You already know from reading my posts that Master Lock is all about keeping your home and your possessions safe. With a wide variety of padlocks, safes, bike locks, travel locks, and more chances are that you will find a lock to secure just about everything in your home.
But, what do you do if disaster does strike? Having a great safe like the SentrySafe Extra Large Digital Fire Safe (SFW123TTC) can protect some of your belongings from some natural disasters, but unfortunately you cannot fit your entire home inside. Master Lock has teamed with with the American Red Cross to stress the importance of disaster preparedness. The American Red Cross is a relief effort that supports families after disasters. When everyone else is leaving the area, or not sure what to do, the Red Cross is going in to help with clean up, pass out supplies, and provide support.
We are right in the middle of a season of unpredictable weather. If you watch the news right now you will see terrible flooding in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Here in my area it’s been raining off and on like crazy for the past couple of days. Tornadoes are common in the Midwest during this time of year. Unfortunately, it is not something that we can control. But, we can try to be prepared. Here are two of the most important tips:
Prepare a Disaster Readiness Kit
I have talked about this before. The disaster readiness kit can be a bag, box, suitcase, storage container, or anything portable that you can grab if you have to leave your home in a hurry. You should also have a kit in your basement or storm shelter along with plenty of non-perishable food, water, a first aid kit, batteries, and other items.
Create a Disaster Plan with Your Family
Talk to your family. Every member who is able should have a job in case of emergency. Each person can be assigned to do things like grab the medications, grab cell phones, call the pets, and gather other important things that you may need that are not in your disaster prep kit. Of course depending on what is going on, family members need to know that they may just need to move quickly to your designated meeting place, or take shelter immediately.
A handful of times in the past couple of years the kids and I have had to retreat to the basement because of tornado sirens going off outside. It can be a scary time. We never hope that it will really happen, but we just never really know. The sky darkens, the wind picks up, and sometimes it sounds like buckets are being thrown at the house. On the way down to the basement I usually grab my laptop, smartphone, a tablet, the home phone, and a few other things to keep us busy, and to make sure that we have a couple of different forms of communication… just in case. No matter how prepared you are, the aftermath can be frightening.
About the Sweepstakes
Starting today, August 16 through August 31, Master Lock would like to know, “What possession would you protect or save in a natural disaster?” Send a tweet to @MasterLockUS with the hashtag #MasterLockProtectsSweeps and you could win a Master Lock & American Red Cross prize pack. In addition, for every participant who tweets, Master Lock will donate $1, up to $10,000 to the American Red Cross. This is on top of their initial donation of $10,000. Each tweet will give the participant a chance to win one of 5 prize packs worth $300. Prize packs include a $75 Visa gift card, a SentrySafe and American Red Cross Preparedness Kit. Read the official rules at
Good luck!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Master Lock. All opinions are my own.
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