Emergency Preparedness Week Challenge 2021: This is what I do at home!

Reminder: Emergencies can happen anytime, anywhere

It’s Emergency Preparedness Week and this is a great opportunity to review our preparedness. Here are some of preparedness ideas that I use/do at home.

Emergency Household Kit and Grab-and-Go Bag
Securing furniture
Placing anti/non-slip sheet under fragile items

My Case

– Location: Vancouver, BC

– Home type: Condo

Considering that Westcoast BC is at a risk of getting large earthquakes, my emergency plans include earthquake preparedness.

Emergency Household Kit and Grab-and-Go Bag

I make sure to have a bag prepared for each family members.

Securing Furniture

Securing furniture, especially tall pieces such as bookcases and cabinets, is very important as it could fall onto you during an earthquake and it could cause a serious injury. It is recommended to secure furniture to the wall studs or to use “L” shape brackets but for those who are unable to drill hole on your walls due to rental agreement etc… please don’t give up! You can still secure your furniture with other options by using gap-filling objects (tension pole and boxed/bagged blanket etc.. something that does not cause injuries when it fell off) placing between the furniture and ceiling to fill the gap. For my case, we actually place a tension board firmly between the furniture and the ceiling.

Here is how it looks when using a tension board.

Safety Tip!

Place large and heavy objects to the lower shelves to protect you from falling objects!

Fragile items? Place Anti/Non-slip Sheet!

Furniture is now secured but items on shelves may still fall off during a shake. Those objects could become a hazard when they are broken as well. I use anti-slip sheet that you can find in major dollar stores to reduce a risk of object slipping off of shelves.

Place the sheet under items which you do not want them to be slipped out.

Safety Tip!

There are many kinds of anti/non-slip items (sheet, mat, and gel mat etc…) that can reduce risks of objects slipping off during an earthquake. They are readily available and can be found in major stores & online stores.