Experience gained from past disasters has shown that it can take up to 72 hours or more to mobilize a significant relief effort during an emergency.  Therefore everyone needs to be preparing to cope on his or her own for at least the first 72 hours – that’s 3 days – of an emergency.

   Of course common sense dictates that we should be prepared for any emergency situation, however the fact is that only a few of us are ready for even the smallest crisis, let alone one of larger significance. 

   One obvious advantage of being prepared – it allows emergency workers to focus on people in very urgent need of their help. To support their efforts, the rest of us must to be prepared to look after ourselves for at least 72 hours.

   The San Francisco area is exposed to a wide variety of hazards, both natural and man-made. The path of destruction that Hurricane Katrina left in its wake across the southern U.S. in August 2005 and the widespread flooding of 2007 – 2008 have provided a horrific reminder of the importance of being prepared for disasters. Unfortunately no part of our country, or North America for that matter is immune to a natural or a man-made disaster.

   Earthquakes, power outages, floods, fires, severe storms and acts of terrorism are just some of the potential emergencies. Many of these emergencies have been deadly in the past. Being prepared can save lives and can help to reduce the impact of a disaster on you and your family. 

Why prepare your family? 

   Imagine for a moment that you have no electricity, no gas, no water and no telephone service. Imagine that all the businesses are closed and you are without any kind of emergency services. What will you do until help arrives?

   What will you do if your local authorities issue and emergency evacuation order?  Remember, in such a circumstance there will be no stores open for you to acquire anything, the store personal will be evacuating also!

   If you have not prepared beforehand for either of these events, both you and your family may have a very difficult time when a disaster strikes your hometown. 

   While governments are working hard to keep citizens safe, we all have an important role to play in emergency preparedness and response. By being prepared to take care of yourself, you allow community resources to be used more effectively during an emergency and you help keep your own family safe at the same time. Very simply put, emergency preparedness must begin at home.

Start to plan today!

   As neither man-made nor natural emergencies can be predicted; therefore it is imperative that we are all prepared well in advance of the disaster.

I cannot over stress this point.  

   Prepare your emergency kit and your family – so in the case of a major emergency like a flood or blackout – you are ready to take care of yourself and your loved ones for at least 72 hours. You should be prepared to live without running water, electricity, gas, telephones and assistance from safety services for at least three days following a disaster. 

What do you need? 

   You need to have an “Emergency Kit” in your home, ready to go at a moments notice.

   Your family Emergency Kit is comprised of two separate parts, a First Aid Kit and a Go Bag.

   Your own 72-Hour Emergency Kit should be tailored to meet the basic survival needs of your family. Store your emergency supplies in an easily accessible if evacuation is required. Items may be stored in a 32-gallon trashcan, suitcase, duffle bag, backpack, footlocker or individual pack.  

Your First Aid Kit 

   In any emergency situation, you or a family member may be cut, burned or suffer other injuries. It is imperative that you keep basic first aid supplies handy so you are prepared to assist when someone is hurt. Medical help may not be available during or immediately after a large-scale disaster.

My personal list of items that should be in your First Aid Kit: 

Adhesive bandages in a variety of sizes

Gauze pads and bandages

Butterfly Closure bandages

Sterile dressings to stop bleeding (Blood stopper)

Elastic Wrap

Instant cold pack

Cleansing agent/soap and antibiotic towelettes to disinfect

Antibiotic ointment to prevent infection

Burn ointment

Sting Relief Pads (for insect bites)

Sunscreen packets

Eye wash solution to flush the eyes or as general decontaminant

Cotton tips

Scissors

Tweezers

At least two pairs of disposable gloves

A First Aid Instruction Guide

Hygiene kits

Flashlight or brightstick 

Medicines such as Aspirin or other pain reliever, laxative, anti-diarrhea medication  

Your Go Bag:

   A major component of your disaster kit is your Go-bag. Every household should pack a Go Bag — a collection of items you may need in the event of an evacuation order. 

   Your Go Bag may be assembled or purchased as a ready-made kit for convenience. Your Go Bag should be packed in a sturdy backpack or suitcase on wheels.

   The Go Bag should be easily accessible if you have to leave your home in a hurry. Make sure it is ready to go at all times of the year as an emergency evacuation order can occur at any time of the year. 

   Prepare one Go-bag for each family member and make sure each is tagged with the name of the person it was packed for. You may not be at home when an emergency strikes so keep some additional supplies in your car and at work.  

Items that should be in your Go Bag:

The prescription medications you take every day such as insulin or heart medication.

