Lessons from WAVES

Spiritual

• Go immediately within, to your inner spirit, and seek God! Remain connected throughout the situation. Those who feel disconnected from spirit are the first to succomb to fear and panic.
• Listen to promptings from Spirit. Listen to inner guidance and pray for direction.
• What is important in life are the people around us, our family and loved ones, and being conduits of God's love.
• Get your own house in order first. Then you can help others.
• Remember the needs of family members. Children need to be occupied, and the men of the house also will tend to want productive things to do. Keep a positive attitude, and try to keep your family together.
• If you feel prompted to stay up and pray for your community, then by all means, do so!

Plan Ahead

• A WAVE says: "Don't do what I did and wait til the power goes out, and it is night time, and you are packing in the dark!!! ...I have to laugh now, but it very much was not funny at the time!" Pack while you have light. Do not wait til the power goes out! (If it does, good thing you have that flashlight! And a hands-free flashlight is even better)
• A WAVE says: "One thing I VERY HIGHLY recommend is to make a list of what you need to grab in an emergency. Even if you have to do last minute packing, you will know what to go get. In those moments when I could see the fire coming, I knew I needed to pack! I clearly remembered all of Betty's words about being prepared ... but could think of nothing to pack!!!! My brain totally went numb! Fortunately a WAVE emailed me a list!"
• Be organized and know where your supplies are. A 72 Hour Kit is minimum; if you can do larger supplies (e.g. 3 or more months), even better. Make sure to have the 72 Hour items you need BEFORE the storm hits!
• Lacking time and money? "Grab some snickers bars, some water, put it in a bag and you have a 72 hour kit!!!" After that, you can work on the gadgets like the nice Leatherman tool and the windup flashlight.
• Have your favorite keepsakes in one place, say at your computer, with a small bag nearby so you can grab them fast.
• Have a plan for what to do in case of a power outage; expect trees to be down and transportation to be disrupted.
• Do not count on your phones. Your most likely-to-work phone is a land-line corded phone. Have a CAR CHARGER for your cellphone!
• Know what foods in the fridge to eat first. Eat perishable fridge items first, then the freezer foods as they start to melt. Save your canned goods and MREs for afterward. Have plenty of frozen bread on hand. Keep your food dated.
• It's great to have a way of cooking food that isn't reliant on the power grid!
• Cheap windup/battery FM radio worked and was worth it! (A number of people reported this!)
• Remember your car - some people were trapped in their cars for days when they went out to get gas or supplies. Your car needs to have its own emergency supply kit (including toilet paper!).
• Have a plan for where to put garbage. You may need extra garbage containers, as you may not be getting any municipal services!
• Look into extra insurance! Even as apartment dwellers.
• Even when towns open shelters, people wound up there for TWO WEEKS. Keep this in mind!

Training

• Brush up on your first aid skills! Take a first aid course! You never know when you might need it!
• When buying stoves and lamps, consider buying from camping stores that will show you how to use them. PRACTICE before putting them away. Especially women!
• Know how to operate a generator safely. Many people were carbon monoxide poisoned. Gas generators must be used OUTSIDE. DO NOT BARBECUE INDOORS.

Be Ingenious and Creative!

• You can make your own fridge with ice from outdoors! Use your ingenuity!
• Had best light from cream/white-colored giant pillar candles. And white votices on white plates near a mirror helps increase the light. Avoid dark colors.
• Close off unused rooms! High ceilinged rooms don't heat well. (But keep airflow for your lanterns, etc.)
• Make sure you have plenty of blankets, including for pets. You can make little warm nests for pets out of blankets.
• Lots of people were finding ingenious ways of stayng warm - remember safety! Remember layered clothing to stay warm!

Safety

• Do NOT run generators in the house. Do NOT barbecue inside the house!
• Avoid rooms with lots of windows; flying glass is dangerous. Have plywood, tarp, tape to cover over broken windows.
• When you get lanterns, make sure they are stable and unlikely to tip over and start a fire. Examples are camping lanterns or Ranch Storm Lanterns.
• Keep everyone in one main room away from fragile windows, and remember you need air flow if you have anything burning inside (e.g. candles, lanterns)
• Keep your yard clear of "easy fly" items like lawn ornaments
• Don't leave home if you can help it. People often came back to flooded homes (broken pipes)! People also got stuck on the way to get gas or supplies and were stranded for days. Towns can contain desperate people and may not be safe.