Get yourself ready for the worst

Are you convinced yet? If you aren’t, exactly what will it take? What I’m talking about here is disaster preparedness. Just this morning I was watching “Good Morning America” when a news reporter from Florida came on the air interviewing some folks who were victims of the latest hurricane, this one being Irma. Harvey had already shown out the previous week in Texas, so in some ways this was redundant. But bear with me.

A couple invited the reporter to enter their home, which was without power of any sort. They had no water, no nothing. All the reporter could say, and he repeated it numerous times, was how dark it was around there. Well, duh. There’s really no good reason for that, though. I’ll explain.

Everyone should have a disaster relief plan, and I mean a personal disaster plan. None of us have any assurance that we won’t be the victim of a disaster, whether it be weather-related (the most common) or otherwise. Around here we are subject to high winds associated with thunderstorms, tornadoes, flooding, and even ice storms in the winter, though those have been rare in recent years. Good.

My point is that all of us should make some basic preparations. First, have some water in storage. The water bottles are good if you prefer those, but water in plastic gallon jugs works well, too. However, if there’s a longterm need for water, it’s a good idea to have a water filter on hand. They’re pretty cheap. One Sawyer brand filter that will make just about any water safe to drink is about $60 and will purify up to 1 million gallons of water. Yeah, when I saw that I was a little skeptical, but that’s what they say. You probably won’t need that much, anyway.

Once the water problem is solved, get yourself something to eat. And I don’t mean chips, though those do hold up well if they don’t get wet. Especially Zapps, which are my new favorite. They’re hard to find around here, though, so any of the baked ones will do.

Getting back to preparedness, Ready.gov advises people to have a three-day supply of non-perishable food on hand. That could be crackers or canned food, but I recommend the freeze-dried variety that campers use. It’s light, stores for a long period of time, and only needs a little hot water added to make a full meal. If you decide to go with the canned food, don’t forget to store a can opener. You should have one of those, anyway.

Next, get yourself a good flashlight. The new smaller ones that run on one AA battery make the most sense to me. Some of those provide over 200 lumens of light, which is the least I would recommend. The more the better when it comes to lumens. And have a few extra batteries on hand. Just about any camping supplies are useful after a disaster, so if you’re a camper, you’re ahead of the game.

Experts also advise a signal, such as a whistle, and a tarp with duct tape to make a shelter, etc. Doesn’t sound like much of a shelter to me, but whatever. They also say to get a dust mask, local maps, a cell phone, backup battery, and a few other supplies. I highly recommend that you store some of those baby wipes, as they come in handy under a variety of circumstances, if you know what I mean. Especially if the plumbing is compromised.

My best advice is to just get yourself a generator. If you can afford the whole home variety that runs on propane or natural gas, that’s the one I’d get. But those are pretty expensive, and most people can’t or won’t spend that much on one. They aren’t portable, either, and could be damaged in a flood or related weather event.

Bottom line, at the very least you should get a portable generator. Those are not that expensive and, boy, do they come in handy when you desire some light or need to keep your refrigerator running. I know that means you have to keep a bit of additional gasoline on hand in most cases, but there are dual fuel generators that run on propane. You can just use the propane tank you may have on your grill. Pretty handy. Just forego that new iPhone you were about to buy this year, and gift yourself and your family with something that’ll definitely make your life easier in a disaster. Just remember to run that generator every month or so or it won’t crank when you need it. I learned that the hard way, so you can benefit from my knowledge. And don’t ever, and I mean e-v-e-r, run a generator inside your home.

Now that you have food, water and power, you’re set. It might still be miserable without cable, but the misery level index (MLI - I just made that up) is lessened significantly when you have some of the trappings of civilization. I know all this stuff first hand — the power goes out a lot where I live.

What we all need to do is learn from the twin disasters we’ve seen unfold in Texas and Florida over the past couple of weeks. No one is immune from natural disasters, and it’s just good common sense to make some preparations beforehand. You don’t want to be running to the grocery store at the last minute trying to obtain supplies. You’re likely to encounter shortages, large crowds, and hassles galore. Who wants that? And besides, there aren’t any H-E-Bs in this part of the country.

If you aren’t familiar with H-E-B, it’s a grocery store chain in Texas, and I’ll have to say it went above and beyond by giving away food from its stores that were open in hurricane-affected areas. It limited the amount of food and water one could get free, but that kept people honest and helped the most people. I also heard that the CEO gave $5 million of his own money to the J.J. Watt Disaster Relief Fund. That was a Texas-size gift to a Texas-size disaster relief effort by J.J. Watt, who is a pro football star for the Houston Texans.

Another positive aspect of disaster preparedness is that you won’t be a burden to others, and you’ll be in a position to help other people if the time comes. That would feel pretty good, so there’s that, too. All you have to do now is get started.

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