[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 Cory.
It hey. Welcome to the weekend, warriors. Home improvement show podcast. I'm Corey Valdez.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: And I'm Tony Cookston.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: Thanks for I was going to say tuning in with us again, but you're not really tuning in. You're searching us and listening.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: No more tuning technology.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: It's amazing.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: It's hard to it's hard to change how you say things with tony and I were on the radio for twelve years. Eleven years? Oh, yeah.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: It makes us old.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: Yeah, it kind of does.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: But people don't listen to the radio anymore.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: No, I know.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: So it's all about the podcast. So that's what we're doing.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Is there a podcast besides ours that you listen to regularly? No, there's not.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: You know, honestly, yes. I listen to the Bible project. I don't know if you've ever listened to those guys.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: No, I haven't.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: They're based out of Portland, Oregon, and they're really interesting. I mean, very interesting.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: You get the opportunity.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: How about you?
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I got a couple. Yeah, I really like to listen to Don Eisen and Zach braff. These guys were show called Scrubs.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: Oh, I remember those guys.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Fake doctors, real friends. It's a pretty good podcast. Those guys are very funny. You see them on T Mobile commercials now?
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I've seen them.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: I know who you're talking they're, uh they're very funny. I like those guys. So that's something I frequent.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: Well, there you go. Well, hopefully people listen to us. Yeah.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Well, we got a few followers. We got some listens out there. As you know, we get analytics that shows us what's going on and we see there's a lot of listening going on. So that's what keeps us coming back.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: I know that's right. It's not just our moms anymore. Right?
[00:02:03] Speaker B: No, it's not just for moms. We got actual people out there who enjoy the information that we bring. And however it is that that is it is what it is. That's right.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: I feel like for the first several years of us doing the show, it was only your mom listening.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
And then your mom came.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: Were yeah, totally.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Then we were good.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Anyway, so, Tony, September is Emergency Preparedness month, and I thought it'd be a good idea to talk about emergency preparedness because it's a know the wildfires are happening in the Pacific Northwest. Kind of happens every year in the summer, and earthquakes are a thing that happen here in the Pacific Northwest. So I feel like we need to talk about it.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: There is definitely a lot of things about emergency preparedness that are things we should be thinking about and we're not.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Good reminders.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: And it's to a whole bunch of different levels, right? On the simplest level, to the most complex level, the most complex level maybe being an earthquake, maybe the Cascadia subduction zone earthquake, that's a major, major deal. Right.
And it could be on a simple scale where the power went out.
Or maybe there's a little thing going on in the neighborhood and you want to be away from the house for a few days.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Totally. You could have a gas leak, you could have a water main break. You could have a dam break. You could have a bridge collapse. These are things that happen all over the United States every day.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Right.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: So if you're not any sort of prepared, then you're probably in trouble, right?
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Some sort of preparedness is going to benefit you. I guarantee it. And at the very least, start thinking about it. At least be thinking about it.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Absolutely. So I actually want to break this show up into two parts. I think we're going to talk about all the things you need to do to be prepared. But very specifically, one of the items that's in all of these things is an emergency preparedness kit. And all of the things that go into an emergency preparedness kit is extensive. Tony and I have compiled a massive list of things that you should put in there as bare minimum and then some more obscure things that would be really handy to have for specific scenarios or specific emergencies. So let's go through the list. These are some of the things that you have to consider to be prepared for an emergency. And like I said, number one, have an emergency kit. It's bare minimum. Have something in your car, have something in your garage, have it wherever you can have access to it. And it's funny because I've thought about this many times, and I actually have two or three emergency kits. I have one in my work vehicle, I have one in my personal vehicle and my wife's vehicle. I have a bigger one in our home.
