The question of the day is "Why do we prep?". 6-8 months is not unrealistic. Even though my family I think would eventually lose their appetite with the same mundane food items without some augmentation of fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy...they would manage.
California and places that experience those type of events are quite aware of the causalities and public health issues that will befall that area, hence why they are the best trained when it comes to quakes and wildfires in the country. I am not taking away EM folks that live in the NWA, but statistically, they have more events than any other state in the union. As I stated in another forum post, the rise of wildfires have risen alarmingly. See Maverick's post regarding what he has done to his home to make it less wildfire prone. My father's family lives in the Adirondacks, it is as heavily wooded as Mavericks and one thing my family has learned, doesn't matter how much you cut back the tree line, embers fly several miles and therefore possibly the best you can consider is to make an effort to clean away dead brush and other optimal combustible material that hastens a wildfire's ability to gain momentum. We even do this in Texas, because while we do not have large trees, the shrubs and low trees like Mesquite are very good fuel sources and combining this with high temperatures, low humidity and typical 40 mph winds we have in the Texas, is the reason why our firefighters are kept busy so much. Yes and the bulk of these are simple citizen's volunteering as firefighters in their community. Ever heard of West, Texas, its on the 35 just outside Texas, these were the heroes who died fighting at a combustible plant.
I think their were several things that came from Hurricane Andrew that we learned from, which has been used as a template for many hurricane events afterward and even used during Katrina. 1st Lesson, evacuation times are actually moved up on time line. I know that the Florida Emergency Management system was overhauled after Andrew. I've placed the after-action report. 2) Active Duty forces were used in the recovery stage of the event (not well done by any standard, but certainly identified key elemental issues on how active military forces would be used in later events). Roadway management, as N.R. stated in his early forum thread, even prep families that evacuated were caught in traffic, this while not great at any standards have improved, granted I've not evacuated in Florida peninsula, I've evacuated my family from Hurlburt without to much discomfiture. As for Katrina, I'd bet you any money, if you would ask those who evacuated New Orleans for Houston and other parts of South and Southwest, they evacuated to places near Louisiana because of the size of the hurricane. No one, not federal, state or local official's expected that the dykes would break and a major catastrophe would engulf a city. Lastly, those who stayed behind, made a decision, they decided to bug-in, despite being asked to leave and yes, many of those who stayed were not preppers.
How do I know this, well because I was at Homestead (military) one day after Andrew made landfall and I was sitting in Baton Rouge (Red Cross) when Katrina made land-fall. I know for a fact, places like Kenner and other non-flooded areas of New Orleans were not expecting the magnitude, stripped resources quickly, but the professionalism I saw of those who were involved was beyond reproach. I still have friends that I made in Saint Bernard Parish simply because the few volunteers that were with me, took the chance of doing some off-route excursions to get supplies into them. I am an adopted son of good hardworking and honest people of Louisiana, so while I know people like to point out how screwed up Katrina was, we learned a great deal from this event also.
N.R. no offense made to you, but your National medical system is far more crippled than our insurance driven private enterprise system. I've gotten medical care in England, I won't tell you how long it took me to get six stitches in my chin, but I could have done the stitches myself in the mirror. In fact, I was prepared to do so, had it not been for my commanding British officer who ordered to get the medical care in the first place. Even today, the scar that is left, told me that the practitioner needed to go back to medical school as it was the worst stitch job I have ever experienced. Even my other would sights are cosmetically better. Also being a medic and nurse, having stitched countless wounds, I think I could have done better with one hand tied to my back.
Which allows me to end this post...and my question. Why do we Prep? We all have our own reasons, but for me, it is simple, I've invested my life into my children, money, sweat, fear and tears. I'd like to think that my efforts will protect them or at least give them a standing chance in any event. Let's face it, if everyone would prep,, which the federal government has more or less advocated for years through their PSA messages, we'd be better off and possible be more resilient.
Good preps to all,
SB
