Hmmm..I’m hungry, but dont feel like going out for groceries. Fortunately, it’s an easy thing overcome. 2006 was a good year for beef, so I pull 2# of vacuum-sealed 80/20 ground beef outta the deep freeze. Theres cases of jars of spaghetti sauce on the shelves, so I grab one of those. Theres also about 40# of various pastas, so a pound of penne will come with me to the kitchen. And, since part of the reason theres so much of this stuff is because I buy it when its on sale, the whole meal costs about…mmm….$4 and will easily serve three people. Annnnnnnnnd…….thats how we roll.
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Did 9/11 change the way that this country thinks about civil preparedness? In my utterly worthless and unfounded opinion, no. I think the potential is certainly there for the events of 9/11 to be a catalyst for a new era of civil defense but I don’t think its happened. To be sure, .gov started flinging money around to, it seems, any municipality that asked for it. Grants for hazmat training, grants for protective gear, etc, etc….an excellent opportunity for a town or city to get itself prepared. Has anyone taken advantage of that? I’m sure many have, to some degree or another, but I think many more haven’t.
I think part of the reason there hasn’t been a renaissance in civil defense is that there’s an attitude of ‘its too painful to think about’ and ‘worry about it when it happens’. Even if the .gov were to drop. Say. $10 million on the governing body of Anytown, USA, there’d be a dozen committee’s, panels, commissions, advocacy groups and others demanding that the money be used to fit their particular vision of whats needed. Worse, in some cases the money is used to pull money from elsewhere. I had a customer with a local sherriff’s department who was lamenting the the lack of guns and ammo for training. I asked him if his department had gotten any Homeland Security grants or funding. He said that they had gotten $80k earmarked for their department. I asked what happened to it. He said the county commission simply pulled $80k from the sheriffs budget and used it elsewhere…this way the $80k did technically go where it was supposed to.
On the other hand, you can’t realistically expect the out-of-towners to dictate where the money has to go. After all, wouldn’t it make sense that the chier of police or the fire department would have a better idea of what they need than some guy in Washington with a clipboard who has never even been to RFD #3?
We used to have a Civil Defense program in this country. It was an embarrassment compared to other countries but at least it was an effort. Relics of the program can still be seen in the black-and-yellow fallout shelter signs that still adorn many public buildings. (As an aside, I saw my first one in Montana the other day at the local high school. When I grew up in NY every school and some apartment buildings had the signs on them, with caches of ‘supplies’ tucked away in some dark corner of the building.) The programs eventually were folded into FEMA and the shelter programs, which were already languishing, were abandoned, I believe, in the late 80’s or very early 90’s. There are still, however, mounds of the old CD shelter supplies quietly rotting away in the dark wet basements of courthouses and schools all around this country.
Since 9/11 the other major disaster was hurricane Katrina. You would think that watching videos from that even would convince people that local government needs to take a serious stand on civil preparedness and defense. However, I’d be surprised if the folks in Louisiana have done much more than prepare for the next event by having their excuses and blame games transcribed to laminated cards.
On the other hand, 9/11 and Katrina did change the way the people of this country think about preparedness. Preparedness has gone a bit more mainstream, and although the stereotype of some gun-toting, camouflage-clad redneck misanthrope remains as the image people think of when they think ‘survivalists’, I think more people are coming around to our way of thinking.
And, still, the public sector lags behind the private sector in terms of preparedness. I’m sure there are people reading this now who work in some capacity for their local municipality and they’ll say in comments that their agency has been buying new fire trucks/body armour/hazmat suits/etc, and while thats great it’s still a drop in the bucket. Even if local governments couldnt afford to set something up you would think they would do their best to strongly encourage and support people who take the responsibility for their own preparedness seriously.
Perhaps its natural selection in action…the prepared will come out of the disaster just fine and the .gov that failed to prepare gets voted out next election, however given Nagin’s ability to retain his job I dont have much hope for the future.
For a window into the past of this nations Civil Defense progarm, hit this website. I especially like the fallout shelter tours.
2004 – Hurricane Charley hit SW Florida doing massive damage. First hurricane in 44 years.
2005, 2006, 2007 most folks were prepared – hurricane shutters, food & water, evacuation plan. County & local TV stations held very well attended meetings on “Hurricane Preparation”.
Hurricane preparedness sales, no state tax on those items.
2008 and this year – less prep, less caring about it, much lower attendance at meetings, fewer sales.
What does it mean? Complacency.
For us – moved to a house from a manufactured home so we will not evacuate. Hurricane shutters on all windows & doors, garage door is reinforced, had a Wind resistance inspection for insurance purposes – found it meets/exceeds state codes. We will not be complacent, we will always be prepared.
I think that many in the US have a “Uncle Sam can fix it all mentality”. My view is if the Goernment can give it, they also can take it away.They dangle a carrot in front of your nose to promote compliance.
If push were to come to shove, they would take away to promote compliance. (Just a side thought, can you imagine the number of people that would flip out if TV were to be eliminated?)
People should rely on themselves, and prepare for the worst, if it doesn’t come, that is great. If all poop hits the fan, you have a chance.
“I think part of the reason there hasn’t been a renaissance in civil defense is that there’s an attitude of ‘its too painful to think about’ and ‘worry about it when it happens’.”
Or how about “somebody else will bail us out if it does?”
What caught my eye was the 2006 beef remark…even vacuum sealed, my wife makes me chicken out at about a year…is your meat still good after three years?
Sure, why wouldnt it be? Its vaccuum-sealed and sitting at around 0-degrees or less. I eat one and two year old meat pretty regularly. I think the record is about 4 years. No problems.
You would think that watching videos from that even would convince people that local government needs to take a serious stand on civil preparedness and defense.
Brother, you know better than that. Don’t count on the government for anything. Ain’t no free lunch. If you take their food/water/blanket, next thing you know you’ll be hustled into some damn ‘shelter’ where decision-making will be left to your more competent “betters”.
They’re LIARS. Every damn one. Trust yourself. Trust your family & neighbors. Prepare.
Better not trust your neighbors too much unless you know them REALLY well. My parents survived Stalin’s Ukrainian Starvation program where Stalin starved the Ukrainian into submission. When the chips were down, neighbor sold out neighbor. In fact neighbors often became Satlin’s armed goons. If hunger occurs in the USA
I believe that it will be worse. The US now has a whole class of Government Dependent people who are spoiled and lazy.
Oh yeah, my parents and 2 other familes were able to escape on foot with several of their small children. They literally walked across Europe with World War 2 going on. Some were able to go the the USA some were able to go to Canada.
I was blessed to have been born in the USA, Montana no less!!
Wow!!
Accutrax, that is truth. America was a wonderful idea, but its population is no so spoiled & hopelessly ignorant. If there’s a major calamity we’re going to see a MASSIVE die-off.
I agree with Orlov, in that as bad as the Russian economic colapse was in the 90′s (I was there), Russian were used to living in poverty with no ‘extras’. You take away an American’s flat sceen & super-sized meal deal and they won’t last a week.