And what that allows me to do is be prepared for multiple types of emergencies. If I'm at work, I have what's called a get home bag. I keep it in my par truck, my personal work truck. I mean, and it goes with me everywhere. So if we were to have an earthquake, I would have everything I need that I think I need anyway to get me home. If we got knocked out, if we got our communications knocked out, if I had to stay the night on the side of the road, because it's quite a long drive for me to get from work to home. And if my kids were at home and I was at work, I definitely want to get there. I'm not sitting around waiting for emergency services to show up and shuttle me somewhere, right? I need to get home. And if that means hiking the 15 miles or 18 miles it is for me to get from work to home. I'm doing it so I have everything in there that's just something to consider having an emergency kit. And if you're at home, obviously you need more things in it.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Right. An emergency kit takes on a lot of different shapes, sizes, inclusions, even different names. Like you said, a get home bag.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: So we will cover an extensive list of the things that would be in an emergency kit. Like that. In part two? Yeah, in part two. But an emergency kit number one. Number two on the list, a communication plan. This is very important. We talk about practicing safety. We practice safety at work. People practice safety all across the country, all across the world. Well, the same thing goes for your family. You need to have a communication plan with your family so that everyone in the family that resides in the home and even children that have moved away from home but are nearby, they need to know what your plan is. And they need to have a plan so that you go to the same place and meet in the same place together and you are prepared to move forward not knowing what's happening. But a communication plan is very important.
A designated out of town contact who everyone who's not together and maybe can't get a hold of each other, can get a hold of someone out of town who holds vital information for the entire group. Right.
And then we know that cell phones are very versatile and they give us the ability to communicate differently than it used to be with a regular phone. But cell phones may not be and regular phones may not be available to us. In the case of an emergency, it may be more difficult to get information out, but however it is that you do, you should have somebody out of town that's not suffering, that can have information for everybody. Everybody knows where to go, everybody knows who to talk to. And so that you don't end up without some portion of your tribe.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: Right. And if you have kids that don't have cell phones I have a nine year old, he doesn't have a cell phone. So having him carrying around an emergency list of numbers of my phone number, my wife's phone number, his sister's phone number, grandma and grandpa's phone numbers, all of those things for communication purposes is vital, right?
[00:08:39] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: So number three on the list is emergency contacts.
We're just going along with the communication plan, having those emergency contacts that everyone can call, like Tony said, having a person that you trust within the family that has vital information, who where everyone know sometimes that communication gets interrupted, especially in an earthquake. If all of the power is out and all of the cell towers are out, when things are going to get spotty, sometimes they'll bring in emergency Internet, right? They'll set up these towers and have emergency Internet. So you might have Internet service that you can log in and contact. So having those contacts is key, especially for emergency fire. It's not just 911. There's other things that are vital to have in your emergency contact list.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: Absolutely. Very important so that everyone's on the same page so that everyone ends up where they're supposed to be. An evacuation plan. This is primarily for the people who you're living with in your home. Right. If there's an incident, whether that's an earthquake or a flood or whatever it is that's going on, a wildfire. A wildfire. And you have to get out in a hurry.
First of all, back to the emergency kit. You don't want to be trying to build a bag full of things in that moment. You want to grab and go. And everybody needs to know how to get out safely and where to go from there. Where is the meeting place? If the house is full of smoke or something like that and people are going from different parts of the house, they need to all be going to the same place so that you can meet up together. So an evacuation plan, how do we get there and where do we end up?
[00:10:31] Speaker A: And does everyone in your family know it?
[00:10:33] Speaker B: Right. And communicate it?
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: Communication plan includes the evacuation plan.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Practicing those drills, making sure your kids understand if you have what a fire alarm sounds like inside your home, like.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: A carbon monoxide poisoning kind of thing or something like that. Or radon.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Knowing what those alarms sound like, what they mean and where to go.
If you have kids on a second story, do you have a ladder for them? Do they need to climb down a ladder? You definitely don't want your kids running into danger. You want them out of the house as fast as possible. So I've actually taught my kids, we're on the main floor, but I've taught them how to pop their screens open, jump out, where to meet. And we know that if they're not there, they're still in the house. I'm going back in to get them. Of course, if they're somewhere else, that could potentially be dangerous for me.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: So we were talking about in the case of an emergency and there's several things that could be well, this is an important part. You should know what your risks are. What is most likely to be something that you might be facing? Obviously we might be facing a power outage, we might be facing some flooding scenarios, we might be facing an earthquake scenario. Probably not going to have a lot of hurricane situations or tornadoes here. But know your local risks so that you can be prepared for those ahead of time.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Absolutely. And there are resources locally. Most jurisdictions have resources for you to discuss and talk about emergencies that could potentially happen if you live in an area where there's a giant dam upstream. Right.
