What You Should Know About Tsunamis
Most of us do not live near enough to a coastline to worry about a tsunami reaching us at home, but if you ever spend time at the beach you must be aware of the dangers and signs of a tsunami.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
The Signs Around Us: You Are Free to Choose
Recent crop losses suggest that food supplies are vulnerable to becoming very expensive, and worse yet, to periods of scarcity.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Think It Through, Know Your Plan
If a natural disaster struck, how would you stay warm without power? Get clean water? If you had to evacuate quickly, what would you take with you? Make a plan…it’s crucial!
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Earthquake! Do You Know What to Do?
Would you know what to do if the ground began to shake and you were caught in "The Big One"? As we grieve for Haiti, we know that there are many places where 7.0 earthquakes are overdue.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Self-Reliance - the Lord’s Way
Think of your preparedness program as your own personal general store where you can go get the things that you need.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
A Wise and Faithful Steward
So what about self reliance, food storage, getting out of debt and preparing for emergencies of all types? Where is that found in the scriptures? Isn't that just a creation of a welfare committee in the 1930’s?
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
What’s in Your Trunk That Could Save Your Life?
Last week a couple from Medford, Oregon bought a permit to cut a Christmas tree on National Forest land, and their short trip into the woods lasted 2-days in freezing temperatures because their all-wheel-drive car became high-centered in the snow. Because you can’t tell when you may be stranded in the snow, here’s what your trunk should always contain.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Surviving the Hazards of Winter Travel
Whether you are stranded in the airport or in your car, winter travel can be uncomfortable or even deadly. Here are some precautions that will help you in both situations.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Lessons from the Great Depression
I would not suggest that our struggles and challenges today have even begun to measure up to the days of the Dust Bowl or the stark sense of hopelessness and fear our grandparents lived through, but there are ample warnings in today’s political and economic landscape to draw important insights.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
“H1N1 has arrived, and It’s the Real Thing”
The real facts about H1N1 and how you can help protect yourself, your family, and those at church from spreading the disease.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
"Surviving a House Fire"
If you've been involved in a traumatic event, you probably know that the more sudden, severe, and unexpected it was, the more likely it is that you were unprepared to react immediately.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Take Your Kitchen Off the Grid
We are witnessing the dawn of a new back-to-basics era, caused in no small measure by the acceleration of recent global events. Here are some things you might need, if you can’t cook in your kitchen.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Emergency Response Communications and the Stake Emergency Plan
Communicating in an emergency can be a matter of life and death in some situations, and a matter of comfort or humanitarian assistance in others. How many lives may have been saved in a 9/11 or Katrina-scale event, if more people were prepared to use radios to help themselves and their neighbors?
By Don L. Nicolaysen (KR6US) and Carolyn Nicolaysen (KI6ZZH)
Prepare Your College Student for H1N1
Along with traditional Back-to-School supplies like clothes, books, bed linens, computers, pencils, and paper, there is another list your college student should remember this year.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Family Traditions Prepare Us to Deal with Trials and Change
In a world that has everybody reeling with change, some things you can do in your family need to be constant.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Victims of H1N1, and What They Learned
In a news cycle that suffers from attention deficits, some may ask with a yawn "Is that H1N1 thing still around?" Make no mistake about it. This flu virus is a big deal.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
“Creating a Culture of Self-Reliance”
In this new normal, we have only two options: We can exist in a culture of fear and dependency, or we can do the responsible thing: Live comfortably in a culture of preparedness and readiness.”
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
“Plan a Stay Home Vacation”
What does planning a Stay-at-Home Vacation, or “Staycation”, have to do with emergency preparedness?
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Preparing for the Second Wave of the H1N1 Virus
There is time enough to be prepared for this and other emergencies that may pass our way. The scriptural counsel that comes to mind is “Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing…” (D&C 88:119). Stay informed. Be proactive. Put first things first. Have faith. Help others to do the same.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
H1N1 Flu – Some Good News, and a Warning
During a pandemic we will have little warning that the flu may strike our family. There may be no time to isolate ourselves.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
“Caring For Family During a Pandemic – Part 1”
“ Pandemics don't care what season it is, they come uninvited. What I am about to tell you might preserve the lives of those you love someday.”
