What “type” of prepper are you?

The act of being prepared for a disruptive event spreads across all social-economical levels regardless of political or religious affiliations, gender or sexual preferences, wealth, or philosophical bent. It stands to reason to take a step back and analyze what type of prepper you are based on the strategy you employ and the resources you can put into preparedness. I strongly believe that by analyzing your individual preference and strategy regarding prepping you can tweak and adjust your progress in preparedness on a yearly, monthly, even daily basis. 

Psychology and Philosophy

I've already posted an article discussing the anxiety-driven inspiration of prepping and, though that's not a 100% negative reason to prepare for a disruptive event most of us are driven by other factors in addition to anxiety. I invite the reader to take a step back and list the reasons, beyond "I don't want to die", as to why you prepare for an event. 

Many preppers prepare out of a sense of obligation toward their friends and family, for instance. They feel the need to play the sheep-dog and ensure the safety and well-being not only for themselves, but those they love. I've also chatted with preppers who prepare because they believe doing so empowers them as an 'alpha member' of society, providing an advantage over other citizens who fail to prepare for such inevitable disruptive events.

Religious drive can be dropped into this category as well. Several Christian denominations and sects take the words found in the book of Revelation to heart, heeding the interpretation as God commanding them to prepare for the coming end of days. I'd heard a few years back that the Church of Latter Day Saints (commonly referred to as Mormons) required their members to have a 2-year supply of food, water, and medical supplies, though since then I've heard-tell that's been reduced to just a 6 month supply by church direction. 

Resources and Strategy

Those of us 'into' preparedness all have a strategy; a method that best suits our philosophy and ideals to give us what we believe to be the best advantage during a disruption. Below are examples of this ideal.

The Homesteader

This individual typically scorns material wealth and instead chooses to live 100% off-grid, growing their own food, powering their home with wind and solar energies, and learning to scavenge resources such as old cars or 'junk' others discard and turning these items into highly useful objects. Homesteaders learn to live off the land in a far more dependent fashion, seeing modern materialism as being fragile and easily broken. As a result they limit their dependence on modern goods and services, or eliminate them from their lives altogether. 

Homesteaders tend to prep for disruptive events such as social or economical collapse, an EMP event, or even an asteroid strike or super volcano eruption. The homesteader sets themselves up for when there's no longer a grid to connect to and when society must revert back to dependency and living off of the land.

Generally speaking the homesteading strategy is a poor-man's choice (this is not a bad thing). With only a little startup revenue a prepper can dip their toes into homesteading with a little land and a lot of know-how. It's the know-how that's critical to a homestead prepper, far more-so than money which would be rendered useless in a SHTF event by their take. It's also this know-how and knowledge of homesteading that many peppers new to the strategy seriously underestimate, and they pay for it, too. City folks moving out to the rural environment without knowledge of living off the land or sheltering themselves properly find themselves in a world of hurt long before the disruption they're preparing for actually occurs.

The Urbanite (and Suburbanite)

It's seriously underestimated the number of people who want or need to prepare for a disruption who also live in, or on the outskirts of, a major city. Most seasoned preppers will tell you in a serious grid-down situation, cities become death traps with hoards of looters running the streets, resources slim, and martial law restricting every element of life. However, for countless Americans living in a city is inevitable or unavoidable. For these citizens the strategy becomes one of mitigation and incremental improvements for if/when a disruption occurs. Cleverness becomes key. Strategies on storing food and water in limited locations, acquiring firearms and other forms of self defense, and plans to escape the city limits (or draw farther away from them), all factor in to the preparedness method for urbanites. Obscurity and heightened self awareness also become critical in this strategy.

Urbanites really need to prep for anything and everything since the city will attract or be prone to it all. Social and financial events will hit the cities hard. Earthquakes and hurricanes in certain parts of the country are very real threats, and EMP/CME events will hit cities and urbanites within them the hardest. It's no wonder "avoid cities at all costs" is parroted among preppers all the time. Urbanites must account for all levels of disasters in their strategies and have a multifaceted approach to bugging in and bugging out scenarios. 

