Preparedness for when

westlothianlass

Hi all
My purification tablets arrived yesterday (incredibly prompt delivery, well done them) I had to smile as the envelope made it pretty obvious what was inside as it had emergency kit supplies all over it, so Son just rolled his eyes when he saw it:rotfl:.
Next thing on list is to check cupboards/supplies, i know we will need to get a few more things as I have been using up things near their sell by date but havent replaced them yet.
So a wee shopping trip at the weekend is on the cards.
Must also start putting together emergency bags, stuff is in house but all over the place:o.
x

vanoonoo

D&DD wrote: »

The cats each have theirs stored in their plastic carriers..
On a laminated tag attached to the handle and written in Sharpie inside
Name and age plus a small pic for I.D
Address
Vac records and chip numbers
Brief history and vet details
In ziplock bag food,bicuits and water for 3 days.
Blanket
Pooh bags and small amount of litter.
Spare collar with tags
Toy
Rosies bag is a small backpack for now until I train her to carry her own
Has the same tags
Food and water for 3 days
Treats and toy and a ball
pooh bags
collapsable water bowl but she is trained to drink from a lucozade bottle lol
Small shampoo bottle can use for cats and dog
Spare leads and a training line
Pack of various first aid wipes

such a good idea to put them in the carrier and a great list, thank you!

Gigervamp

Do the water purification tablets have a use by date on them?

skintscotslass

valk_scot wrote: »

No suggestions as to what to do next? She did go to the emergency centre btw but there were dozens of folk there already and, of course, they all wanted to complain to the staff and have their problems sorted out first.

Hmmm. Did she have a plan with the children who were swimming? Something like, if I dont turn up to pick you, this is what you do - speak to a receptionist and ask them to phone your dad/other family member etc. Phone numbers are in the swimming bags along with a snack for afters. What we call a 'shivery bite' lol.

valk_scot

skintscotslass wrote: »

Hmmm. Did she have a plan with the children who were swimming? Something like, if I dont turn up to pick you, this is what you do - speak to a receptionist and ask them to phone your dad/other family member etc. Phone numbers are in the swimming bags along with a snack for afters. What we call a 'shivery bite' lol.

Actually given that the kids are 11 and 9 they both had mobile phones on them anyway but...without her mobile, she didn't know the numbers.

Anyway, here's what happened. She went to the assistance centre, got a drink for the baby at the cafe and had a cup of tea herself while she waited for the scrum to die down a bit. She knew that if the kids came out the pool and she wasn't there they'd try to phone her and if she didn't answer, they'd assume she was driving and en route because it had happened before. They'd know not to leave the pool building though because she had spoken to them often enough about this sort of thing and as they had some spare emergency money on them they'd probably go to the cafe. So what she did was ask one of the sports centre assistants to phone the pool, they found the kids and she told them to phone their dad and he would organise a pickup for them. Then they were to phone back to her and say things were good at their end.

That left her with a baby, no buggy, no food and no phone or phone numbers. Plus her car in the supermarket car park. So after due thought she remembered that one of my kids does classes in the sports centre and that I lived not far away. So she persuaded the sports centre person to dig my phone number out the files and for them to phone me, which they did. (They won't hand over a phone no though.) Fortunately I was home and as I couldn't get the car down to pick her up I dispatched my teenage son and a hastily borrowed buggy to get her.

By this time my 10 year old had appeared and as she had the phone no of one of the kids on her own phone, we managed to close the communication gap. I drove her home by a very long route, baby in a borrowed carseat I should add and later on when the car park opened again I went down with her keys and my OH, we picked up her car and took it back to her.

Morals of story?

Carry your phone at all times and make sure it's in credit and charged! But also, have a paper note of all absolutely essential numbers in the back of your purse. Your phone might get damaged after all and then you're out of communication. If you've got the numbers you can use any phone, not have to start finding them. Or if you got knocked unconcious and people were trying to trace your family, paper numbers are easier to access than a locked phone. So carry backup.

Secondly have a pre-arranged plan so you know your kids know what to do, if there's an emergency. She said it helped a lot with the panic, knowing her kids would stay put and (eventually) have phoned their dad or asked the swimming pool staff for help, rather than just wander off.

Thirdly, trust the emergency services! If they say do X, do it and don't endanger yourself and others by trying to make your wants the priority, however important it seems at the time. You're not going to help anyone if you're dead or injured after all.