What is the possibilities of that dam breaking? And are you going to be into a flood situation?
Those are the things that you might not necessarily be prepared for, but could be a reality. We all know about tornadoes and wildfires and floods and hurricanes and all of those things and earthquakes, but those things that are municipality type emergencies that you wouldn't necessarily think of. So it's a good idea to get to know your area. What are you getting yourself into?
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I agree with that.
And you were talking about the alarm system, the different types of alarms that we might hear knowing that you're subscribing to, that you have talked to different agencies that might be alerting, like noa, NOAA, right. They're responsible for national weather or something along those lines.
Yeah, they have alerts. If there was some kind of natural disaster, there's going to be an alert. The national broadcast system alert. These are things that you should be teaching your family, like you said, but also make sure that you're prescribing to something like an Amber Alert on your phone, for example. You should know what that is, and you should be prescribing to it if it's applicable to you.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: Yeah, well, keep in mind and this is something that a lot of people probably wouldn't necessarily consider, but if you use a cell phone that is from another state or you have a VPN on your phone, a VPN is something that masks your IP address.
You might not get emergency alerts onto your phone, especially if you're connected to WiFi or some sort of Internet and you don't have cellular service. These are just things to keep in mind. So making sure that you're set up on the right systems, on the right alert systems, whether it's text messages or weather apps or family and friends, that notify you just having it ready. Something to consider, something that you can.
[00:14:38] Speaker B: Do inside the home to help prepare for a situation that you're not prepared for or are not expecting, is to secure heavy furniture or appliances to the wall. If you've got a large refrigerator or a large hutch in the house that is maybe it's full of china, you would want to have that securely fastened to the structure of the wall from behind. It doesn't need to be something that you can see when you're looking at it. A metal strap that's got a screw into your stud and a screw into the back of the hutch that fastens it mechanically fastens it to the wall so that in the case of an earthquake or something like that, it's not falling, which is causing more hazards inside the home while you're trying to get out. Another one that is a safety measure, of course, is making sure that you have smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors, maybe a radon detector. Those need to be installed, functioning, and the batteries need to be changed regularly. If you're not doing that, then you're setting yourself up for.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: Disaster.
[00:15:58] Speaker B: Bad things. Bad things to happen to you and your family. This is not an expensive thing to keep your smoke detectors and your carbon monoxide detectors operating functionally is not expensive. It's annoying.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: Can I ask a question?
[00:16:13] Speaker B: It's nuanced.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: I'm going to ask a question.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah, go ahead.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Why do the batteries on these detectors go out at three in the morning?
I'm wondering.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Well, here's the thing. I think that the beep starts when the beep starts, and then the beep just goes for months and months and months until you replace that battery.
You're saying it always starts at 03:00 in the morning?
[00:16:39] Speaker A: The last couple of times I've had a smoke detector go out, it was in the middle of the night. I have to be honest, because I have a carbon monoxide sensor in my home right now that is on my kitchen counter with the battery pulled out.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: Because I don't have 9 volts, I got to go buy a pack of 9 volts. But the battery went out in the middle of the night.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: I'm going to tell you why. I have the answer. This is the end all, beat all answer. Because you did not replace it one year after you installed it intentionally.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: That is true.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: It is your unintentionality that is causing you to be alerted at 03:00 in the morning, which has now resulted in a carbon monoxide warning sensor on your counter not doing its job.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: I should have replaced it.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: If you do that last year when you change your clocks every year, those batteries will never run out.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: Well, we're getting rid of that. We're getting rid of daylight saving stuff.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: You're going to have to find another thing to remind you.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: Christmas day every year christmas Day.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: Christmas Day is a weird day. What about Labor Day weekend?
[00:17:51] Speaker A: There you go. That's a good one.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: Or Memorial Day weekend, whatever it is.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: Halloween, some whatever date you choose.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: Because if you don't do it, it's spooky. Situation coming.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: Scary. Yeah. Anyway, that happened to me and I'm in there. I did it. I pulled it out of the wall. I got up at 03:00 in the morning. I was so tired.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: At least you didn't hit it with a broom.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: No, I just took it out. I realized the battery was dead and I set it on my kitchen counter. This is just the other night I.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Took took a smoke detector off of the ceiling that was beeping.
