Are You Prepared?

We have heard from several families who were trapped in the flooding in various parts of the U.S. and Mexico. One Colorado family with four children reported that they were not able to get out for several days to buy food until the waters began to recede. The experience has made everyone aware of how short they come up on preparedness. Including us here at FFJ . So we have taken stock of things that we need to do to improve our security. Maybe you’d like to make your own list. Here are some ideas. Would you like to add yours?

• FOOD  In our case we don’t use packaged, prepared foods at all so emergency food storage for us requires a lot of dried foods and fruit, dried beans, etc. One thing we intend to stock heavily is non-GMO,  untreated, heirloom seeds. Everything but nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant) can be sprouted for salad in just a few days. Also, periods of stress usually deplete our bodies of nutrients and sprouted vegetables have four time the  nutrition packed in that little sprout as does the mature vegetable so we consider them the perfect emergency storage food. And if properly stored, seeds will last for centuries. Of course they are also plantable in containers or in the ground. There are many food storage sites on the Internet with helpful plans and suggestions. One more thought about dried foods. If you have to leave the area, they are a lot easier to move than canned.

• PREPARATION FOR BANK FAILURE OR HOLIDAY. Some are saying this can’t happen. We think that it can and will. We need cash on hand and possibly some pre-1964 U.S. silver coins (if you are in the U.S.) in order to buy what we need until the ATMs are functional again. I have instructed my daughter, who lives in the U.S., to have cash in her apartment to take a taxi to the airport and an airplane to South America.

• FIREARMS, AMMO AND OTHER SECURITY PRECAUTIONS. In our case, after our recent burglary, we realize the need to beef up personal security in the future. I am arranging for an infrared camera from the States that is motion sensitive and takes undetectable (to the subject) photos even in the dark, so that if they do get in we will have photos. We felt extremely secure here in this building with exterior shutters that come down over the outside windows and the fact that the building itself is locked and requires a master key to enter. But we found out that we need to take ALL precautions, just in case. We installed two more deadbolts on the door, but when we are settled permanently, we will do even more than that. This burglary was a wake-up for me.

• POWER: Even in this Buenos Aires apartment, if I thought I were going to stay here permanently I would install a generator that would kick on if the power fails, which it does occasionally but in my case never for long. I know other people in Buenos Aires who have lost power for four days! I am told I must live near someone important since they seem to be sure that our  power is on. Not everyone here is so fortunate. I did go for a lot of weeks with no internet, but I always have power.

• TRANSPORTATION. I will need to see the situation when I decide where to set up a permanent retreat. My grandson really surprised me. He has a plan completely in place including a bicycle. He lives in a very large city in the States and knows he could never get out in an automobile in an emergency because so many people would be trying to do the same. So he has a bicycle, has his route mapped out to the mountains and tells  me if necessary he could follow the trails through the Rockies to Canada.Here is something else to think about. You might want to reevaluate where you are living. In 1999 when Hurricane Floyd came barreling toward Florida, I knew it wasn’t smart to stay in our  house for a 200+ mph, category 4 hurricane so, two days before, I loaded my 90 year old mother in the car and headed out of the State. Even leaving two days ahead of expected landfall, we found ourselves on a parking lot then called I-95 and an hour later I was not even out of Palm Bay, Florida. And that was where we lived! I inched to an exit and drove east to U.S. 1 which was almost devoid of traffic. We made it as far as Okahumpka, Florida, and could not go further, The hotel rooms there were already full. I learned a few things then about how helpless you can be if you don’t plan ahead. In that case, planning ahead would probably involve moving out of Florida or anywhere else where one would be trapped in case of a nuclear accident, hurricane, or anything else–or perhaps buying the county maps and mapping out the country roads and two tracks one could use to leave the state. Short of that–or a boat–I don’t know the solution.

• COMMUNICATION. One of the things on my list once my Spanish is good enough is to take a ham radio class so that I can operate a radio. We do have a hand crank, battery-operated short wave radio in case we lose power. We can get the news that way. You do have to crank it back up every now and then. It does also operate on power though, if we have power. But if not, it will still work.

• WATER: This is something we will have to work on. I do have a small easily portable Katadyn water filter that will supposedly filter drinkable water from a mud puddle in the woods. In South America there are many huge concrete storage vaults for water that sit atop the roofs of buildings. We have one very large one on this building but it means depending on someone else for our source. Eventually we will have a reliable, natural, pure source of water.

• FIRST AID. Fortunately one of our group is an emergency medical technician. Plus our entire family once took a first aid course. A refresher course would be a good idea. We also have a number of people in our community who are herbalists or studying the subject.

What about you? Have you made your checklist? Are you making progress toward preparation. We can see we have work to do.

Until next week . . .

Arlean