Managing Your Emergency Supplies

A few months ago, I was helping our church prepare the new location for renovation when another member sliced his arm open on a fence.  I walked him over to my trunk where I had a stocked and well thought-out first aid kit I built as a Deputy Sheriff.

I opened the bag and started rifling through the baggies of band aids, antibiotic creams, gauze, and gloves to start a pile of the things I needed.  It was then I noticed that one of the ziplocks was shiny and wet.  I opened the particular bag and noticed that several of the single use antibiotic cream packets had split open.  It dawned on me, these supplies were at least three to four years old.  I quickly looked at the expiration date, three years past.  As I dug for other supplies, I observed the same expiration period for at least half of the supplies.  I became embarrassed as the elderly gentlemen continued to bleed and I lacked the proper equipment to assist him.  Scratch that, I had the proper equipment...four years ago.  Now I have supplies which at least half of them should not be used to assist him.

After I bandaged and taped him up as best as I could, I thought about how deep my error really was.  I had a first aid kit in every car, an advanced one in the house, a special kit for overseas deployment as a defense contractor, along with a few odds and ends in my laptop case for those nasty computer bytes (pun intended).  How much of my stock was expired?  What about my other supplies, batteries, water bottles, etc.?  What about the supplies at work?  Last time I saw that emergency kit, it had more dust than grandpa's tarp covered car in the barn.  After all, first aid kits are like fashion trends, they only last so long...

I have discussed managing supplies with many colleagues and friends.  It seems this "expiration" problem was not isolated to my trunk as almost everyone I spoke with had supplies, but were several years old.  I wasn't the only one with the "Set it and Forget it," attitude.

I needed to ensure this did not happen again.  I created an easy and quick spreadsheet which tracked all of my items.  The sheet contained the following:

• Item
• Storage Location
• Date Purchased
• Location or Website Purchased From
• Price (This is extremely useful when tracking sales and other vendors)
• Expiration Date
• Quantity on Hand
• Quantity Needed
• Misc Comments

I created filters for the categories so I could change the list layout as needed.  I then created a simple formula that told me which items were within 60 days of expiring.  I color coded the storage location so I could delineate between house kits, work kits, and/or car kits.  I emailed the empty spreadsheet to work and to other Business Continuity / Emergency Management clients so they could appropriately maintain their supplies.

This proved especially crucial for a current client as they have cases upon cases of MRE's, first aid kits, and Evacuation Kits in a widely dispersed array.  Can you imagine the liability case an employee's family would bring if the supplies failed because they were expired? 

Bottom line, take time to inventory and review your first aid kits, food supplies, even printer cartridges on the top shelf at work.  Start managing and maintaining your kits so you are not caught unprepared.  Remember that true resiliency is a never ending process.