Practical Preps: 1 Introduction

[Bob]

Well - here it goes. This might take a few posts so bear with me. remember guys - I'm gonna refer to wacky doomsday peppers. No offense intended. The target audience thinks that who we are, so I'm working with them!

So, here it goes.....



The World is NOT going to end.

So if the world isn’t going to end, why are we reading this? For exactly that reason – because the world isn’t ending and we will be here tomorrow. This book is to help you through all of the things that are not the end of the world, but will really be unpleasant if you are not a little bit ready to ride the storm out, so to speak.

Let’s face it, things happen, and some of it is not good at all for you. In fact, some of it can be downright bad – very bad. We have seen the impact of hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, ice storms, bad court rulings, and the aftermath of sporting events (often worse after a victory in some areas!). And let’s not forget the ever-increasing threat of Zombies (whether they are undead, viral, voodoo, or the bath salt variety). It seems the number of unpleasant events is on the rise. Whether you believe it to be because of over crowding, global warming, the other political party’s machinations, the Aztec calendar running out, Biblical prophecy, or simply a series of very unfortunate events does not matter. What is important is to recognize one very important fact: There are not enough people or supplies to go around when something really bad happens on a large scale and you need to be saved.

Many people like to imagine that the police, paramedics, the fire department, the National Guard, Navy SEALS, Superman, and your Allstate Insurance agent will all arrive in the nick of time when their services are needed. The truth is that any significant response to a major event takes days or even weeks to get rolling. And if there are 1,000 first responders, great! Except if there are 10,000 people in need that potentially puts 9,000 people in front of you for being rescued. The real odds are not actually that good. For example, in my little town of 16,000 there are only 33 fire fighters. If a disaster impacts even 10%, that’s 33 first responders for 1600 people needing a response, or about 1 per every 48 in need of assistance.

No problem, you can just watch Netflix, and chat on Facebook until help arrives. What - the Internet is down? There is no power? Perhaps some scented candles and a hot bath until this thing blows over. What - no hot water? We definitely need to call the National Guard! Too bad your cell phone is not working…looks like you are going to be waiting for a while. Perhaps a very long while.

What will you do now? You don’t have a missile silo that has been converted to a doomsday bunker like on that National Geographic show (and honestly, that’s probably a good thing). Don’t worry; I’ll show you how to get ready for whatever form of disaster is headed your way, and show you how to do it in a calm, sensible, rational manner. No military weapons, no camouflage clothing, no bio-warfare suits, and no tinfoil hats. Just sensible easy to follow instructions that will let you live a normal life, and be ready for when Stuff (not my first choice of words) Hits The Fan (AKA SHTF).

One of the biggest reasons I am writing this book is to take away all of the tough decision making from being prepared for disasters. Once you start really thinking about preparedness, it can easily become overwhelming. More and more “What if’s?” will start to pop up. You’ll have trouble figuring out where to draw the line or where to start. Maybe you just want to be told what to do. Maybe you don’t want to think too hard about what to do. Or maybe you’ll think to hard and not actually do anything. And there is always the possibility that you don’t want to seem like a crazy survivalist! Whatever your reason, don’t think – let’s just do this.

So the world is not going to end, but the power could go down for a week, a flood could cut off transportation, and general unrest could make it unsafe to go to the store. The hospital could be full, and the first responders might all be out helping the people more in need than you. Those things actually happen. Let’s take a little responsibility for taking care of ourselves. And let’s not unrealistically depend of the government to take personal care of us when something goes wrong.

And for those of you who think it won’t happen, since I have started writing this, here are a few of the things that have happened to people who also didn’t think it would happen:

Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey (months before things were normal for many)
Tornadoes ravaged the Midwest multiple times
Floods in Colorado
Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan
Mega-Typhoon in the Phillipines
Ice Storm in Midwest
Lead In water Crisis in Flint Michigan
Snow Storm / Blizzard in the North East (Jan 2016)
Hurricane in Florida
Floods in Tennessee
Corona Virus everywhere *current disaster du jour

So accept that something can, and will likely happen to you sooner or later, and that when it does, the government will not be there to rescue you personally, or that they won’t be there for you first, if they get there at all.