And calm down...don't run around like a headless chicken, it doesn't help. She said that sitting down to give the baby a drink gave her that crucial few minutes to get a grip on herself, realise that the other two kids were in no immediate danger and that though she needed to get cracking on it, she also needed to consider the options as to what she coukd do.

Asking for help is an easy one but by that time she'd worked out what she wanted/needed by way of assistance and she could ask for it calmly and clearly, instead of screaming and ranting at the emergency service people as if it was their fault, and demanding things they couldn't provide like immediate taxis/their cars/their shopping. Yes, some folk were doing that, refusing to leave the desk and preventing other folk from getting help too.

She wishes very much she'd had some extra supplies for the baby, yes. But she'd even left the changing bag in the car, he was newly changed when she went into Tesco, she didn't expect to be that long.

Also, she didn't hesitate to ask me for assistance once she'd remembered about how I was local and about my DD. Too many times you hear "Oh, I didn't want to bother so-and-so..." but actually most folk are happy to help out. I don't know her that well tbh, she's more a friend of a friend, but I was happy to give her any assistance I could. So was my neighbour who loaned us buggy and car seat without a second's hesitation and my son, who walked down to collect her because he's very much faster than me. So never feel you can't ask. Most folk will help out.

And yes, I did give her a couple of bags and tell her to raid my cupboards and fridge for necessary foodstuffs. The benefits of having a good larder, no? I think she's definately taken that one to heart after being caught out with almost nothing to feed the kids. She paid it all back of course. (And choccies and flowers and a small cash gift to DS.)

Anyway, I think she did rather well, all things considering.

Anyone else got any good disaster tales to tell, so we can all benefit from their experiences?

vanoonoo

defo a case of keep calm and carry on!

ok - here's one - you're in a foreign country at the end of your trip on your way back to the airport in a taxi and you get all your luggage out of the boot once at departures to make your way to the checkin desk, when you realise your handbag is still in the back of the now very far away taxi. the handbag with all your cash, credit cards, passport, tickets, phone, contact details, meds and tickets. you have nothing but the clothes you stand up in and a suitcase full of dirty laundry. and you cannot speak the language. what do you do?! this really did actually happened to me in madrid!

bossymoo

My inlaws got caught abroad during that volcanic ash cloud. They were on a package holiday so everything was taken care of, but some of the people in the hotel had booked everything separate, had no local rep, and had to vacate their rooms. Their flight was delayed for five days.

valk_scot

vanoonoo wrote: »

defo a case of keep calm and carry on!

ok - here's one - you're in a foreign country at the end of your trip on your way back to the airport in a taxi and you get all your luggage out of the boot once at departures to make your way to the checkin desk, when you realise your handbag is still in the back of the now very far away taxi. the handbag with all your cash, credit cards, passport, tickets, phone, contact details, meds and tickets. you have nothing but the clothes you stand up in and a suitcase full of dirty laundry. and you cannot speak the language. what do you do?! this really did actually happened to me in madrid!

Was it a booked taxi via the hotel or such? As in any way of tracing it?

I think I'd have had to seek local help asap, like the airport help desk, airline or holiday rep, or a local policeman. I'd also think that it would be important to tell check in I was there, even if they couldn't actually check me in. Airports are used to all sorts of crisis situations and people losing things, they'd have a system or suggestions of what to do next.

Total nightmare btw. I'm looking forwards to hearing how you got yourself sorted. Assuming you're not still camping out in Madrid airport as you type?

mardatha

Give us the address of the airport and we'll send sweeties :D
Great stories great posts, brilliant ty. Making us think about this is good!

valk_scot

mardatha wrote: »

Give us the address of the airport and we'll send sweeties :D

Sweeties? No, we should send a camping stove and gas, bottled water, fleece blankets, easy cook food like noodles and an emergency bag containing essential documents, spare cash, spare meds, contact details and a needle and...oh wait, that's the one she's lost, oops.

I'm now beginning to think I should get my emergency numbers tattooed on me somewhere. Or, how about putting them somewhere online where you can access them (via password) from any PC? There's a notepad on my Yahoo email account, I've put things like passport numbers and the code for resetting the car alarm there when we've gone camping abroad. Never needed them but if the car went on fire say with our passports inside it would be helpful when we were arranging for replacements at the Consulate. Probably wouldn't need the car alarm code though.