Wealth and material resources become more crucial for the urbanite as cities, themselves, tend to be financial centers of trade and commerce. Having the financial means to live in a sufficiently large apartment, for instance, or being able to afford a storage container near-by their home will leverage an urbanites position in accumulating and storing preps. Being able to upgrade from a 2 bedroom to a 3 bedroom will grant just that much more storage space...at a cost. Transportation costs also tend to be very high in and around cities (most New Yorkers rely only on public transportation because of this), so even getting around or bugging out can prove financially challenging as well. All that said, Urbanite preppers don't need to be mega wealthy. As usual, preparedness is a long-term, even permanently on-going goal, and urbanites critically need to push towards this goal within the limits of their budgets.

The Wealthy

And then there are the wealthy. Having solid financial footing to the point you have the income to toss into prepping without care is a dream most preppers share. If you have the money, any strategy can be implemented and that strategy typically includes insulating the wealth itself. Practices such as diversifying investments, buying gold and silver, and storing wealth resources in creative locations (literally burying cash in the back yard) all become part of the plan, all in addition to using a percentage of that wealth to prepare for whatever disaster keeps the person up at night.

Bunkers, extensive bug-out vehicles, 3-month supplies of freeze-dried food, and enough firearms to supply a 3rd-world country are all within the realm of possibility for people with the cash. The age-old idea of "just toss money at it" becomes the go-to answer to disruptive potentials. Wealth preppers are often criticized, however, as the toys and gadgets they buy to prepare for disruption can often break or wear out. Trucks can break down or be destroyed, ammo spent, fancy clothes tear, and so on.

Being a wealthy prepper is the stuff of fantasy. Even if you're preparing for an economic collapse (and the loss of most of your wealth), buying a crap ton of preps now, storing them all away safely, and diversifying the remainder is a decent strategy.

Final Thoughts 

Of course these are just broad-scope categories and many people into preparedness bridge across one or more of them. Then there are the casual preppers who center their preps around simple disruptions like short term weather events or the like, and who may not go to such extremes as any of these three categories. In my humble opinion the homesteader takes the award as the Most Sustainable strategy. The Wealthy is the most fun-if-fantasy strategy. Lets face it; most of us are simply not going to win the lottery or inherit the millions of dollars to set us apart in this fashion. Then there's the urbanites, and suffice it to say I'd wager that most preppers fall somewhere along this particular strategic spectrum...not quite homesteading, and not super-comfortably wealthy. These preppers are forced to balance a check book each time they make a major supply purchase, but don't necessarily have the land or knowledge to live off-grid 100%. 

Your prepping strategy boils down to your philosophy (why you're prepping) and the resources you have to initiate the best plan based on your philosophy. Money, although the root of all evil, is absolutely required to move forward with a plan. We're not in a barter system quite yet, so a core foundational budget is crucial to success, even if you're planning on homesteading, an urbanite, or if you're a casual prepper. A good prepping plan starts with a philosophy and continues with a solid budget. Build from there.

Peace.

Subscription Boxes - Thoughts and My First BattlBox

 I recently signed up for and received two subscription boxes from Battlbox.com, linked through a prepper podcast I've been enjoying, and I thought I'd share my thoughts and experience with the shipment. A lot of people into preparedness turn their noses up at subscription boxes and not for bad reasons at all. As I read on one preparedness forum I'm a member of, most people, "save the money you'd spend on random stuff and use it to buy stuff you actually need." Although I whole heartedly agree with this statement I'm not to the point of writing off subscription prepping boxes just yet.

Most subscription boxes such as these offer tiers of membership. Battlbox themselves offers four tiers; basic, advanced, pro, and pro+. Pricing ranges from $30 per month to $160 a month. There are additional boxes out there (some links at the bottom of this post), but a cursory search and I found TacPack, BespokePost, and Cairn subscription services.

