The whole point of conducting a practice drill is to be able to assess strengths and weaknesses in your preparatory plans and implementation. Drilling also provides some essential insight into your ability to cope with and interact with others (family, neighbors, local businesses, utilities or otherwise) that you may rely on in an emergency situation.
Never has there been such an emphasis on preparedness since the Japanese earthquake / tsunami / nuclear catastrophe this month. It is absolutely one of the worst events in our lifetime.....unfortunately, that is what it takes to get some people motivated to take care of themselves and overcome Normalcy Bias.
You can conduct drills in many ways bearing in mind the whole purpose of doing one is to strengthen your ability to respond to a crisis. What you prepare for unless it is very specific usually never occurs as you may anticipate but your planning and prepping and drilling activity allows you to better adjust and ultimately previal.
There are some instances where your ability to survive just may not be possible and you have little if any control. Those should be considered in your overall assessment and you can make preparations for your survivors as sorry as that sounds.
Limited action or focus drills can be done more often - some examples:
Loss of Power
Loss of Potable Water
Loss of Sewage
Stores Shutdown
Equipment Breakdown
Vehicle Emergencies
Weather Emergencies
Food Shortage
Responsing to an Evac Order
Fire Safety
Natural Gas Outage
No Internet Service (some may consider this an emergency)
Phone System Outage
Street Egress Closed Off from Flood, Downed Trees, Snow, Utility Lines Down
Emergency Evac from Work to Home
Emergency Evac to Tornado/Hurricane Shelter
These are a few limited focus - limited event incidents that you can engage the family on to assess your readiness and state of preparation. This won't turn off the kids or tire you out just thinking about it.
In a major catastrophe many if not all of these will take place. Don't overwhelm yourself at first - undoubtedly those new to this preparedness activity may want everything to be resolved immediately and their prepareations to be completed in one fell swoop. It is not going to happen because it is a dynamic process and not a static event like preparing for a birthday party. Things change, stuff happens and you need to go with that flow as well. If you begin by biting off smaller components and having some success at it can help build your confidence and encourage you to continue with others.
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We've been in the preparedness mode since Scout days and have been working at being prepared ever since. Don't be discouraged.
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