Being Prepared For An Emergency

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the weekend warriors home improvement show, built by bar lumber. When it comes to big or small projects around the home, Tony and Cory have got the know how and the answers to make your life just a bit easier. Here they are, your weekend warriors, Tony and Corey. You know, Tony, we've been talking about emergency preparedness. Last week we did a show on how to put a go bag together. So this week, you know, we talked about putting these emergency kits together for a long time, and I feel like that we've got so many shows about that. But I wanted to talk about things that you should do and maybe things that you should have on hand to be better prepared for an emergency. [00:00:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm. That's. It's a very good conversation to have. Right. In preparation for, um. But maybe, Corey, just as important is to be prepared for what you're going to do after. [00:01:09] Speaker A: That's right. [00:01:09] Speaker B: I mean, being prepared before it comes, the things that you can do before it comes is, is one thing, and that's great, but, um, there's, there's a lot of things that will have to be done after, and after is not the time to try to figure that out. [00:01:27] Speaker A: Right. [00:01:28] Speaker B: I mean, I think the more prepared we are mentally for what we're going to have to deal with after, maybe the better we'll handle it. I think in my case, if I have thought about and talked about and prepared for what I'm going to be facing after, then maybe it will come as less of a surprise. I'll respond more quickly and be more efficient. [00:01:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:56] Speaker B: And maybe I'll be, maybe I'll be better because of it. [00:02:00] Speaker A: I agree. I mean, there's, there's going to be situations when an emergency arises that you're, you're, you're not going to be prepared for, and it's going to be a tragic situation all the way around. But like you said, the more we talk about it, the more that we bring up a situation that you may not have thought of. I think it is kind of preparing for it. So I like to talk about, especially in emergency preparedness month. We're into October already, but September every year is emergency preparedness month. It's a good time to remember, to go back and look at your kit, make sure there's nothing that's out of date. If you've got stored food or you've got water, check the dates on those things. All of those things we've talked about in the show many, many times. But let's kind of go through our list. We created a list of things, like I said, just to help you be better prepared. We're just going to talk about them. [00:02:56] Speaker B: Did you separate the list before and after? [00:03:00] Speaker A: No. Well, I think. [00:03:01] Speaker B: Is it all mixed up in there? [00:03:02] Speaker A: It's kind of all mixed up. There's things that we put in here that you're going to need to do immediately following. [00:03:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:08] Speaker A: But there's some, also some things that you need to think about doing now before you ever encounter an emergency. [00:03:14] Speaker B: So let's start the show with the one thing you do during. You have before and you have after, and then you have during. This is very simple. Drop, cover, hold. [00:03:29] Speaker A: Drop, cover, and hold. [00:03:30] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, protect yourself, make sure that you're in a safe space, and protect yourself and your family during. Right. [00:03:38] Speaker A: Oh, I see. Like in an earthquake? [00:03:40] Speaker B: Well, yeah, or. Or maybe a hurricane or maybe a tornado. You know, I mean, I'm just saying it. In these situations, you need to be thinking about, um, you and your. And your. Your immediate family, and it's going to be about getting under some cover and staying low and waiting. [00:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:59] Speaker B: Right. [00:04:00] Speaker A: And so, uh, don't do anything rash. [00:04:02] Speaker B: Yes. The problem is, so often, as humans, we want to, the very first thing we want to do, Cory, is run. We want to get up and run, but we're probably not going to outrun. [00:04:17] Speaker A: What'S coming, I think, you know, I don't know. I mean, it kind of depends on the emergency and a flood. If a flash flood is coming, you want to run to where? [00:04:28] Speaker B: Well, how far are you going to run before the flood gets there? [00:04:32] Speaker A: Well, uphill. [00:04:34] Speaker B: Okay. [00:04:34] Speaker A: You want to go? [00:04:35] Speaker B: Okay. So you want to find a place to be safe. [00:04:39] Speaker A: Well, but that's part of preparing. That's the before. [00:04:43] Speaker B: I know, but I'm just saying, literally, my point is this, during the event is not the time to be a hero during the event. Be a hero before and be a hero after, but during the event, protect your life and the lives of your. And the lives of your family. That's with you. [00:05:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I see what you're saying. [00:05:08] Speaker B: It's just very important that we don't do it. In the moment when it's happening is the time to stay alive. However that is that you have to do. If that means climb to the top of the house so that you don't drown. Okay. Climb to the top of the house. If it means get underneath a heavy table or. Or a doorway, then do that in that moment, save yourself first so that you can be a hero after. [00:05:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I see what you're saying. But yeah, like you said, if you, if you be a hero before, by, for the number one