The first rule of preparedness in regards to surviving any disaster is this:
Don’t be there.
“I’m going to visit my Aunt Selma tomorrow. She’s three hundred miles from here and the news is forecasting enormous flaming rocks falling from the sky for an area covering the whole length of my trip. How much food and water should I take for the trip? You know, just in case?”
a) Three days worth of food and water
b) seven days worth of food and water
c) Don’t make the trip, moron.
=====
“I’m going elk hunting tomorrow. The area I’m hunting in was just discovered to be on an ancient cursed Indian burial ground. And there’s an escaped axe-murderer who they think may be in the area. And the forecast is for six feet of snow and toxic gas. Should I take my .300 Win. or the .30-06?”
a) The .300 Win. for those long flat shots
b) The .30-06. Its heavy timber up there. It’ll all be close in.
c) Stay home or go somewhere else, idiot.
=====
“The news says there was a 10.1 earthquake about three miles offshore from our beach house. We can see the water receding waaaaayyy back from the shore. Theres all sortsa fish and clams just sitting out there. We’re going to go grab some for dinner. Would you like to come along?”
a) Sure, I’ll be right there
b) Ok, but I have to pass on the shellfish. Keeping kosher.
c) Can’t hear you, I’m driving 100 mph uphill and inland as far as I can.
=====
Most disasters aren’t nice enough to make an appointment. (Although some do.) A lot of times you have to play the hand your dealt when its dealt. No choice. But….many times you do have a choice. If youre terrified a hurricane is going to eat your house, dont live near the beach. If youre terrified an earthquake is going to swallow your car, move out of California. If tornadoes make your wet you pants, get outta Kansas. If violent crime makes you scared, move outta NYC.
The folks who sat through Katrina had a couple days notice that things were going to get ugly. “Oh, but they were the poor and underpriveledged. They had no way to leave!” Sure they did. I guarantee you that if I put a gun to your head and told you that if you cant find $50 in the next three days Im going to kill you, you’ll come up with fifty bucks. Those people could have taken a bus, a train, or just bought a cheap bicycle and gotten far enough inland in three days that they weren’t stuck on rooftops baking in the sun waving at Coast Guard helicopters.
I’ve had times when I wanted to travel to gun shows that were a hundred or so miles from here. Roads were a bit icy, blowing wind, snow, cold, the whole nine yards. I easily have enough gear that if I went off the road into a ditch I’d be perfectly fine. Warm, fed, hydrated, comfy, and probably even sleep well. But why buy trouble? I skip the trip and figure I’ll go to the next one.
Im not saying everyone who gets in a disaster and stuck on a FEMA food line is responsible for what happened to them. Sometimes Mom Nature can be a nasty old broad. But there are plenty of situations out there that a little common sense and self-preservation would suggest you avoid.
The best way to survive any disaster: do not be there.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Carteach0 // Jan 27, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Amen
2 accutrax // Jan 27, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Take both the 30-06 and the 300 Win MaG. actually take the 30-378 WBY as well. If the crazed nut case comes after you, run a little ways, then defend yourself and save the state some money!!
)
What you are saying is right. Avoid the manure pile and generally you will avoid the manure.
I also believe that the Government wants people to be dependant on them. People are easy to control if they need the Government.
I think that most of the people in New Orleans after Katrina could have helped themselves.
In my humble view I thought it very shameful that so many people did not help themselves. It did not appear to me that they were making much effort to help themselves. In fact I believe that there were mostly lazy people that did not help themselves. A very sad observation. This happened in a warm climate. What would happen if s major calamity happened in Detroit, Chicago, or New York City? Lots of frozen corpses.
Actually, I would never live in a highly populated area. Even large shopping malls get on my nerves.
3 debsdobe // Jan 27, 2010 at 5:37 pm
AMEN!
4 Freedom Strikes Back // Jan 27, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Well said. I at least have a heart for the haitians being they probably had no idea they were in a vault line that could produce a 7.0. However, when you hear a huge hurricane is coming your way, and the levys could break, etc. And yet you still don’t leave. I’m sorry for their loss, but I don’t want to hear their blame game. Great point with the gun analogy.
5 tjbbpgobIII // Jan 28, 2010 at 1:45 am
There was a black kid in New Orleans that stold one of those empty school busses and moved the people in his neighborhood away from the floods. His own little ark so to speak, and anyone could have done the same thing given the gumption to do so. It seemed a little of that was lacking in too many people.
6 BePrepared // Jan 28, 2010 at 8:31 am
Those “poor souls” in N.O. had to only make it to certain points of the city, Mayor Nagen had all the systems school busses taking anyone who wanted out for FREE.
Some EMS freinds were at the convention center the weekend before Katrina made landfall, you can believe that the EMS convention may have been going on but all the vendors and most attendees (people who look out for disaster and trouble) were GONE Sunday morning.
Ignorance and “ain’t nothing gonna happen” attitude are to blame there, “it can’t be as bad as they say it will be.”
7 Bugei // Jan 28, 2010 at 1:58 pm
New Orleans or Haiti; doesn’t matter which you’re talking about. It is for dead certain that every inhabitant knows NOW that the place they live will, every so often, try to kill them. If they stay, I vote we don’t lift a finger next time.
8 Phan // Jan 28, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Good post. I always say “Survivalists survive by staying out of survival situations”
9 cavtrpr // Jan 29, 2010 at 10:36 am
Good post, although I take exception to one of your statements: “I guarantee you that if I put a gun to your head and told you that if you can’t find $50 in the next three days I’m going to kill you, you’ll come up with fifty bucks. ” I would guarantee that if someone said that to me, I would find a way to put 168grains of jacketed lead in a portion of their body (from about 600 yards away) well before the three days were up. Hey, prevention is better than a cure.
Leave a Comment