**Please note that most of my assessment and comments have to do with Battlbox and these shipments altogether. Other subscription boxes may offer a different experience for a different value.**

What I got

When I signed up for the subscription I paid for the lowest level, Basic, and went ahead and splurged for the bonus box Battlbox offered. Both boxes came the same day and had the following content.

The Bonus Box

Four items came in the bonus box I received; 100' of paracord, a large camp towel from Grenade Soap, a Zippo Typhoon match kit (award for being the most useful/coolest), and a Colby Valve. Now, I had no idea what a Colby Valve is, but the packaging states it's, "...the only tool-free solution for replacing tire valve stems on-location in 5 minutes or less." This threw me for a serious loop. I've never had the need to replace a tire-valve stem, but I suppose if I had a bug out vehicle/golf-cart type of ride, this may come in handy at times.

The Standard Box

Again, four items (probably the standard), which included a cordage micro tool (used for shredding plastic bottles into cordage, apparently), four CamJam cord tighteners, a book; The Emergency Survival Manual by Outdoor Life, and a Buri drop point knife by Gear Aid. Fun fact! of the four items in this box, I already had two! The CamJams, which I'd bought from a local Tractor Supply and the book, which I'd picked up about a year ago at a local book store. I wasn't that upset about the CamJams; they're certainly something I can use more of (like firestarters), but the book indicated to me that I'd reached some level of peak saturation in one degree of my preps. Am I that addicted? (yeah, probably). Of course I don't blame Battlbox for these duplicates. They have no way of knowing what I have in my inventory.

Professed Value

One of the major pushes for subscription boxes is that you get more in gear value than what you actually paid for the box. I paid $30 for this month's subscription, for instance, and the knife alone is valued at that. The slight rub on this is the 'value' of the items indicated is tagged at the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) which, come on, everybody knows is over inflated already. Sheesh. Off the shelf at your local sporting goods store, that same knife would probably run you $25, and I saw a similar blade online for $10 off. The CamJams I'd bought were on sale for $5 to $7 dollars for the same four pack on clearance. The book has an MSRP of $29.99, though I paid less than $15 for it at my local book store. 

Dollar amount aside the quality of items in the boxes is overall high. From what I've seen and heard, specifically from Battlbox, this stuff's not junk. It tends to be mid-to-top quality gear. Add to that the fact that some of the items I may not typically find on my own, or even think about looking for. As an example, though I've not tested it yet, a small tool that can shred a plastic bottle into useful cordage is pretty slick.

Why Subscribe?

In general I can think of two good reasons to subscribe to a service like this.

You Can Afford It and Enjoy Monthly Intrigue.

This one may fall under the category of "wealthy prepper", but some folks may be able to chuck away the $30+ dollars a month for gear that's delivered right to their door. If you are already secure in your preparedness, have the financial resources to be a little frivolous, and enjoy a monthly "surprise", getting a subscription box may be or you. As you can see in the boxes I received I at least achieved the dollar value (MSRP, that is), I paid for in the box within one or two items. The rest was cheddar. 

You're Brand New to Preparedness and Aren't Sure Where to Start.

Over the course of weeks, months, or years, we people who are into preparedness accumulate quite a bit of gadgets and do-dads we can use to form sufficient kits and bags. I've gathered quite a bit of books and knowledge over time as well, but to someone brand spanking new to prepping it can seem overwhelming the amount of gear and raw knowledge needed to become sufficiently self reliant. A monthly box of gear can give you a good place to start, and kicks off that trend of gathering the right kind of gadgets and toys.

Looking at the two boxes I received in my first shipment, for instance, and we can see a new prepper would have a few essentials already; cordage, fire-starting capability, a decent knife, and a book to start a foundation of knowledge. Honestly, this is not too bad at all, and even aligns with Battlboxes claimed philosophy of providing materials and items useful in the Survival 13 key by Daniel Dabbs. To a brand new prepper, this is a great start and I commend Battlbox for being this thoughtful. 

Why or When Not to Subscribe?