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Pandemic or Not, Are You Ready for the Swine Flu?
The World Health Organization has raised the pre-pandemic alert level to Level 4, for the first time in its history. What can we expect if another pandemic hits?
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Prepare for More Frequent Power Outages
On April 8th 2009 the Wall Street Journal reported that the electrical grid in the United States is compromised: "Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.” How do we prepare for power outage?
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Thirty Things to Prepare That Are Free, or Almost Free
There are things we can do right now that are free, or nearly free, that will bring us closer to being self-reliant and prepared to meet our family's needs.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Why Prepare?
Disasters happen more often, the world has become more dangerous, and, in our upside-down economy, preparedness is now a sign of rational thinking. In fact, it's getting downright cool to be prepared.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Family Home Storage – A Pressing Priority
"Check the expiration date on your ideas about home storage. You may need to throw some of them out."
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Make Time for a Home Inventory
If you had a house fire, how would you verify your losses?
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
“Preparing for a Volcanic Eruption”
Reports indicate that volcanic ash is falling from a volcanic eruption near Tokyo, and Mount Redoubt, just 106 miles from Anchorage and one of 130 volcanoes in the State of Alaska, is ready to erupt once again. Here's what to do to prepare for a volcanic eruption.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Caring for Family During a Pandemic - Part 2
Most experts agree the medical community as we know it will cease to exist during a pandemic. It is critical that we all learn as much as possible now, in preparation to care for ill family and friends ourselves.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
“The Twelve Months of Preparedness”
We have just been through a season of gift giving. One of the greatest gifts we can give is a strong commitment to follow God's counsel to prepare and provide for ourselves and our families, to become self reliant.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Caring For Family During a Pandemic – Part 1
Pandemics don't care if it's the holiday season; they come uninvited. And while it doesn't seem to be in the spirit of Christmas to discuss such a dark subject, this article may preserve the lives of those you love someday.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Pandemics – Prepare for a Quarantine
This is fascinating and necessary material on how to prepare in case of a quarantine—a likely scenario in the face of pandemic.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
"When the World Catches the Flu"
We can and should prepare now for the possibility of a pandemic.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Preparing for a Flu Pandemic—With Food Storage!
Our emergency preparation has to include being ready for the most sinister kind of flu—it's the one feared by emergency planners, called a “pandemic.” Yes, we can be prepared. Come and read how.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Lessons from Hurricane Ike
Sadly, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and the like do not ask if their timing is convenient. They just come and do their damage anyway.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Pulled up Sharply by the Soaring Price of Food
With an avalanche of economic news this week, you may be wondering what to do next.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Helping with Hurricane Cleanup
As an outsider watching people's possessions devastated by hurricanes, what can you do to help?
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
An Earthquake Strikes
Since earthquakes can happen anywhere, how do you respond immediately when you feel the “earth move under your feet?”
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
"Earthquakes Really Do Happen Just About Everywhere"
Some people think the place they live is immune from earthquakes and they don't have to worry about them. Don't worry, but be prepared!
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Keeping Our Kids Safe While Away at College
Did you ever consider adding “emergency preparedness items” to the list of things to send to college with your student? Did you consider that they need to have a 72-hour kit with them at school? Come and consider the possibilities.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Surviving the Next Heat Wave
The summer of 2006 brought to North America a heat wave that left the USA and Canada reeling. From July 15th to August 27th, its death toll was 225. Knowing what we know now, no family should be unprepared when it comes again.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Flood Clean-up: When the Real Work Begins
As bad as a flood seems, the flood itself is only the beginning. As floodwaters recede in the Midwest , the Southeast watches anxiously for a new hurricane season. Now is a good time to be better informed about the huge task of clean-up that follows the flooding of your home.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen Looking Ahead to Times of Drought
It is high irony that with record flooding in the Midwest USA, many areas of the nation and world are experiencing severe drought. There is a concern for water shortages and inevitable price increases for this essential commodity. When the order comes to restrict your water use, what can you do?
