dis·as·ter /diˈzastər/ Noun: A sudden event, such as an accident or a natural catastrophe, that causes great damage or loss of life.

Disaster has many faces: earthquake, fire, hurricane, tornado, severe thunderstorms, winter storms, financial uncertainty and more.  Disasters can result in a disruption of the normal services we come to expect and sometimes take for granted.  Examples are electricity, food, and water.   Take for example Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana in 2005.  The actual hurricane lasted only a few hours.   It then took weeks to get electric and water service back on for many residents.  The same occurred for grocery stores.  Then, it took several more weeks to re-establish food deliveries to stock the grocery stores.  All-in-all it may have taken several months to return the area to its basic services of food, water, and power.  Residents were left to rely on outsider assistance.  What if assistance was not available?

FEMA, the federal emergency management agency, advocates disaster preparedness.  They advise people to be informed, make a plan, and prepare an emergency kit.  A major part of that emergency kit is food and water for you and your family.  But, what types of food should you store?  How much food should you store?  How will you cook it?  Does it need to be refrigerated?  How much water needs to be stored and how?  Will these foods go bad during storage?  Can my family or I become sick if we store these foods incorrectly?  Can I throw these foods in my car in case I am forced to evacuate my home?  These are all questions that you need to consider in both your planning and preparation stages.