Money is usually a factor when prepping and some of us simply don't have the funds to burn $30 a month on unknowns, especially if we have a dedicated plan where that $30 can be more precisely applied. Even for a newer prepper who has a detailed plan and who's still building up food stocks or other basics, that $30 can help towards those specific goals much more efficiently.

There is also the question of value. "IF" you had a crystal ball and could see what you're getting in the boxes before they come, it's assured you'd be able to save yourself a little cash shopping around for the same products cheaper. Add to that the fact that inevitably you're going to receive some items that simply aren't practical for your style of preparedness (I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with an emergency tire valve tool.) 

Final Thoughts

In the end subscription boxes boil down to how much money you have budgeted for preparations and what your tolerance is for acquiring 'stuff and gear'. If you're a little more experienced and/or know specifically what you want-per-dollar of your prepping budget, these boxes probably aren't for you.

On the other hand if you have the monthly budget to support the subscription cost and are looking to start or increase your preparedness and gear, a subscription box may be both enjoyable and beneficial. Again, my experience with Battlbox, so far, has been pleasant with good-quality gear and the 'surprise me' factor that my personality type is addicted to.

Lastly, these subscriptions aren't contractual, meaning you can literally cancel at any time. If you're still on the fence about whether or not you'd like a subscription box, sign up for a month or two and see how you feel about what you get. The benefit of cancelling any time makes the risk a lot less threatening.

Links

BespokePost

TacPack

BattlBox (Coupon code; CASUALPREPPERS)

CAIRN (via Amazon)

*Disclaimer; I receive no promotional kick back for these subscription services. Links and review are only provided for the reader's information and entertainment.

Peace!

Preparedness Psychology - Anxiety

 I belong to several online preparedness forums and social media groups and one thing in the last four years that vexes me is the break down in mentality and focus that can occur by so-called experienced preppers. The creator and moderator of one of these groups has often expressed dismay and near-panic level confusion at the events that have occurred in the last four and a half years. In that regard I'd like to address the issue of preparedness mentality and how 'preppers' should think and reason when finding themselves in the throes of a disruptive event.

Admittedly, at it's foundation preparedness or "prepping"  is an anxiety-driven practice rooted in the fear that something bad is going to happen and people should be prepared for that 'something' when it does. This is the primary drive for the majority of preppers. Anxiety is the encouraging factor with preparedness being the result. When you plan against and prepare for a disruptive event, the emotional and psychological result is that you should feel a sense of relief and confidence as you work through your plan. Someone who has 3 years of preparedness supplies, for instance, should not continue to feel high levels of anxiety or worry if there's a week-long power outage. If a prepper with that level of supplies still feels such fear 1 of 2 things could be occurring.

1. Overall Lack of Preparedness

Unless you're comfortably wealthy and can devote a massive chunk of money and resources into your initial preparedness plan, it will take you several months or years to achieve a comfortable level of preparedness, overall. During those months or years its' not uncommon for a prepper to experience small anxiety attacks and feelings of "it's taking me too long to get ready." I can attest to this. When 2020 kicked off with a global pandemic I had just moved in with my girlfriend and we had barely started to shore up our preps. Add to that the fact our normal shopping cycle happened to fall right in line with some major grocery shortages so yeah, we were hurting. 

In my opinion this type of anxiety is normal and can really only be mitigated by keeping on, keeping on. Stick to your plan and take heart that your food, water, and medical supplies are coming along in a fair and balanced pace. The only other option is to threaten your financial stability (and financial preparedness) by taking out a loan or swiping funding from other projects to expedite your prep plan. Typically most households cannot afford to take such steps, but again, that's okay. Review your plan, take another inventory of what you do have, indulge in your progress, and realize that all will be well. 