thing on the list, create an emergency plan. If you have an emergency plan, you're already better off in an emergency than before. [00:05:49] Speaker B: Right. [00:05:50] Speaker A: And what we mean by that is especially if you have a family, you know, we talk about communication. You want to establish with your wife, with your kids. Who's, where are you going? How are you going to communicate? Is it through text? Is it social media? Sometimes in, depending on the emergency, you may not have electricity, you may not have cell towers. They might not be working. So you have to assume that there's going to be a communication block out and you have to figure out a way and where you're going to meet. Have a designated meeting point. And it could be as simple as after an earthquake, we're going to meet in the right hand corner of the driveway, you know, or we're going to meet at the fire station down the road. It's just, you have to establish that so that you're not freaking out. [00:06:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:47] Speaker A: Saying, where is my daughter? Where is my son? You go to the place and you wait. [00:06:55] Speaker B: Follow the plan. [00:06:56] Speaker A: Right. And in with that, we talk about communication. Sometimes local communication is out. So you might not be able to reach out to your family in other states directly. Yeah. You want to identify a person that you can contact, who can relay messages if that local communication is disrupted. [00:07:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:18] Speaker A: Like my sister lives in Tennessee. I can message her and she can let my entire family know that I'm alive. [00:07:28] Speaker B: Right. [00:07:29] Speaker A: Next thing is evacuation. You need to have an evacuation route from your home. If you live on a second story, you want to have an emergency ladder. You do. [00:07:42] Speaker B: Yep. [00:07:42] Speaker A: You only have one way down and there's a fire there. Then how are you getting out of your bedroom? How are your kids getting out of their bedroom? These are the sorts of things you need to think about. And it's not just your home. Could be your neighborhood or even your city. If you need to get out of the city, have that evacuation route planned out. At least here in Portland, in the Pacific Northwest, we're waiting for the big one. The really big one. And when that thing hits, the amount of damage they're saying is going to be astronomical. Half of the bridges, I don't think, I think it's more than half of the bridges aren't ready for earthquake. They're not earthquake seismic rated. [00:08:25] Speaker B: Well, yeah. Some of them are 100 years old. [00:08:27] Speaker A: Yeah. So they could potentially crumble. [00:08:30] Speaker B: Right. [00:08:30] Speaker A: And make them impassable. [00:08:32] Speaker B: Right. [00:08:32] Speaker A: So you have to consider that when you're trying to get out of town. Which route am I gonna take and how am I gonna get out of town without driving over these? [00:08:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Is the entire population of Portland gonna be trying to cross the tilicom bridge at the same time? Right. Because it's the only bridge that didn't crumble in an earthquake, I think. [00:08:51] Speaker A: Isn't the steel bridge going under right now? Currently I feel like they're replacing another bridge in downtown. [00:08:58] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe that could be, but either. [00:09:00] Speaker A: Way, this is what I'm talking about. We're not going to go over every scenario because every emergency situation is different for every person. It's more about creating that plan. How to create that plan is one thing, but remembering to do it, that's. [00:09:16] Speaker B: Number one in conveying your family, taking the time to do it and communicating it. [00:09:21] Speaker A: Absolutely. You want to identify multiple routes, multiple roads in case they're blocked. You know, you, if, if you know that you live in a home that is susceptible to forest fire or you know that you live in an area that is susceptible to. Your house may not be seismic, upgraded. And so, you know, for a factory, maybe your house won't be livable. If we have an earthquake, maybe it'll fall off the foundation. [00:09:53] Speaker B: You may already be in a hundred year floodplain. [00:09:56] Speaker A: Right. [00:09:56] Speaker B: A lot of homes are. Which means you're already susceptible to the smallest amount of water. [00:10:00] Speaker A: Correct. [00:10:01] Speaker B: If you get 20 inches of rain in a very short period of time, 24 hours, man, that whole house could be underwater. [00:10:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:11] Speaker B: Like from the top. [00:10:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Crazy. [00:10:14] Speaker A: It's uh, it's happened. It's happening currently. And if you don't have a plan and someone you've talked to who for instance, doesn't live in a wildfire zone, somewhere where you can go, a relative's house or a friend, it's just being prepared. [00:10:35] Speaker B: Yep. [00:10:38] Speaker A: Uh, the next one on the list. [00:10:40] Speaker B: Tony, you make arrangements for your pets. Of course. Pets are family members as well. We need to consider them and their well being and not let them suffer. We need to make sure that we have made arrangements for our pets during an emergency situation. [00:10:59] Speaker A: Totally. Whatever it is. If your pets are on medications, if your pets have specific food, you know, you want to have food and water for you. But if you have a pet, you have to consider that as well. Next one list, Tony, is to build an emergency kit. I know we so many shows about