All prescribed medical supplies such as glucose or blood pressure monitors

Drinking Water

Non-perishable food such as food ration bars or Meal-in-a-Box

Manual can opener

Plates, utensils and other cooking supplies

Flashlight and extra batteries or Hand-charged Flashlight

Pocketknife or Multifunctional Tool

Battery-operated AM/FM radio and extra batteries

Whistle

Waterproof Matches

Water filtration bottle

Duct Tape, permanent marker, and paper

Cable Ties

Light Stick

Rope or twine

Emergency cash in small denominations and quarters for phone calls

Heavy work gloves

Disposable lighters

Phillips Screw Driver

Standard Screw Driver

Folding Shovel w/Sheath

Trash Bags

Toothbrush and toothpaste

Personal Hygiene kit

Shave Kit

Maps

Sturdy shoes, a change of clothes, gloves and a warm hat

Emergency Survival Sleeping Bag

Rain Ponchos

Photos of family members and pets for re-identification purposes

List of emergency contact phone numbers

List of allergies to any drug or food

Copy of health insurance and identification cards

Extra prescription eyeglasses, hearing aid or other vital personal items

Prescription medications

Extra keys to your house and vehicle

Disposable camera

Any special-needs items for children, seniors or people with disabilities.

Don’t forget to make a Go-bag for your pets.

   Remember that if you have to leave your house due to an evacuation order, you will be living and sleeping somewhere else for a while. It is therefore a good idea to add some activity items to the kids Go Bag.

Some suggestions may be a couple of favorite books

Crayons, pencils and plenty of paper

A puzzle

A favorite toy such as a doll or action figure

One or two board games

A deck of cards

A Favorite stuffed animal or puppet

Favorite blanket or pillow 

   I sincerely hope that this article will provide the incentive for you to get prepared for an emergency now.  Don’t put if off for another day.  The safety and well being of your family is at stake. 

Allan Wright

First Aid Kit Products

A government report says an outbreak could kill 2 million people and lead to quarantines, travel restrictions and an economic downturn.

The White House on Wednesday unveiled a foreboding report on the nation’s lack of preparedness for a bird flu pandemic, warning that such an outbreak could kill as many as 2 million people and deal a war-like blow to the country’s economic and social fabric. It urged state and local governments to make their own preparations beyond the federal efforts.

In the government’s first detailed look at the potential effects on public health and U.S. society as a whole, the report said a full-blown pandemic could lead to travel restrictions, mandatory quarantines, massive absenteeism, an economic slowdown “and civil disturbances and breakdowns in public order.”

It warned that the healthcare system – including doctors, nurses and suppliers of pharmaceuticals – was inadequate to meet the country’s needs in a flu pandemic. “In the event of multiple simultaneous outbreaks, there may be insufficient medical resources or personnel to augment local capabilities,” the report warned.

More broadly, state, local and tribal governments should “anticipate that all sources of external aid may be compromised during a pandemic,” it said, meaning that “local communities will have to address the medical and non-medical effects of the pandemic with available resources.”

While warning that as a last resort, mandatory travel restrictions may be necessary, such limits alone “are unlikely to reduce the total number of people who become ill or the impact the pandemic will have on any one community.”

Some observers welcomed the report’s blunt tone.

Michael Osterholm, an expert on disease control who has long warned that the nation is ill-prepared for a bird flu pandemic, praised the 234-page report as “a very important step forward.”

“This was a brutally honest but very fair … assessment of where we’re at,” Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said in a telephone interview. He said he had no role in preparing the report.

The document includes the White House Homeland Security Council’s plan to implement a national strategy in the face of a flu pandemic, for which Congress appropriated $3.8 billion in December.

The strategy is built around three elements: preparation, surveillance and detection, and containment. And the report listed more than 300 steps that it said the administration would take, had already begun to take, or would recommend that state and local governments pursue.

In a cover letter, President Bush said the government had made “major investments in vaccine and antiviral development, research into the influenza virus, surveillance for disease in animals and humans, and the local, state and federal infrastructure necessary to respond to a pandemic.”

But the report indicated that only a bare beginning had been made thus far on preparing for the kind of large-scale, months-long disaster a flu pandemic would represent.

And critics were quick to attack what they said was the administration’s slow response.

As Frances Fragos Townsend, the president’s domestic security advisor, presented the report, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the senior Democrat on the Senate Health Committee, issued a report of his own that chastised the administration for what it said was a failure to prepare the country for a flu pandemic.

Speaking on the Senate floor, Kennedy said the administration suffered from “competence-deficit disorder,” and said the White House report represented the third attempt to write a flu plan.

“No amount of revision can disguise the fact that other nations have been implementing their plans for years, while we are waiting to read ours for the first time today,” Kennedy said. “The United States is at the back of the line in ordering essential flu medicines, and we’re at the bottom of the international league in having a coordinated national strategy.”

