Family Readiness Checklist - Ellard County Y2K Readiness Committee

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FAMILY READINESS CHECKLIST
Ellard County Y2K Readiness Committee · Print this page and put it on the refrigerator

This is the same list the Emergency Management office hands out before ice storm season, with a few things added for New Year's. If you are ready for three days without power in January, you are ready for the Year 2000. Most of it you probably have in the house already. Check off each line as you go.

WATER
[ ]	One gallon of drinking water per person per day, for at least three days. A family of four needs 12 gallons.
[ ]	Water for pets and animals too.
[ ]	If you fill your own jugs, use clean containers with tight lids. Not milk jugs; they leak.
[ ]	On a well? Your pump runs on electricity. Fill the bathtub on New Year's Eve for flushing, same as before a storm.
FOOD
[ ]	Three days of food that doesn't need cooking or refrigeration: canned meat and fish, canned fruit and vegetables, peanut butter, crackers, cereal, dried fruit.
[ ]	A hand can opener. (Look in the drawer. You have one. Make sure it works.)
[ ]	Baby food, formula and diapers, if you need them.
[ ]	Pet food.
[ ]	Black-eyed peas and greens for New Year's Day. Not for Y2K. Just for luck.
MEDICINE AND FIRST AID
[ ]	Prescriptions refilled a few days early in December. Ask your pharmacist. Don't stockpile.
[ ]	A first aid kit, aspirin or the like, and your spare eyeglasses.
[ ]	If anybody in your home uses oxygen or other equipment that runs on electricity, tell the Co-op and the Emergency Management office now, so they know where you are.
LIGHT, HEAT AND NEWS
[ ]	Flashlights, one per person, and fresh batteries.
[ ]	A battery radio, so you can hear the local station. The County Executive will be on the air from the courthouse if there's anything to report.
[ ]	Extra blankets, sleeping bags and warm clothes.
[ ]	If you heat with wood, have the chimney cleaned and the wood split and dry. Most of the chimney fires we see on New Year's are from chimneys that were overdue.
[ ]	Kerosene heaters: only the kind made for indoor use, only with the right fuel, and crack a window. Never leave one running when you go to sleep.
[ ]	Candles only where you can see them. Flashlights are better.
[ ]	A smoke detector with a new battery. Change it when you change your clocks in the fall.
MONEY AND PAPERS
[ ]	Some cash in small bills, enough for a few days of groceries and gas. Not your life savings.
[ ]	Keep your November and December bank statements, your last pay stubs, and your insurance and mortgage papers in one folder, in case you need to straighten anything out in January.
[ ]	Pay your bills on time in December, the same as always, and keep the receipts.
CAR
[ ]	Fill the tank before the holiday, like you would before any long weekend.
[ ]	Keep a blanket, a flashlight and some water in the trunk all winter anyway.
NEIGHBORS
[ ]	Write down the names of the older folks and the people living alone on your road. Check on them New Year's Day.
[ ]	Know where your nearest volunteer fire hall is. It will be open all night on New Year's Eve.

PLEASE DON'T
• Don't run a generator indoors, in a garage, in a basement or on a closed porch. Carbon monoxide kills.
• Don't backfeed your house by plugging a generator into an outlet. It can kill a lineman.
• Don't store gasoline in cans in the house, garage or carport.
• Don't take all your money out of the bank.
• Don't call 911 at midnight to see if it works. Call only if you need help.
• Don't shoot guns into the air to celebrate.
• Don't buy anything from anybody who tells you the world is ending and he can sell you the cure.

That's it. If you have everything on this list, you are as ready as anybody in the state of Tennessee, and readier than most. Now go enjoy your Christmas.

Lloyd Redmond, Chairman

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Last updated September 20, 1999