"This present era seems very similar in many ways to those turbulent war years. Today we face many perplexing issues. In addition to significant international political problems, we are experiencing one of the most difficult economic periods we have faced in many decades—the problem of inflation and personal financial management."

While inflation may not be part of the present crisis, the need for "Constancy" in this time of change certainly is part of the solution for family readiness. While political and economic challenges are hammering us hard these days, we prepare as well against events that are beyond prevention - the so-called "natural disasters". For example:

1) University of Utah geologist Ron Bruhn has reportedly said the potential for a huge tsunami on the West Coast of North America warrants immediate review of regional evacuation plans. He suggests a future tsunami could be far larger than the one generated by the great 1964 Alaskan earthquake, which sent huge waves as far south as Northern California.

Bruhn's team studied 2,000 years of subsoil along the Alaskan coast to understand the power of earthquakes, and resulting tsunamis. Studying Radiocarbon-dating layers within the subsoil suggested earthquakes in Alaska could rupture larger sections of the sea floor than previously thought.

2) The H1N1 pandemic is still on our radar as a potentially catastrophic disaster. Canterbury, New Zealand,  intensive care specialist Geoff Shaw, warned that both life-saving ventilators and specialist ICU staff are now in limited supply. Doctors could be forced to ration care if increasing numbers of swine flu patients in critical condition are admitted to the hospital. And remember, it is the winter flu season in the Southern Hemisphere.

"We are faced with a situation we've never had before. We've got more people requiring ventilators and it's only expected to get worse. We don't have the resources to manage the case-load if patients continue to come in in increased numbers, and at some stage we may have to make some difficult decisions about who gets care," he said.

Britain’s Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson said.

“It’s highly unusual to get any rise (of the flu) of that sort during the summer months,” Donaldson said at a briefing in London today.

The rate of flu infection in England and Wales is the highest since the winter of 2000. This is frightening because the flu should be dying out, as it is summer. Rates may continue to climb as the flu spreads among people with no immunity to the new H1N1 strain, said John Paget, an epidemiologist at the Utrecht-based Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research.

“The curve is going straight up,” said Paget, who monitors flu patterns for euroflu.org. “This is totally unusual. It just confirms that it’s a pandemic virus.”  It also confirms this is not over.

3) Food prices have continued to rise. This may not be quite as noticeable these days as manufacturers and food suppliers have become "creative". You may pay the same for a jar of peanut butter, for example, but is now contains two fewer ounces. Have you noticed the portion sizes in your fast food meals, especially kids meals has gotten smaller?

Droughts worldwide are adding to food shortages and will inevitably lead to higher food costs.

4) Hurricane season has begun and wild fire season is expected to be one of the worst in many years. Evacuation may be just around the corner.

With such threats looming in the news, what can families do to keep safe, positive and secure? The answer is to build a sense of constancy through family traditions.

More than 20 years ago, friends experienced the death of a son in a car accident. You can never be prepared for such a tragedy. They established a family tradition of eating hamburgers every Monday night, because that was their son's favorite meal, as a way to honor and remember him. It's simple thing, but one that brings peace and security to the family. During a crisis, finding a fast food restaurant and eating hamburgers on a Monday night would serve as a sign that all will be well.

There are many great family traditions and new ones that can be created today. Anything you do consistently can become a tradition for your family in a very short amount of time. Consider the following.

Establish Dinner Time Traditions

Assign family members a day of the week to say the blessing on the food.

Establish the tradition of having dinner time discussions. One family I know has learned the amendments to the constitution and dad or mom creates a scenario and asks the kids if the action would be legal according to the Constitution. Dad is an attorney. Have a gospel discussion every Sunday and Monday, and a discussion about a school or family history topic on other weekdays.

At breakfast, pick a word of the day and discuss it's meaning. Challenge family members to use the word during the day.

Take a "thank you bite". Each family member must take one bite of each food served as a "thank you" to the person who prepared the food. This may become very important during an emergency when you could be eating MREs or unfamiliar foods.

