Top
  >  lifestyle   >  How To Prepare For Natural Disaster
How To Prepare For Natural Disaster

 

I was sitting in my business analytics class when the lecturer began explaining the importance of saving files when using business analytics tools. He went on to talk about the impact the California wildfire had on students at my University because all their files disappeared due to the servers located in California. 

Little did I know that in the next couple of days the provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island would be experiencing the latter impact of the Hurricane Dorian (Category 2) that hit the Bahamas days before. I didn’t think much about it and I just thought I would pray the hurricane away. By the day before the hurricane, stores were running out of supplies and I kept seeing people buying everything and anything. As the clueless Nigerian, I am, I did not know how to prepare for such an event.

 

Here are 5 Tips On Preparing For Natural Disaster:

Tip 1 : Stock Up On Dry Food

In a country where electricity controls everything, you would realize how meaningless your life can be without power – no cooking, no hot water, no internet, no TV, no heating and the list goes on. The impact of the disaster may leave you without food for days and the stores might not open until the disaster is over depending on the severity of the disaster.

Tip 2 : Put Water Aside

On the morning of the storm, the building superintendent came to address us before the storm to stay away from the windows and keep it shut. She advised us to put water aside. She went further to say the last of such storm happened 10 years ago and there was no power for 4 days. The shock in our faces made us realize it was no joke and we needed to be prepared for the worst case.

Tip 3: Charge All Your Devices

It is important to charge all devices to full charge and not wait to the last minute. This gives you the chance to call emergency services, firefighters and call for help depending on the severity of the disaster. Putting all your devices on low power mode helps to maximize the battery life in these devices. If your phone does not have a reliable battery life, you can purchase power banks for mobile phones from Canadian Tire for as low as $9.99.


Tip 4: Activities To Keep You Sane Through The Disaster 

The duration of the storm may leave you with almost nothing to do and you realize the huge difference electricity makes in allowing you to get up to a lot of tasks. Board games and burying your nose in a book are easily one of the best ways to keep you busy while waiting through the disaster.

Tip 5: Turn Your Freezer To The Coldest, 6 Hours Prior 

According to the Nova Scotia Emergency Management Office, it was advised to turn your fridge to the coldest temperature. I forgot to do this and the items in my freezer were still frozen despite two days of no power. The essence of this is to preserve the food in the freezer and help the food last longer in worst case scenario.

The storm lasted for about 12 hours. Some other neighbourhoods experienced power cut off while others did not. The impact of the storm was worse than the storm itself as it left over 360,000 Nova Scotians without power. The power disruption took days to restore for some neighbourhoods. For the power to be completely restored, Nova Scotia got help from other provinces – Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland.

The storm left its mark in Halifax with a nearly collapsed crane on a construction site barely hanging on.

Fallen crane

Watch the clip of the collapsed crane here. A lot of trees were damaged and huge trees were uprooted. 

Fallen Tree

Clean up efforts from the after effect of the storm are still ongoing. It’s been over a week since it happened and the stores are still trying to manage their inventories as they are still out of supplies. The impact in Canada is nowhere close to the impact it had in the Bahamas. The Bahamas need our help, find an organisation near you to donate items – food, clothes and supplies- for the people displaced there.

TIPS For Preparing For Disaster

post a comment