And after I took it, disconnected it from the thing, from the wires that were in the ceiling and pulled it down and set it on the counter, it was still beeping. And then I reached in and I pulled the battery out and it was still beeping.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: That's crazy.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: After the battery was out, it was still beeping. There is a little watch, smaller watch battery inside there that will carry that beep forward for a time even after the battery is out.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: What's the point of that?
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, well, apparently it's trying to save somebody's life.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: Well, it's telling you to put the battery in. Yeah.
So you're saying to avoid all that, just replace it yearly.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Replace it yearly if you just intentionally do it.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: All right. Intentionally heed my own advice.
[00:19:10] Speaker B: Fire safety. Do you know have you this is going to sound silly. Have you ever used a fire extinguisher in an emergent situation?
[00:19:19] Speaker A: I have not. I never I actually did.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: I did use a fire extinguisher in an emergency situation. I used it wrong, but I used it it worked.
[00:19:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: I mean, it worked out. Use it wrong well, because it was a grease fire and I used the wrong extinguisher for that grease fire. But it did not end badly. I mean, it did put out the fire even though it turned out it was the wrong extinguisher.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: Well, that's something to point out. Yeah. That there are different extinguishers for different types of fire, for sure. And you need to make sure that the type of fire extinguisher you have in the particular place that you want to use it in. Like, for instance, if you have a barbecue outside, you would want a particular fire extinguisher there versus if you have one near your kitchen and, you know, that could potentially be a grease fire, you would want to have that particular fire extinguisher there.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: And if you have an electronic fire, then there's another kind of fire extinguisher for that.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: Yes.
It's all part and parcel.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: They got, like, an A-B-A-D-I don't know. There's a bunch of different types.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: Well, we're not experts on do some research on that.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: But make sure that next step, make sure you have the right fire extinguisher where it belongs and make sure you know how to use it. You're supposed to do a low sweeping.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: Thing well and make sure that everyone in your house knows where they are. And make sure everyone in your house knows how to use them.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: Right.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: If I know how to use it and I know where it is and my kids don't communication.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: Communication plan.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: That should include fire safety.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: That's a fail on me if they don't know that information. Also going along with fire safety, we talked about this before, but having an escape fire escape plan. Right, and a general escape plan, but fires are different. Like I said earlier, you have kids that don't know what to do, and they're going to be confused, and probably the first thing they're going to think about is, I need to get to my parents room or I need to see my parents. And that might not be the best path for them.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: Right. Especially if the window in their room is the safest immediate exit to a safe place.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: Absolutely.
Like you said, practice.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: It practice.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: All right. The next one on the list is to have your medical needs. There are many people on many medications, and in an emergency situation, if you got to get out, if you got to go, or if you need to be gone for an extended period of time, or if we have the big one, the big earthquake, and we don't have power or services for weeks or even months. Do you have what you need medically to keep you alive?
[00:22:16] Speaker B: Do you have a chronic medical situation?
[00:22:19] Speaker A: Me? Yeah. Depends on what you mean by chronic.
[00:22:23] Speaker B: I just was thinking chronic.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: Do I take medication? Yes, I do.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: Do you do? Yeah, I do. I definitely do. But I can tell you something. That is something that I did years ago when we did this show the first time, is I got extra.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: So I have an allotment of medication that I take that is just for emergency.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:22:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Because if your prescription drugs that you have are being paid for by your insurance company, they don't just let you stock it up.
[00:22:58] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: They let you refill your prescription when your old prescription is out. But there is a little overlap there.
If you ask the pharmacy that's supplying your medication, when is the soonest I can get my prescription refilled? They'll say this is the date. If you show up on that date and you get your prescription refilled, there's some overlap. Some doses of that medication will be leftover extra.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you're right. As long as it's not narcotic. No.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: Right.
