Preparing for Hurricane Season

It’s been a while since my girl scout days, but I had some flash backs this past weekend. Living on the Gulf coast, we have to be prepared for the hurricane season. Our church is adamant that we be ready for whatever may happen. Last Saturday I went to a Preparedness “fair” put on by one of our groups. It was so much fun and I learned a lot. We had a class on Houston gardening that was great. I’ve lived here all my life and I ‘m still learning how to garden here.

The second class was on cooking with alternative fuels. Pat Vilbaum, who is a girl scout trainer, taught us how to cook with foil pouches. We learned how to fold the aluminum foil pouches so that they wouldn’t leak and then we put food in them. We had chicken, mushrooms, celery, carrots, onions, rice, water and seasoning. We sealed the tops shut and went outside to learn how to start a fire using a #10 can, charcoal, and some home made fire starters. You start the charcoal and let them heat till they are white, spread them on top of a piece of foil and put the food pouches on top of them. They cook for about 30 to 35 minutes and are ready to eat. This was our lunch later in the day.

The next class was on cooking with a dutch oven. I really learned a lot with this class. The dessert for our meal was cooked in the dutch ovens. The man that taught this class made peach, apple and cherry “dump” cake. It was so easy, he put two cans of the fruit on the bottom, added 1 yellow cake mix, put one stick of grated margarine/butter on top of that and then sprinkled it with brown sugar and cinnamon. It was the best part of the meal. The lesson here is that you can cook anything in a dutch oven. Your cooking source is charcoal, which is cheap and easy to use. I have a dutch oven somewhere in the garage, I’ll have to dig it out and practice with it.

The next class was on the food for your 72 hour emergency kit. Darlene Ferguson had food there that doesn’t need water or cooking. For $15.00, I put together a kit that would feed me for three days. It also included 3 one litter bottles of water. I have a list of the foods so that I can make up more kits on my own. Actually it is just an idea of what you can do for your family. Each family is different and has different food challenges.

The next class was on making a small first aid kit for your 72 hour kit. We used pot holders and plastic bags. I made the kit but I think I will put together a more useful kit for our family. All in all I had a terrific time. Our foil pouch dinners were good and the dessert was great. I learned a lot of things that I need to be doing to get better prepared for emergencies such as a hurricane or flood.

We all need to be prepared for emergencies in our own areas of the country. A 72 hour kit is an emergency pack that is filled with items that a person/family will need to keep functioning during an emergency. You can not depend on the government to come in a help you right away. It is said that it takes three days for help to come, so you need to be prepared to take care of yourself until there get there. I actually don’t want to have to depend on the government for anything related to that. If you would like more information on making you own 72 hour kit you can go to: http://www.tsarp.org/family/index.html Look on the right side of the page in the blue and you will see the items that are suggested for a 72 hour kit. I do have knowledge about the kits, so if you have a question, just email me….Have a good day.