Why Preparedness Should Be Constant

With another hurricane looming and preparing to hit the East coast, note the reaction of people in quotes form this Washington Post Article.

"Across the Washington region, people crowded into supermarkets and hardware stores, loading up on food and supplies, if there were any to be found."

"Customers took up to a half hour to find parking at the Georgetown Safeway, where bottled water was gone by late afternoon and two shoppers argued over the last box of elbow pasta."

“Everyone has freaked out. Wow,” said Jennifer Gaskins, 59, as she gaped at the bare hooks where the flashlights would have hung. 

You can read the full article here Hurricane Sandy Continues its march.

The reaction of the mass number of unprepared people should serve as a warning to us all to always have our pantry's in a constant level of preparedness.

If you haven't done so lately you can review one of my first post's on this blog to see if you are adequately prepared. Starting on your preps.

I'll be posting again in a couple of weeks regarding a looming man made disaster that everyone should be ready for. Until then remember the Boyscout motto "Be Prepared!"

Man Made Disasters

The majority of disasters that we should be prepared for are natural disasters. Those are events that happen fairly regularly. We see them regularly on the evening news. So it is believable for many people that they should prepare for such emergencies. And yet few people do.
Here are just a few statistics regarding emergency preparedness in the United States:
-44 percent of all Americans do not have first-aid kits in their homes.
-48 percent of all Americans do not have any emergency supplies stored up.
-53 percent of all Americans do not have a 3 day supply of nonperishable food and water in their homes.
Essentially, what we have got is about half the country that is completely and totally unprepared.
About half the nation is sitting back and relying on the government to make all of the preparations.
For more information from the poll these statistics were taken from you can go HERE

So as you can see most Americans are unprepared for regular run of the mill natural disasters. So how prepared are they...are YOU for man made disasters? What are man made disasters? These are the disasters that are the result of industrial accidents (EG. Oil Spills, Nuclear Reactor accidents, etc.); terrorist or war time related disasters (EG. dirty bombs, nuclear attack, biological attack, chemical attack, etc.).
Another type of man made disasters is economic crises. Of all the man made disasters, the economic disasters is one that is currently occurring, albeit in slow motion. But like an unmanned train that didn't have it's brakes properly set will slowly starts rolling down an incline. The further the angle of dissent, the faster the train will roll, until you have a run-a-way train.
This is what is occurring right now. Our nations, indeed the worlds economic engine, are heading for a train wreck. But don't take my word for it. I encourage you to watch this video. It is about 45 minutes long and it set's the stage for how we got to be where we are.

EDIT: 10-15-12 - If you weren't aware another dose of monetary injection occurred several weeks ago under President Obama's watch, when Mr. Bernanke provided stimulus in the form of QE3 by promising $40billion monthly until things turned around. This is akin to an IV drip into the economic engine of this nation. The problem is, as with other financial injections, when the flow stops, the withdrawal kicks in and then watch out.
So take time to watch the video and next week I'll post about what that means for you and I.
EDIT II: Just came across another bloggers post on the history of other nations who have been through what we have and what the result was for them. You can the posting at Simon Blacks, Sovereignman Blog - "Let's Talk About Facts, Not Fear."

Aftermath of Emergency

Enough time has passed so that most people have forgotten that there was even a hurricane this summer. What I would like to do is update you with some of the aftermath, illustrated with pictures provided by the AP. These show you things that you will need to consider. It’s always best to look at past examples to better understand what one would need to prepare for. Especially in regards to natural reoccurring disasters.

Let’s apply the rule of 3’s in determining what we can learn. Remember what they are?

You can last 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter,

3 days without water, 3 weeks without food, 3 months without hope.

Air – No immediate problem with having enough air to breath. Had this been an industrial/chemical/biological accident then we would need to take into consideration how to obtain enough fresh air to breath for us to be able to evacuate. However long term we may need to consider the ramification of airborne diseases as a result of decaying animals and undiscovered corpses.

Shelter – For those impacted by the flooding, or high wind damage, they were unable to remain in their homes, so they needed to evacuate.

Do you have a plan on where you would go to if you needed to evacuate your home? Relatives, friends?  Are they aware of your plans? Have you pre-plotted the route you would take to get there? Do you have a plan B if that route is closed? Have you actually driven the route to see if you can get their as soon as you plan? Have you done it during rush hour? Will it take more than one tank of gas? How much gas is in your auto right now?

