7 Day Challenge 2015: DAY 1 (WEDNESDAY)

Welcome to the 7 Day Challenge. For 7 days, we are testing our Emergency Preparedness and Food Storage Plans. Each day will bring a NEW mock emergency or situation that will test at least one of the reasons “WHY” we strive to be prepared! REMEMBER: No going to a store, gas station, or spending any money for the entire 7 days (unless we say otherwise)! And please feel free to adapt the scenarios to fit your own family and situation.

A fire erupts in your house and blocks your regular exits/stairwells. You must evacuate your family and pets using alternative exits. Your garage/carport collapsed and damaged your vehicles. All of your household items including your purse/wallet were lost in the fire.
Goal: Practice exit strategies and test your insurance/inventory preparedness levels

Today’s Tasks:

Practice evacuating from each bedroom in your home. If you have upstairs bedrooms do you have an escape ladder? Can you open the windows and remove the screens? Do your children know how to do this?
You have 15 minutes to get your family out and grab any “supplies” or “keepsakes” from your bedrooms. Take them outside as your evacuate.
All of your belongings and vehicles were destroyed. Did you have your important insurance documents stored in a safe or offsite somewhere?
Make a list of everything that was in your purse and wallet that you will need to replace. Do you have contact information for all your credit cards?
Do you have a home furnishings inventory? You will have to file an insurance claim and will need to document all of your belongings in order for them to be replaced.
Were your computers destroyed? Did you have an online backup setup? What about your family photo albums and scrapbooks? Make a list of everything you would hate to lose and make a copy to store offsite or get a digital copy uploaded somewhere!
FILL OUT YOUR MASTER WORKSHEET TODAY – Doing it as you practice each day will help you remember what you want to include.

SHARING TIME: Visit today’s Facebook thread and share your experiences with your evacuation. How hard was it for you and your family to escape? Were your insurance papers accessible and in order? Bonus points for posting a picture!

Today’s Limitations:

For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.
Do not “evacuate” through any of your exits. If your bedrooms are upstairs this means crawling out windows!
No running downstairs or to your main living areas to grab ANYTHING for the evacuation

Advanced Tasks:

Stay away from home for 4 hours using only what you grabbed to evacuate with
Make a plan for different scenarios of evacuation, who will help who. What if you can’t reach other? Which room is the best to evacuate from if you can’t get to a door? WRITE IT DOWN
Make a grab and go list of items you could take from your bedrooms if you couldn’t access your doors. Post this near your escape window.
Test your smoke detectors and replace batteries if necessary.

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dailyworksheet

We put together a master worksheet for you to fill out each day of the challenge. There is a separate page to list the things you need to buy, do, and learn after each day of the challenge. Include a due date of when you’d like to accomplish the task and check it off when you do it! Fill it out at the end of each day while your memory is fresh.