Surviving past 2012

Imagine a life without the conveniences we have all come to expect from today’s modern infrastructure. Every time you flush the toilet, turn on a light, run the air conditioner, open the refrigerator, brush your teeth, drink a glass of water, cook on your stove top, listen to your ipod, shop at the store, drive your car, take a shower, call your Mom, mow the lawn, or simply sit out back with a cool glass of iced tea, you are relying on an intricate and webbed structure of supply and distribution networks that make all these “small” conveniences possible. What many of us don’t consider – or even think about – is that this supply and distribution network is very interdependent, meaning that disturbances in one part of the network can send shock waves throughout the entire system, affecting hundreds of thousands of people and households in very unpredictable ways.
As an example, consider a “simple” 7-day power outage, (an increasingly common occurrence in today’s uncertain world). Once the power grid is gone, so is the power to pump water, waste-water, power street lights, store lights, house lights, refrigeration, heating systems, security systems, telecommunication systems, gasoline pumps, and more. You will not be able to go to the store to buy the food, water, medication and supplies you so desperately need because the stores will be closed; those stores that are somehow able to remain open will be sold out within hours. You will not be able to drive to an unaffected location because the gasoline pumps will not be operational – all you have is what is in your tank. Your refrigerated food will spoil within hours, your sewage will back up and you will have no fans to remove the smell and the heat, or heaters to warm you from the biting cold. Ice will disappear in the warmer latitudes. You will run out of food as soon as your pantry is empty, and the only water you will have to drink, or clean with, is what you had in bottles before the outage occurred. If you have an emergency, you will not be able to call 911 because telecommunications will likely be down.
What will the next 7 days look like for you and your family? Here is what it looked like for one of SurvivalOutpost.com’s customers:
“We had no idea how the power outage would affect us. We planned ahead, but there are so many things you don’t think of, and water runs out so quickly. We had to wait in lines for water. Who would have thought that a toilet takes almost three gallons to fill just to flush! People around here would have paid any amount of money for a battery operated fan – we were miserable!” – Renee Sutherland, Hurricane Gustav Survivor
If you are not adequately prepared, it is likely that you will spend your week nervously standing in a long line of grumpy and seemingly hostile strangers, as you all wait on government aide (which may take days to arrive). If that sounds bad, then you now know what millions of unprepared people have lived through (or in some cases — not), after a major disaster struck them.
Peace of mind in these uncertain times comes through reasonable readiness – a balance between personal responsibility to prepare for likely natural and man-made disasters, an acknowledgment that it could actually happen to you and your family, and an appreciation that there is a safety net out there prepared to help…but one that you will have to be prepared to wait on. It’s the wait that can hurt you:
“I live in north west Pennsylvania. Inland United States. Who would have ever thought that I should be prepared for a one-week power outage from a hurricane that made landfall in Texas! Ike shot right up the country, hit us with 80 mph winds and left us totally unprepared. There was a run on Wal-Mart, and I had to rely on my neighbors to help me through the disruption. One neighbor had a generator, and he went from home to home giving each of us one hour of power to cool our food and what limited water we had left.” Alita Gail – Hurricane Ike Survivor
The survival question in today’s complex and increasingly unpredictable and dangerous world is simple: Given the potential hazards that are likely to affect you (such as an economic collapse that severely disrupts our supply chain and support networks, or a natural disaster Katrina scale, or social unrest, etc.), do you have the necessary supplies on hand to make it through the waiting period…to remain at home with peace of mind in the comfort and company of your family and loved ones? Or will you be waiting anxiously in a long line of strangers, hoping to make it to the front before they run out of supplies?
The choice, and decision, is yours… Never forget that when the time for action is upon you, the time to prepare is gone.
Stay safe. Stay informed. Be prepared.