this. [00:11:18] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, literally last week we talked about a, we talked about a go bag or a get home bag or yeah. Or, yeah, basically, it doesn't matter whether you're leaving home to go or leaving. [00:11:33] Speaker A: Work to get home or sheltering in place. [00:11:35] Speaker B: Or sheltering in place. Whatever it is. You need a bag. And, uh, there's a lot of things to talk about that you could put inside that bag, and you won't be able to fit everything in the bag. But, um. But it's a very good topic of. [00:11:49] Speaker A: Conversation just for some basics. One gallon per person per day for however long you think you'll need it. Three days usually. Minimum. Non perishable food, basic hygiene supplies, first aid kits, flashlights, batteries, you know, things like that. That's what goes into an emergency kit. [00:12:09] Speaker B: Right. [00:12:10] Speaker A: But also, just as important are personal documents. And I think it's very important to have all of your documents. And I'm talking passports, Social Security cards, the deeds to your house, the titles to your vehicles, whatever information that you would need to continue on. Right. [00:12:36] Speaker B: Right. [00:12:37] Speaker A: Should be in a fireproof, waterproof bag. In a fireproof, waterproof container. And I have this exact situation in my safe. I have a safe that's bolted to the floor in my garage. And I have all of our documents in fireproof, waterproof bags. And they're almost like luggage. So they're big and they zip up and they're about four inches thick. And I can put. We have everything in there. And in an emergency, if we need to get, we need to leave, I can grab them, I can open my safe, grab them and leave. But if I can't and we're sheltering in place, or if I got to get out and I don't have time, they're more than likely going to be safe where they are. [00:13:23] Speaker B: Right? Where they live. [00:13:25] Speaker A: Where they live, yeah. Because, yes, a lot of the stuff is available digitally, but a lot of it's not. And when you're recovering after an emergency and you don't have your birth certificate, you don't have your driver's license, you have nothing. You don't even have your insurance policy. You lost your phone, so you don't have phone numbers. I mean, these are the things you just have to consider in the moment. Keep it in a safe space. [00:13:55] Speaker B: Smart medications and health items, also very, very important. I know that I have, because of my medical history, I have medications. Many, I feel like medications that I have to take every day to stay alive. And I don't know what I would do without them. I have backups, I have spares. I have emergency quantities. You know what I mean? I have these things. I need to make sure that, that they are in a place where I can get them quickly and I don't need to worry about them being damaged. They need to be in a container that's going to keep them safe. And the same thing goes with my family members as well. So these things are very, I mean, for you, Corey, you would need to, of course, have your CPAP ready to go. I know you can't sleep anywhere without your cPap. [00:14:45] Speaker A: That is true. And I actually have a spare. A spare. [00:14:50] Speaker B: I know you do. I know this about you already. [00:14:52] Speaker A: And I have a battery that I can plug it into and take it with me that I always keep charged. [00:14:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:59] Speaker A: So I can grab that battery and go. And it'll get me at least four or five nights. [00:15:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Primary example, you know, be prepared. Corey is one of the single most prepared people that I know. I try to be, and I honestly didn't know that he had a second CPAP. But it does not surprise me in the least actually at all. Or that it's about battery operated. Um, yes. Health and medications. If we don't have our health, then. Then what are we doing? [00:15:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:25] Speaker B: Right. [00:15:25] Speaker A: Especially if you rely on it, if you need them to survive. [00:15:28] Speaker B: Yeah. This kind of reminds me of when you're in an airplane. Wherever you fly, they give you the safety rundown at the beginning of the flight. And this is what they say, put it on yourself before you put it on anybody else. Because if you don't have it on you, you can't help anybody else. [00:15:45] Speaker A: Right. [00:15:45] Speaker B: You know what I mean? You may only just be able to help the one person and then you're gone because you didn't put it on yourself first. Put it on yourself first. That way you can be a help to everyone around you. And this is the same situation. We need to watch out for our own health first and then immediately help everyone who's around us if it's feasible. [00:16:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:03] Speaker B: A portable phone charger, you know, this is, um, obviously they have those, they have those little like solar wind up, you know, thing. Can you charge a cell phone with a wind up charger? [00:16:15] Speaker A: You can. I actually have one that is, it has its own battery in it and it has like a solar panel on it. So you leave it out in the sun and it charges the battery. [00:16:26] Speaker B: Nice. [00:16:28] Speaker A: It doesn't have. It has. I have a flashlight that you can wind up charging. I believe it does have a usb out on it. Might take a while. Gonna get a little winded. [00:16:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:40] Speaker A: Charging up your cell phone. [00:16:41] Speaker B: Lots of winding. Yeah. [00:16:42] Speaker A: But it would, it would work in a pinch. I think the battery ones