Make Plans For a Long-Term Emergency - National Preparedness Month

By Tim Gamble

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September is National Preparedness Month. If you didn't catch the first article in this series, The Outline of Preparedness, please check it out (article link). The 16 subsequent articles in this series delved deeper into those aspects of preparedness from the outline. This article covers what to do next once you've mostly covered those basics.  

Develop the plans & skills needed for a longer-term emergency.

Intermediate preppers need to understand and plan for the potential consequences of a "grid down" situation, particularly one that lasts for months or longer before things even begin to return to normal.

Don't think that will happen? Remember the empty store shelves in the early days of Covid, and all the supply chain problems? It could happen again. Political or economic collapse will do it. Just take an honest look at the state of politics in America right now, and America's over $35 Trillion national debt, and the highly likely anti-business, anti-energy, and high taxation policies of a Harris-Walz's administration.

It will happen again if we eventually have a war with China over Taiwan. But that will be even worse and longer lasting than the Covid problems. And any nuclear war with either China or Russia (or both) will take years, if not decades, from which to recover. 

A long-term disaster will result in the temporary or permanent loss of most of the “comforts of civilization” we are used to enjoying. Comforts of civilization are those things that are provided to us by modern civilization that we tend to take for granted. It would be difficult for most modern people to provide many of these things for themselves, especially without learning new skills, stockpiling tools and supplies, and preparing well in advance for their loss.

These comforts of civilization we may lose include:

   * Readily available running water that is safe to drink.
   * Readily available food from stores and restaurants.
   * “Flush and forget” human waste disposal.
   * Modern medicine and health care.
   * Readily available electricity for lighting, heating, cooling, and cooking.
   * Readily available natural gas for heating, cooking and hot water.
   * Readily available liquid fuel for cars, trucks, tractors and planes.
   * Instant long distance communication (phones, email, etc.).
   * Ready access to education.
   * Ready access to emergency services such as fire, police, and paramedics.
   * Most modern luxuries (television, smartphones, and the Internet, etc.)
   * Ability to spend money without having it (credit cards, mortgages, etc.)

How will the loss of these modern luxuries affect you and your family? When the tap water stops running, and your water storage is used up, what will you do then? (Answer: Before it happens, learn various ways to collect and treat water.) When your food storage runs out, and the grocery store shelves are still bare, how will you feed your family? (Possible answers: Before it happens, learn how to garden, hunt, fish, forage for wild edibles, raise chickens for eggs and meat...) 

How will you stay warm and heat your home without electricity or natural gas? How will you buy things when cash is worthless and the credit card and banking system is down? These are the type of questions you need to ask yourself, and start making contingency plans now before it happens. These contingency plans will likely require learning new skills, making attitude adjustments, and acquiring special gear and supplies.

Start planning for a long-term (years) grid-down situation. Start learning the skills and acquiring the tools you will need, before you need them. Once you need them, it will be too late. 
 

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How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times, by James Wesley Rawles.  Rawles is a well-known name within the survivalist community, and this book gives coverage of most topics within survivalism and prepping, not just food storage and bugging out.

Tools for Survival: What You Need to Survive When You’re on Your Own, by James Wesley Rawles, details the tools needed to survive anything from a short-term disruption to a long-term, grid-down scenario. Chapters include:

• Gardening, Farm, and Ranch Tools
• Food Preservation and Cooking Tools
• Sewing and Leatherworking Tools
• Electrical and Electronics Tools
• Medical and Sanitation Tools
• Knives and Traditional Handtools
• Rifles, Shotguns, and Handguns
• Archery
• Timber, Firewood and Lumber Tools
• Fire Prevention and Firefighting Tools
• And chapters on many other tools...