Establish a Bedtime Routine

No one goes to bed until they give everyone a hug and kiss.

Practice and learn a Primary song and sing it each night until it is memorized, then move on to another.

Read books. For young children read a book to them or have them read to you. For older children, read a novel together and discuss the moral dilemmas and choices that are made. Include a book you have not read in your 72 hour kits and continue this tradition even if you are in a shelter or hotel room.

Spiritual Traditions

Keep a journal and have a family member write in it before bed each night. Say family prayer morning and evening. Read the scriptures, a talk from the Ensign, New Era or Children's Friend each day and take a few minutes to discuss it. Be sure to include similar materials in 72 hour its.

Hang a picture of the Savior or a Temple in prominent places. A postcard with the same picture can be placed in each 72 hour kit.

Establish Holiday Traditions:

Prepare a few foods every holiday and make them part of what your family looks forward to each year. Include the recipes for some of those food in your 72 hour kits or mail them to your out of area contact. Then, if you should be evacuated during a holiday you will be able to prepare those foods.

Sing Happy Birthday to everyone on their birthday. My dad began the tradition when I attended college far from home. He and mom would call and sing Happy Birthday each year. As we added children to our family, they would call our children and sing and we would call them when their birthday arrived. Now, they are gone, but the tradition continues as we call our children and grandchildren and they call us. Imagine the fun if a family member was quarantined and could not be with friends, but you remembered and called with your most enthusiast rendition of Happy Birthday.

Get a Special Day plate. You can purchase any fun dinner and dessert plate for this purpose. When a family member has a birthday or passes their final exams, or gets accepted to grad school, or receives a mission call, or any other important event, they get to use this plate to honor them. Purchase a fun plastic plate to use for this purpose and slip it into your 72 hour kit. Then, if a birthday arrives or a member of the family helps out in a shelter or disaster clean-up, or if they just perform acts of kindness during the day, you can honor them.

Establish Vacation Traditions:

Sing together. Our children can still sing all the words to the Sesame Street tape we played on family trips. Singing changes the spirit in your surroundings. Songs do not have to be hymns to achieve this objective, so fun, wholesome music can fill a void, too.

Wrap a few items in gift wrap, or even newspaper comics and distribute them as boredom sets in on a long road trip or delay during a delay in an evacuation. We have wrapped both new and well-loved toys and games for this purpose. Some of the gifts we wrap are snacks. Keep some brown paper sandwich bags on hand and as you evacuate, place a few toys, books or snacks in the bags and seal them. Then, if your trip out-of-area takes five hours instead of the one hour it would normally take,  you can pull out some wrapped gifts. A tradition such as this will signal to your kids that all will be well. That is how you change an unstabilizing experience into one with a sense of constancy. An emergency becomes an exciting adventure.

Traditions bring peace and comfort, and create happy memories. Traditions are important to the mental health of adults as well as children. We all need the reassurance that all will be well. Family traditions help us to understand that no matter the situation, we still have each other, and together we can handle anything.

Our daughter and her family have a family motto which is displayed in their home: We Can Do Hard Things, a  tradition that is sure to be referred to during an emergency. Today, think about your own family traditions and how you can prepare today to continue those traditions tomorrow - during an extended self quarantine or evacuation. If you are lacking in traditions, add a new one this week.

As a final example of constancy amid change, consider the words of Tevye, from Fiddler on the Roof:

"Because of our traditions, every one of us knows who he is, and what God expects him to do."

How will our family traditions help us understand in a crisis what kind of people God expects us to be? That is our assignment - to preserve, adopt and invent the traditions that will help our family members remember who we are, and what we do when faced with big challenges, like those facing every family in turbulent times.

For more help in preparing for emeregncies or to subscribe to Carolyn's newsletter visit: http://blog.totallyready.com  Carolyn has just published a new ebook Prep Not Panic: Keys to Surviving the Next Pandemic which can be found at: http://TotallyReady.com