that I have that you set out in the sun is probably a better idea. [00:16:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Having a way to charge your phone without electricity is, would be a great idea. Your phone has obviously a lot of resources and a lot of people will not have the ability to charge their stuff, at least for a time. You know, in the situation that we were talking about, the really big one. [00:17:07] Speaker A: You think about badlandhouse, really bad natural disasters like the hurricane that just came through in South Carolina, I mean, they're going to be without power, water, gas for a very long time. [00:17:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Is it. [00:17:26] Speaker A: It could be weeks and weeks. [00:17:27] Speaker B: North, North Carolina. [00:17:28] Speaker A: North Carolina. [00:17:29] Speaker B: Asheville. [00:17:29] Speaker A: Asheville. Yeah. I mean, there's, there's a whole path. [00:17:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:33] Speaker A: That, that hurricane took, but there is a lot of tragedy going on in North Carolina right now. It just makes you think, you know, that's part of this show for us, is talking about it and trying to be as prepared as we can. We never know what life's going to throw at us. But if we're talking about it in creating plans, I think when it happens or if it happens, you're just a little bit more prepared. [00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah. This is a primary example, being prepared. Learn basic first Aidan. I know the company that I work for, par lumber company, provides that service for their employees, and I take advantage of it always. And I am CPR and AEd certified. And that is, that is even beyond just basic first aid. Basic first aid is very easy to learn and it will help you in, in the situation that we're talking about. [00:18:32] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:18:33] Speaker B: And it will help those around you. Of course. [00:18:35] Speaker A: Another thing you can do is sign up for emergency alerts. There are things that you can buy. I have a NOAA NOAA radio that tunes in to specific channels that I can charge. It's solar powered and I can plug it in and it will work. But having the ability to stay informed on what's going on and where you should go. I live in a pretty big city, and if we just set out for somewhere, we could get stuck behind 50,000 vehicles. [00:19:18] Speaker B: Right. [00:19:19] Speaker A: They might be full. They might not have the services that we require to, so being able to communicate out and get communication on where, because when these emergencies happen, they will broadcast where, what to do, where to go, and if other things are happening. So growing up, I grew up in Michigan. We got a lot of tornadoes, and my parents had a radio that was just always plugged in, and it was on the NOAA channel. Interesting. And it would broadcast. It would sound an alarm when the tornado alarms would go off, and then it would tell you where it was. [00:20:02] Speaker B: Wow. [00:20:03] Speaker A: And if you should seek cover or, you know, if it was just a warning, but when it got to. Or a watch, if it was a tornado watch, but when it got to a warning, that's when you headed for the basement. But just stuff like that, you know, being prepared. If we didn't have that, you're kind of just left. A lot of people have their phones, but not all phones work that way. [00:20:28] Speaker B: Right. [00:20:29] Speaker A: Some of that old school technology wouldn't hurt. This is one tony and I've been talking about recently. We were talking about discussing the show is learn how to turn off your gas and your electricity and your water. [00:20:46] Speaker B: And your water. Yep. These are. These are all different things. And not everybody has a gas supply at their home. If you have a gas range or, um, or a gas heater or a gas stove, then. Then you have gas to the house. And knowing how to turn that off is huge. You. You know, there's so much possibility that a broken gas line could catch fire and that could become an explosion. Absolutely terrible, which exacerbates the situation that you're already in, which is natural disaster already. So knowing how to shut these things off, the gas, the water, and, of course, the electricity. If there's water present in your damaged home because of this natural disaster, you don't want your electricity on. That also makes a bad situation even worse. So it's a great idea to understand where these things are and know how to shut them off and practice it. Practice it once, even. [00:21:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:53] Speaker B: Or, you know, or practice it once a year, even. [00:21:57] Speaker A: And show your family how to do it. [00:21:59] Speaker B: And show your family how to do it. If there's a tool that's required to do it like there is for the water, usually for the city water shut off, show the family where the tool is, how to get to it, how to get to the water and how to do the thing. [00:22:12] Speaker A: Yep. How to turn it off. That's a. That's a great tip. The other thing you can do to prepare your home just to get, you know, ready, is you can strengthen it in here. In the Pacific Northwest, we talk about seismic upgrades all the time. There are things that you can do to your home, like Simpson strong tie. They're one of the largest steel companies in the world. They manufacture metal connectors for construction, building. [00:22:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:45] Speaker A: And they make seismic upgrades for homes. And if your home has never been retrofitted, might be a good idea to look into that if you're. If you're worried about it. And one thing to keep in mind