Survival and Emergency Preparedness

I'm sure we've all been in discussion with friends, family, co-workers and people we bump into during the course of our lives. If/when asked why you prep, what do you tell them? Why is it important to at least have a basic level of preps? What do you recommend?

I tell them what I think is important to have but never tell them what I actually have, family and very close friends excepted. Unfortunately my kids have told their coworkers what we have and some of them think they'll just swing by and help themselves to supplies if needed.

Also some key practices to set as a standard, are NEVER “keep all your eggs in one basket” also never keep your “baskets” in the same place, and never tell anyone how many “eggs” you have, and where your “baskets” are located.

DBSAR wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2020 2:31 pm Also some key practices to set as a standard, are NEVER “keep all your eggs in one basket” also never keep your “baskets” in the same place, and never tell anyone how many “eggs” you have, and where your “baskets” are located.

I was reading your post in the 'what have you done this week' and it is interesting to see the things we have in common as well as the different needs due to location. You folks up north have a completely different set of needs in terms of winter weather than we do in Florida. Likewise our summer heat necessitates different concerns normally than our northern members.

It's good to see these differences for when we do actually need to consider things. For example, my son is visiting a friend this weekend up north and he'll be very close to Canada where he's staying. We're keeping an eye on the weather for his trip to see what he may need to consider taking. Quite different than what he's used to and it will be an experience for him. He's been as far north as Pittsburg before but I don't think there was much, if any snow at that time.

To answer the original question: I acknowledge that bad things happen that are out of our control, and they happen everywhere. when they happen, there are simply not enough government resources for me to be able, or comfortable, depending on. Not an opinion, just a fact. I also tell them I have worked in Disaster preparedness/response organizations and know this to be true. Ask a hospital worker, police officer or any fireman.

I also point out that what we call "prepping" was just common-sense adult being responsible for yourself by our parents/grandparents not too long ago.

On the other topic - telling people; I don't care if you know I do this or not. Part of my role as a member of my community is to help others as best I can in the circumstances. I have no problem saying "no" or pointing out that if I came for help you would not be able to provide it for me. This is all situationally dependent, of course...Week long major storm damage - yeah, I'm helping out. SHTF of indefinite size and duration, perhaps not.

I call it the 'boy scout" principle.... to be ready if needed.

I don't tell many what we have, but try to just remind those others about the last big storm or two we've had and how did they do during same.... sometimes this gets them off their butts to do something. Most of the time people just don't listen.

And, sometimes it takes saying NO. I had to do this to a neighbor after telling him for a few years to get a generator ( he's got money to do this ). During the last storm here ( hurricane Sandy ), when power was out for 5 days he came over several times to 1) put stuff in my freezer, 2) plug into my gen 3) plug in a laptop/phone.
Told him my freezer was full with my kid's and my stuff, truth.., my gen is max'ed out for my home, truth... ( but did let him plug in a phone to charge ).

He went out 3 days into outage and bought a gen for 3x the price that was prev returned ( and didn't work for him; carb float was stuck and it poured gas out ) He finally, a month later had a gen delivered and set up for him...so I do believe the nice NO worked ( or his wife got fed up )

At least now hes good for about a week... and I have no guilty feelings.

Why do I Prep? I grew up in a poor area of the nation and remember that hunting and fishing supplemented our yearly diets quite a bit.

I prep for when times are not good. So that if needed and I find myself unemployed, injured to where I can not work for several months.

I prep because I live in earth quake country and just 13 months ago we had a 7.2 earthquake.

I prep because I have insurance for my home, my car, my life, why not have insurance for the refrigerator and making sure my family is fed.

Why buy insurance? ... Because sh!t happens.

Peace of mind. I know that I have done what i could do to prepare my family and myself for most common disasters to allow us to make it though them.

You can't help others if you need help yourself.