[00:23:33] Speaker A: There's those prescriptions that require you to be in person, doctors that sign note, all those things, controlled substances. But yeah, like you said, if you're taking blood pressure medicine blood? Yeah, blood pressure medicine. Yeah. Or you could probably get that refilled.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: Every antipsychotics, 25 days.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: Like I do crazy meds.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
A kid. A kid.
Yeah.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: So, anyway, having medical needs, and it could also be in regards to hygiene, personal hygiene. So think about those sorts of things for an extended period of time and what you would need and where are you going to keep it.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: This is something else. We talked a little bit about having cash. Where are you keeping that cash?
[00:24:18] Speaker A: Yeah, good point. I mean, you don't want to have.
[00:24:21] Speaker B: Keeping that in a safe.
[00:24:22] Speaker A: Yeah. You don't want to have a bunch of cash hanging around in your wallet or in an envelope somewhere under your mattress.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: I mean, maybe you're storing the cash in your go bag, or maybe you're storing your cash in the safe. I mean, just because you're saving cash for an emergency situation doesn't mean it's going to be burned up or flooded, right, or buried in an earthquake. I mean, it could just be that things outside are bad. It could be war.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: What if we were at war?
[00:24:54] Speaker B: You're going to want to have cash. Maybe if we were at war, you.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: Never know who you need to pay off.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: All I was going to say is this. If you've made a conscious decision to save some cash or currency of some kind and you've decided a safe place to keep it, keep in that same place, medical records, birth certificate, Social Security cards, passports, everyone has this important stuff.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Let me tell you what I do and you can tell me if I'm doing it right. I have in a safe that I have access to a fireproof bag, a larger fireproof bag with handles, zippers, it's waterproof and fireproof. It's got a big handle on it. And inside of there, I have all of our stuff from birth certificates, passports, medical records, mortgage stuff, financial stuff. It's all in there and it's inside this bag, inside of the safe. And then I also have inside of there a fireproof bag with velcro. So it velcro is closed. And I've got a little bit of cash in that. So in the case of a fire, I think my fireproof safe with my fireproof bag of money sitting in another fireproof bag should survive. Yeah. In an emergency, I can open that safe, grab that whole bag and go. Yeah, you think that's right?
[00:26:40] Speaker B: Yes, I do think that's right. I think that might be a little bit of over, but you're a planner, so I would say good job. I think that's good.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: I don't think you have to worry about your money disintegrating inside your well, like they said, your six hour safe.
[00:26:58] Speaker A: Number ten on our list, is being financially prepared. And we're not talking about retirement, we're talking about having, like you said, cash. Maybe your ATM card, credit cards, documents, things that you need to continue on or if your house was destroyed. You have everything you need to get what you need, because I don't know if you've ever gone to the DMV or gone to get any sort of new information and they ask you for all the information, like if you lost all that stuff. They'd say, well, we need this, we need your passport. It's like, oh, I lost it. Well, we need your birth certificate. Well, I lost that too. If you don't have any of that stuff, it is going to be a long arduous process for you.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: How about this? Cell towers are down. Whatever this emergency is, it resulted in cell towers being down. Let's call this the big one, right?
The subduction zone earthquake. And you are in your car and you're driving. We did it. We got out of the house, we're in the car, we're driving. We got the whole family here. We're going to be fine. Right?
[00:28:09] Speaker A: Pull to the gas station to get.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: Gas, and guess what? They're not taking credit cards because cell towers are down and they can't communicate with that. Cash is the only way.
[00:28:19] Speaker A: Cash is king.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: You better have some cash. I mean, this is the same exact situation. Just one simple thing. You have to buy gas to make your car go so you can get to a safe place, and you can't get gas unless you got cash, because credit card machines aren't working.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and this is the thing that I always think about, too, and you just threw that scenario by me, and I've never really thought that through. But I tend to never let my gas tank get below a half a tank, because I know that if we need to go get in the rig and go, I need to have at least two to 300 miles of fuel in my vehicle. So personally, if it gets to a half a tank, I'm filling it back up, because in an emergency, I need to go. You know what I mean? Practice. I'm not getting down or I'll jumping in in an emergency.
Shoot. Need to get gas, guys. Hang tight. Yeah, you need me. Snacks.
It's not happening. Yeah, you got to get you got to go.
[00:29:24] Speaker B: You got to go.