when we talk about these structural upgrades and what a lot of people, I think, get drawn into this idea, like, if you install $50,000 worth of steel into your home, that your home is not going to get damaged. And that's just not the case. Any house that has seismic hardware in it, it's designed to stay standing so that you can get out. That's what it's there for. [00:23:28] Speaker B: Exactly. That's right. [00:23:29] Speaker A: If an earthquake happens, a lot of the older homes, anything built in Portland, pre, what, 97, probably has zero seismic hardware in it. [00:23:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:39] Speaker A: It might not even have foundation bolts, but every four or 6ft. [00:23:43] Speaker B: Yeah. They don't sell these products to keep the home in perfect condition. Right. They create and sell this product to buy you seconds or maybe minutes. Maybe. [00:23:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:59] Speaker B: To do what you have to do inside the house and get out before it comes down on you. [00:24:05] Speaker A: Yep. So there's things like that, that you can buy structural upgrades for your home. There's companies that can come in and do it. There's. There might be some things you can do yourself, but in the event, there's also other things like storm shutters or furniture anchors. Large furniture anchors. If you don't know what that is, a lot of people will install them when they have kids. If you've got tall furniture, like an armoire or a china hutch. Yeah. A china hutch or a dresser or a. [00:24:39] Speaker B: Or grandfather clock, when the house starts. [00:24:42] Speaker A: Shimmying, those things are going to tip over. [00:24:45] Speaker B: Yes. [00:24:45] Speaker A: Period. [00:24:46] Speaker B: Because the floor and the ground rolls. [00:24:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:51] Speaker B: And it's not. It's not no longer sitting on a flat surface anymore. It shakes and it rolls and it moves all over. [00:24:58] Speaker A: So when you have large things like that, they make these anchors that screw into the wall. You hit a stud and then you screw the other portion into your furniture. And it's usually like a little clip or something or a hook. And it prevents it. It helps prevent it from tipping over. I would highly recommend it if you have any tall furniture in your kid's room or your bedroom where they could potentially fall on you while you're sleeping. Could you imagine having an earthquake happen and an armoire landing on your head? [00:25:30] Speaker B: No. [00:25:30] Speaker A: And then you're knocked out cold for the rest of it. [00:25:33] Speaker B: No, I cannot. I cannot imagine. [00:25:35] Speaker A: There's other, you know, being prepared to, like having a shelf in your room loaded with heavy plates above your bed. I mean, there's just silly things like it sounds silly, but, you know, there's people out there that have that. [00:25:48] Speaker B: Yeah. I definitely want to have all of my faculties available to me in the time. In a time of an emergency situation like that. [00:25:56] Speaker A: 100%. The next thing on the list is trim your trees. If you've got large branches hanging over your house. We've. We talk about this all the time. That's just part of maintenance. You don't want branches hanging over your house, period. You're inviting bugs, rats, mice, and you're. You're just asking for that thing to fall and break branches. Break all the time. I had a branch break off in my front yard that landed on my neighbor's house. And it didn't land on it because the tree. But the tree shifted and it came over and the branch broke and it leaned against their house after it broke because it's not. We. We don't have anything hanging over our house or our neighbor's house. And it just happens. The guy literally came out. The arborist came out a year before and I had him inspect the tree because it. To me, it looked a little hokey. And he's like, no, it's fine. It's perfectly fine. And then a year later, boom, broke and fell on my neighbor's house. [00:26:58] Speaker B: Wow. Yikes. Yeah. Here's another thing, just real quickly, with trees that are regularly touching or hanging over the house, organics from that, from that foliage drops onto the house and it begins to grow there. And you can have stuff growing under the shingles on the roof, you can have stuff growing under between pieces of siding. And as it grows under there and separates those things that are supposed to be together, that allows water and all kinds of things to get in there and that causes damage to the actual structure. It doesn't have to be even bugs. It can just. It can just grow there because that tree is touching the house or covering the house. You got to keep that clean and free from debris at all times. [00:27:48] Speaker A: Any. Anything. You don't want any shrubbery of any kind. [00:27:53] Speaker B: Right. Touching the house. Yeah. [00:27:54] Speaker A: Period. [00:27:55] Speaker B: That's right. [00:27:56] Speaker A: If you live in a fire area prone to fire, we have a lot of that here in the west. [00:28:01] Speaker B: Yes. [00:28:02] Speaker A: You want to clear brush and debris at least 30ft from your home to reduce fire risk, especially if it's dry brush. Cut it out, trim it down, get rid of it. [00:28:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Get it away from the house. [00:28:16] Speaker A: If you got a fence, make sure that all the fence boards are attached. Especially if you live in an area with high wind zones, hurricane or tornado, maybe you don't want to create ammo, right? [00:28:31] Speaker B: Absolutely. If you live in a flood zone area or a flood prone area, you're probably pretty well prepared for how to deal with that. And, and