therightfangirl | (no subject)

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: 85022

(no subject)

Maybe this isn't the right time, or maybe its the perfect time, but a thought occurred to me about what's happening now in the Northeast, and what happened in Katrina, etc. This thought is how woefully unprepared the USA is to handle the loss of our first-world resources.

Its a bit crazy, I know, but look at shows like "Revolution" or reality-based shows like "Doomsday Preppers" (or even "Survivor" to an extent) which try to address this topic. People probably thing the "preppers" are crazy, but I'll bet there were many "preppers" who were caught in this storm (and Katrina, LA earthquake, etc) who did just fine because they were ready for it. Not a catastrophic storm specifically, but just the general idea that they could be cut off from all of the resources most people take for granted.

And it doesn't even have to be a natural disaster, something that we can see coming for the most part. It can be anything, from a foreign country hacking and disabling our electrical grid to an EMP attack. I cannot fathom Hurricane Sandy/Katrina etc on a national scale. The USA simply wouldn't survive the anarchy.

There are "prepper" conventions here in AZ. I am not sure if they're fueled by the large population of Mormons we have (I was first alerted to their existence by a Mormon friend) or the "wild west" independent nature that Arizona still claims. Arizona isn't prone to natural disasters but we are extremely vulnerable to having our water and electrical supply disrupted. Say someone attacked the Hoover Dam or the Palo Verde nuclear plant...it would be crippling. Things like this make me take a second look at the "prepper" conventions. In fact, even in the local supermarkets they're starting to sell home "survival" kits, such as dehydrated meals for a family of four that will last for several months, or seed kits, etc. Again, not sure if this is just to appeal to the local Mormons or if it is in response to a more general demand for these things.

So anyway, as we move further and further from our "roots" of living off the land, without electricity and modern medicine, etc, I am starting to think it becomes increasingly important that we all learn basic survival skills. The Boy Scouts used to cover this (I was a Girl Scout and I don't remember learning anything about tying knots or identifying toxic plants versus beneficial ones, etc) but I think that Scouting in general is nothing like it used to be and fewer people are participating. If people knew how to live without electricity, how to find food where it seems there is none, and how to create shelter from your environment, I think that there would be less of this panic that we see around natural disasters.

So what do you think? Should basic survival skills perhaps be added to school curricula, right next to history and PE? Or should there be a "public awareness" campaign to promote more "be prepared" thinking? Or maybe we just look the other way and pray that nothing bad ever happens?

Feel free to tell me I'm paranoid/crazy.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I think it's a good idea. Earthquake preparedness was a big part of California school curricula when I was in elementary school because the Northridge quake was fresh in everyone's minds and nearly every student had family who was hurt by it (myself included). But the dedication to teaching kids those skills seemed to fade as the years went on without any subsequent major local disasters.

I tried Girl Scouts when I was little. I was eager to learn cool stuff like camping and IDing dangerous/edible plants. But sadly, the troop I got stuck with was full of prissy brats and "mean girls" who didn't want to do icky things like getting dirty (and the Troop Leaders weren't much better). So that never panned out. :P

It's a great idea. In general, I think our infrastructure is sorely lacking, very seldom updated and certainly not able to withstand natural disasters. It also wouldn't hurt (especially when we know something is coming) for the city to set up rescue teams and have a safe haven with food and water, shelter and basic supplies ready. Instead, we all sit there, knowing something is going to happen and expect the government to swoop down and save us.

While I believe basic survival skills should be taught in schools, I doubt that'll ever become part of the curriculum. If you're interested in learning basic survival skills, the Internet is a wonderful resource to get started. You wouldn't believe the information that's out there! I'm learning how to grow veggies in pots, and my mother and I have been canning for the last few years. Right now I'm thinking about taking shooting lessons and how to sew. Sounds trivial, but if Obama is re-elected and things get as bad as I think they will, these skills might come in handy.

The majority of Americans believe preppers are crazy, but if and when something like Katrina, Sandy, etc. happens, the preppers are the people who will weather that storm and rise up to help others. (Incidentally, prepper networks are all over the Internet. Great idea to check them out and attend a convention.) If you're interested in a "what-if/worst-cast" scenario that is scarily accurate, read One Second After by William R. Forstchen. Maybe it freaked me out because the novel is set in western NC where I live, but it hammers home how dependent we Americans are on our technology...and how our enemies in the world know that.

I've always just figured that, if something apocalyptic happened, I would bee-line to the nearest library/bookstore to steal the survival guides, raid the Home Depot, head to the nearest college and raid their library for books on medieval archaeology, and then organize the building of a hillfort with roundhouses for all.

(Which is actually one of the reasons why I think making libraries completely electronic is stupid).

There was a story in the Wall Street Journal this week about how people are having to turn to pay phones because the cell towers were overloaded. The biggest problem wasn't that people couldn't find pay phones, it was that they didn't know how to use them! They talked to a 24 year old who had no clue how to use the things and lost a ton of change until she figured it out.

I'm from Buffalo, NY and have weather a few instances where snow or ice knocked out the power for anywhere from a day to a week. Or the streets were impassable. I've always made sure I had enough to last in an emergency.

A few months ago, I read "The Survivor's Club" by Ben Sherwood. It addresses how people react to an emergency. I found it fascinating because of how like sheep some people are. If there isn't anyone around to tell them what to do, they don't do anything--which can lead to them dying. The book talked about the various scenario and ended with how we can (try) to be prepared for an emergency or survival situation.

