How Did Your Covid-19 Test Drive Go?
Written by Eileen Connors
My wife and I prepared for “shelter in place” as something we would do after an earthquake without power and running water. We had canned foods and dehydrated meals, extra propane, a first aid kit and a solar cell phone charger in our emergency kit. We always stock cold and flu medicine and Gatorade so we do not have to run to the store when we are sick. We were ready to rough it, looking at it as camping in our own home. But Covid-19 made us realize we need to take an all-hazards approach for building our emergency kit.
Our earthquake plan was to eat the perishable food in our fridge first, then move on to our stockpile of canned and dehydrated food. We would cook on our gas grill and drink bottled water. This plan should get us through until utilities are restored and grocery stores are restocked. Covid-19 was a great test drive of our preparedness. If we felt we were missing something with the benefit of our utilities, how would we cope when faced without power, internet and running water? This made us take a hard look at how we prepare.
We are in the good habit of stocking up. As a household of two women, we make sure to never run low on toilet paper, but I never thought I would be rationing paper towels. Since this pandemic required us to clean surfaces and wash our hands more often, we learned to use half a paper towel instead of a full one. We raided our camping gear for the disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer. What resources do you have at home that you can repurpose during an emergency?
News of Covid-19 cases spreading influenced our shopping starting in February. I bought extra salad dressing because my coupon was about to expire, but it turned out to be a fortuitous purchase. As the pandemic spread, I began buying extra pasta, soup and other staples to have in the cabinet in case the stores closed. By the time Mayor Garcetti issued Los Angeles’ “Safer At Home” order on 3/19/20, the store shelves were bare but we were well stocked. We have decided to incorporate stocking up into our weekly shopping, as part of our preparedness. How can your budget best handle stocking up? Where will you keep these extra supplies?
The biggest change we made was to the plan for our dogs. We buy wet food every week or two and keep an emergency bag of kibble in the garage, which we planned to rely on when we could no longer go to the store. Our younger dog had a bad bout with allergies last year and licked his paw until it was bare and bleeding. After visits to the vet and putting a cone on him, we discovered that he not only had hay fever, he was allergic to the beef-flavored kibble we fed him for breakfast. When we switched both dogs to the wet food, his allergies subsided and they both lost weight. As Covid-19 loomed closer, we reassessed our emergency plan for the dogs. Instead of risking aggravating his allergies with kibble just as Spring was blooming, my wife found a canned wet food he could eat and ordered a stockpile. Whether during a pandemic or earthquake recovery, we did not want to be dealing with taking a sick dog to the vet. Covid-19 gave us the opportunity to test our plan while we had full access to online shopping to find a better option. After this pandemic, we will stock up on the canned dog food and give the kibble to our neighbor for her dog. What are minor issues your family has that an emergency could exacerbate? Are there any changes or precautions you can make now
We also learned we needed to organize our supplies better and used this quarantine time to do it. Since we still expect an earthquake to be the most likely, or at least the most destructive disruption to our lives, we moved our water, food and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) kit next to the garage door. We secured the shelves to the beams. We organized chemicals according to the LIES principle (limit, isolate, eliminate and separate) and moved them away from the food. We purged things we didn’t need, since they would just be more obstacles to climb over after an earthquake and set them aside to donate to Goodwill.
Prepare for your emotional needs too. My Emergency Management mentor jokes that she keeps red wine and chocolate in her emergency kit. This always gets a laugh during her presentations, but this pandemic helped me realize how important comfort food is. As Covid-19 was spreading, I kept searching for chocolate chip cookie dough but the stores were sold out. On my last shopping trip, I found the only bag of chocolate chip cookie mix Target had left. As the media was reporting the growing number of deaths and the White House was preparing us for the toughest week of the pandemic, my wife and I baked these cookies. This Covid-19 test drive taught me that cookies must be a staple in our emergency kit going forward. What is the go-to item you in your emergency kit?
Eileen Connors is an Advisory Board Member and Resiliency Coach. If you would like to contact her to support your organization’s emergency planning, email her at Eileen@theresiliencyinitiative.com.
