Rotate Your Clocks, Rotate Your Stock

“Rotate Your Clocks – Rotate Your Stocks”
Another Set of Disaster Preparedness Tips by Paul Purcell

In our never-ending war on terror, those of us in charge of protecting others should first start by making sure the family we have to leave at home in a crisis is as well-protected as possible. We don’t accomplish this by massive single undertakings, but by the little day-to-day bits and pieces we put into place. Today gives us another opportunity to take a step.

It’s time to change the clocks again. Normally that just means we get an extra hour’s sleep this weekend, but for those in the know it means we also get an opportunity to check our family’s safety. We do this by using the twice-a-year time change as a reminder to review the parts of our family emergency assets that might need to be updated.

Here’s a quick list of but a few things to look at:

1. Change your smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector batteries.
2. Check the batteries in your emergency gear (you should always write the dates of purchase on them).
3. Expiration dates of medications (including over-the-counter stuff and meds for your pets).
4. Conduct a fire drill along with a seasonal / regional drill such as a tornado or hurricane drill.
5. Check the expiration dates on important documents and policies (and list all dates in a calendar program).
6. Check the dates on any stored water you’ve put away.
7. Review maintenance needs for your vehicles.
8. Rotate and/or use any food in the pantry that is approaching its expiration date.
9. Look at the purchase or inspection dates on your fire extinguishers (do this when conducting your fire drill).
10. Change your password and run an anti-virus and anti-spyware scan and data backup your computer.
11. Put any stored gasoline in your vehicles and refill the spare cans with fresh gas.
12. Health improvement: review your exercise plan or get a medical / dental checkup.
13. Gotten your flu shots yet?
14. Update your emergency contact information.
15. Log on to www.disasterprep101.com for additional how-to articles.

Feel free to pass this list along to others! (Provided all portions stay intact that is; Copyright 2011 – Paul Purcell.)