Today the county and local Red Cross put on a family preparedness and safety expo at the fairgrounds. In keeping with my goal to learn as much as I can about anything and everything, there I was, bright and early. The first 200 people were supposed to receive a mini-kit of the things needed for the 72-hour disaster kit. It was pretty lame, but I got some ideas looking at the fancier kits for money. It's water, energy bars, toilet paper, first aid supplies, a multi-tool, rain ponchos, space blankets, a whistle, a crank flashlight.

But I also received a kit for the cat: cat dish, bottle of water, some kitty litter, plastic lid for canned food, some dry food, some cat treats, and a little toy.

One of the most interesting people I talked to was a woman who is a medic for the county SWAT team. She was showing me all the medical gear in her vehicle, and the suit she wears weighs 50 pounds, and she weighs 125. She showed me the pediatric bag. Because children need to be dosed and treated according to their weight, and it's hard to determine that in emergency conditions, two doctors have developed the Broselow Pediatric Emergency Tape.

It is sturdy paper that they use to measure the length of the child, and that assigns them to color zones that estimate the weight. Each zone on the tape lists the appropriate dosage amount for that weight, and the equipment needed to that size child is in a matching color bag. If the child is red zone, the medic just grabs the red bag, and it has the right size airway device, needles for IV, and so on. Hospital emergency rooms use this same system, but they use color-coded drawers to hold the equipment.