Do you have a ‘Go’ Bag that you can grab at a moment’s notice which contains at least a 3+ day’s worth of clothes, medication, items specific to your family? Quick where is it, can you get to it a load it in the car with your family in 20 minutes?

Water – One of the common dangers of flooding is the polluting of water supplies. Wells will get fouled and water treatment plants can be put out of commission as a result of severe storms and natural disasters. Not to mention dead animals fouling the water.

Do you have enough water store equal to1 gal per family member per day? Do you have a way to filter/clean water?

Food – With the storm there were power outages. This meant that if a person didn’t have a generator, the food in their refrigerator would be spoiled within a day and freezers within a couple of days. Do you have a pantry with food that doesn’t require refrigeration, as well as a means to cook it? If you don't have a well stocked pantry don't expect grocery stores to be readily available and do expect to have to wait for in long lines.

Hope – Often times in the aftermath of a natural disaster your emotions can be overwhelmed. Even those of us who are level headed can find ourselves depressed after the adrenaline wears off that got us through an initial crisis.

This is why it is important that you have some type of support system. A church, a family, a group of like minded friends. People who can support you and provide strength. As a Christian I draw strength through prayer and trust in God.  As well as know that I am part of a church that will utilize their resources to help those in need. In your immediate family your children will need you to help them provide a certain level of normalcy in the midst of chaos. You can do this by insuring you have some of their favorite books they can read, or games they can play. And it doesn’t hurt to have some hard candy as a treat.

Other matters to consider which I didn’t touch on were: Did you have cash available? With no power there are no ATM’s, and stores won’t accept credit/debit cards. Also expect prices to be temporarily increased do to shortages and price gouging.

If you are able to remain in your home following a natural disasters, because your home survived and you were prepared to live without utilities for several days/weeks, you will also need to consider protection. Thieves take advantage of disasters and will see such times as opportunities’ to loot and steal. Are you prepared to protect your family and your property?

As we enter Fall and head towards Winter take time to take stock of what natural disasters might befall your area and make plans now to be prepared.

My next post will deal with a different type of disaster. One that fits in the category of manmade disaster and that has been in the news and on many people’s minds.

Real Time Real Life Event

We have a great opportunity to see how people respond to a natural emergency right now. If you've been watching the news, the media has been talking about how the Republican National Convention may be impacted by an approaching hurricane. I encourage you to watch the news to see how people react, or don't react. And ask yourself what you would do differently.
Hurricane Isaac is now a tropical storm and is hitting Louisiana.  Due to the unpredictability of natural storms, this leads people to take risks and not prepare. It would be interesting to know if the man who purchased the generator below returned it for a refund or kept it for future emergencies.
Here is a link to the Orlando Sentinel and their coverage of the hurricane:

Hurricane Isaac Coverage on the News

And the Weather channel is another site that will carry 24/7 hurricane coverage: 

Weather Channel Website

Here is another excellent resource link by Google that contains: tracking, active shelters, traffic, etc. And by clicking boxes on the side of the map you can obtain more data and info:

Hurricane Isaac Crisis Map

One thing that raised a red flag for me was this picture of a man who had just purchased a generator. This is not the sort of thing you want to purchase a few days before a hurricane, as you may not get the model you need. Did this person consider if this generator will provide the proper wattage to run the items he wants to power? Also if the storm increases in intensity, generators will quickly sell out and become unavailable and this man may have to prepare to guard against someone trying to steal his generator. After all if he's the only one in the neighborhood with lights on, his house will be easy to find.

I heard on the news that the governor of Florida was telling people to insure they had a 3 day supply of food and water, and to insure that any medications they needed were purchased ahead of time. He is telling this to people who face hurricane's every year. This is something that people should be prepared for all year round. And if this hurricane happened to upgrade to a category 5, how far would a 3 day supply of food and water last? Will the gentleman who purchased the generator have enough gasoline on hand if the power goes out? Let alone have a full tank of gas in his car? Do people have enough toilet paper?

Once again watch how people respond. Here is a video someone made inside a Walmart 48 hours prior to the storm hitting. It will serve to give you insight into how people respond.

 48 Hours Walmart Status Pre-Hurricane

More than likely nothing will come of this hurricane, and that's what most people are depending on. People tend to be programed to behave as if everything will go on as normal. It's known as a 'normalcy bias'. Human beings tend to live their lives according to the way things normally happen. Which in the United States means living life, fat, dumb and happy. And that is no way to go through life. So keep a watch on the hurricane coverage, especially if this storm get's upgraded to a higher level.

