I recently learned a new tip to help all of us senior home care givers who have to be away from their aging parents for a time, or who help seniors who live far away.

Make a list of each fuse box’s location, which fuse controls which parts of the house, and write up directions for how to reset a breaker. I am planning on sending it to my email in my computer AND my cell phone so I have it at all times, along with the location of each of the sockets that have RESET capability on them.

It’s very rare that a fuse is blown or a breaker is tripped. When it does, however, it can be a real problem for your senior parent, who may not know or remember how to reset them. Couple their being upset or frustrated with your not knowing, or remembering, the step-by-step instructions you need to give them, and you could have a mini-crisis on your hands.

We discovered this idea when a senior friend who lives out-of-state was so upset because the microwave had broken. I explained to him that it was probably the breaker and had him check various things, such as the refrigerator and the garbage disposal. They all worked, though, so he was planning on buying a new microwave and really upset with himself for what had happened. Fortunately, before he got a chance to go shopping, he decided to use his blender. When he plugged that into a different socket, it didn’t work either. “Ah ha,” he thought.

He called his apartment manager and they tried to talk him through it by telling him to push the reset on the socket above the garbage disposal. There was no socket above the garbage disposal, though. Then the front office employees sent the maintenance staff over and they helped my friend get everything back in running order, by resetting the socket that turned out to be behind the microwave.

If he had lived in a house instead of an apartment, he might never have been able to figure out how to fix this until friends or relatives came to visit months down the road. Spending half an hour to compile a list of all the sockets and fuse boxes turns a bad problem into a simple and easily dealt with problem, no matter how many miles separate us from our aging parents and relatives.

I’ve lived in earthquake country. I’ve lived in hurricane country. I’ve even visited in tornado country. I’ve learned that there are wonderful little booklets with all sorts of valuable information for each of these types of disasters. Problem is, I always seem to bring them home from the store, get interrupted, and promptly misplace them. I decided to put them all right here so I can have easy access to them and you can too!

I would suggest that the first thing to do is to open any of these that are appropriate to your area, and save them onto your own computer. After that print them out so that in case a disaster hits unexpectedly and you are unable to link to the internet, you still have them on your computer. And if your computer got thrashed as well, you do have a hard copy – you just have to find it.  I will be keeping mine in a file called DISASTER INFO in my main file cabinet. So the next time I can’t find where it is, I’ll do a search of this blog and know right where to look J. Feel free to join me there.

GENERAL PREPARATION INFORMATION:

FEMA has an excellent overall guide that includes how to prepare for natural disasters as well as terrorist attacks. They also have a form to fill out with basic information and a family communications plan.

http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/why_prepare.shtm

Red Cross also provides outstanding resources, in both English and Spanish.

http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/0,1082,0_591_,00.html

Here is the Red Cross’ basic Get Prepared site – (for specific disasters, see the sections below):

http://www.redcross.org/services/prepare/0,1082,0_239_,00.html

CAREGIVER PREPARATION:

Of course, as caregivers, we not only have to plan ahead for our needs, we also need to be planning for our loved ones’ needs. Whether it’s making sure to have extra formula and water bottles for babies, compiling lists of needed medicines for children or adults, perhaps purchasing an extra cane to add to the supplies for an elderly relative, it does make for some extra planning and thinking ahead. The Red Cross and FEMA sites have excellent information for these specific needs as well.

FEMA has a great site for kids to teach them how to prepare and why – I definitely bookmarked that for my grandkids and me to work on:

http://www.fema.gov/kids/ready.htm

On their “Are You Ready” page – which is “An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness,” they have a video you can watch on your computer that includes sections entitled Helping Children Cope and People with Disabilities:

http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/index.shtm

The Red Cross offers a complete section for special needs preparation entitled People with Disabilities and other Special Needs  - http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/0,1082,0_603_,00.html

They also have a section for Children and Disasters – This has many excellent publications for helping children prepare phsycially and emotionally:

http://www.redcross.org/pubs/dspubs/childmatls.html

In addition, they have a page just for seniors, written by seniors, which even has a large print option - http://www.prepare.org/seniors/srsforsrs.htm 

They even have materials for all those beloved Pets –

http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/0,1082,0_604_,00.html

EARTHQUAKES:

California is one of the major sites for earthquakes. It is definitely logical that their state would have good resources regarding preparing for them:

http://www.seismic.ca.gov/pub/CSSC_2005-01_HOG.pdf

Red Cross – They provide earthquake specific information, in both English and Spanish:

http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/0,1082,0_583_,00.html

FLOODS:

Red Cross – They provide flood specific information, in both English and Spanish:

 http://www.redcross.org/services/prepare/0,1082,0_240_,00.html

HURRICANES:

NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – A  LOT of great information along with many guides:

NOAA’s BE PREPARED information is easily laid out – http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/disaster_prevention.shtml

Here are all their information guides – http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/downloads.shtml

Their link page with many excellent resources for you to check into – http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/links.shtml

Red Cross – They provide hurricane specific information, in both English and Spanish:

http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/0,1082,0_587_,00.html

TORNADOES:

NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration –  A great explanation of what tornadoes are along with how to be prepared for them:

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/edu/safety/tornadoguide.html

EMERGENCY ALERTS:

Now that you have all these great emergency planning materials, where is the emergency? Hopefully nowhere anytime soon BUT if there is one coming, you can find out sooner by going to http://www.emergencyemail.org/ and signing up to be notified about any weather and homeland security emergency alerts for your area. You can select other areas as well, so if you are a long distance caregiver, I would suggest you sign up for the area your loved one lives in as well. I have been a subscriber for years and I get notified whenever something big is happening around me or when it is happening around two special people in my life. One lives in a tornado area and it helps me to know that the reason I can’t get through on the phone is probably the major thunderstorms I’ve been notified about. The service is free. They do use advertising to keep it that way. I have signed on to receive occasional ads from their sponsors and it has never been a problem.

Well, now I have my disaster preparation ready to go no matter what state I’m in. Hopefully I won’t need it, but I’m glad it’s there if I do. Do you have any other Disaster Preparation sites you’d like to share? We’d love to hear about them. Just write a comment below with them, or send an email to Kaye@SandwichINK.com.