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Slammed at the Pump — Stretching Our Limited Fuel Dollars
Here are some practical ways to bring down the cost of transportation, and to help your car achieve the best mileage possible while keeping your family safe, and your trips as cheap as possible.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Calamity May Be Just around the Corner
Like Dorothy in the Land of Oz, we can watch the news these days and conclude there are plenty of Lions and Tigers and Bears among today's list of natural disasters to keep us all on the lookout. Oh my!
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Looking to the Past, Preparing for the Future
Some people who are vulnerable may not recognize it, and may not be prepared. Some young families have become accustomed to prosperity and their ability to charge expenses on a credit card and just assume there will always be "next month" to deal with debt.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Responding to Uncertain Times
Two weeks ago Meridian Magazine quoted prophets who warned us of calamities. Now the news media are making the same predictions. What has happened in the past two weeks? Plenty!
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Why
Don’t We Prepare?
Like the grasshopper in Aesop's fable
of the grasshopper and the ant, all too often we put off preparing
for tomorrow as we revel in the busyness of today. Here are some
reasons why we shouldn't postpone preparing for the future.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Protect
and Secure Your Home from Invaders
With the price of gas and other basics
skyrocketing, many thieves seem to be getting bolder, and your home
could be a target.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
LDS
Fire Survivors Tell Their Stories
Survivors of last fall's fire storms
in California tell what they learned from the harrowing experience.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Prepare
to Communicate
When families are separated in an emergency, communicating can be
next to impossible. How can we communicate, when all else fails?
This is where a ham could save the day.
By Carolyn and Don Nicolaysen (KR6US)
Take
CERT Training to be Truly Prepared
Now is the time to get some training
and prepare yourself with lifesaving skills. If you want really
comprehensive training to give you the skills and self-confidence
to face an emergency, it's time to check out CERT training.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
What
Your Neighbor Wants to Know about Preparedness
This week's preparedness column includes
questions and suggestions from Meridian readers. It also tells readers
who may be overwhelmed by preparedness issues how to eat the preparedness
elephant, one bite at a time.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Ordinary
Items for Extraordinary Survival
Sometimes it's the everyday things
that save lives or help us avoid tragedy during a crisis. Whether
stranded in the snow, by a heat wave, power outage, hurricane, or
by the simple cancellation of our return flight from abroad — we
need to take a new look at the items we commonly have in our possession
for their possible value in our emergency.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Storm Tests Family's Preparedness
One LDS family in California uses a powerful windstorm to gauge the effectiveness of their emergency preparedness plan.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Preparing
in Diverse Places
Recently
someone living in earthquake and firestorm prone Southern California
asked where people should move to avoid natural disasters. The answer
is — there is no such place. FEMA and local governments are
recognizing this fact, too, and waking up to the job of urging citizens
to prepare on their own.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Helping
Children Cope with Disaster
Whether it's a natural disaster, an
act of war, or a family emergency, your children will be affected
by trauma at least as much as you will. Here are ways to prepare
them ahead of time and help them after the crisis is over.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Staph
Infection: The Pandemic Next Door
Whether the threat to our health is
an exotic avian flu from a remote province of Asia, or a staph infection
from the school locker room — the illness or loss of just
one loved one is a pandemic to that person's family. Time once again
to prepare.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Survival
for Every Family Member
Emergencies and the need for preparation
affect all of us no matter where we live. If you haven't yet thought
about how to evacuate your family members with special needs —
the elderly, disabled and yes, your much loved pets — here
are some tips that can help.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Teaching
Children to Live Within Their Means
When we help children to understand
that there is happiness in providing for ourselves through work
and prudent budgeting, they prepare to succeed in a world that rewards
consumption and excess.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Fifty
Ways to Live Within Your Means
How many families, companies, churches, governments,
or organizations do you know that spend less than they earn and
remain debt free? If you follow this handy guide, your family can
join this elite group.
By
Carolyn Nicolaysen
Is
Your School Prepared for Emergencies?
Teachers, administrators, school support
staff, and classroom volunteers are the first responders during
any emergency that occurs in our schools, but are they prepared?
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Preparing
to Provide Refuge
So you think because you don't live
in a flood plain, near a river, or in the probable path of a tsunami,
hurricane, earthquake or tornado, that you are exempt from being
prepared? Think again. Even if you live in an area far from a disaster
zone, that disaster can affect you.
