperate situation where rescue efforts are complicated by a raging fire that is consuming the building where people are trapped. The people being rescued might have been able to help the rescuers if the threat of fire had been mentioned. The lesson offered is that communication needs to be on both sides – between the injured and those rendering assistance – to increase the chances that every option is used to get everyone to safety.
• Stress is a reality but have the initiative to begin working to help yourself and others. People have varying responses to stressful situations and can become overwhelmed by the magnitude of the chaos or destruction following an earthquake. It is at this point that people should begin looking for things to do and then dividing into impromptu teams in order to start dealing with the situation. The added challenge in an overseas scenario is remaining calm and still cooperating with people who may perceive you as “foreigner” or “outsider” and this can add to the stress of the moment. People can be fearful or angry about the situation and asking them to also handle dealing with people from outside of their “normal” community could make an angry outburst more likely. The key idea then is to remain calm, focus on offering assistance and thinking about leadership by example rather than by ordering people to take action.

The entire article is well worth reading and offers more context and details about how people, as both victims of an earthquake and volunteers in the aftermath, can be better prepared to help themselves and others.

Check out the Red Cross checklist as you plan your purchases. When preparing your shopping lists, group specialty food items according to the names of people in your household to ensure their particular dietary needs are addressed.

5 tips for buying emergency food supplies

When buying the edible components of your emergency kit, remember to buy

1. Foods that are easy to store (items with a long shelf life or packaging that preserves freshness and are re-sealable)
2. Foods that don’t require a lot of water to prepare
3. Items that taste good and meet the dietary needs of people in your household
4. A manual can opener and disposable utensils
5. Nonperishable foods for your pets

Foods that come in “convenient” packages and are designed for long-term storage might appear to be a good deal but if they are complicated to prepare or simply taste terrible, you are wasting your money.

An excellent resource is an article entitled “Preparing an Emergency Food Supply, Short Term Food Storage.” Written by food safety specialists, the article outlines important tips to keep in mind when purchasing emergency supplies by focusing on how you should be planning to store the food once you have begun to use it.

A Balanced Purchase Plan

The number of emergency items (food, supplies, clothing, etc.) can be overwhelming if you are trying to buy them all at once. A better approach is to build you emergency supplies list and then buy a few key items at a time over the course of several weeks.

For example, in Week 1 of your purchase plan think about the basics: water, light and shelter. This translates into: bottled water, flashlights or candles and a tent or large plastic tarp. Week 2 then expands to include more essentials: food, warmth, first aid. This translates into: canned soup / canned vegetables / canned meats, blankets (e.g., heat reflective blankets) and a simple medical kit with gauze, antiseptic cream, ice packs and compress bandages. The CDC offers a useful list of supplies for your first aid kit at http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/earthquakes/supplies.asp.
Take a look at an example of a weekly buying plan that was published by the Palm Beach County Department of Public Safety. Their list focuses on the risks and issues related to hurricanes but many of the items on their list are common to emergency preparedness kits for any disaster situation.

Store It – Use It – Replace It

You should be familiar with what you have on hand as part of your emergency supplies. The best way to know this is to use your supplies and replace them on a regular basis. The last thing you need in an emergency is to find out that your food supplies expired or were damaged by water or mold. Don’t let useless supplies give you a false sense of safety! Plan to rotate your food supplies based upon a regular schedule – 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and so forth. You can find several food rotation planner tools at http://www.pep-c.org/nss-folder/rotationplanner/ .

If you are looking for a planning tool that goes beyond your own checklists and references listed here, you might find the Food Storage Planner be an option. The program is currently available for Windows systems (but not Mac OS). There is also a basic food quantities calculator available at http://www.coolcontent.com/familyfun/FoodStorage.html.

References:

• “Food and Water in an Emergency”
  www.redcross.org/images/pdfs/preparedness/A5055.pdf
• Peninsula Emerg. Preparedness Committee (Gig Harbor, WA)
  http://www.pep-c.org/emergencykits/
• Food Rotation Planner
  http://www.pep-c.org/nss-folder/rotationplanner/
• CDC Earthquakes – Emergency Supplies
  http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/earthquakes/supplies.asp
• Palm Beach County Department of Public Safety
  http://www.oceanridgeflorida.com/Hurricane/2007_Emergency_Shopping_List.pdf
• “Eat What You Store, Store What You Eat”
  http://beprepared.com/article.asp_Q_ai_E_50_A_name_E_Eat%20What%20You%20Store,%20Store%20What%20You%20Eat

The three basic questions to answer when setting up your emergency supplies are:

1. Where will you store your supplies?
2. How much water will you need?
3. How much food will you need?

Since you don’t know when an emergency (such as an earthquake) might strike, you should put together emergency kits for your home and car. Your home kit will be more comprehensive and your car kit should be in one container and easy to take with you if you need to leave your vehicle.

