# Prepping / Emergency Preparedness > General Emergency Preparedness >  Five Tips to Manage Your SHTF Scenario

## Rick

Things can get pretty hairy when a crisis hits your family. A loss of an income or the loss of a home can be pretty overwhelming. The more planning you've done the more likely you'll be to mitigate the damage. To help you in your planning here are five things you can do to deal with a crisis should one occur. 

1. Before some disaster happens try to build some solid relationships within the community. Your preacher, rabbi or priest, your bank manager, your insurance agent, your police chief and your family doctor are all important folks in your life. The more they know you the more likely they are to assist you if things go bad. I'm not suggesting you invite them over for a BBQ (but what could it hurt?) rather you should take the time to greet them when you see them. For example, the next time you are in the bank take a moment and say hi to your bank manager and just ask how his day is going. If you do that from time to time then he/she knows who you are and will be more apt to work WITH you should you have crisis. Most folks don't think about networking but it's a very important piece of your disaster planning. Your preacher/priest/rabbi might help find you some place to stay. Your bank manager might do some things he/she might not normally do for a stranger. Your insurance agent might show up on site to do the paperwork for you or make some calls to get you in a hotel if needed. Your police chief might just let you back in town if the town has been closed (I was actually in that situation once after a tornado). Your doctor might help you find low or no cost medicines or alternative treatment if your insurance has run out. These are not the only folks that could help but just some examples. Your grocery manager, lumber yard manager, a local roofer, an owner of a construction company. Figure out who could help you if you needed it and just make certain they know who you are. Network!

2. We've talked about the need to do disaster planning but we should also delegate specific roles beforehand so everyone knows what their job is and how they should respond if an emergency happens. This keeps them busy so they are less apt to panic, it makes everyone feel like they are contributing to the family and delegating can accomplish more things than one person trying to do everything. Don't forget your kids or grand kids. They need to have roles, too. Make them responsible for taking notes (if they can write), retrieving your survival books or manuals, retrieve emergency numbers or any task that's reasonable and safe for their age.  

3. Practice. Everyone knows this one but I can't leave it out. Practice will also keep panic levels down, make roles and responsibilities ingrained and give insight into any parts of your plan that need to be corrected. 

4. Act immediately if an event occurs. *You certainly want to evaluate the situation* but not acting immediately or acting indecisively could worsen the situation. For example, if your roof is damaged then get a tarp over it. Not covering it could lead to more extensive water damage inside. Acting immediately can bring a bad situation under control. 

5. The best thing that will come out of crisis is knowing what went right and what went wrong with your plan. You'll also have the opportunity to make corrections where things didn't go according to plan and there will always be those types of situations. But you must take the time and perform a post mortem on your plan if you expect it to work better the next time something happens.

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## hunter63

Good and important stuff....Particularly the community stuff.

I can't say enough about your neighbors......Do you know them, at least to say Hi?

Living in a neighborhood for a long time, we have taken the time to meet and greet all new neighbors as they arrive. 
Do we hang out with all of them.... no, not really with all of them, but on snow storm day, or wind storm, every one is out and about helping out.

It's just good to know that you don't have to watch out for everyone all the time.

This is true at "The Place" as well,.... loose knit group that watches over everyone 'stuff" when you are not there.
We have a Yahoo group, to keep track of each other.

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## NightShade

Great post Rick!
I would be so presumptuous to add-
When the S does HTF, don't panic too much.. Remember life goes on, and we all have our setbacks. It is how we deal with them that defines who we are.

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## jfeatherjohn

Excellent, Eric!
I love #5..."we made it, and what could we have done better?"
That is the epitome of preparedness.

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## Graf

I have been preaching about networking for a long time, the lone wolf will soon be gone in a SHTF. I have finally reached the point where I don't panic with the SHTF senario I know I have done as much as humanly possible and its always a journey not a destination. I won't be the person scrambling and panicing for food, supplys. While folks are killing each other over a loaf of bread, last box of ammo I will be with the network I have finally found and the supplys and knowledge I have practiced while others ignored the signs. You reap what you sow.

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