I live in a town that is so red that the local mommies' message board has "weekly prepper challenges". :) I consider myself something of a prepper, though not to the fortress-building end of the scale - my current goal is to make sure that we're ready to 1) live unsupported for a month in the event of some sort of infrastructure/transportation problem and/or 2) run like hell to a friend in the country if something immediate and life-threatening happens. (This doesn't have to be a terrorist attack or zombie apocalypse - we've got biohazard-marked freight cars going by our house eight times a day.) In the long run, it's a here-and-now version of Pascal's Wager: I'd rather be paranoid and wrong than complacent and wrong.

The thing is, in my experience, that you have to have either lots of money or lots of practical skills; I can't afford a week's worth of freeze-dried meals for three, let alone a month, but I can afford ten pounds of dry beans and rice and I know what to do with it. I'm working on learning to garden and can, but that's...gonna be harder. :D I would love to see a "basic survival curriculum" added to schools, for all steps of life - everything from lost-in-the-woods to just plain home management.

There's always a push to have an earthquake preparedness kit here in CA. But most people are going to stock it with a blanket, flashlight, bottle of water, a snack, and a few band-aids. Obviously not enough for more than a few hours.

Being prepared to be off the grid is never a bad thing. Solar power, water filtration devices, gardening......Don't wait to gain knowledge until something bad actually happens - you won't be the only person racing for a clue.

Who's laughing at those doomsday preppers now? Huh? Huh?

I was caught up in the big Southern California Blackout of 2011. At the time I was working at a location 40 miles from where I live. Imagine the fun of 4-5 million people trying to go home at once because the electricity's out. It took me three hours to get home and the whole way, I was freaking out over whether I'd have enough gas to make it. No electricity meant no gas pumps were working, which ended up leaving a lot of people stranded if their tanks were too low. I also had no water to drink and there was nowhere to get any because all of the stores were closed. After that, I made sure I always had a bottle of water with me in the car and then I bought some meals that didn't require cooking and a blanket just in case I was ever in a situation where I had to sleep in my car overnight. I also keep flat shoes and an emergency kit in the car. Now I'm very close to home but I still have that stuff just in case.

At home I have a crank radio. Power doesn't effect the gas lines so I can still cook but if gas lines were cut off, I have stuff that does not need cooking. But I definitely need more. I've looked into getting an emergency kit with more food, water, etc.. It wasn't until then I was aware that the Mormons certify emergency kits. Apparently it's a requirement to have a certain amount of food, water, money, etc. handy, a product I suppose of a frontier religion that faced a lot of hostility. It makes sense given that during the last round of wildfires, the first people on the scene with emergency supplies for evacuees were Mormons.

I used to live in Florida and I know that when a hurricane's coming, you need certain things in your home and you have to fill up your tank with gas. People in NJ and NY were completely unprepared.

It's times like this that I'm glad I'm married to an avid hunter/fisherman who certainly knows how to live off the land. Granted, I'm aware that that doesn't mean much in the middle of a big city, but with any luck, we'll never live in such a place.

However, I do think some kind of disaster-preparedness class would be a great idea for anyone- living on the coast, I hear about such things a lot more now.

I'm LDS, so I've grown up hearing about the importance of having emergency supplies on hand. My advice is to start small, and then build. Do you have a 72-hour kit? If not, work on that. Keep it in your car at all times, along with a car kit. Both are easy enough to get, and there are companies online that will sell them ready-made. Always keep at least half a tank of gas in your car. Once you have those basics, expand to a week's supply, then a month's. Do you have water? Can you cook food without electricity? Don't let the things you lack overwhelm you. Focus on the basics. You won't need luxuries, after all.

honorh was in Japan during the tsunami in 2011, and she wrote up a list of things to have in an emergency (http://honorh.livejournal.com/574323.html), especially if it's the sort in which you need to grab stuff and go. The comments to her post also have good suggestions. (You should also read her account of the tsunami itself (http://blog.oregonlive.com/my-hillsboro/2011/04/personal_account_of_tsunami_and_aftermath_in_japan.html); it's quite moving.)

As for why we members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emphasize self-reliance and emergency preparedness? Part of it might be sad experience; in the early years of the Church, members never knew when they would be forced out with only what they could carry. Part is that's it just plain common sense. Maybe it won't be a disaster, maybe you lose your job, or your husband does. That three-month food supply can save you a lot of money on groceries while looking for a job. And finally and most importantly, it's also to have stores to help our neighbors in times of disaster and need. I know that before the hurricane even hit, huge trucks had already left Salt Lake loaded down with food, water, hygiene kits, and other basic supplies. Emergency preparedness means we are always prepared to help others, just as the Savior would if he were here.

If schools were to add this style of curriculum, we would have to increase the time kids spend in school, to which I am not at all opposed. Kids barely cover basic science, reading, writing, and math in the course of a school year, so adding more material would just make our nation's children a little bit worse at all of these topics. However, expanding the school year would not only allow for more instructional time, but it would also reduce the amount teachers have to reteach after summer vacation.

I assume such survival skills curriculum would be targeted to the location of the school. For instance, urban vs. suburban vs. rural communities, regionally targeting the most likely types of crises, accounting for climate differences, and so on. This could be doable, but with the quality of our public schools in general, I would not be overly optimistic that a quality instruction method would arise.

Personally, I am terribly ill-prepared to survive without typical modern conveniences. I live in an apartment in an urban area, which means no location for fire, no gas stove, and no ground in which to grow any sort of sustenance. I figure I am smart enough to get out early if there is any warning, and if evacuation is not possible for whatever reason, I have a highly valuable skill set (medicine) which I can use as a bargaining chip to work with others who might have access to non-electricity dependent ways of cooking/eating.

I just have to say of the non-prepper crowd (I'm admitting I've not heard the term until now), historical reenactors of just about any period will be the next-best-off group around. Ancient or medieval through Civil War and possibly including WWII.

Yeah, there's more than one apocalyptic-type novel wherein SCA people save the day. :D

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only