As a family think through a disaster and plan your response. When we are faced with a crisis, we mortals all tend to respond in the same way. Why? Because that is the way our brains are programmed to handle extreme stress.
First, we cannot believe the crisis has occurred. We have friends who lost their barn with their camping supplies, food storage, and more. They could smell the smoke but it was not until a passer-by stopped to warn them of the fire that they realized it was their own barn. We just don't want to believe it could be happening to us.
The second phase is a stupor of thought. We may know we need to take action, but we just can't move. We may even stand and stare at our Five-Day kit and never pick it up. We have friends who were called at four in the morning to evacuate due to a wildfire. The husband ran and got the kids into the car and came back to find the wife packing up her makeup. She was not even a makeup person. Stupor of thought.
Finally, we take action. Our actions however, are only as good as our preparations. As we think thru and plan for specific challenges our brain will recall those plans and we will not just survive but thrive when the call to action comes. Have you ever laid in bed and thought through what you would do if there were to be a fire at night? That is a really good thing.
Everyone experiences all these stages during a crisis. The difference in how quickly one person moves from phase one to phase three. How quickly your family members respond
depends on how much knowledge they have absorbed before the disaster happens. This is true for everyone, the more you know, the more you have thought through how you will react and what you will do – and the more success you will have in dealing with and surviving the emergency. Don’t be afraid to discuss specific disasters with your family. If the disaster happens they will be more calm and feel more safe because you have empowered them with knowledge.
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