For your home kit, assemble the essential food, water and dry goods supplies to provide for a period of at least three days. Keep this kit in a location that can be quickly accessed (e.g., master bedroom, storage space on the ground floor of your home or in a storage space outside of your residence but still on your property). Make sure all family members know where the kit is kept and what is in it!

If your space allows for it, you can set aside supplies to shelter in your home for up to two weeks. To better estimate the food supplies you will need, check out the food storage calculator at http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm and the article entitled “How to calculate supplies needed for a Hurricane/Typhoon/Cyclone.”

Think about your family members’ preferences and nutritional needs as you purchase and store food supplied. Familiar foods are important since they can improve morale and contribute to a sense of security during a crisis. Think about storing foods that are high in calories and nutritional value. Purchase foods that require no refrigeration, water, special preparation, or cooking. One helpful resource to assist you with meal planning is the Emergency Food Pyramid from the Ohio State University Extension.

When identifying a storage point for your food, try to find a dry, cool spot—a dark area if possible. Be sure to set aside additional plastic bags and containers to store perishable foods, such as cookies and crackers. You should also have screw-top jars to store products such as sugar, dried fruit and nuts so that you can safely store them even after their packaging is opened.

You should plan a regular time and date to check your food stores. An easy reminder is when changing to or from daylight savings time. When checking your food, throw out canned goods that become swollen, dented, or corroded. Also, be sure to use foods before they go bad, and replace them with fresh supplies, dated with ink or marker. Place new items at the back of the storage area and older ones in front.

References & More Information

• Food and Water in an Emergency
  Red Cross publication A5055
  www.redcross.org/images/pdfs/preparedness/A5055.pdf
• Emergency Food Pyramid – Eating Nutritiously When the Lights are Out
  Ohio State University Extension publication:
  http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/pdf/emergency_food_pyramid.pdf
• Food Storage Calculator
  http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm
• How to calculate supplies needed for a Hurricane/Typhoon/Cyclone
  http://www.ehow.com/how_4478491_calculate-supplies-needed-hurricanetyphooncyclone.html

When you are facing an emergency evacuation from an overseas posting or a long-term expat situation, you need to transform your household into a highly-portable operation that can be transplanted on short notice. There are numerous technology tools that can help you with a rapid, but comprehensive, household transition and the important challenges you face while dealing with an evacuation.

Stay Connected and Easy to Find

You need to stay in touch with colleagues, supervisors along with family and friends during your relocation. For government employees there are remote access tools and mobile phones that can function both overseas and in the US. For family members, you need to be a bit more creative.

Set up an email address that has a web-based interface (some free options include Google Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail and Zoho Mail. This will make it easy for you to check email while in transit and, if you end up in a hotel, from an internet café or business center computer.

Some Voice Over IP phone services have handsets that you can use when there is a wi-fi internet signal – typical in airports and, increasingly, in hotels and coffee shops. One example is Skype, which sells handsets that function as wireless phones and, in some cases, can be connected to a computer to make internet-based calls. Having a fixed phone number, such as with Skype or Vonage, will make it easier for people to find you and stay in touch.

Make your Data Portable

When you have to leave your residence in a hurry, if you haven’t backed-up your data, you will likely have to leave it behind. If you are evacuating due to a natural disaster, you may never see your data again. Fortunately, a little bit of planning will help you to avoid abandoning critical household records.

Be sure to back up your information regularly. Services such as Mozy (mozy.com), iDrive (idrive.com), Box.net, and Elephant Drive (elephantdrive.com) all offer off-site backup services via the internet. You can also invest in a large volume hard drive (500 GB – 1 TB) and schedule automatic weekly (or daily) backups.

Another simple solution is to scan account statements for your credit cards along with the information pages of your passports and store these images on a USB thumb drive. Be sure to keep it in a safe place! In the event of an emergency, you can grab the drive and any other portable hard drives and carry them with you as you travel.