Question(s) for Thought: What if you knew a hurricane was heading your direction, and you somehow knew that power would be out for one week, you would have no running water and no access to gasoline for that same period? What if your spouse or a child cut's their arm on some glass, are you prepared to treat this emergency? Do you know how? What would you have to do to prepare? Write down what you notice, the human interest stories, what government was able, and not able to do. Who get's injured and who dies? Why? How could this have been prevented? Use this as a learning experience.

From Time To Time

Glad to see that so many of you have decided to check out the blog. There is a lot to write about concerning being prepared. And many people do it much better than we do. In fact some are written in a such a way, that for us to do so, would not do justice to the topic. So it's been our plan from time to time to post a link to an article that has been written on another blog or website, along with a short summary of what that article is about. This will serve many purposes. It will introduce you to other web resources concerning the issue of prepping and it will let you see that you are not the only person who is seeking to do something about prepping. So I'd like to start with this posting.

Popular Mechanics - US unprepared for a massive blackout

This article takes at look at the preparedness level of the Power Grid of the United States. I've touched on a variety of items that people should be prepared for (IE. major storms, natural disasters, man-made disasters, etc.). And another category would be a failure of technology which in this case resulted in massive power failures in the nation of India. India recently had two major blackouts which put hundreds of millions of Indians in the dark. This article by Glenn Harlan Reynolds highlights how despite the advanced electrical grid of the U.S., it needs major improvements in the infrastructure and preparedness to be ready for a major power loss.

Question(s) for Thought: What would you do if there was a power outage in your region that lasted one week...one month....one year? And how would you prepare? What is your church, synagogue, mosque, service group doing to prepare? What is your local utility doing to mitigate problems that might result in a massive power outage? What legislation has your local, state, federal legislatures passed to help improve our infrastructure?

Starting on Your Preps

I’m assuming you’re already prepared for this week’s dinner, and you’ve got an umbrella in case it rains. But you’ve come to realize that you’ve got to get prepared….for something. But what?

It’s summertime, which means it will soon be fall and then winter. So start by considering the seasonal storms that will occur and think back to those times when the storms were really bad. Think about this: What would you need to make it through a winter storm where your area has lost power for 3 to 5 days, the temperature ranges from 30 degrees in the day, to 21 degrees at night and the roads are blocked due to snow, and ice?

To start let us consider the Rule of Three's:  
On average you can last...

3 minutes without air, 

3 hours without shelter,

3 days without water, 

3 weeks without food, 

3 months without hope.

AIR –You should be able to breathe in a winter storm so let’s skip to shelter.

SHELTER – How do you plan on keeping warm?  Does everyone in the family have enough warm clothes? Such as, sweaters, sweatshirts, long underwear, socks? What kind of heat do you have in your home? Do you have a fireplace? Make sure you have ample wood on hand.  If you don’t have a fireplace what alternative heat source do you have since you have lost power? What if your natural gas is cut off in your area? Consider a propane heater (make sure to use in a ventilated room), and stock up on propane canisters. Another little known device is a hot water bottle.

WATER – What are you going to drink? How are you going to prevent the water in your pipes from freezing? Are your water pipe’s insulated? If a water main breaks, do you have water stored in your home for drinking, sponge baths, and toilet? You will need on average of 1 gallon per person per day. Put 8 drops of pure bleach per gallon every 6 months of storage. And if you are not sure boil for 10 minutes.

FOOD – Do you have food that will last 5 days without spoiling? Remember it’s freezing outside and your electricity is out, you may need to consider moving your food to a colder part of the house. What foods do you usually eat? Restaurants will be closed. Microwave won’t work at home. How will you cook the food? Heat water? Do you have a grill? Do you have charcoal? Matches? Propane? (Remember don’t use them indoors).  High energy foods to keep you warm? Good protein – Beef Jerky, canned beef. Warm drinks - hot chocolate mix, coffee, tea, cider.

HOPE – Hope comes in many forms. After 3 days cooped up in a home not being able to get out, you and your children will need some diversions. Battery powered electronic devices will only last so long. Have some board games, song books, Bible, books to read. Also have some comfort type food like hard candy, popcorn you can pop on the grill.

Finally you need to prepare an emergency bag that will remain in your vehicle and go wherever your car/pickup/van/family bus goes. It will also provide for your immediate needs. This is the one you start your preps with. You can call it your ‘Emergency’ bag, or your ‘Go’ bag. Check it every 6 mo’s.

