The Salvation Army serves on numerous preparedness committees including Public Safety Canada’s Multi-Stakeholder Planning Group for Emergency Preparedness Week. Each year during Emergency Preparedness Week, The Salvation Army encourages Canadians to prepare for potential hazards and provides practical advice about actions that can help individuals and families be less vulnerable.

Visit the Government of Canada’s Get Prepared site for information on how you and your family can be better prepared.

Get a 72-Hour Kit

To ensure you are prepared for a shelter in place(stay indoors with HVAC off) or evacuation, make or buy an emergency preparedness kit. Experts suggest you have everything you need in order to be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours following a significant incident. This self-sufficiency includes planning to be without critical infrastructures such as utilities and water. Disaster and emergency management professionals, especially throughout North America, promote the idea that individuals and households need to prepare for three full days. It may take this long before emergency responders can reach certain areas for rescue and response operations or for administrators to organize their response.

You may have some of the items already, such as food, water and a battery-operated or crank flashlight. The key is to make sure they are organized and easy to find. Would you be able to find your flashlight in the dark?

Make sure your kit is easy to carry and everyone in the household knows where it is. Keep it in a backpack, duffle bag or suitcase with wheels, in an easy-to-reach, accessible place, such as your front-hall closet. If you have many people in your household, your emergency kit could get heavy. It’s a good idea to separate some of these supplies in backpacks. That way, your kit will be more portable and each person can personalize his or her own grab-and-go emergency kit.

Another option, if you want to put together your own kit, is to visit your local Salvation Army thrift store.