Why Prepare for an Emergency?

It all started with Y2K...what a bust. I was so disappointed that nothing happened, I so badly wanted to tell friends "I told you so!" Instead I was left with a couple of cheap shot jokes and a garage full of canned food and batteries. Y2K did do one major thing though, and that was to bring into the forefront of  peoples minds, the practice of Emergency Preparedness.

Next we had Katrina and that illustrated to the world the ineptness of the government to help their own people. Remember the most feared words "I'm from the government and I'm here to help..." We saw people trapped ontop of their homes for days, no food, no fresh water, no help. It was while watching CNN that I vowed I would never be caught with my pants down like those poor folks.

Preparing for an emergency doesn't have to cost someone a fortune, you can quite easily start small. On the flip side you can throw yourself head first into preparedness and spend....the skies the limit! I would consider myself somewhere in the middle. I don't have a generator, but I have a kerosene heater...I don't have a bomb shelter or a large purse of land up north that I'd be running to, just a house in suburbia.

There are many emergencies, all different types, some more easily to believe than others. Living in Canada, winter storms, ice storms and high winds can knock power out for a couple of days, a few at the most...that's my 72 Hour Plan. On the flip side...solar flares, pandemics, and social unrest would most likely extend past the 72 Hours that we have all been told to prepare for. I've always found it odd that the Government of Canada went on a 72 Hour Emergency Preparedness campaign for almost six months and then all of a sudden it stopped. I have a feeling they feared something was soon to happen; and if a catastrophe ensued...they could tell us "We told you to prepare..." And then you'd be sitting at home for days waiting for help to arrive. I think Canada's military is great! To be able to do so much with so little funding is awesome. I just don't think Canada is ready to help 40,000,000 people in a short period of time, or even in the first week of a major disaster.

Dare to prepare, start out small, I'll tell you how.

Mark

hrdnox.