there are also things that you can do to protect your home. If you're in a floodplain area and you're, and you get water, you know, periodically enough that, that, you know, you're in that area. You used to live in a floodplain area. Yes. You know, take steps to make sure that you have all the things that you need to protect your home in case of an emergency as well. [00:29:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Next thing on this, Tony, is backup power. [00:29:13] Speaker B: That's a great idea. [00:29:14] Speaker A: Yeah. If you live in an area where I have a co worker who lives in an area that is always getting the power shut off, really, any sort of emergency, they're like, boom, power is gone. And sometimes when there's fire risk, the power company will turn off power as well. [00:29:31] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [00:29:32] Speaker A: So he had a backup generator installed. So that's something that you can look at. They're not horribly expensive, and they do the cost versus value. When you sell the home, it does. [00:29:50] Speaker B: Increase the resale of your home. [00:29:51] Speaker A: Yeah. People will pay for that. [00:29:53] Speaker B: I mean, you said it's not terribly expensive. It's not inexpensive. [00:29:58] Speaker A: No, it's not inexpensive. [00:29:59] Speaker B: It is. [00:29:59] Speaker A: This is what I would say about ten to 15,000. [00:30:01] Speaker B: Yeah. It's an investment. If you're spending ten to $15,000 on something that you may need periodically over the course of the year or, you know, whatever. Um, but it's definitely worth it. It's a great investment, and, uh, and it's worth it. Just doesn't, just probably won't get used as often, depending on where you're at. [00:30:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:23] Speaker B: Um, smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. Obviously, we talk about this all the time. You need to be testing your smoke and carbon detectors in your home regularly. Make sure that they are working. Replace the batteries, not when the batteries die. Replace the batteries every year. The batteries are going to die. And batteries are not so expensive that you can't afford to replace them once a year. Replace the batteries every year. Don't wait for them to die. If you don't wait for them to die, then you don't wake up at 03:00 in the morning. [00:30:52] Speaker A: I was gonna say, you know, when beeping at. You smoked a deckard. Battery die. [00:30:55] Speaker B: Yeah. At 03:00 in the morning. [00:30:56] Speaker A: In the morning. [00:30:56] Speaker B: It's always 03:00 in the morning. So don't wait for that to happen. Just change them every year, test them, make sure they're working and move on. And they that way they can do the job that they were meant to do, which is to save your life. [00:31:11] Speaker A: Yep. Next one on this, Tony, is insurance review. And what I mean by that is to make sure that your homeowners or your renter insurance insurance is up to date and will cover the things that you need it to cover. I have this incredible story of a friend of mine who worked for an insurance company. I'm not going to say which one, but this woman had her policy for like, 50 years, and she had been paying the same, or had the same policy for 50 years and never reviewed it. Nobody ever called her to review it. She just kept upping it. So she paid on this policy for well over 50 years. She had a fire in her home, and the insurance company said, well, your dwelling is only covered for like $25,000 because it was 50 years old. You see what I'm saying? [00:32:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:16] Speaker A: Nobody had checked on her and said, hey, your home value has gone way up. We should look at changing your policy. [00:32:28] Speaker B: Updating your policy, because guess what? [00:32:31] Speaker A: They don't care. [00:32:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:32] Speaker A: Insurance companies don't care. [00:32:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Also notable that shouldn't say that there are some. There are some. Sometimes there are natural disaster type things that can take place that are not specifically covered by your homeowner's insurance. [00:32:47] Speaker A: Correct. [00:32:47] Speaker B: I mean, flood insurance is not an automatic thing. No. I'm. Earthquake insurance. [00:32:53] Speaker A: You can't even get flood insurance unless you live in a floodplain. [00:32:58] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's a. That's. Those are questions that homeowners should have answers to. Is my home going to be protect? Protected in the case of an earthquake or a hurricane or a flood? [00:33:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:11] Speaker B: And if it's not going to be protected and there's no way for you to get it protected, then maybe we consider starting an emergency fund. How much money would you pay to insurance coverage? Can you start an emergency fund that would. [00:33:26] Speaker A: For yourself? [00:33:27] Speaker B: Yeah, for yourself. That's what I mean. [00:33:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Cause that's the thing, too. If, for instance, you have the same policy. Right. That you bought your home with and you've just been paying on it for the last 20 years, you're probably in that same boat. You know, you bought the house for $200,000.20 years ago. Your policy is probably the dwellings, probably for $200,000. And let's say you've become a better, more prosperous adult and you started buying a bunch of Lego sets and the Lego sets are an investment, and you just have a whole bunch of money in Lego sets. [00:34:05] Speaker B: Sure. [00:34:06] Speaker A: Those aren't