Use Hardware You Already Own

Most households overseas have a variety of data storage tools that they can use more effectively – especially for data portability. If you own a USB thumb drive, an MP3 player (e.g., iPod) then you already have the beginnings of a portable data solution. Other hardware tools include DVD and CD burners (increasingly common items in some of the more recent computer models) and, finally, compact hard disk drives that are designed to be portable data storage solutions. Some examples include the LaCie Portable Hard Drive, Western Digital Passport portable hard drive.

Keep in touch with your community

If you are part of a formal overseas community (e.g., an embassy or a company), you will likely want (and need) to stay connected as a community even while you are in your safe-haven location. In most cases, governments and corporations have support offices that assist with organizing community functions and regular “news” updates. Howver, these might not be able to reach individuals who have chosen to wait out the crisis in a location separate from other families in your community.

If you are inclined to take a leadership role, you can set up a “do-it-yourself” community website and make it easy for friends and colleagues to stay connected during the evacuation and the weeks that follow. Examples of group collaboration service sites are Ning (ning.com), Google Sites (sites.google.com), Yahoo! Groups (groups.yahoo.com), and PBWiki (pbwiki.com).

Online References – Tech Tools and Related References

• US Department of State – Family Liaison Office< br />
  http://www.state.gov/m/dghr/flo/
• US Department of State FLO page for Evacuations
  http://www.state.gov/m/dghr/flo/c1991.htm
• OSAC – Overseas Security Advisory Council
  http://www.osac.gov/
• Embassy World – find your embassy anywhere in the world
  http://www.embassyworld.com/
• US Embassies worldwide
  http://www.usembassy.gov/

Your document cache should be protected against water damage, portable and crush-resistant. A hard case is generally a good starting point. There are many varieties of portable cases that are waterproof and very sturdy. However, if you are more concerned with waterproofing than with keeping things flat, consider using a dry-bag that functions as a basic duffle or as a backpack.

When you are storing your documents at home, consider placing them in a fireproof box or safe as long as the storage space is reasonably accessible. Think about the natural disaster you might be facing – for example, in an earthquake, you would need to get to the storage space and get the documents out as quickly as possible. The alternative is using an extremely durable box (such as a safe) and hope that it does not get crushed if your residence collapses. If you are living in a high-rise building and you might have to evacuate, consider making your documents secure but, more importantly, portable.

Notarized copies of documents are useful to have while residing overseas. This offers you the option of storing the originals in a safe deposit box in a bank in your home town.

Documents to include in your emergency records kit

• Immunization records
• Passports (along with multiple notarized copies of the information pages for each one)
• Financial inventory (see the information below on the EFFAK)
• Home inventory – you can improve the accuracy of this by creating an image inventory or video record of the property in your home
• Current addresses for emergency contacts, family members, friends and colleagues – consider keeping an online address book as part of your email account or a separate contact manager (e.g., Plaxo – http://www.plaxo.com)
• Insurance policy numbers
• List of bank accounts numbers and contact information
• Credit card numbers and emergency contact information
• Financial records (Stock certificates, Bonds, Certificates of deposit)
• Copy of your will/living trust and letter of instructions – it is a good idea to have the original document(s) stored with a legal representative or attorney in the event that the document must be used
• Proof of ownership or lease for any property you own
• Family records (Birth certificates, Marriage certificate, death certificates, divorce agreements, military discharge papers)

Documents that help you plan for emergencies

Aside from the documents you want to rescue, there are some key documents that can help you plan for and respond to emergencies.

• Personal Disaster Preparedness Guide (PDPG) – http://www.operationhope.org/pdpg
• Emergency Financial First Aid Kit (EFFAK) – http://www.operationhope.org/effak
• Family Liaison Office (FLO) – Contingency Plan: Don’t Leave Home Without It! – www.state.gov/documents/organization/2083.pdf

We provide advice and resources for emergency planning and preparedness specifically for expatriates throughout the world. Visitors can become better informed on crisis planning resources and tips through articles on this site and through products and services that we link to.

We are just getting started so be sure to check back for udpates and new listings. One part of our plan is to develop a newsletter to assist expats in their emergency preparedness efforts. This will also make it easier for you to stay informed of new information on our site.

In the meantime, you can expect to see new links and articles that will begin helping you become better prepared during your time overseas!