Be Prepared

Found a good website here on First Aid Kits and JumpBags. A jump bag is a small bag that you keep by your door, with basic supplies that you need should you have to leave your house in an instant. I believe every house should have a first aid kit, and that site gives a good supply list.
Last Christmas I asked my parents for a small fishing tacklebox, and I use that as our first aid kit.

First Aid and CPR training is another good thing to have as well. Your local Red Cross office will offer training classes regularly during the year. It is a one day class and I highly recommend it.
It can often take the local EMT's several minutes to arrive at your location, and every minute counts. Training will go a long way in that situation.

As far as the jump bag, we live in 'Hurricane Alley', and as such we are no strangers to severe storms. And I haven't even mentioned a good ole' Carolina ice storm. There may be a need to keep a bag filled with essentials in a front closet. Very good ideas in all.

But I wanted to post his list of notes, as some of them really stand out as valuable information.

1. Wool is light, fire-resistant, and maintains its insulating properties when wet.
2. Jell-O is a brand of pre-packaged instant gelatin dessert. It's the perfect food for hypothermia. Make the liquid, drink it. Choose a flavor that isn't colored red, so that when the patient vomits in the Emergency Department folks won't think he's bleeding internally.
3. Plumber's candles contain more stearic acid than the regular kind. Very hard, burn a long time. Get 'em at a hardware store.
4. Rule of thumb: Two sources of light; two sources of fire.
5. In a survival situation you live as long as your feet do.
6. If you don't understand what's going on, back off until you do understand.
7. You can live to be ninety without a Rambo knife but hypothermia or dehydration will kill you deader'n dirt by this time tomorrow.
8. Half-a-tank of gas is empty. Refuel now.
9. Every time you refuel, check your coolant level, your oil level, and your tire pressure.
10. In a survival situation you'll be astounded by how far a car can go with no radiator, no oil, and no tires.
11. If you have an extensive kit in your car, one part should be detachable and easily portable in case you have to abandon your car.
12. Nitrile gloves are better than latex gloves because: Tape won't stick to 'em; there's less chance of allergic reactions; punctures produce large rips so you know they're breached; and they have higher resistance to HAZMATs.
13. Without a traction splint a femur fracture is 80% fatal. With proper traction splinting, it's only 20% fatal. Learn to make a field-expedient traction splint.
14. Alcohol and disaster don't mix.
15. Some situations are non-survivable. Think ahead. Stay out of those situations.
16. Never ignore a warning, even if it doesn't make any sense to you at the time.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Take this information as you see fit. Personally, I want to get a small bag filled with basics and keep it handy. And I need to restock my first aid kit.

By the way, my CPR and First Aid training starts next month.