With all the recent natural disasters over the last several years I started to think about what would happen it one of these happened near my home. I looked around my house and soon realized that I was in no way ready to meet one of these emergency situations is they occurred. I stared to do some research at the library and on the Internet, and found there are a handful of areas you need to be ready for in case of an earthquake, tornado, blizzard, or any other type of natural disaster that you may encounter. Here are some of the things I found out. The very first thing you need to do is put together your own first aid kit. The store bought kids really are not adequate, and you want to make sure you get high quality components for your kit. If you do not have ready access to emergency services you need a much better lever of protection. You will have to acquire components such as real trauma dressings, a special CPR barrier type mask, many different types dressings, several rolls of gauze, special first aid scissors, a genuine first aid splint. This is just the basic level you will need, and you should also consider adding some burn dressings, bottles of sterilized water, and some specialized solutions to act as disinfectants like boric acid. If you encounter an earthquake the very first think you want to be able to do is shutoff your natural gas supply. To do this you will need a specialized tool or you will not be able to turn it off. This also includes your water utility, as you may have several broken lines spewing out water and you need to shut them off as well. You need to contact your utility companies and find out exactly what type of tool you need. Once you acquire them you need to go outside and look at your meters and find out how exactly you will use these tools. The tools should be non-sparking, usually made from brass, so that you do not cause a fire from a random spark. You absolutely will have to have access to a fire extinguisher included in your emergency preparedness kit. The type of extinguisher you get it important and you should get an ABC dry chemical style. With this type of unit you will be able to handle three types of fires around your home with the usual combustion fires, any type of flammable liquid, and also an electrical fire. You need to take a loot at the pressure from time to time and make sure it is adequate and ready to go at all times. It is critical that you have some water stored up for these emergency situations. I should really have put this item first, because you can live many days without food, but not without water. The basic rule of thumb is to store up one gallon person in your household per day for a minimum of seven days, but fourteen would be even better. You can store this water in specialized trash can sized containers and treat them with a water preserver which will last up to five years. Also, buy some water purification tables and keep them as part of your emergency preparedness kit. One final item to include with your disaster preparedness is a radio so you can tune in to emergency broadcast stations and find some short wave operators as well. You can find special solar crank radios that can run off of batteries, an included solar panel, and even a hand crank generator. The rechargeable batteries are specialized units than can store a ninety percent charge for up to ten years. You will want to have the ability to contact the outside world, and these solar radios are perfect. If you are thinking about adding to your home emergency preparedness kit then you ought to consider adding a solar crank radio available. Find out more information, reviews, and availability for a solar crank radio by visiting http://solarcrankradio.com