Some time ago, I posted a number of articles and references for people in the path of Hurricane Irene. As usual when I post about preparedness, I got a few folks feedback about “paranoia” and “let’s not get carried away Mac”. Fair enough. But as we sat in the living room last night having our coffee and enjoying the beautiful fire, I was once again feeling pretty good about having most everything we needed when the power went off. We are among the lucky ones since our power came back relatively quick (around 2300 hours). Some folks up north will not get their power back for days.
Sometimes I like surprises. Sometimes not. Yesterday was a reminder that a surprise only has to impact you as much as you choose to let it. You can’t always predict how big or what kind of event you will have but you can review how you will deal with it once it hits.
As much as I don’t like big government, I think the ready.gov web site is pretty good for a lot of disasters. There is also the Red Cross web site which includes a few lists and recommendations. I am very fortunate to have a wife who supports my “hobby”. We will be heading out to replenish a few items this afternoon so that we can be ready for the unexpected again. In the meantime, just a reminder:
Are you Ready? Are you Sure?
Mister Mac
theleansubmariner 
Mac you are right on. If you can’t survive 3 days without going to the store, you are in serious trouble.
I grew up in Arizona, mostly Phoenix and Tucson. Large communities with city water (vs. an individual well), electricity, sewer etc. One think that Arizona is blessed with is a lack of many natural disasters. Most people probably wouldn’t guess that flooding is the number one disaster in AZ.
After the my navy days aboard Subs, I became active on the edges of emergency preparedness, with Amateur Radio. Living in Arizona didn’t give us many opportunities to exercise our skills on real emergencies. Arizona is blessed with that combination of few disasters and a very good team of emergency managers.
Many years ago I experienced my 1st hurricane, Isabel. I was in Virginia on what turned out to be a temporary assignment, and wouldn’t you know it, I caught a hurricane. I had been active on the sidelines of emergency preparedness for many years, but that was really the first time I got to experience it up close and personal.
In my case, I spent about 75 hours in an Emergency Operations Center with the big kids of Emergency Preparedness. I had a minor role, but got to observe the real players when it comes to supporting a community. One thing that will stick with me is everyone doesn’t get their water from a community water source. This was brought home when the community water management reported that the water source was clean and useable, but we still started scheduling water and ice drops for residents.
I inquired about the water (ice was easy, the needed it to keep food from spoiling while they waited on the electric to be restored) a I already knew that the city water supply was up and available. Well as you probably know in many communities, residents have a well instead of city water, and a well needs a pump, and if your electricity is out, well, then you need water.
The point of this response is that sometimes your life filters get in the way. Maybe you haven’t been through a natural or man made disaster, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn through others. http://www.ready.gov is an excellent way to get prepared, and I am with you Mac, get and stay prepared……
BZ
Good post. Irene did not hit Wood-Ridge, NJ too hard. I was up all night vacuuming water out of my basement, but it was not much. I nknow other’s however, who lost thier basements to flood waters. So many other areas in NJ too, were hit so badly. This was something NJ residents were not expecting. I have a friend who is a little bit of a survivalist and he has all kind of ways to prepare for a disatser. He always has a Go Bag ready as well as other important item in his car. Big governement can only do so much, it is up to us to help ourselves in emergencies. If we put unrealistic expectation on the government, on anything, and do nothing ourselves, we will always be let down.