covered, right? I'll tell you right now. [00:34:09] Speaker B: Right. You have to disclose that. And you have to have photos. [00:34:13] Speaker A: Yeah. You gotta have a video. Yeah, exactly. You have purchased, you've got to notify your insurance agent that you have $50,000 in legos. [00:34:21] Speaker B: Right. [00:34:21] Speaker A: Or a $5,000 painting or whatever it is you have in your house. It's like a wedding ring. You know, you can call your insurance company, say, hey, I want to insure my wedding ring. And you can, and you pay a little extra. A rider, it's the same thing. You just want to do a review. [00:34:41] Speaker B: On your insurance, know where you're at. [00:34:43] Speaker A: And I feel like a lot of people do. I think this is kind of a, probably a rare issue, because I think when they do what I do, when your insurance company all of a sudden says, oh, hey, we doubled your rate, you're like, oh, heck no. And you start shopping around to other sure, places. I feel like people shop around insurance. But. [00:35:03] Speaker B: But if your insurance didn't double your rate, did you take a look? [00:35:05] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:35:07] Speaker B: When was the last time you updated your will? [00:35:10] Speaker A: Oh, recently, actually. Probably within the last year and a half. [00:35:14] Speaker B: Yeah. I think the last time I saw my will was about 25 years ago. You know what I'm saying? I mean, it's not something people think about all the time. [00:35:23] Speaker A: No. And now, what did you have 25 years ago that you don't have now? Or. I had kids, I didn't have it. [00:35:28] Speaker B: Now you got kids at home that weren't, that weren't 21. [00:35:32] Speaker A: Right. [00:35:33] Speaker B: I mean, it was a very different situation 20, you know, five years ago. [00:35:37] Speaker A: Yeah. My will. [00:35:38] Speaker B: Now my children are adults with families of their own. [00:35:41] Speaker A: Yep. My will has basically where I want my kids to go, where I want my life insurance money to go into, you know, into these buckets and into these things. So, yeah, it's all basically surrounded around my children. [00:35:55] Speaker B: Right. Yeah, mine too. And, and I know, I'm realizing that I have some updating to do there. [00:36:01] Speaker A: Um, it's not that expensive to get to meet with an attorney and get your will updated. That's a great idea, Tony. [00:36:09] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, it's a good thing. Something we need to be doing. Thinking about, um, hygienic supplies, obviously. Hand sanitizer, soap, um, garbage bags, towel, little, like moist towelettes, um, anything that you can use to keep yourself clean. This is very important because what comes very commonly in a natural disaster are injuries, abrasions, lacerations, things that are on your skin, those little breaks in your skin that may not be a big deal to you when they get the kind of stuff that's going to be. That we're going to be exposed to. In a natural disaster situation, sewer lines are broken and gas lines are broken and. And there's a lot of stuff in the water and the mud on the ground that would not normally be there. And now suddenly it's getting inside of your skin, which is your last line of protection, and now you're in trouble. You need to stay clean. You need to. You. You definitely, especially in a situation like this, need to stay clean. [00:37:16] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's a good point. I do want to say, don't be a hoarder. Don't go out and hoard cases and cases of toilet paper and cases and cases of hand sanitizer. I think during the pandemic, a lot of people, we saw a taste of what could happen. And when these emergencies happen, it's happening now, where something bad happens and everyone else freaks out and goes and buys out the store. You don't need six months worth of toilet paper. You don't. [00:37:50] Speaker B: Right? Yeah. [00:37:51] Speaker A: Knock it off. [00:37:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. But plan for special needs, specific dietary needs. We talked about health and safety. If there are. If there are specific dietary needs that you have medications and those kind of things, make sure that you plan for that. You have that maybe in your go bag or in, you know, available to you prepared so that you can grab it and go quickly. [00:38:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Especially if you have children, infants, elderly, you know, people with disabilities. You have to consider that stuff in the worst case scenario. Another thing you can do is prepare your vehicle. We talked about that go bag last week. We also talked about a get home bag, which is if you're on the road and the emergency happens while you're on the road, you have things to help you get home. And also I would include in that, like jumper cables, road flares, things like that blanket. Yeah. Always have. I. I drive through the mountains all the time for my work, and in the middle of wintertime, there's some areas that are dicey. And if I were to go off the road, you would probably not find me for months. [00:39:10] Speaker B: Wow. [00:39:10] Speaker A: I mean, it's that hairy? [00:39:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:14] Speaker A: Um. [00:39:15] Speaker B: Wow. This is a great tip. [00:39:16] Speaker A: I know. [00:39:16] Speaker B: Especially for me, huh? [00:39:17] Speaker A: Keep your fuel tank full. [00:39:20] Speaker B: I am. I'm a. I'm a bit of a procrastinator. [00:39:24] Speaker A: You really? [00:39:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:25] Speaker A: I did not know this. [00:39:26] Speaker B: I know. You know, telling the listeners, I'm a bit of a