There have been no verified incidences of bird flu in either wild birds or domestic poultry in North America, and spread of the disease from human to human has not been documented.

But, the report said, scientists believe birds played a role in two global influenza pandemics in the last 50 years that killed millions of people. It said that since the influenza strain known as H5N1 appeared in humans in Hong Kong in 1997, it has spread across Asia and into Africa and Europe and has infected more than 200 people, killing more than 50% of them.

For the Bush administration, the report represents an opportunity to demonstrate an effort to prepare for a potential catastrophe after the criticism it suffered for its response to Hurricane Katrina at the start of its second term, and, four years earlier, the intelligence failures that were blamed for not securing the nation against the Sept. 11 attacks.

Looking at specific demands that a pandemic would impose on the nation, the report said that workplace absenteeism could reach 40%.

To illustrate what the effect of such high levels of absenteeism could mean, Osterholm said that the oil industry had reported in one preparedness seminar that its refineries could not function if 30% of workers were absent – a figure suggesting that a pandemic could have a domino effect across the economy.

Although praising the study for “educating the government and hopefully the public that the pandemic is not just a health emergency,” Kim Elliott, deputy director of the health policy nonprofit Trust for America’s Health, said it failed to address the cost of implementing it.

She said Congress’ appropriation covered barely half of the $7.1 billion that Bush said last year would be needed.

To make sure you are fully prepared for the crisis check out : Bird Flu Preparations

The Persian Cat is one of the oldest breeds of cat. In Britain, it is called the Longhair or Persian Longhair . A Persian without an established and registered pedigree is classed as a domestic longhair cat.

Persian Cat Origin

As their name suggests, Persians originate from Persia, now known as Iran, in the Middle East. Persian cat is one of the most popular breeds in the world, and one of the oldest.

Iranian domestic cats experts believe that today’s domestic cat is the descendent of Felis libyca, a cat that is still found in Africa and Asia. It’s not clear when longhair cats (in general) first appeared, as there are no African Wildcats (believed to be ancestors of domesticated cats) with that kind of fur. There have been claims that the gene responsible for long hair was introduced through hybridization with Pallas cat . Recent research however refutes this theory

The Persian cat was once traded for goods and valued for its beauty and temperament, aiding the beautiful, longhaired cat’s journey across the world. The cats were introduced into Europe by the Phoenicians and Romans in the 1500s as highly valued items of trade.

The first documented ancestors of the Persian were imported from Persia into Italy in 1620 by Pietro della Valle, and from Turkey into France by Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc at around the same time. From France they soon reached Britain.

The Europeans were impressed by the Persian’s long silky coat and purposefully bred the cats to perpetuate the trait. The longhaired cats from Persia were interbred with Turkish Angoras. Their appearance then differed greatly from today’s standard. Hundreds of years of selective breeding made Persians cobbier cats with drastically shorter muzzle.

The Persian was first registered with the Cat Fanciers Association (CFA) in 1871 when the association first kept records.

By the 1900s the cats were being exported to the United States and since then their popularity has spread throughout the world.

Persian Cat Appearence

The most common characteristics of the Persian cat are:

*Long, soft hair

*Strong, cobby build

*Large, expressive eyes

*Chubby cheeks

*High nose, which creates the “smushy” face type

*Low, rounded ears

*Wide, round head

A show-quality Persian has an extremely long thick coat, short legs, a wide head with the ears set far apart, large eyes, and an extremely foreshortened muzzle. Their eyes are often gooey, and the owner should clean their eyes at least once every day. The breed was originally established with a short (but not non-existent) muzzle, but over time this feature has become extremely exaggerated, particularly in North America, and Persians with the more extreme brachycephalic head type are susceptible to a number of health problems (specifically affecting their sinuses and breathing) caused by it. Their short muzzle also causes them to have dust and debris cover the inside of their nostrils more often, which makes it very difficult for them to breathe.

Photographic records indicate that Persians, up until the 1960s, show a difference in appearance to cats of the early 1980s onwards (i.e., from the Traditional “doll face” to the “extreme”, “ultra”, “flat-faced” or “snubby” face of today). However, the Persian Breed Council’s standard for the Persian had remained basically unchanged over this period. The Persian Breed Standard is by its nature somewhat open ended and focused on a rounded head.

It is generally accepted (and by the Breed Council) that through selective breeding, in an attempt to develop the ideal Persian appearance, the Ultra Face came about. This has been called ultra-typing. The Persian Breed Council’s standard was changed during the late 1980s to limit the development of the extreme appearance. In 2007 the Persian Breed Standard was altered to reflect the flat face and it now states that the forehead, nose, and chin should be in vertical alignment.

Conscientious breeders take into account and minimize health issues by careful choice of breeding stock with more moderate head type, as the stated goal of most breeders is first and always healthy cats.

