Preparedness and more "What If..."

by Anisah
(Bushnell, SD, USA)

I was asked to post my "what if..." comments here that I had sent in... so hope they help inspire some who are still thinking about preparedness' benefits.

Just wanted to pass on a couple examples of "what if..."

I worked in Katrina hurricane zone for six months. FEW people were prepared, even though they knew a huge storm was coming. They should have had cages to transport their pets inland. They "Should have" had resources set aside to move out of the way of the storm.

Even inland people experienced "hardships" due to lack of trucks being available to deliver ag equipment because they were all busy on the coast; during the harvest season of other parts of the country (had friends in SD suffer because they couldn't get ag parts for machinery). LEAN Manufacturing is what they call it. But its bad planning in my view. It assuming a "rosy" picture always in the future.

I also remember winter of 1996, here in South Dakota when food trucks couldn't deliver milk, bread and other foods to the stores. Shelves started getting sparse. Prior to that people teased me about my excessive shopping and stocking up. However, when I was able to share what I had with families that typically purchased daily... they got a clearer picture.

Now fast forward to today. My daughter and grand kids lived in Giza, Egypt until Oct 2010. They got out just in time. She left just prior to airlines restrictions on pregnant women flying. If she had stayed "until after the baby was born"... she would have been stranded in her home without medical care, with a new baby and a c-section (all babies are taken c-section there). It really brought home to her the value of food storage in Egypt.

I was with her there, the year our nation went to war with Iraq. We watched as the prices of everything sky rocketed. But I had already purchased bags of grain and pastas and we'd stored them in her home. Her husband thought I was "nuts", since he believed "modern people who weren't backward, like the bedouin, didn't stock up", until the war hit and prices went crazy.

I wonder often how the prices there are, now that Egypt itself is in turmoil and think about how that society doesn't encourage even the slightest food storage. Not even a few days of stored food. Eggs and milk, bread, everything is bought each day for THAT day's meals. I think of the babies going hungry also due to the promotion of formula and discouragement of "old fashioned" breast feeding. Sad just sad.

But are we any different in the US? When crisis happens, whether man-made or natural, can we say we'd be able to survive even one week?