Senior News Line: How to plan for emergencies

The government has a comprehensive website full of information on how to prepare for emergencies, power outages, hurricanes, floods — nearly everything you can imagine. Should a disaster occur, we’ll be better off if we plan in advance.

On www.ready.gov, the section on supplies to keep on hand is a good place to start.

Click on “Build A Kit” for a list of suggested emergency items to keep on hand. The list of items they suggest you keep is extensive, so pick and chose the ones that pertain to you.

Here is a list of things I’ve put in my emergency stash, since I live in an area with all-too-frequent power outages.

• Cash — Even if I can get to an ATM, if there’s a power outage that goes on for several days, the ATM won’t work.

• Phone charger/backup battery — The one I have from a big-box store cost approximately $25 and will fully charge my cellphone three or four times. It has 10,000 mAh capacity, with 20W delivery, and can charge two devices at the same time.

• Food — I mark the top of cans and boxes with the expiration date and rotate supplies so nothing expires.

• Pet supplies — Include food and any medication your pet might be on.

• Jugs of water -—You need 1 gallon per person per day.

• Manual can opener.

• Paper plates and plastic utensils.

• Flashlight and extra batteries — Consider getting a few small camp lights from a big-box store. Don’t use candles.

• Prescription meds — Stay ahead with necessary medicines, if you can. Chances are you can’t get a refill on your 90-day prescription, for example, until 10 days or so before you’re due to run out. Still, go ahead and head to the pharmacy as soon as you can to make sure you have it.

Be sure to check the weather news every day so you can see what’s coming.