With the items in this bag you will be able to stay warm, stay hydrated, stay fed and stay comforted until you are able to move again or help comes. And you will need enough for every person in your vehicle. I’m assuming you live in the US and you have a cell phone (fully charged) and that you are wearing seasonally proper clothes. You should also have a short shovel, tool kit and a crowbar in your vehicle. As a minimum you will want the following in your ‘Go’ bag:

1. Medium size water resistant backpack/carry bag. (Should be earth tone in color.)

2. Sleeping bag/blanket.

3. Two space blankets. (1 for warmth, 1 for emergency signal/reflector)
4. Leather working gloves with Thinsulate lining.

5. Hiking shoes (water resistant).

6. Wool Knit cap (preferably with knit face mask)

7. Change of Clothing- One appropriate change of clothes per person + 3 pairs of underwear, 3-4 pair of socks.

8. 4-emergency Water pouches/bottle’s/or a 'Camelbak' backpack with water.

9. Emergency whistle/reflective mirror.
10. Food. Needs to be non-perishable, high energy food. Jerky, granola energy bars, dried fruit, nuts (Also include some hard candy for treats.) 3 days worth.

11. Toilet paper.
12. Wash cloth/utility cloth/wipes.

13. An LED Flashlight and spare batteries.

14. Gorilla Duck Tape.
15. Two bandanas.

16. Cash ($50 + Coins - there could actually be a pay phone that works.)

17. Matches, match cases, and a Bic lighter, fire starter.

18. First aid kit. Compact first-aid kit (Don’t get a cheapy kit with just bandaids). Also Supplement it with Tylenol, Imodium, anti-acid, and Benadryl and any prescription medication you may need.
19. A Leatherman-style multi-tool.

20. Toothbrush and toothpaste/dental floss

21. Comb/Brush
22. 2 pencils, two pens and pad of paper.
23. Bar soap. (preferably unscented)

24. Ziplock bag containing ID/contact info for friends and relatives, and any pertinent medical information.

And here is an excellent suggestion on making an emergency flash drive.
25. Bible (or religious/uplifting book of your choice)/Journal.

26. Travel game pack.

27. Sewing kit.

28. For women, personal hygiene items

Make sure to add items that are specific to your family!

(*Please note the links to products are suggestions and examples. I receive no monetary compensation from recommending these products.)

Who Prepares?

So you’re back and you have decided that you want to learn about prepping. But you may be thinking, “Am I strange to want to be a prepper? Will people think that I am paranoid? Am I just being silly?”……....o.O……..Maybe, I can’t answer that for you.

But it isn’t strange to prepare.  You’ve been doing it all your life in one form or another. You just didn’t realize it. If you’ve ever made a shopping list for when you go grocery shopping, you have been involved in prepping. When you make a shopping list and buy items for your household, you’re preparing for the needs and wants that you know you will have in the coming week(s) or month(s). It just depends how far ahead you prepare for.

When you go shopping for clothes in the Fall season and you purchase a winter coat, or gloves, or new shoes for yourself or your family, you’re preparing for cold weather that you know is coming.

When you have to make a repair around the house, or work on your car you purchase the supplies and tools that you need. You are preparing for a task that you intend to work on in the coming days or weeks.

When you have a camping/hunting trip coming up, don’t you make a list for what you will need to take with you? Perhaps even update the equipment you need.It’s not strange to do that is it? Nah. 

Depending on the culture you live in, and your family history, people make preparations to provide for anywhere from a week to a month to a season.

In fact, history shows that people who prepare are wise. There are various stories about being prepared for lean times such as the one about "The Grasshopper and the Ant", that teach the importance of being prepared.

If you knew that a storm was coming that was going to shut down the electrical power in your area wouldn’t you prepare by making sure you had batteries for your flashlights, propane for your grill, and a full tank of gas? So does everyone else. And therein is the problem. The next time you watch the news about a hurricane threatening to hit some part of the country, or some winter storm that is looming and threatens to shut down travel, watch what people do.

You will inevitably see stories about the grocery store shelves being emptied, all the water bottles and milk being purchased, all the snow shovels and generators at the local hardware stores, Home Depot or Lowes being sold out and lines at the gas station.

Why? Because people in that community realized the wisdom in being prepared. The problem is they waited until a few hours before they needed the item, or until after they needed them to start prepping.

