Elevate Your Health Colorado Do you have a disaster plan?

The tragedies in Japan have been horrible to watch.  But they should also be making us think about how prepared we are for disaster.  After all, Japan probably has the most earthquake-proof buildings in the world.  Their nuclear safety systems worked perfectly--as soon as the quake started, the reactors shut down.  They know about tsunamis and have an early warning system in place that surely saved thousands of lives, though thousands were also lost.  It was the combination of the enormous quake followed by a huge tsunami that destroyed the backup power systems that led to the nuclear disaster. 

Preparing for disasters means being at least partially prepared for things we really can't imagine at all.  Do you have a disaster plan?  I don't, but I am going to change that.  There are some excellent suggestions for preparing for natural disasters on Med Help.  They also have a good list of emergency supplies every home needs.  I hope I will never need to use these supplies, but as the experience in Japan shows, you never know . . .

There is a good article about preparing your family and children for a disaster on Healthy Children. Lastly, it is likely that your community has some kind of disaster plan, but do you know anything about it?  What can you expect from them?  FEMA has a good set of questions to ask your local officials to understand what plans they have for your city. 

While we are being told that it is very unlikely that any significant amount of radiation will reach the US from Japan, I know many people are worried about this.  Here is information you should know about radiation exposure from kp.org.

Talking about disaster is very sobering.  I do think we need to remember how much people around the world are doing to help people in Japan, both with the nuclear disaster, and with recovering from the tsunami damage.  If you would like to help, here is an article from the Christian Science Monitor about how you can help.