2. Deeper-rooted Anxiety

This reasoning implies a shaken psychological or mental state that goes beyond a simple level of preparedness against a disruptive even. Keep in mind that I am no psychologist myself and have had no formal training outside of a few college courses on the matter. However, as stated above there really is no reason for someone with literally years of preparedness supplies and extensive training in survival skills to be worried and anxious about the general store running out of toilet paper or hoards of the unprepared to be panic buying. I believe that people with a sufficient level of preparedness who still wring their hands and feel panic-level anxiety while watching the news should seek some professional assistance. At the very least people in this state should strive to improve their dealing with anxiety at a mental or psychological level.

Professional counseling, especially during and since 2020, is on the rise and more readily available to any and all who seek it out. So, too in this day and age should the need or even 'want' for counseling be seen as a sign of weakness or shame. Many times in the course of our lives do we need a shoulder to lean on or an ear to listen, and a professional counselor is just someone trained to help in those very times. 

A healthy dose of religion can help as well. Please note that I typed healthy and intentionally did not define a specific religion there. Positive religious pursuits that 'call' to you and your spirituality in a positive and supportive way have been proven to make people happier, increase morale and sense of community, and add to an over-all healthier state, mentally and physically. These pursuits do not have to be Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. They don't even need to be 'spiritual' or even anything more than a positive philosophy shared by a large group of others world-wide. As long as these pursuits are positive and they resonate with you emotionally, mentally, and spiritually you can benefit from lower anxiety.

Additional Suggestions

I asked a friend (who's not at all into prepping) if the year 2020 taught him anything. He avoided the question, but did flip it back on me. On some self-reflection I responded that 2020 taught me that during a sustainable disruption nearly everybody will suffer stress and anxiety throughout the course of the event. The saying, "We're all in this together" certainly applies to global pandemics and regional out-breaks of protests and rioting. Some things that helped me through the darker times include;

1. Take inventory. Sometimes stepping back and reviewing your preparations and realistically seeing how far you've come puts things into perspective and can give you a stronger sense of confidence.
2. Surround yourself with positive people. 2020 was a rough year with a LOT of political division which spread into friend circles and family households, alike. When you can, avoid the negative people in your sphere of influence and, instead, identify the positive people and hang out with them more. Do the same on social media. More than once I've pruned my social media friends lists to rid my feeds of constant negative postings. This has helped me extensively.
3. Surround yourself with positivity in general. Watch a stand-up comedian you enjoy. Indulge in binge-watching a few shows that make you feel good. Target some positive podcasts that make you laugh.
4. Get into a routine. In this day and age of unemployment or working from home, we've broken all of our routines, and some people, psychologically rely on a routine to set their sequence. Bone up on your discipline and start to follow a daily and weekly routine from bed times to work times.
5. Break your routine. We've been in a global pandemic and various stages of lock down for well over a year, now. For some of us not only have we successfully established a routine, but we dogmatically follow it, and this can cause some emotional stress and and general malaise. Take a walk when you don't normally do so. Burn a PTO day and relax on the couch. Do anything to deviate from your daily or weekly routine with something that makes you feel good.
6. Turn off the news, the Internet, and social media. Yep, there's a LOT of negativity out there so, just switch it off. Go outside and find nature again (our lock downs here have never been so bad we couldn't walk the local parks). Read a book. Practice a prepping skill such as knot making....but do anything you can to get away from the electronic depression.
7. Lastly, if you're still not into seeking some professional guidance, do some self reflecting and research your own emotional state. Many additional (valid) resources remain online for doing just this, all coming with their own additional suggestions for reducing stress and anxiety. 

Conclusion

Both counseling and a positive religious practice, in addition to the suggestions above, can bolster mentality by increasing positivity, confidence, and restoring that strong sense of self reliance.

I very much hope this blog post helps someone and gives someone some added strength and guidance. Untold additional (free) help and resources can be found all over the Internet and even beyond that if you need someone to talk to further, I invite you to freely reach out to me and I will help in any way I'm able. We really are in this world, with all it's problems, together. As a fellow member of the prepper community, we must be here for one another.

Peace.