procrastinator, uh, and I will definitely wait until the last moment to fill the gas tank. Not because. Just because I'd rather be, you know, doing something else than sitting at the gas station. But this is a really good tip. [00:39:45] Speaker A: So you're always rolling into the gas station on fumes? [00:39:48] Speaker B: I mean, more often than not, I'm not always, but most of the time. [00:39:52] Speaker A: I'll never, ever let it get below a quarter. Usually this is a really good quarter. Or if it hits a half gas, like even a half in my personal truck, if it hits a half, I'm filling it up because it's a diesel and I don't want it. [00:40:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:04] Speaker A: Any condensation getting in there? [00:40:06] Speaker B: Right, right. Yeah. For your car spare tire and the ability to change it. When is the last time you changed your own tire? [00:40:14] Speaker A: Oh, it's been years. But I will tell you this. I have a story from when I was in college. I've told you this story. I had this car, little Ford Taurus. You know, like a 90 to Ford Taurus or something. When I was in college. I was driving back home from the upper peninsula near Lake Superior. All the way back down to southern Michigan. Is about an eight hour drive. And I left Friday night after work. Because I was young and stupid. And I hit the road at like 08:00 and I got about halfway there. Middle of nowhere, this little town. The nearest town was Roscommon. And I got a flat tire. Mind you, it's January. The temperature was probably five below. And I get out, I'm like, crap. Change this tire. Get the jack out. Jack it up. Get the spare tire out. Set the spare tire next to the old one. Getting ready to take the lugs off my flat tire. And it has a lock key on it, of course. Yeah. These factory wheels on my Ford Taurus. [00:41:29] Speaker B: The factory wheels had a lock. [00:41:32] Speaker A: Had a lock. I mean, it was. [00:41:34] Speaker B: I did grow up in flint, a lock lug. [00:41:36] Speaker A: But, yeah, it had this lock lug on it. All five had locks. [00:41:40] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. [00:41:41] Speaker A: And I'm like, oh, no. So I start tearing the trunk apart. I'm tearing the everything apart. It was not in the vehicle glovebox. It was not in the glove box. It was not in the center console. It wasn't under the seats. It wasn't under the back seat. It wasn't in. It was nowhere. So I had zero way to change my tire at 01:00 in the morning. Five below on a freeway that saw one car every 25 minutes. [00:42:10] Speaker B: Oh, man. [00:42:11] Speaker A: I was lucky that I was able to flag down a cardinal. I had a flashlight, and I was just flashing the flashlight, and this young gal, probably 18 years old, stopped and picked me up. And I told her, I said, you are crazy, but thank you. [00:42:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:27] Speaker A: And because it was probably. I was probably 15 to 20 miles from the town of Roscommon, so that would have taken me lots of. [00:42:38] Speaker B: Long walk. [00:42:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Very long walk. [00:42:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:40] Speaker A: I wouldn't. [00:42:41] Speaker B: Cold. [00:42:42] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:42:44] Speaker B: Yeah. The last tire that I changed was not mine. Was. Was stranded on the side of the road. Pretty, you know, was not. Was not a big deal. That tire that I took off was shredded. But, yeah, it's. It's a good thing to do. If you haven't done it, you should do it. And whether it's yours or somebody else's, if you haven't changed the tire, do it. If you have, you probably don't need the practice, but it's a good thing to know how to do. [00:43:09] Speaker A: I feel like that's one of the things I'm gonna make my children learn, is to at least do it, do it once. I like that idea. [00:43:18] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a good idea. It's one of those things. It's one of those things that's gonna. [00:43:22] Speaker A: Happen to my wife. Never change a tire in her life because her parents always paid for triple a for her. [00:43:28] Speaker B: So it's a good thing to have. I know it's a good thing to have. [00:43:31] Speaker A: I actually have it now. I don't. I can change a tire, but I want to. [00:43:35] Speaker B: I don't either. Yeah. [00:43:37] Speaker A: A month. Come change it for me. [00:43:40] Speaker B: So we talked about having an emergency plan, and we talked about all of the different things that your plan covers. So many of the things. The most important thing you can do after creating a plan for all of the areas is to practice and update your plan. Practice and update. Situations will change. Kids will come and go, new homes and new cars and all of that stuff. Everything will change. Continue to practice and update your plan. Honestly, it can save your life. It can save the life of your family. It can save the life of your loved ones. It's. It is the thing to do. It is how you prepare. It is what you need to survive. [00:44:27] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a responsible thing. [00:44:29] Speaker B: It's the response, the right thing to do. [00:44:31] Speaker A: All right, so that's all we got. Our heart goes out to the people in North Carolina. [00:44:36] Speaker B: Yes. [00:44:37] Speaker A: Eastern Tennessee. If you have the means, it'd probably be worth donating. [00:44:44] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:44:44] Speaker A: So some funds out there. Those people are devastated. So check that out. Anyway, thanks so much for listening. We'll catch you next time. [00:44:55] Speaker B: Have a great week. [00:44:57] Speaker A: Bye.