Emergency Plans & Food Kits

Emergency Plan

There are several types of emergencies your family should be prepared for. Some emergencies can be short lived such as power outages or utility main breaks. Some could last much longer such as natural disasters and pandemics. Having an emergency plan in place for your family will help alleviate confusion in the event an emergency occurs. Important components of this emergency plan are detailed below.

Emergency Plan Components

  • Communication: How will you communicate in the event cellular and other telephone services are out
  • Meet Up: In the event your family is split up during the emergency or not at home where will be a common meeting location
  • Evacuation: Do you know your exits for your location if you need to evacuate a building or house
  • Animals: How will you keep your animals safe in the event of an emergency
  • Utilities: Do you and your family know how to turn off utilities to your house (water, natural gas, electricity) to help prevent flooding, fires, or electrical shock
  • Emergency Kits: Does everyone know the location of emergency kits (72 Hour Kit/First Aid)

72 Hour Emergency Kits

A disaster could occur at any moment of the day. Create a 72 Hour Emergency Kit to be prepared if a disaster strikes. A 72 Hour Emergency Kit is comprised of food, water, and supplied that you may require during an emergency that will last your family for three (3) days. These are some common items to consider having as part of your kit:

  • Water: Store at least three (3) days worth of water for each family member, this equals approximately one (1) gallon per person per day
  • Food: Pack non-perishable items that require no refrigeration or cooking to consume
  • Flashlight(s)
  • Batteries (various sizes)
  • First Aid Kit
  • Medications
  • Sanitary Supplies (sanitary wipes, water purifiers, hand sanitizers)
  • Money (cash only since during an emergency power may be out, thus use of credit/debit/ebt cards will not work)
  • Rotate Food & Water supplies for your kit every six (6) months

Things To Consider

As you assemble your emergency kit and develop your plan, whether for family or business, it is important to consider some important information about Gunnison County. One of the appealing aspects of living in Gunnison County is how rural and isolated the area is. While we embrace this type of lifestyle it does present unique challenges for preparing for, and responding to, large scale emergencies or disasters. Gunnison, Crested Butte, and the smaller surrounding towns in the county are some of the most isolated and hard to reach communities in Colorado. If the unthinkable happens it can take outside help longer to respond even on good days. Inclement weather or obstructions (avalanches, rock falls, mud slides) could complicate the issue exponentially including closing of roads or the airport.

Our winter time temperatures are frequently some of the coldest in the nation with sub-zero/sub-freezing temperatures being common, sometimes lasting for weeks at a time. When assembling your emergency kit and designing your plan take into consideration the time of year, weather patterns, and possible chances of support taking longer than normal to reach the area. A good plan never used it better than executing a bad or no plan. Take into account some of the following ideas:

  • What time of year is it and how is the weather (do you need specific clothing/gear as part of your emergency kit)
  • What is your elevation (since this can affect temperatures & available resources)
  • Do you/will you have access to other forms of sustenance/protection (fishing, hunting, housing, tents, warmth)
  • Do you know the location of your nearest safe locations (fire, police, sheriff, hospital, clinics, forest stations)

The following links can provide assistance in creating your emergency plans and 72 Hour Emergency Kits