Every good campaign is backed up with a series of related webinars, and Building Safety Month has a group of them ready for you. The first one will focus on Tiny Homes and Affordability and will be held May 3, 2022, at 3-4 pm ET. The International Code Council (ICC) will also host at least…
Building Safety Month Kick-off
Well it’s here! Building Safety Month – a month to promote pretty much what it says: BUILDING SAFETY. And because all of us need to spend time in buildings or some sort of shelter, Building Safety Month is really for everyone. This year, the International Code Council (ICC) which sponsors the campaign has established four…
A Short Story of Catastrophic Land Subsidence and Jonas’ Lake
The other day a colleague told me about a bean field in Polk county, Minn., which catastrophically dropped 25 feet. After watching the video I noticed the land was located near a river, and the video points out that the land also seems to be pushing into the river. It made me wonder if some…
The Hinckley Firestorm of 1894
For Building Safety Month, which was in May, I looked for some books I could read to help me better understand disasters and resiliency. After compiling a list of about four or five books, I started this month on my reading. The first book I read was Under a Flaming Sky, The Great Hinckley Firestorm…
Billions of Us – Virtual Solutions for a COVID-19 World
Over the last few weeks the world has been forced to forge a new path as we learn to protect ourselves and each other while trying to keep support services functioning. This first phase has been reactionary. We’ve mainly been figuring out how to establish a home base from which we can accomplish the things…
National Preparedness Month is Here!
We made it – National Preparedness Month is here, and we are prepared! If you followed along, congratulations to you too! Below is a photo of the result of our efforts in our household over the last 20 weeks. As you can see, we ended up buying a regular plastic container I was able to…
Build a Kit – Container – Week 20
This is it – the last week of our preparedness journey. We finally have all our items, and now we need something to put them all in. Because we have such a large number of people in our family, we ended up with eight cases of water and a lot of food in addition to…
Build a Kit – Pet Items – Week 19
Those who have pets understand, someone’s pet is usually a very important member of their family. So during a disaster, pet owners are not only concerned about the well being of themselves and other humans in the household, but also the safety and care of their pets. And like humans, pets also have survival…
Build a Kit – Special Needs – Week 18
It is week 18, and we are really moving towards the finish line on our kit. Only a couple more weeks after this! So today we are trying to figure out what else we need in the kit based on some of the needs special to our home. Anyone with small children would definitely want…
Build a Kit – Miscellaneous Items – Week 17
This is the week we add to our kit all those extra things we think we might need. For me, I have been thinking about adding matches and maybe a change of clothes, feminine supplies, and some soap. I hadn’t really thought about putting a blanket in the kit since it will take up so…