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Archived General Blog Posts

Emergency Preparedness for Children: How to Prepare Your Family for Disaster Scenarios

6/29/2021 (Permalink)

Parents showing child how to be ready in an emergency Emergency preparedness is an important part of keeping your children safe. Teaching them the basics improves their ability to react to a crisis.

According to the National Household Survey, out of 5,000 polled, 47% had personal or familial experience with disasters. This statistic shows the importance of having a disaster plan for all types of disasters that may occur. Disasters can include weather events, personal injury or health crises, and break-ins, or other external threats. When creating your disaster plan, it’s important to involve all members of your household, including your children, so everyone knows what to do in an emergency event. Feeling prepared in an emergency event can help lower fear and anxiety, which can help lessen the impact, both physical and emotional, of disasters. 

Know What Your Child Is Capable of Handling

How you educate a four-year-old on emergency preparedness is going to look different than how you educate a 12-year-old. Therefore, it’s important to tailor your discussions towards your child’s emotional maturity, and their ability to understand why what you’re saying is important. 

Children Under Five

For children under five, you may want to start simply with emergency phone numbers, like 9-1-1 or a parent’s phone number. Mnemonic devices like songs can be helpful when trying to get younger children to memorize phone numbers or their home addresses.

Children Between Six and 12


For children between six and 12, you can start to incorporate a more active role in emergency preparedness. You can start to practice typical questions that emergency personnel may ask them or establish a safe meeting point, such as a grandparent’s house, in case they can’t return home. 

Teenagers

For teens, you can engage them by giving them an active role or responsibility. For example, you can put them in charge of knowing where the flashlights or candles are in the event of a blackout. Even as your children get older, it’s still important to tailor their responsibilities to their emotional maturity. Over-burdening them can cause excess stress that can be life-threatening in an emergency. Talk with your child about what they feel comfortable taking on before establishing responsibilities. 

Educate Them On How to Use 9-1-1 and Other Emergency Services

When educating your children about emergencies, stress the importance of knowing not only how, but when to dial 9-1-1. For example, a friend falling off a jungle gym and breaking a bone at a park wouldn’t be a 9-1-1 call right away. Instead, your child should find their chaperone, or drive to the nearest hospital if they are able. However, if your child’s friend has a deadly peanut allergy and ingests something made of peanuts, they should call 9-1-1 immediately, and then locate an EpiPen if there is one nearby.

The difference between these two situations is the level of danger. A broken bone isn’t typically a life-threatening situation, while anaphylactic shock can be. Discuss with your child how they can identify whether or not they are in a life-threatening situation, and whether they need to call 9-1-1.

Other emergency services and numbers important for your child to know can include:

  • A parent or guardian’s phone number;
  • Poison control;
  • Animal control;
  • Local fire and police departments;
  • Their school;
  • Locksmith. 


You can print these numbers out and leave them in a community space, so the whole family can access them. You can also program these numbers into your child’s phone if they have one, for even easier access. 

Make an Emergency Plan

Having an emergency plan and teaching emergency skills can reduce injuries, losses, and even prevent personal damage altogether. You should have a tailored emergency plan for each major type of emergency. 

Build an Emergency Kit

You can find specific resources for different types of weather events and natural disasters on the FEMA website, however, each disaster kit should include: 

  • A gallon of clean water;
  • A first aid kit;
  • At least three days of non-perishable food;
  • Battery-powered or hand-crank radio;
  • A whistle;
  • A flashlight; 
  • Extra batteries;
  • Face masks;
  • Clean blankets;
  • Garbage bags for personal waste;
  • Manual can opener;
  • Moist towelettes or baby wipes;
  • Cell phone chargers or backup batteries. 


If you live somewhere with heavy snow, like Alaska, you may want to have some version of this kit in your vehicle, in case you’re stranded in your car. 