Persian Cat Colors and Coats

The Persian has an extremely long thick coat. Since Persian cats have long, thick dense fur that they cannot keep clean themselves, they need daily grooming. To keep their fur in its best condition, they must be bathed regularly, dried carefully afterwards, and brushed thoroughly every day.

Persian cats can have any color or markings including pointed, golden, tortoiseshell, blue, and tabby. Tipped varieties are known as Chinchilla. Point varieties are called Himalayan in the United States and Colorpoint Persian in Europe.

In the USA, there was an attempt to establish the Silver Persian as a separate breed called the Sterling, but it was not accepted and Silver and Golden longhaired cats, recognized by CFA more specially as Chinchilla Silvers, Shaded Silvers, Chinchilla Goldens or Shaded Goldens are judged in the Persian category of cat shows . In South Africa , the attempt to separate the breed was more successful: the SA Cat Council (SACC) registers cats with 5 generations of pure bred Chinchilla as a Chinchilla Longhair.

The Persian Cat Temperament

These beautiful cats have a sweet, gentle personality, with a quite melodious voice. They make wonderful family pets because they adapt so easily to their environment. The Persians are tremendously responsive and communicate with their large expressive eyes. Their cobby body style keeps them from high jumping (usually). This breed is the most calm and docile of all cat breeds but is also loving and affectionate. Playful but not demandingly so, and although not shy, they do tend to be undemonstrative. Their gentle temperament allows then to adjust to new environments with ease, making them ideal show cats. Persians tend to be accepting of other animals in the family.

The study of birds is a very popular hobby for many people throughout the world. No special equipment is needed for bird study other than a notebook to list the number and kinds of birds observed and a guidebook to aid you in bird identification. However, a good pair of binoculars is recommended. Photography of birds can also be a rewarding hobby but it demands skill, patience and requires purchase of some expensive equipment.

There is an abundance of bird information available to the enthusiast. Let’s begin with a bit of history.

Evolution of Birds

Most ornithologists believe that birds evolved from dinosaurs. The first known species of bird, the archaeopteryx, lived about 150,000,000 years ago. Although it had feathers and wings, it also had reptilian features, such as teeth, claws on all four limbs, and a long, bony tail.

Fossil birds of North America were the ichthyornis, which resembled a gull, and the hesperornis, a water-dweller about five feet long with sharp teeth. By about 75,000,000 years ago, the types of birds we know today had already begun to develop.

How Birds Are Classified

Referenced bird information shows that birds form the class Aves of the phylum Chordata. There are also two subclasses: Archaeornithes, which consists entirely of extinct birds (including the archaeopteryx); and Neornithes, which includes three superorders as follow:

· Odontognathae – Extinct birds that had teeth. Examples are the ichthyornis and hesperornis.

· Impennes – This consists of only one living order, Sphenisciformes or penguins.

· Neognathae – There are 28 orders to this superorder, including:

1. Struthioniformes

2. Rheiformes

3. Casuariiformes

4. Dinornithiformes

5. Apterygiformes

6. Tinamiformes

7. Gaviiformes

8. Colymbiformes or Podicipidiformes

9. Procellariiformes

10. Pelecaniformes

11. Ciconiiformes

12. Anseriformes

13. Falconiformes

14. Galliformes

15. Gruiformes

16. Diatrymiformes.

17. Charadriiformes

18. Columbiformes

19. Psittaciformes

20. Cuculiformes

21. Strigiformes

22. Caprimulgiformes

23. Apodiformes (formerly Micropodiformes)

24. Coliiformes

25. Trogoniformes

26. Coraciiformes

27. Piciformes

28. Passeriformes

Bird Care Tips

There are a myriad birds that make good pets. In fact, birds are among the most popular common house pets. Care must be taken though in the choosing of birds and in bird care. Here are some tips:

Choosing a Bird

While small birds, such as parakeets and canaries, require minimal care, large birds, such as parrots, cockatoos, and cockateels, can require a great deal of care and demand a lot of affection. Make sure you know about the requirements of the bird you’re considering.

Avoid buying a canary between July and October, which is the canary’s molting season. A sudden environmental change during that period may send it into shock.

Before buying a parrot, be prepared for a lifetime relationship – it may live longer than you do. Parrots become extremely attached to their owners.

Caring for Birds

When holding a pet bird, be very gentle. Bird bones are fragile – even the slightest pressure on the wrong spot can cause a fracture.

Never let a pet bird loose in the kitchen.

If a pet bird breathes through its open mouth, you know it’s sick. Buy a bird antibiotic at the pet store, pulverize it, and add it to your bird’s drinking water. If this doesn’t help, get it to the vet right away.