Being Prepared; Social Disruption

 For the last year events of social disruption have become common-place in some regions of the United States, typically due to a rise in racial tensions but also attributed to political disparities. One blaring example occurred on June 29, 2020 when a Missouri couple squared off against a group of protesters who had entered their gated community. Public news outlets all displayed prominent pictures of the couple wielding firearms in a threatening manner to warn back the protesters. Regardless of your political views regarding the situation, the occurrence can serve as a lesson on preparedness against local social disruption.

Location Location Location

Away from Home

Broadly speaking you can address social disruption in two locational forms; you're away from home or you are at home. Finding yourself in the midst of social disruption away from home is highly stressful and puts most of us in a highly vulnerable state. Say you're downtown and a peaceful protest turns not-so-peaceful, or imagine you're vacationing in a foreign country when a political or military coup occurs. What do you do to avoid getting targeted as an outsider to the now-rioters or the more violent side of the political supporters? It won't matter what your own politics are in these cases, even if you agree with them, you'll likely be seen as an outsider and, potentially, targeted. 

As always, situational awareness is critical here (it's worth mentioning yet again). If the local or political spectrum in the area you're about to visit for vacation, or the city you're about to take a shopping trip in, is volatile maybe you should reconsider going on that visit or trip at all. 

If you absolutely have to go, say for medical reasons or such, keep a low profile. Blend in with the crowd, stay with others and take the role of 'observer'. Don't engage with anybody and do everything you can to get out of the area of any looting or violence. If you're in a foreign country you should know where the U.S. Embassy is located and head that direction. If you're not sure of that, head back to your hotel and ask. Normally the staff of tourist-oriented businesses will assist you and are not involved in such political uprisings (they're bad for business.)

Social Disruption Close to Home

Our home is our castle. In the case of the couple I mentioned above, they believed they were defending their property and their home. When social disruption (i.e. riots, looters, etc...) threaten our homes we get understandably aggressive in our defensive posture. I'm constantly looking at homes for sale and reviewing what would happen should a riot break out or, for those apocalyptic fantasies, what would happen if looters were moving door to door scavenging anything they could lay hands on? Such mental exercises boil down to how defensible is your home; from looters, from home invaders, from intrusive in-laws? I do not recommend doing what our couple above did (openly displaying firearms). Not only does it open up a world of legal ramifications (right or wrong), but such a threatening posture can backfire; someone in the opposing crowd could shoot you first in a pre-emptive strike. 

There are many options when it comes to preparing your home security for most scenarios. From rose bushes and other 'thorny' horticulture around and under your windows, to a decent, monitored security system. Locks, deadbolts, and security bars secure points of entry, buying you time or preventing entry altogether if sufficiently strong.

 

Barriers and limited egress should always be the preferred first defense, followed by communication methods to law enforcement and other first responders. One note on an alarm system; it's primary goal is to alert you of an intruder and secondary goal is to summon first responders. If your alarm goes off in the middle of the night, that's a good time to grab your firearm and carefully sweep your home and property.

Firearms are always a high-level prep, but they should be utilized or even actively displayed, only as a very last resort. Don't tip that hand until you absolutely have to, and by absolutely have to I mean only if lives are threatened. 

Conclusion

The year 2020 was a rough time for many parts of the country regarding social disruption. Hopefully, 2021 will be better (though as of the writing of this post, Minneapolis Minnesota is a bad place to be). The biggest key here is situational awareness especially when traveling. You do not want to be caught unawares. Do not stick your head in the sand while visiting another location. Be aware of any and all local issues, political or social, that could erupt while you're in that particular country, state, region, or territory. Have a plan and have some supplies if you have to leave quickly.

For local social disruptions, prep your home now, and continue to improve upon those preps as part of your consistent plan. Fortify your house and, again, keep a thumb on the heartbeat of your local environment, politically, socially, and otherwise. 

The Anatomy of a Disruption. When the SHTF - Paint-by-Numbers

Introduction

What does it mean when people into preparedness say the "Shit's hit the fan?" or SHTF? In short it means a disruptive event has occurred that has an explicit impact on an affected populace (usually including themselves). For the purposes of this blog post we'll focus on the attributes and characteristics of what a disruptive event means and focus only on said-event. I'll talk immediate and long term effects in subsequent blog posts.