Health Emergencies 

If you or your loved one has a medical condition, it’s important to discuss what to do with all family members in the event of an episode. You can also teach your children how to be ready for spontaneous health emergencies, such as if someone starts choking. This can be a good time to reinforce when and how to call 9-1-1, or other emergency services.

Skills that can help your children handle health emergencies before help arrives include:

  • Chest compressions: Chest compressions can save a life in the event of someone’s heart-stopping. Chest compressions should be applied with firm pressure, at 100 bpm. Several songs run at 100 bpm that you can teach your children to do chest compressions to, such as “Dancing Queen” by ABBA. 
  • Tying a tourniquet: A tourniquet is a tight band tied above a major wound that can help stop bleeding. It can be created using any material that can be tied tightly around the limb, such as a belt, scarf, necktie, or piece of rope. This can be a life-saving temporary solution before medical professionals arrive. 
  • The recovery position: The recovery position is a way to assist people who have fallen unconscious. The basics of the recovery position include turning someone on their side so that their airways can remain free, and pillowing their head. The Epilepsy Society has published a full video on how to execute the recovery position


Enrolling in a basic first aid course can teach you all of the above skills, as well as other important skills for a health emergency, such as the Heimlich maneuver and basic burn care. 

External Threats

External threats can include burglary, shooter threat, or hostile animals. Emergency plans for these types of threats may include:
 

  • Having an evacuation route from the home; 
  • Setting an agreed-upon family meeting place somewhere outside the home;
  • Teaching children how to notice signs of a break-in;
  • Teaching children how to remove themselves from an aggressive animal


Many schools will run safety drills that will teach children how to deal with some of these external threats. These drills can be carried over and applied at home. 

Teach them About Natural Disasters 

Natural disasters, such as fires, floods, blizzards, thunderstorms, and other major weather events are another important part of disaster preparation. The area in which you live will help determine what kind of weather events you need to be prepared for. Someone living in California will want to have an earthquake kit handy, while someone living in Oklahoma will want to be more prepared for tornadoes.

In some cases, emergency preparedness can help you reduce the amount of damage to your home and personal belongings. For example, if you live somewhere with earthquakes, you may want to bolt tall furniture like bookshelves to the wall or keep breakables in a chest, rather than on display. Other damage, like fire and smoke damage or flooding damage, may not be able to be avoided.

Teaching your children the different effects of different natural disasters can help them reduce their safety risks, and help them to prioritize saving themselves over saving objects. 

Find Creative Ways to Educate Your Children About Emergencies

Finding fun and interactive ways to teach your children about emergency preparedness can help them retain information better. As mentioned before, mnemonic devices can be a great way to teach phone numbers or acronyms. Having their direct input in creating an emergency kit, such as letting them pick out the color of the flashlight, is another way that you can get your kids involved.

Keeping your approach to emergency preparedness light and engaging is important not only to increase retention but to decrease feelings of dread or anxiety around severe topics. 

Watch Your Tone

It’s important to remain calm while doing any sort of disaster education. Sounding scared or stressed may deter children from wanting to learn valuable skills, or heighten their anxiety should an emergency occur. You can instill confidence in your child’s ability to handle a crisis by providing positive reinforcement and answering their questions honestly. 


Emergency preparedness has been proven to prevent personal injury. The National Household Survey additionally found that engaging in one emergency preparedness action is associated with engaging in others. By starting to educate your children about emergency preparedness when they’re young, you can create habits that can carry over into adulthood.

Home Inspections: What Are They, When to Conduct One, and Why They’re Important

6/29/2021 (Permalink)

qoman with magnifying glass over a house Home inspections allow future homeowners and property managers to get a better feel for what areas of the home need to be replaced.

A home inspection is a non-invasive, thorough examination conducted by professionals to get a better understanding of the current condition of the home. There are a few reasons why someone may have an inspection done. For instance, rental property managers may choose to conduct them quarterly and/or upon a tenant moving out. Others, like future home buyers, may choose to have them done before buying a home. 

