21 Apr 10 items you will always have handy

I had my first memorable experience with emergency rations when we were 4 months away from the dreaded Y2K – and I had a very young family still in diapers and formula.

Hurricane Floyd

We realized we were going to be in more trouble than we had estimated when we watched the torrent of rain gushing out of every downspout  at such a rate it was projecting 5 feet straight out. The backyard had turned into a 2-foot deep swimming pool. I was glad we had heeded the warnings and got all the patio furniture and cars into the garage. Anything not lashed down was definitely going to be airborne.

It was September 1999 and Hurricane Floyd had made landfall in New Jersey. When it was all done, it would have caused over $250 million USD in damages. Most impactfully, it caused some rivers to overflow, flooding the basement central telephone switching station – bringing all phone lines down – which meant you could not use the ATMs, or pay for groceries or gas/petrol with credit cards for many days.

It was a harsh lesson to learn with toddlers in the house.

What followed proved to be the best dry run our family could have had to prepare for the possibility of Y2K and any other emergencies.

Since then, we always have Emergency provisions

After that event, I have always made sure to have a few key items on standby in our home. Power outages, a bout of flu, you never know! It is wise to be prepared.

We always have some rice, beans and soup cans on hand. I make sure that candles and matches are easily available. And we learned to have a 5-gallon jug of drinking water handy in case the water supply got contaminated or the pipes burst. Enough supplies to make it through 5 days. We went so far as to buy a camping stove in case we were without power. And we have not grown out of the habit of always having enough cash for a tank of gas and a quick grocery run.

That low-level state of preparedness came in handy as the COVID-19 epidemic turned into a pandemic, and each county and country gradually extended their state of emergency from days to weeks to months.

My Covid-19 lesson:

Could we learn from others? South Korea has received a lot of positive press because they wasted no time in testing aggressively. They had recently experienced a Corona-virus epidemic and had put in place procedures that positioned them to handle this crisis better.

I am looking to learn a similar set of lessons from this experience, positioning me and my family to respond more effectively to the next crisis.

In a world that had been moving to Just in Time – a business concept that had been seeping into our home, we learned that having a slightly longer supply chain in place for a few crucial items, a few key staples, those non-perishables, can never be an unwise decisions.

This is your challenge, should you choose to take it on:

What 10 items will you always have on hand going forward?

Thankfully most of us still have power during this crisis – I do not know what we would all do without access to the internet!

But what supplies do you find yourself gravitating towards? What will you always make sure to have in stock in the months and years to come?

What are your emergency rations?

Share some of the items that surprised you and share why! We might all learn. I will start things off …

My surprise item

Chappati flour – As yeast became the most difficult item to find after toilet paper, I realized that I could lean back on making unleavened bread if we could not buy or bake fresh bread.  I have been enjoying making quick batches of traditional Indian bread some mornings.

Instagram lists:

Apr 24 update: Most of the engagement came in from readers on Instagram. Here are some lists:

• Eggs, bananas, flour, yeast, sterilizing fluid, soap, rice, galaxy chocolate, ice cream, exercise bike
• Hand sanitizer, gloves, masks, water, eggs, flour, chocolate, increased internet speed, ginger, lemon
• Flour, yeast, hand sanitizer, chocolate chips, eggs, toilet paper, soda stream, fresh limes, reliable wifi, device charger
• Prescription meds

Spot the nurses. Spot the teachers.

Keep them coming!

My COVID-19 lesson:

Be prepared

Also in this series:

• 10 – List 10 staples that you will always have on hand
• 9 –
• 8 –
• 7 –
• 6 –
• 5 –
• 4 –
• 3 –
• 2 –
• 1 –