Characteristics

We start at a state of normalcy; going about our daily lives as all is well. We get up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, kiss our spouse, head to bed and wake up the next morning to do the same thing. Taxes get paid, groceries get bought, vacations are taken. There's birth, death, and everything in between as life rolls on for us human beings. 

And then something happens to disrupt this flow. It can be a small event affecting an individual, such as a cancer diagnosis or loss of employment, or a global event which affects everybody on the planet, such as a meteor strike or a pandemic. Such a disruptive event can be broken down into variables, parameters, or characteristics. By doing so we can, in turn, be better prepared for such an event by defining the disruption and detailing what to expect. We'll set the stage by laying out the following characteristics of an event;

1. Scope; this defines the number of humans affected by the event, from individual to global and everything in between.
2. Area of effect; based on geographical information, what area does the event effect? A tornado, for instance, will not affect an area nearly as broad as a hurricane.
3. Length of Time Occurring; A car wreck occurs within seconds, an earthquake can last for minutes, a volcano can erupt for days, and a pandemic can last for years. This characteristic defines how long the disruptive event actually lasts.
4. Human Casualty Impact; defines the level of adversity at a human casualty level, from minor bumps and bruises to fatalities. A car wreck may only cause those affected some whiplash and bruising, where-as a dirty-bomb explosion would result in many deaths and injuries including radiological and explosive.
5. Environmental Impact; measures the affects of the disruption on the natural environment, including plant and animal life, rivers, streams, etc. This can include wide-spread flooding, the death of game animals in a wide-spread area, or pollution of ground water.

Examples

We can use some examples to put all these characteristics into clearer definition. Let's take a typical family of four; Husband, wife, teenage daughter and school age son and use them as a base-line. Our family lives in a typical suburb on the outskirts of a major city. Things are going well until...

Unemployment

The scope of the event will affect all four members of the family, with the greatest impact, at least psychologically, being the husband or wife who lost the job. The area of effect will, again, be the family, and the length of time occurring (the time it takes for the family member to find a new job with comparable salary and benefits) will be dependent on a host of factors such as marketability and the job market itself. The human casualty impact would be minimal and, likely, limited to a psychological level There's rarely physical injury during job loss. The fear and unknowing of a job loss has a serious rippling affect. Lastly, environmental impact may be nil, here.

Tornado Outbreak

A major tornado outbreak rolls through the region affecting the scope of our little family as well as all of their friends and other family members within a 10 mile radius of them (area of effect). The county is hit by 3 tornados ranging in level from EF1 to EF2 with the last touchdown occurring 15 minutes prior to the first touch-down. In all, the tornados were on the ground for just under 30 minutes. The human casualty impact is a total of 5 deaths (none including our sample family) and 123 injuries (the son was injured crawling over debris trying to find the family cat). Due to the number of localized injuries, the near-by hospital is quickly overwhelmed with emergency room submissions. The immediate environmental impact includes a total of 12 roads blocked or made impassible from debris, localized flash flooding which ends up polluting local water supplies, and damage to a local chemical processing plant that leads to a potential environmental hazard. 

Electromagnetic Pulse Caused by Nuclear Detonation

An enemy of our country has done it; they've detonated a nuclear weapon in the stratosphere which rippled an electromagnetic pulse across the heart of America, effecting our sample family directly. Millions are directly affected by the EMP. Although smaller electronics still function, larger grid-structures are shorted by the pulse, including millions of transformers and cellular communication towers across the U.S. heartland, so many of those smaller electronics have no network to connect to. The EMP occurred at the speed of light as soon as the high-altitude device was detonated. The human casualty impact was minimal with car crashes of late-model vehicles having extreme dependencies on electronic devices being the largest immediate source of casualties. The second largest cause of casualties came within three hours after the detonation as civilians start to realize what has occurred with looting and some panic events occurring at that time. The environmental and safety controls at the local chemical processing plant are also all affected by the pulse and immediately shut down. Within another two hours some of the cooling-reliant storage facilities fail and start slowly leaking toxic fumes and vapor into the local environment, becoming airborne with the heavier vapors coating the soil, coalescing, and seeping into the ground water from there. Evacuation from the city is near-impossible as vehicles that are not as dependent on electronics get stuck behind or around those that are, causing massive traffic jams throughout the local roadways, though refugees likely have no where else to go anyway.

