[FREE EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS CHECKLIST]
The gas shortage is still ongoing, and prices are rising in areas where it is available. According to Autoweek, gas shortages could last past the restart of the Colonial Pipeline, and they may not dissipate fast. Are you prepared? According to FEMA, 49% of people have NOT prepared for an emergency. Read on for essential know-how and steps to take to survive a gas shortage, and don’t forget to get your copy of our Free Emergency Preparedness Checklist.
How to Survive a Gas Shortage
Can you Survive? Take control of the situation.
Anxiety over a gas shortage is normal. The thought of not being able to conduct your day-to-day business or to properly take care of your family is intimidating. The trick to keeping anxiety at bay is to take control of the situation.
No you can’t control the gas shortage – but you can control how you respond. Taking control of the situation will help reduce anxiety in the moment, help you to react with a clear plan and finally help you manage to prevent future crises by developing a long-term plan.
Stay Calm and Take Care of Immediate Needs
When crisis’s hit, be it a gas shortage, a pandemic, or a weather-related incident the most important thing to do is stay calm and take care of your most immediate needs. Once you know you are safe in the moment you can create a plan of action for moving forward.
In the case of a gas shortage:
- Make sure everyone is safe. Is everyone in the place they need to be? Does anyone have to get home from a long-distance away or be moved to a location where they can ride out the gas shortage?
- Does everyone (and your pets) have an adequate supply of medicine?
- If there is a potential or a pre-existing condition that may require emergency medical care? Do you have enough gas to transport that person to the hospital and return home?
- Are all other first-aid needs covered?
Create an Action Plan
Once you have taken care of the immediate needs, now you can begin to develop an action plan. Knowing how you are going to handle the crisis will give you a sense of control.
- Prioritize what you need to get done and determine what needs can wait till after the crisis has been resolved.
- Removing things from the “must-do” list will relieve tension and pressure on the situation.
- Find alternate solutions to accomplish the “must-do” list. In the case of a gas shortage, perhaps you team up with neighbors and create carpools to accomplish errands.
- Inventory what you have on-hand and make do with what you have.
Long Term Corrections
The key to preventing crises is to learn from where you have been and to take precautions for the future. Once the crisis has passed can you identify ways that will put you in a better position in the future? In the case of a gas shortage:
- How can you reduce your energy dependency?
- Do you keep adequate food supplies in stock at all times so that you could always survive a few days without a trip to the supermarket?
- Do you have shelf stable food that will last beyond the first few days?
- Can you source your own food with a garden or even know how to find food in nature?
- Do you have an alternate source of water or adequate ways to store water?
- Can you purify water sourced naturally?
The most important thing to do in any crisis is to stay calm. Having a plan and knowing what to do will help you to think clearly when a situation arises. Fundamentally handling any crisis starts with meeting your immediate needs, creating an action plan to manage the situation and making long term changes to prevent issues in the future.
All of this may sound like a lot to remember, but if you sign up below, you can get our FREE Emergency Preparedness Checklist, which you can keep in your pack in case of emergency. Or, you can use it to memorize and practice until you’re confident in your emergency preparedness skills!
A great article about WHY an Emergency Preparedness Plan is so important can be found here: https://fast-rescue.com/blog/why-should-you-have-an-emergency-preparedness-plan/