What Happens During a Home Inspection?

The inspection process will vary based on what type of inspection is being conducted. For example, if the inspector is there to look over the condition of the home after a tenant has moved out, they will look for structural damage, hazards, and/or defects. 

In addition to the above, home buyer’s inspectors will also take a thorough look at the interior and exterior of the home to ensure it is up to code with local standards. If upon inspection they find anything that is not up to code, damaged, or that may need repairing, they must then report it to the buyer. 

It is important to note that it is not the inspector’s duty to repair any damage found in or around the home. Instead, they are only there to make a record of the home’s current condition — it is up to the landlord or home buyer to decide how they want to approach making any necessary repairs. 

How to Find a Home Inspector

Just as with hiring any contractor, you will want to be sure to look for a trustworthy home inspector with a good reputation. However, this can be difficult, especially since it’s hard to tell someone’s skill-level just by looking at them. Luckily there are tips to follow to help ensure you hire a reputable house inspector:

  • Just because your real estate agent referred you to someone doesn't mean they’re the best. Do your research on the inspector before hiring them;
  • Reach out to trusted family and friends who have recently purchased a home to see who they recommend;
  • Check their credentials and see who is certified by a professional organization;
  • Look at reviews online;
  • Look for someone who has many years of training under their belt.

Finding an inspector with little to no experience — or failing to hire an inspector at all — may cost you more in damage repair in the long run. 

What Do Home Inspectors Look for?

There are numerous parts of the home that an inspector will look at, regardless of the job’s purpose. This includes the:

  • Attic;
  • Basement;
  • Ceilings;
  • Doors;
  • Electrical systems;
  • Flooring;
  • Foundation;
  • HVAC systems;
  • Interior plumbing;
  • Landscaping;
  • Major appliances;
  • Roof;
  • Structural components;
  • Walls;
  • Windows. 

When observing these different spaces, the inspector will make note of any damage that is done to report back to the homeowner and/or property manager. 

What Isn’t Looked for During a Home Inspection? 

It may seem like housing inspectors look at everything from front to back. However, there are a few things that are out of their area of expertise. For example, inspectors will not look for:

  • Asbestos;
  • Lead paint;
  • Mold;
  • Pest damage.

If there are any signs of these in your home, you should call a professional that specializes in mold remediation, pest control, and asbestos removal. If there are signs of mold or asbestos, you may want to consider finding temporary housing — for these can be harmful to be around. 

How Much Do Home Inspections Cost?

The average cost of a home inspection ranges between $300 and $500. However, the pricing is subject to change depending on multiple factors. Some factors to consider when budgeting for a home inspection include:

  • The size of your home;
  • What the inspection is for;
  • What you want to be inspected;
  • When your home was built;
  • Where you live.

If anything, you can get a quote from a local inspection company to help you prepare for the cost of the inspection — keeping in mind the tips listed above when finding a local company to reach out to.   

What Happens After the Home Inspection? 

Depending on what the inspector finds, the homeowner/property manager may want to consider making a few changes to their home. For example, if they find signs of water damage — dark/wet spots, cracking in the walls, sounds of running water — they may want to consider looking into water damage restoration services

Black soot and/or lingering smells of smoke could be an indicator that the home was once damaged by smoke or fire. This may require restoration services that specialize in fire and smoke

If the home was previously damaged by flooding or storms, like visible water infiltration, broken gutters, water stains, wall cracks, cracked molding, and even crooked doors, then hiring a professional that specializes in flooding restoration services may be worth looking into. 

Other potential restoration projects would include replacing the electrical and plumbing, installing new flooring, updating the HVAC system, or even pouring new cement in the basement. 

Housing inspections are an important part of the house buying process. Without them, homeowners and property managers alike may be surprised with damages down the road that should’ve been caught earlier on. Regardless of why you need to hire an inspector, just know that it’s worth the initial cost and can save you money in the long run.