And if you weren’t aware of it, most stores in the United States only have enough items on hand for about 3-5 days. Grocery stores no longer have storage space in back like they used to 20-30 years ago, thanks to Just-in-time shipping.

The last time I experienced this was in Washington State just a few winters ago. Due to flooding and heavy snow I-5 to the North of Everett and South of Seattle was shut down. And the mountain passes on I-90, Hwy 9 were shut down. This left the Seattle Metropolitan area a veritable island. And within 3 days, the Safeway in Lake Stevens ran out of milk, as well as some other items. Gaps appeared on the store shelves and in the refrigerated sections of the store. Some stores planned ahead and had the space to store items (EG. Costco).

Now the airports and sea ports were still open, but not cost effective for bringing in needed grocery supplies. So unless people were prepared, they did without until the highways opened up. And this happened in one of the wealthiest nations on earth, when there wasn’t an emergency. Well, if it were a real emergency wouldn’t the government make sure we had what we needed? All I can say is Google or Bing Hurricane Katrina.

Next post we begin in earnest. Hope you’re convinced about the need to prep.

Why Prepare?

After many years of insuring that my family is prepared to endure any number of emergencies, I've decided to start blogging about being prepared and preparedness in general. Why? Well I've had friends ask me to create a site and when we talk to our friends about it, they tend to want more information. At least those that are interested do. And since there is ton's of information out there about prepping, it's better if those friends can pick and choose the time and the amount of information that they want to receive.
Hence the blog. My goal is to post weekly a new articles about prepping. Sometimes the articles will be original, sometimes they will be posts from other prepping websites that I frequent. I also plan on posting a list of my favorite prepping websites on the side of this blog. Some will obviously be about prepping and others will just be resource sites, that share information beneficial to prepping sites. Some of the sites will also be government run sites (You won't believe the number of websites the government devotes to preparedness. I figure if they are concerned then so should we.)
I first became interested in prepping when I was a Boy Scout. Go figure. After all their motto is "Be Prepared!" And being raised as an 'Army Brat', we were raised socially with a preparedness mindset. We always had to be prepared to leave on a moments notice. Especially when our family was in Germany in the midst of the Cold War in the 1960's. We never knew when we might be evacuated.
It seems that we always had a 30 day supply in our pantry. This was a habit that continued when I got married. We always sought to have a good supply of food on hand.
Prepping really began to be something we focused on following Hurricane Katrina. Having lived in the Caribbean, and the Pacific we had already been through several severe storms. And having experienced earthquakes in California, we were aware that disasters could strike at any time unannounced. But it was when we saw the inability of the government to respond in a timely manner to the disaster of Hurricane Katrina that we decided that we could no longer depend on the government to be there when the next disaster struck.
And sure enough disasters have struck and people panicked. Terrorist attacks, Winter Storms, Ice Storms. And man made disasters like recessions, depressions and unemployment.
Because of these recent experiences we are certainly glad we started prepping in earnest about 5 years ago.
Now we are Christians and several of our Christian friends ask us if we are really trusting God by prepping?
(If you are not a Christian you can skip down a few paragraphs, unless you want to read what I have to say.)

The short answer is YES! If you take the time and read through the Bible you will see that prepping is Scriptural. Why even our namesake 'Noah' was a prepper. He prepared for 120 years in anticipation of God's judgment. Why God even commanded Noa in Genesis 6:21 "As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them."
The title of this blog is taken from Genesis 41. That entire chapter speaks about God raising up Joseph to help the nation of Egypt to prepare in order to insure the Israelite's survive an upcoming famine.
And for brevity's sake let me list some other Scriptures for you to jot down and keep handy in case some of your Christian friends try to excuse their lack of prepping by making you feel as if you aren't trusting God:
Proverbs 6:6-11; Proverbs 27:12; Luke 22:36; and 1 Timothy 5:8.
If we don't take time to prepare we will be unable to provide for those in need and show Christ's love. We will only be able to offer a prayer and turn people away with empty bellies. When we don't take time to prepare we become dependent on those who have what we need.
Besides in light of the way things appear to be heading it seems that the wise person would be doing everything they can to be prepared as possible. Not to mention the various natural disasters that strike without warning. So no matter your reason, get started today. Don't get overwhelmed. Start by making plans to survive for a week or two without outside help and then go on from there.
For our part, we will try and provide blog posts to help you do just that. This blog will cover everything from prepping for Earthquakes and Tornadoes to Winter storms and Power Outages, as well as things that may seem unthinkable. Hope you decide to be a prepper, if you're not already.