3 Home Emergencies You Should Be Prepared for Now
Most of the time, your daily routine goes as planned, with no unexpected events requiring your attention. Sometimes, however, emergency events can occur, and when they do, it’s essential that you and your family are prepared to handle them properly. Proper preparedness can help make difficult situations more bearable and prevent dangerous situations from becoming life-threatening. Here, then, are three home emergencies you should prepare for as soon as possible if you’re not prepared already.
Flood
Though some locales are certainly more prone to flooding than others, the fact is that just about any place can experience flooding at just about any time. Apart from natural occurrences, homes can be flooded with water from burst pipes or rusted water heaters. That’s why it’s important to always have measures in place to ensure you’re prepared. As with many emergencies, a key way to prepare for a flood is to have an emergency preparedness kit that includes food, flashlights, and a first aid kit. Additionally, it’s important to know where your home’s utility cutoffs are, as rising floodwaters will require you to turn off your home’s utilities to help protect against electric shock, fires, and other issues.
Power Outage
It’s easy to understand the immediate effects of a power outage: being without lights and other conveniences for the duration of the outage. However, longer-term effects need to be considered, as well. For example, a sudden power outage can wreak havoc on air conditioning equipment, especially that which is poorly maintained. Lights are one thing, but living in a home without AC during the heat of summer can be dangerous for pets and family members. Therefore, it’s important to maintain your air conditioner and other expensive equipment to ensure it is better able to handle the power surges that often accompany a power outage. As with a flood, you’ll also want to keep an emergency preparedness kit in an easy-to-access location.
Fire
Few things are feared by homeowners as much as fire. This fear is justified, as a fire can engulf an entire home in just a few minutes, leading to serious injury or death if you’re not properly prepared. Beyond properly functioning smoke detectors, the key to effective fire preparedness is to have a fire escape plan.
More than that, though, you should practice your fire escape plan to ensure everyone in your home can enact the procedure with as little help as possible. Once every few months, practice your escape plan utilizing different routes to escape your home to ensure everyone always has a way out, no matter how serious the fire has become.
Practice Makes Perfect
As with a fire escape plan, practice makes perfect when it comes to any type of emergency preparedness. It’s important to know how to quickly access your emergency kit or your utility shutoff locations to ensure you can access them without a moment of hesitation. This speed of action will ensure you’re able to quickly and effectively protect your home should you be faced with an emergency situation.