Emergency Preparedness

Last night, I did a very brief interview with radio host John Curley in Seattle. You can listen to a podcast of the interview at this link. One of the things we touched upon was the idea of how people will behave in an absence of law — the armed vs the unarmed.

This is sometimes termed WROL, which stands for Without Rule Of Law. Man, we survivalists and preppers sure do love our acronyms, don’t we? TSHTF, TEOTWAWKI, BOB, GHB, the list goes on and on. One more that comes up from time to time is MZB, which stands for Mutant Zombie Bikers. We use that as kind of a catch-all phrase for people who would wish to do us harm after a societal collapse.

As I mentioned during the interview, naturally I believe there will be some degree of MZBs going around looting and pillaging after a disaster. We’ve seen that time and again. Think back to the news footage filmed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. People smashing store windows and walking off with big screen TVs and other expensive electronics. Reports of thefts, assaults, you name it.

But, at the same time, we heard stories of heroic efforts to save people trapped in their homes. No doubt countless people lent a hand to others in need.

Look at 9/11 as another example. How many of those killed in the attack died as they were working to help save others?

Disasters bring out both the best and the worst in people. In a major collapse, I believe that will hold true as well. Sure, you are going to have the MZBs attacking those who can’t or won’t protect themselves. But, you are also going to have people who do everything they can to improve the situation.

I have to believe the good folks will outnumber the bad. I need to believe that. Otherwise, what’s the point? Without hope, we’re doomed.

We are smack in the middle of Banned Books Week. What in the world does this have to do with survival, you may ask?

Well, what child has read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and NOT thought about how cool it would be to drift down the Mississippi River on a raft, living by his wits?

Both Brave New World and 1984 deal with dystopian societies that sometimes seem to mirror current events.

Call of the Wild is a perennial favorite among those kids who love stories set in the wilderness.

Lord of the Flies illustrates a somewhat realistic view of what could happen when a bunch of kids end up stranded on an island.

Personally, I abhor censorship in all forms. I don’t believe you can be selective with censorship; it is an all or nothing proposition. Sure, you should monitor what your kids read and make sure those books are age appropriate. Remember too that once you make something “forbidden” to a kid, it suddenly becomes extremely interesting.

I don’t know about you but I neither want nor need some individual or group deciding for me what I can or cannot read.

Celebrate Banned Books Week by reading (or rereading) one of the classics. Consider it an expression of one of the freedoms we still enjoy.

I’m not much for gadgets and gizmos. I have a cell phone only because it is provided by my day job employer. Until we recently upgraded plans, my cell was big, bulky, and didn’t do much of anything more than make and receive calls. Same deal with GPS, I wouldn’t have it except that my boss gave me one to use for work. But, there is one little gadget I feel is important — an mp3 player. Personally, I love listening to music of all types and while I don’t feel it is critical to survival, it sure would suck to not have the ability to listen to some tunes.

Music has a calming effect on most people. It will settle nerves and clear your head. Now, I’m not saying if a tornado strikes your house, you should strap on headphones and crank it to 11. What I’m saying is, if you end up having to hoof it home from somewhere, having some tunes will make the trip at least a little easier to handle. Remember how important an iPod was in The Book of Eli?

If you have your other bases covered (food, water, first aid, etc.), consider purchasing an inexpensive mp3 player to put in your Get Home Bag. Charge it up periodically or just leave it plugged into your 12v outlet in your vehicle. Load it up with your favorite songs and artists and you’re good to go.

Obviously, there may be some situations where it is more important you can clearly hear everything around you so take that into consideration before plugging your ears with those ear buds. But, in most situations, you could probably get by with keeping just one ear free.

As most of my regular readers here know, I’m not big on prophecies. Unless the prediction is the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, I pretty much disregard them. Sure, some of them can be interesting, even entertaining. But from a practical standpoint, not worth much of my time.

However, with all that said, I did find this one catching my attention a bit.

As covered in various news reports lately, there is a rather large hunk of space debris headed our way in the next few days. A satellite will be crashing to Earth, though they’ve not really determined where or exactly when. They expect it to break into several pieces and they’re not sure how many of them will actually make it to the ground before burning up completely in the atmosphere. Rest assured though, NASA has said there is only a 1 in 3200 chance a piece will actually hit a person.

Now, here is where it gets interesting. I’m told there is a Hopi prophecy that says something like this:

The prophecy describes a vision of a “blue star” that will fall to earth, causing create destruction. In some versions, this Hopi prophecy says a “house in the heavens” will fall, becoming a blue star in the process. But certainly, a large man-made craft plunging to earth, all aflame, would be a spectacular sight — one that would be witnessed by hundreds of millions of people.

I guess my first question would be, is this truly a Hopi prophecy from back in the day? If it is, well then that’s pretty creepy. But I’m not all that familiar with Hopi prophecies so perhaps one of my readers here could enlighten us?

I guess either way, keep an eye on the skies so you don’t get brained by satellite debris. I mean, NASA is broke so the best case scenario would be they give you one of the old space shuttles as compensation. And who wants to fight a homeowner’s association about having that in your driveway!

A while back, I read an article that stated in the last twenty years or so, individual power consumption in the US has something like tripled or more. Between all the various and sundry gadgets, smart phones, i-everything, and not to mention the ever increasing computer usage, we are using power like never before.

Naturally, all these creature comforts comes at a price. Power ain’t cheap. Setting aside all the environmental impacts, it just flat out costs more out of our pockets today than it did five years ago, hell even a year or two ago.

I’ve often said that every dollar you can save somewhere else in your budget can be put towards prepping. So, have you taken a good look at your utility bills lately? I’d be willing to bet many of you could probably cut a little energy usage and never notice it, except on your bills.

This week, I want you to take a good, hard look at your energy bills. Compare them to the same time frames last year. Most utility companies allow you to do this online if you don’t have the paper copies available. Then, challenge yourself and your family to decrease the bills as much as possible.

Here are some easy ways to cut down your energy consumption.

–Be hyper-aware of lights being left on when no one is in the room. Get everyone in the habit of turning off lights when they aren’t needed. Further to that, look at how much lighting you really NEED. If you’re the only person in the room, do you need the overhead light as well as task lighting at the same time?

–Invest in power strips and use them to control energy usage. Many appliances draw power even when they aren’t being used, such as TVs, video game systems, DVD players, and stereo systems. When not in use, turn off the power to them via power strips.

–Watch your thermostat settings. We keep ours at about 65 in the winter and are comfortable. We don’t walk around in T-shirts and shorts but we’re not wearing winter parkas either. In summer, we only turn on the A/C when it is just brutally hot out and even then, it usually gets set at 79.

–Turn your computers off when you’re not using them. Many people just leave them up and running 24/7. It only takes a few minutes for most computers to boot up.

–Turn off the TV when no one is watching it. This was a huge one in my house when I was growing up. My Dad used to win new TVs about every other year through his job, so we had them in all the bedrooms, the living room, the dining room, the kitchen, and the garage/shop. Invariably, at least three of them were going at any given time, with no one watching them. Even now, when I visit, I’ll find them on in several unoccupied rooms. What an incredible waste of energy.

This week, make a plan to reduce energy usage in your home. Stick to the plan for a month or two and see how it impacts your wallet. I think you’ll be happy with the results.