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I know that I have given you different Internet addresses in the past for emergency preparedness sites and heaven only knows how many I have visited (put the Internet or Facebook down and back away slowly), but you need to visit this one – and make sure that you take your kids with you. The site that I’m talking about is the one that the government, both state and federal, have been advertising – www.ready.gov.
I finally got around to visiting it. I don’t know why it took me so long to go there – oh yes, I do, I thought that it would be a “dry” and boring site, I mean how exciting is the government? Well, I don’t know who hired the site developer, but they did a great job and they should get a raise. (This site has grown even better since I originally wrote about it in 2007.)
There are three different sections to the site: 1) the adult/family site: informative and very helpful with a lot of good suggestions and preparedness lists. Next, 2) the business/employee safety and preparedness area: how to prepare your business financially for a disaster and how to help your employees be safe and what to expect of them. And then finally, 3) the kid’s preparedness site: THE REALLY FUN PLACE!
Preparedness sites fascinate me, and I am always mentally comparing what I have versus what they all say that I need (They say one gallon of water, but I prefer two gallons, per person, per day for a two week period). I also try to predict the most impossible problems above and beyond the most likely ones (like that pesky tsunami that is going to hit us in the middle of our desert community) and then prepare for it, BUT this is the first time that I have ever had fun on a preparedness site. I know that I was in the section for kids, but it was a lot of fun. Even though it is for kids, and if you are just too adult to go on the kids’ site by yourself, then go to the adult/family section first and then just mosey over to the kid site. Actually, make sure that you grab your kids and have them go there with you, they will really learn a lot and have fun doing it.
I did word searches, crossword puzzles, took quizzes (of which I got 100%, thank you very much) and learned about The Mountain Lion Family: the dad – Rex, the mom – Purrcilla, the daughter – Rory and Rex’s best friend, Hector, the bird. Each of these characters helps to teach about different aspects of an emergency, the things that you need in an emergency and what you need to do, as a child and as a family.
Another thing that I really liked about this site is that they have made a printout of wallet sized cards that you can fill out for each member of your family. They provided a place for you to write all of the emergency numbers that you need, including a place for an out-of-state contact. It is colorful and so it would be easy to find in a wallet, purse, or backpack. I would have been sold on this site just for that reason, but then why stop there when you can go play. You can let your kids go to this site on their own and they will learn what to do in an emergency without getting them scared. I like how the people who put this site together not only made it fun and informative, but they also made it empowering, and not scary. Your kids will feel more confident and not scared about the possibility of an impending disaster. It also teaches them why certain items are important to have and what you would use them for – they make it make sense to kids, not more confusing.
There is a section where it shows pictures of each type of disaster, like tornadoes, thunderstorms, hurricanes and more and then it goes on to describe each one and what happens during each of them. This is not dumbed down for kids; adults will find it interesting and informative as well.
I am definitely going to go back and visit this site again, if for nothing else so that I can finish the crossword puzzle that I didn’t have time to finish the first time. See you online.
Dawn