By Carolyn
Nicolaysen
30
More Days and 30 More Ways to be Prepared
September is National Preparedness
Month in the USA, and no better time to help our families understand
the goal of becoming the most self-reliant and prepared people —
ready for any challenge.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
“Prepare
to Evacuate!”
You prepared
and rehearsed, and now the time has come. The police officer has
just announced on the loudspeaker from his car: "Prepare to
evacuate!" Are you ready? Of course!
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Living
on Food Storage — Real Life Experiences
There are those who have lived on their food
storage or experimented with living on their storage, and there
is much we can learn from their experiences. Here are some of the
things they have learned.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Surviving the Next Heat Wave
The summer of 2006 brought to North America a heat wave that left the USA and Canada reeling. From July 15th to August 27th, its death toll was 225. Knowing what we know now, no family should be unprepared if it comes again.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Storing
Food Safely
It would be a sad situation indeed,
to finally be faced with an emergency need for food storage, only
to find that our supplies are damaged or spoiled.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Insurance:
Part of Being Prepared
Will your insurance coverage be up
to the job if natural disasters, or a flood or house fire, sweep
your home away? Part of being prepared is to be able to answer that
question with a resounding "yes"!
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Surviving
a Dust Storm
Dust storms are among nature's most
violent and unpredictable phenomena, and they don't just happen
in the desert or on foreign continents. If you find yourself caught
in one, here are some tips for survival.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Making
Space for Food Storage
Having our food storage
is something we all should aspire to, but nobody can obey the prophet's
counsel until there's a place to put the year's supply of food.
Here are some practical suggestions that could help.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Wildfire:
The Holocaust in your Backyard
Wildfires are the fastest growing
disaster threat in the United States. As more people build homes
in wooded areas, they put themselves at added risk. Smaller lot
sizes in cities also increase the danger. Combine these factors
with drought, excessive heat or high winds and these fires can be
nearly unstoppable.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Preparing
for a Flood
Today, many of us live where floods are a threat.
Short of building a ship in our backyard, there are ways we can
prepare for the worst. The measure of our wisdom may depend completely
on whether, like Noah, we are willing to do something about being
prepared.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
The
Self-Reliant Shopper
Unless we are unusually well off,
most of us can't afford to go down to Costco and simply "stock
up." But with a little strategy and cunning, we can leverage
advertised sales, liquidations, and bulk buys to pay for most of
our storage goods with real savings. The distinction is to know
real savings when we see them.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Prepare
Your Home for the Unexpected
When trouble comes knocking, how well
we fare may be determined by how well we have prepped our home —
not just our 72-hour kits, but our home, its structure and surroundings.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Safe
Havens and Safe Rooms
Tornadoes terrorize the
Southern states while recovery from Hurricane Katrina is still a
fact of life —
more than a year later —
across Louisiana and Mississippi. Is this a good time to examine
safe rooms?
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Water
Storage — What if the Tap Goes Dry?
Here is some straight talk about water storage. These tips could
save your life during a catastrophe.
By Carolyn
Nicolaysen
A Second Look at Food Storage
Food storage isn't just quaint advice from long-dead prophets. If you haven't started storing food, here are reasons to do so and ways to get you started.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Surviving the Hazards of Winter Travel
Whether you are stranded in the airport or in your car, winter travel can be uncomfortable or even deadly. Here are some precautions that will help you in both situations.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
When the Power Fails in Winter
Knowing what to do in a power outage can make the difference between life and death, especially when a power outage occurs during a time of severe weather.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
The
Gift of Preparedness
Why give a toaster or yet another videogame,
when you can give a Christmas gift that can save a life?
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Thirty
Days and Thirty Ways to Be Better Prepared
When it comes to family preparedness,
there are so many things we can do that don’t require spending
a penny, or even much of our time!
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
BYU
Hawaii was Ready for 6.6 Earthquake
If you have a loved one at BYU Hawaii, you
can feel reassured in the aftermath of Sunday's earthquake. Here's
why.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen
Surviving
the Unthinkable
If a major catastrophe strikes, don't count
on immediate help from emergency services personnel. Public health
workers, firefighters, police, relief agency volunteers, and even
the National Guard have their own families in need of care.
By Carolyn Nicolaysen |
