3 million people without power. Earthquakes by the dozen. Tsunami, hurricane, oppressive heat, freezing cold, political unrest, solar flares, and Mayan doomsday prophecy. Take your pick for the appropriate reason to begin your plans for your family's comfort, and possibly their survival. As you read this blog you may find yourself giggling or laughing at some of the ideas and thought presented here. Understand that my ultimate goal is for you and your family to have enough food, shelter, water, and communication gear to survive three months, completely, "Off the grid".
Off the grid is becoming more and more popular as people are learning that the government is not going to be there for you after an emergency. Yes they may pull up, or they may not. What if the disaster isn't just your neighborhood. What if the disaster is nationwide? Who's going to come take care of you and your family now?
The answer is simple. No one is going to come and help. You are on your own. Let's play a quick game of what if, shall we?
Let's pretend that today, as you sit reading this blog, something incredibly simple changes your life. All of the power goes out in your home. You pick up your cell phone to call the power company, and it's not connecting either. You go to your computer and try to get on the Internet, then realize that requires power. You walk outside, and try to hop in your car, and it won't crank. It's going to be in the 30's tonight. You remember the weatherman say that on the news.
You try not to panic, as you walk back inside. Hopefully your entire family is at home. Chances are they are scattered until almost bedtime. You can't call them, you can't go get them, and they can't contact you. You look down your road and notice no one has power, and most are now milling around outside like you are.
Let's assume your family is all at home. Otherwise you would be probably be too panic stricken to function.
You go back inside and open the fridge. Where is your flashlight? Do you have fresh batteries? Sure you have 10 different scented candles, but do you have a regular old standby candle? You notice that you are out of milk, and you start to calculate how much money you are losing from what you see in your fridge.
You start grabbing the hot dogs and chicken out of the freezer. You go and crank up your gas grill and supper is a feast. Over your orange supreme scented candle light dinner, you eat together, and talk. No other sound fills your home. You think, "Hey this is kind of cool!"
However, you also know the temp is falling outside. You just cooked the rest of the food in the freezer, and in the morning, your food in the fridge will either be eaten or spoiled.
During the day, you decide to walk and talk to people around you to find out if anyone knows anything. If you live in town this may be possible, but if you live out in the country, you might really be isolated.
During the end of the second day, you really start to worry. You ate all of your canned soup today, you finished off the bread and lunch meat. You know you have some stuff in the cabinets that you can cook over a grill, but you are running out of choices.
Day three starts, and everyone is grumpy. Another cold night under covers wearing sweat suits. The water stopped working late yesterday. You don't know why right off hand, but now you start to get concerned. You tell the family they now have to start using the bathroom outside. As you lay down on the third night you are more worried than you tell anyone. You are hungry because you pretended to not be that hungry at dinner. You vow that tomorrow you have to go find food and water.
Where will you go?
This is just a 3 day ordeal. What about after a week? two? a month? Friends you need to think about the well being of your family today, not when the inevitable happens. Yes I said Inevitable. This is not a question of IF it's a question of when.
In my next post I'll tell you what you need in your 3 day plan.
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