What about your pets? You have a cute little puppy dog, and in the case of an emergency, it's 03:00 in the morning, and you have just heard your smoke alarm going off, and it's not because the battery is dead.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: Yeah, it's going to happen.
[00:29:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
What about Fido?
[00:29:49] Speaker A: What about Oliver? Well, this is tough. I've seen many heated discussions on the Internet about saving your pets versus saving your kids versus saving wait. Versus well, I've seen conversations had online about saving either saving your pet or saving someone else's kids.
[00:30:14] Speaker B: I've seen this someone else's kids.
[00:30:15] Speaker A: It's a heated debate. Yeah.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: I don't know who's choosing their pet over their kids.
[00:30:19] Speaker A: There are some people who would rather choose their pet over someone else's kids.
There's a lot of people, as a matter of fact, that would say, no, I'm saving my dog, versus that neighbor's kids.
[00:30:32] Speaker B: Yikes.
[00:30:32] Speaker A: It's weird to me.
[00:30:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: But that's me.
[00:30:37] Speaker B: You cannot put a value on a relationship that someone has built. And it doesn't matter whether it's a pet or a family member. A relationship is a relationship.
And if you don't have that same relationship with your next door neighbor, then you're probably not prioritizing their kids.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: That's weird. I mean, I prioritize the human life, human life over a pet life, personally, even if it was my little doggie.
But no going back to that pet preparedness, having food, water, if your dog's on medication, your cat's on medication, being able to get out of the house, have everything you need to take care of your pet. It's just part of the thing.
[00:31:20] Speaker B: Something to think about.
[00:31:21] Speaker A: Something to think about. Where does your pet sleep in the case of a fire?
Are you going to put yourself at risk? Are you going to run through the house looking for Fido in that emergency?
[00:31:35] Speaker B: Right.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: So just something to consider.
[00:31:37] Speaker B: Good question. Something to think. About something to plan for, something to practice next. Something to have communicated to the family?
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Absolutely. All right, next one. List insurance.
I had a pretty interesting conversation with a friend of mine who owns an insurance agency. Not going to say who he is because he told me not to.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: But he said that most people are underinsured. There has been situations where in his particular business, there was a woman who had her home insured for 60 years. Never one time had a claim. Never one time.
But after 60 years, her house burned to the ground. And in that time frame, nobody had ever reviewed her policy. She just kept renewing it and renewing it and renewing it and renewing it.
But after 60 years, when she signed up for that policy, her house was valued at, like, $20,000.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:32:45] Speaker A: And when her house burned down, it.
[00:32:46] Speaker B: Was valued at $220,000.
[00:32:50] Speaker A: $600,000. Right. Okay. So she was paying this policy, and the value went up, but it was minuscule. So when her house burned down, she didn't have remotely enough money in her policy to pay for her home, let alone all of the things that she lost.
So being prepared with your insurance means looking at your policy, seeing what's covered. Do you have pictures of everything in your house? And does the amount of insurance you carry on your home enough to rebuild it and pay for all that stuff? I mean, personally, I've done tons and tons of remodels to my home since I've bought it.
Does my insurance policy reflect how much value I have in my home?
[00:33:42] Speaker B: Right.
[00:33:43] Speaker A: Do I have artwork in my home? Do I have personal effects in my home that go over the amount that I have insured? I would lose it all. You see what I'm saying, right?
[00:33:53] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:33:54] Speaker A: So it's important to double check your policies. Even if you're a renter, you can get rental insurance if you are in a flood. You need to make sure if you're in a floodplain, that you have enough insurance in your flood coverage to cover all of that stuff. It's just part of it, because I have known people that have had fires personally, and it's devastating. The amount of things you lose, you would never even imagine. So one of the things you can do is walk around your house. Like I said, walk around your house, take pictures of everything you have. Videos are even better. And upload that stuff to a cloud. Have a cloud somewhere.
Apple, Google, whatever. Take videos of all of the things in note maybe values and what they are, model numbers. If you have receipts, put those in your safe, because down the road, the insurance company is going to try and pay you the least amount of money humanly possible that your policy will cover. That's just reality. That's their business.
