R E A D Y M O M S A L L I A N C E

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A R E YO U PA N D E M I C R E A DY ?
P R E PA R E F O R A PA N D E M I C & B E R E A DY F O R A N Y T H I N G !

Pandemic
Are you prepared for the 3 most important challenges
that may affect you and your family?

Sickness
School Closure
Shortages and Disrupted Services
“If a pandemic situation occurs,

Living you may be asked to stay in your

Ready...
isn’t about fear. It’s about
taking care of what’s
most important to us -
those we love. It’s about
being smart, savvy, and
resilient.
home, with limited access to outside
sources of food or services. Prepare
to reduce your need to go public
places by store a two-week supply of
water and non-perishable food for
the entire family, including pets.
Have two weeks of your regular
prescription drugs at home and keep other health supplies on hand,
including pain relievers and cold medicines.” - FEMA, “What You
Can Do to Plan and Prepare for a Possible Pandemic Flu,” May 8, 2009

Checklist
• Build a stash of essential food, medicines, water and supplies.
• Three days’ worth of your stash goes into an evacuation kit for any
emergency.
• Plan for childcare when schools close.
• Plan how to get college students home.
• Learn how to care for someone who gets sick.
• Learn how to reduce chances of infection.
• Help others prepare and cope.
 This period of time between now and
fall is critically important to individual
preparedness, to community
preparedness.... - Dr. Richard Besser,
Acting Director, CDC, May 7, 2009
Reasons to Prepare
Reason #1: New flu viruses are
unpredictable.
A mild virus may mutate to become more deadly.
Reason #2: Pandemics come in waves.
No pandemic in the last century had only one
wave, even the milder ones in 1957 and 1968.
Reason #3: Pandemics can kill.
For example, the 1918 pandemic killed more
people than died in all of World War I.
Reason #4: Pandemics travel fast.
It’s impossible for everyone to prepare once a
pandemic wave begins.
Reason #5: Creating a vaccine for a new
flu requires months.
Producing enough takes considerably longer.
Reason #6: There will not be enough
help or healthcare to go around.
How people fare will depend on how well they
have prepared their homes and communities.
Reason #7: Basic services and supply
chains may be interrupted.
Too many workers may be sick or caring for the
sick to keep things going.
Reason #8: The young may be especially
vulnerable.
Some flu pandemics have hit children and even
young adults especially hard.
Resources for Pandemic Flu and
All Hazards Preparedness
Free Online:
PandemicFlu.gov
Pandemic Influenza Preparation and
Response: A Citizen’s Guide
Download at fluwikie.com.
getpandemicready.org
PDF guides on all aspects of pandemic pre-
paredness. See “Downloads” section for a
“Small Spaces, Small Budgets” guide.
Are You Ready? An In-Depth Guide to
Citizen Preparedness
fema.gov/areyouready/
Good Home Treatment of Influenza,
by Grattan Woodson, M.D. PDF download
from www.birdflumanual.com
Build a Custom Emergency Kit
http://codeready.org/kit.cfm
College student’s evacuation kit
mindspinner.net/docs/collegegobag.pdf
Books:
The Bird Flu Manual, by Grattan Wood-
son, M.D. Covers home preparedness and
treatment.
Apocalypse Chow: How to Eat Well
When the Power Goes Out, by John
Robertson
Just in Case: How to Be Self-
Sufficient When the Unexpected
Happens, by Kathy Harrison
 Household Preparedness
Create an Action Plan
• Read about preparedness, make a plan, then
chart steps on a timeline. Don’t try to do it all at
once and don’t try to buy it all at once.
• Where should family members go when a pan-
demic hits? Plan how to get them home or to a
place of safety. Arrange to limit contact for at
least a week when family members arrive.
• Create “go bags” for family members who need
to relocate, such as college students. Be pre-
pared to act quickly.
• A family plan is a plan that an entire family un-
derstands and agrees to ahead of time. It’s
tough to re-orient everybody on the fly once an
emergency is unfolding.
• Family drills will help immensely in preparing
everyone to take appropriate action.
Prepare to Handle Health Care at Home
• Stockpile medications and medical supplies.
• Learn about home treatment of flu.
• Make sure to have power backup for any critical
medical equipment that depends on electricity.
• Consider making one or more “sick room” kits.
Doing that ahead of time will be handy if adults
are sick.
Make Childcare Arrangements
• Configure childcare arrangements so that chil-
dren’s contacts are very limited and the con-
tacted of their contacts are very limited. Two or
three families might, for example, arrange to
care for children in stable groups of no more
than 5 or so. Their caregiver(s) should have
very limited contacts with others.
Stock up on essentials
• Stockpile essentials: food, water, medications,
paper products, etc. Consider two weeks’ worth
as a starting point.
• Don’t forget pets - store extra food, flea treat-
ments, etc., for them, too.
• Include quick foods that are easy to fix and easy
to store. These will be especially important if
adults in a household are sick.
• Also consider foods with a long shelf life (cook-
ing time remains a consideration). The Univer-
sity of Illinois College of Agricultural, Con-
sumer and Environmental Sciences has created a
useful guide to the shelf life of foods:
http://www.henrycoema.org/forms/Storage-L
ife-of-Groceries.pdf .
• Eat what you store, and store what you eat. Ex-
periment with meals that can be made from pan-
try items. Rotate your supply.
• Buy canned food in sizes that make the most
sense. Consider how much you will use at once.
Does the leftover product have to be refriger-
ated? Will food go to waste if the power’s off?
• Buy extra of ordinary items you use from week
to week, so that you are not caught short - i.e.,
paper products, feminine hygiene products,
baby needs, shaving cream, soap, shampoo,
toothpaste, etc.
• Store water and the means to filter and purify
water. You will need 1-2 gallons per person per
day.
Storage Considerations
• Make room for all this stuff under beds, in clos-
ets. Have a yard sale and clean out things you
don’t need.
• Food packaged for storage lasts longest in a
dark, cool, dry place with good air circulation.
Avoid storage areas that experience wide tem-
perature swings or dampness.
see the Network Emergency Teams manual de-
veloped by the Lewiston, Idaho, Emergency
Management Office. The manual is designed for
all hazards emergency response as well as pan-
demic response:
http://cidrappractices.org/files/344/344_guide
book.pdf

• Keep bugs and the mice out of food by storing it

in containers that close tightly and stand up to
little pointy teeth.

• Store shelf-stable food for the long term in food

grade buckets and mylar bags, using oxygen ab-
sorbers.

• Store items that aren’t temperature sensitive,

such as paper products and trash bags, in closed
bins in the garage.

• Solve for the prospect of power failures - alter-

nate heat, light, cooking communications, and
power supply for essentials. For every high tech
or power-hungry device you depend on, have a
low-tech alternative. How will you clean? How
will you cook? How will you stay warm in a
cold house? GetPandemicReady.org can offer
guidance. Some homemade solutions are free or
very low cost.

Neighborhood Planning

• Map your neighborhood; know who may need

help during a pandemic.

• Encourage neighbors to have emergency contact

lists and medical information on hand.

• Consider the “Neighborhood Emergency

Teams” concept. Develop an alternative “no
contact” communications system and a team-
work plan in your neighborhood. For a model
Live Ready.
You have
all the
reasons
you need.

ReadyMoms Alliance, Inc.

READYMOMS.ORG