Author: emergencyprep

Church Manners

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clshearin (sxc.hu)
clshearin (sxc.hu)

We at LDS Living were curious about etiquette within Mormon culture. With the help of our readers and Facebook friends, we’ve tackled a few situations that seem to come up on a regular basis.

Electronics at Church
Some members have embraced the new wave of smart phones and iPads, using these devices to store scriptures, manuals, and other LDS apps. (Many of our readers shared how these devices have blessed their lives, engaged their families more in the scriptures, or saved them from the arthritic pain of carrying heavy scriptures.) Others, including some bishops and stake presidents, insist that scriptures are not scriptures unless they are made of paper and bound in a book. So are electronics appropriate at church? Continue reading →

Emergency Planning for Vacation

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Its summertime! Kids are out of school, parents and adults are taking advantage of the warm weather and planning vacations locally and outside of their area.  Some people live in areas where there is minimal risk of weather causing a major affect on the planning and excitement of the vacation, so when they move to other parts of the country or outside of the U.S., preparedness needs to be considered.  Continue reading →

Drowning — It Doesn’t Look Like You Think It Does

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jeinny (sxc.hu)

Every summer, I hear at least one sad story of a person who drowns in a place where there is plenty of help to be had — whether boating… at a crowded beach… or in a pool with lots of people nearby. Why do we let this happen to each other? The answer, all too often, is that most of us are clueless about what a drowning person actually looks like. So I set out to educate myself — and all of you — about signs that indicate a person may be drowning.

Changes to Church Canneries

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The Church has announced changes to home storage centers.

“Over time, we will be reducing the number of facilities where the packaging of dry goods occurs,” spokeswoman Ruth Todd said May 6. However, she added, the Church’s “home storage centers will offer the same or additional commodities in prepackaged form at no additional cost.”

Sister Todd said, “The change from self-service canning to prepackaged commodities occurs over time and depends on what goods are available at each individual facility.”

She said once the change occurs, people will be able to get the same variety of supplies and goods and at the same price.

“The Church is not closing canneries and is not limiting the variety of goods available to Church members,” she said. The only thing being reduced over time is the number of locations at which members can purchase bulk food and can it themselves onsite.

There are currently more than 100 LDS home storage centers across the United States and Canada at which Church members can obtain food items for personal and family use.

The home storage centers are part of the Church’s massive welfare program that includes canneries, meat-packing facilities, thrift stores, farms, ranches, and storage facilities for food. Latter-day Saints are encouraged by Church leaders to keep a three-month supply of food on hand in case of physical, natural, and economic emergencies as part of the practice of self-reliance.

“Self-reliance is a product of our work and undergirds all other welfare practices,” President Thomas S. Monson said. “It is an essential element in our spiritual as well as our temporal well-being.”

Afraid to Give a Talk in Sacrament Meeting?

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tvvoodoo (sxc.hu)
tvvoodoo (sxc.hu)

Fear of Public Speaking? Talk Yourself Out of It

Do you dread public speaking? There’s a simple but very effective way to reduce your anxiety. It doesn’t involve any drugs and it works quickly. The secret: An anxiety-reducing form of “self-talk” that makes it much easier to address a crowd without feeling as though you’re going to explode, pass out or throw up from nervousness.

In fact, a new study reveals that this technique works not only for people who simply feel anxious about speaking in public, but also for those with social anxiety disorder, for whom public speaking and other social situations provoke severe distress. Continue reading →

Sinkhole Danger!

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How to tell if there could be one in your yard

After a Florida man was killed in February when a 20-foot-wide sinkhole opened under his bedroom, many people wondered, Could that happen to me?

Thousands of sinkholes appear in the US each year—but sinkhole deaths are very rare. Only two other people are known to have been killed by sinkholes in the past 40 years in the US. Both were in Florida, and both people were operating heavy well-drilling equipment at the time. Serious injuries are rare, too, though minor injuries such as twisted ankles from small, overlooked holes do occur. In March, a man playing golf suffered a dislocated shoulder after he fell into an 18-foot-deep sinkhole on a golf course near Waterloo, Illinois.

While the risk to life is low, the risk to property can be considerable. What you need to know… Continue reading →

Fainting First Aid

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neyl (sxc.hu)
neyl (sxc.hu)

Why People Faint

Fainting is a frightening experience—especially when you don’t know the cause.

What you may not realize:

 Up to half of all Americans will faint at least once during their lives.

The cause is often relatively harmless, such as standing up too quickly, getting overheated, becoming dehydrated, receiving bad news or experiencing intense fear. You can even faint when a vigorous cough stimulates nerves that trigger a decrease in blood pressure and brain circulation. But in some cases, fainting can be a red flag for a potentially serious medical condition that affects your heart, lungs or nervous system. Continue reading →

Treating Cuts on Your Dog or Cat

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plethr (sxc.hu)
plethr (sxc.hu)

Sooner or later, just about every dog or cat gets a wicked-looking cut—or, more often, a bite from another dog or cat. In many cases, you can tend the wound yourself, but if the bleeding doesn’t slow or stop within 10 minutes, see your veterinarian right away.

SAFETY FIRST

Dogs and cats may bite humans when they’re frightened or in pain. If you can’t restrain your pet while doing first aid—this generally requires having a helper so that you have two sets of hands—let your veterinarian handle it.

For dogs, use a muzzle. You can fashion one at home by wrapping a strip of gauze around the dog’s snout and tying it behind the ears. You can try this with cats, but it’s less likely to stay in place because of their shorter snouts—and because they’ll do their best to paw it off.

Restraining a cat may even be a three-person job. One person grips the loose skin on the back of the neck, another grips the hind legs and spreads the cat out lengthwise and the third person administers treatment. Unless you have an unusually docile cat, it’s probably safer to let your vet do the work.

FIRST-AID BASICS Continue reading →

Asthma Attack Survival Without an Inhaler

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buzzybee (sxc.hu)
(© Jenny Rollo)
buzzybee (sxc.hu)

If you have asthma, then you know how scary it can be when you have an attack and have trouble breathing for anywhere from a few minutes to a few days, depending on its severity.

So you’re probably careful to keep your rescue inhaler with you at all times—in case of an emergency.

But what happens if an attack starts and you discover that your inhaler is empty or you don’t actually have it??

How can you lessen the severity of an asthma attack and/or stop it altogether without your trusty inhaler?

To find out, I called Richard Firshein, DO, director and founder of The Firshein Center for Comprehensive Medicine in New York City and author of Reversing Asthma: Breathe Easier with This Revolutionary New Program. And he had some very interesting advice… Continue reading →