Wow! There seems to be so many things going on around our world. It is both scary and frustrating. I keep thinking "what do we do to help"! Well, financially I can't help anyone, I am barely surviving myself as a single parent. But I thought I could do a hub and I think develop a webpage for surviving a disaster in our world. A page where we can all go and add our comments suggestions and whatever we want.

I live in Illinois we actually had an earthquake a few weeks ago. Nothing to serious, I woke up with my chair shaking(I have to sleep in a recliner, back problems) I thought it was a dream. It wasn't anything big but it made me stop and think that we just never know what can happen.

So, I have done a lot of research and reading (very time consuming). So, I get to become a person that runs around "crying wolf" I don't mean to be that way. I just rather be prepared if something happens.

A lot of my friends and family think I am being paranoid. Well paranoid or not, if something happens I bet they all will be at my house for food and water, I guess they better hope I have a lot stored. I would rather be wrong but I want to be caught with my pants down either.

I was watching a CNN news show the other day and the guest on the show said to start buying up groceries now because chances are by next year we are going to have a very hard time buying groceries because the prices are going to be so high. So people should stock up now. Ok here I go again :) did anyone watch the special CNN had on "We were warned" out of gas? Well that was very insightful and scary

So, I have a few tips I would like to share:

We need to keep lots of water stored. I read that a gallon of water per person, per day and a half a gallon per day per pet. I have read in several articles that tap water is good for up to a year. Some people put a couple of drops of bleach in it so it won't grow bacteria.

You should also have one of those big outside garbage cans (new of course) full of water. You want the lid to snap down so there is no danger of a child falling into it.

You can keep can goods stored for a long time at room temperature. You don't want to store them where (like in Illinois) you have to worry about the weather changes all year long..

What are we all going to do..Well, I have started a survivial kit for my family. I am storing water, filling 2 litre soda bottles with tap water with a 1/4 tsp. on bleach in them and fresh bottle water as well. I have started building up can goods. I am going to get a variety of everything (with my buget I have to start out a little at a time) after all, right now it is hard enough to keep food on the table.

I am using the big rubbermaid contrainers to store everything in and with the treated water I have I have put on the lid a sheet with the date it was stored and a place to check off periodically and the date. I want it to be as fresh as I can keep it.

I have a container for dry good also. Now the noodles, beans, rice, and things like that are going to be ok for a very long time but boxed cereal and oatmeal will have to switched out on a regular basis because it will go to waste.

I have a propane stove for camping and that is a good thing to have along with plenty of propane, also a latern would be a good thing along with flashlights and lots of batteries but once again the batteries will go bad eventually so I suggest that eveything should be put in containers and catagorized with dates and things like that so it will be easier to keep track of.

Also I am going to do a first aid kit with the necessities in it. But here we go again you will have to keep track of the dates. Now, I am not suggesting this for anyone else but for myself I take a lot of presciption meds for blood pressure and pain meds. So, I have been cutting back on these a little each week and getting my prescription refilled on time and that way I will have a little on hand. Because if we were to have a big disaster, I doubt I would be able to get my meds refilled.

My friends say I watch too much news, Hey maybe I do but as I said before I don't want to be sorry someday because I did not prepare.

I would like some feedback for my webpage I am building I need more input, things we can share. But I am asking especially for suggestions on a heating source for the dead of winter. We don't all have fireplaces and Kerosene heaters would not be practical because we may not be able to get more kerosene.when needed. But no matter how prepared we are with food and water if we are in sub-below zero weather we are going to freeze to death without a heat source.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.