Putting it All Together

Each one of these examples is possible in varying degrees of likelihood, and each example would require it's own level of preparedness to mitigate. Unemployment can be offset by a solid savings account with 6-months or more of funding. A good storm-shelter stocked with medical supplies and a fore-thought escape route are excellent and base-line preparations against tornados. An older vehicle (or motorcycle or bicycle) and a bug out location (again with a well-thought out escape route), along with 6-months of food, water, and medical supplies would be invaluable preparations against an EMP. Of course these lists of preparations are only beginning points and examples, but they highlight the need to define characteristics of disasters in order to prepare for them. 

Regardless of what you're preparing for I invite you to sit down and sketch some of these characteristics out. What would the characteristics of (another?) pandemic look like?  How would they differ from the characteristics of a financial recession or depression should one hit our country? Laying out these characteristics can help define or refine your preparedness plan and level set the degrees of preparedness you will want to shoot for.

Peace.

Politics and Preparedness

Introduction

 So, yeah, when I (re)started this blog I'd made a small commitment to avoid politics and keep the focus on preparedness as a whole, but it cannot be denied that politics can and will effect your need and ability to remain prepared for disruptive events. With that said I thought I'd share a little of my perspective regarding politics and why, as someone into preparedness, you should be aware of them. Also, I'm refusing to take a side regarding the political spectrum, here. This is a broad-scope discussion on the topic and believe the topic to be important regardless of your own personal political sway.

Why Politics, and Awareness of Them, Is Critical

Politics will affect your preparedness plan. There's really no way around it. Whether it's at a local, state, regional, or federal level; rules, laws, regulations, and requirements will dictate your decisions will be numerous. As I type this very post, serious changes to gun control and firearm laws (yes, the biggie topic) are being considered by the current administration. Again, regardless of what your political bent is and depending on the affect of those laws, they may drastically limit your ability to purchase or carry a firearm. This, in turn, could affect your security and security operations plans.

Another example which I addressed on a Twitter feed had to do with local laws limiting or even prohibiting the use of rain collection systems (usually restricted due to drought, fire-threat, or other environmental factors in which rain water is needed by the local landscape). The inability to collect rain water will often force someone to re-think their water solution preparedness.

Steps to Address Politics

Many, many people disagree with laws and restrictions such as what I called out above as well as countless others, but what can you do? Well, you could go against the law to avoid all the restrictions and risk fines or jail time (not recommended). You could mitigate the impact by coming up with alternative plans and options (recommended). And/or you could use your power of the vote and in public citizen forums to make your voice heard, either in favor or against laws and political rulesets (also recommended). 

Regarding that last comment, of course. your voice/vote is heard 'louder' and more effective the closer to home you are.  To that end it's important to remember how much influence you have as far as politics are concerned. You may very much want one candidate to win at a federal level, but you really only do get one, single vote out of, literally, millions. On the other hand your vote for a county commissioner may be important enough to sway the whole election. It's also essential that you maintain a balanced perspective while at the same time remaining closely aware of politicians, their views and values, and potential laws and regulations coming down the pipe.  Lastly, you will want to keep a realistic view on what the majority says, thinks, or feels, at least as much as possible. This is hard to gauge even on the Internet as some groups and peoples tend to be more 'loud-mouthed' than others. There is such a thing as the silent majority out there. 

In the end there's a lot of stress around politics, so keeping a level head and understanding what you can or cannot control are critical in keeping that stress and anxiety at low levels.