So for you to get it out, you got to have all of that documentation and have the policy to cover it. So he recommended to me to buy an umbrella policy. So I'm actually looking into that.
[00:35:13] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:15] Speaker B: All right.
[00:35:15] Speaker A: The next one on the list is community resources. We said a little bit about this earlier, but there are a lot of local emergency shelters, hospitals, resources available to you, and if you don't know about them, then they're not going to help you. So find out what your local area has in case of any emergency, and chances are that local resource knows what emergencies you'd be expecting in your area.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. It's a good idea to consider some education, some training in education. As a volunteer firefighter, I went every week to get some training during that time. Also, I got my emergency medical technician. I became a first responder. These are things that you can do CPR course or a first aid class. It's a good idea to be prepared to respond in an emergency situation with some level of expertise that's beyond average understanding.
Be prepared to be able to take care of your family in case of a worst case scenario where someone's injured or something's happened that you're of course not expecting. So some bit of emergency training is a good idea.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Personally, I have CPR certified, but I also in my emergency preparedness kit. I actually have a book on field medicine that I try and pick up and read through chapters every so often. But for the most part I've got it in my kit and if something comes up, I can flip to that page and learn about it and figure out what to do in that moment.
[00:37:13] Speaker B: Smart.
[00:37:14] Speaker A: Something good to have.
[00:37:15] Speaker B: Definitely.
[00:37:16] Speaker A: Next one on the list is regular maintenance.
[00:37:19] Speaker B: Maintenance.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: We talked about this. Changing out your supplies, changing out the batteries. That's just one of them. But if you have, for instance, in your kit, water has a shelf life, food, canned goods, things, emergency food, supplies, all of those have shelf lives, and you need to cycle through them. You don't want to have an emergency and go out there and realize that your canned beans are from 1982. Right. So maintain it and you'll be much better off.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: Absolutely.
Stay informed.
Monitor local news. I don't really watch the news. You're more of a news guy really.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Than I am not a news guy.
[00:38:04] Speaker B: No.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: I hate the news.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: I don't watch the news very much. But if we're going along in our everyday lives with our heads buried in the sand because we don't want to know what's going on, like, I don't want that bad news. I don't want that bad news either. But keep your ear tuned to what's going on around you. Be prepared to ask hard questions when you hear something that doesn't sound normal. Wait, what's going on again?
Maybe you don't watch the news regularly. I don't watch the news regularly, but I do listen to things that might be going on. And I say, all right, what's going on? I need to be informed about this.
[00:38:41] Speaker A: Well, you're right, because there's a lot of disasters that are slow rolling. Not all disasters are an earthquake or a tornado that just pop up, right? Some disasters are impending hurricanes. Hurricanes are known hours or days before they hit, right? Or financial crisis or sometimes wildfire. Sometimes there's wildfires burning in your backyard and you might not even know it because the wind is going the other direction. And if it changes direction and all of a sudden you get an alert on your phone that says Go. And you're not even prepared because you haven't been paying attention, that's where that's the exact scenario you talk about. There's a lot of those sorts of things.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: Bad situation, for sure.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: 100%. Well, I think, Tony, that's a lot of information.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: That really is a lot.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: We have a lot more. But I feel like a lot of.
[00:39:35] Speaker B: It, though, is intertwined.
[00:39:37] Speaker A: It is.
[00:39:37] Speaker B: You don't do one thing without another thing without another thing, so it kind of comes naturally. If you get your mind into the groove of thinking about these things, a lot of those things will seem very natural and it will be good to work through the list and get a.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: Lot of those things done. Yeah. And if we missed something that you think we should have covered, or if you have any tips or tricks for us, email us or go to our you can email us
[email protected]. Parr.com. Or if you want to go to our YouTube channel, you can go to slash wwomeshow. Yes. But drop us a line. We'd love to hear it. And if it's good, we'll talk about it on the air. We love answering questions. So, anyway, thanks for checking us out. We are going to come back with episode two. We're going to talk about different types of disasters, more specific, and we're going.
[00:40:34] Speaker B: To dive into that emergency preparator kit and what types of things you should have in there.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: Absolutely. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.
[00:40:41] Speaker B: Have a great week. Bye.
