Things to Prepare For : Water and Food Shortages

When people think of preppers, in general they think they are crazy and are getting ready for a Zombie Apocalypse. But, the mindset of preppers, is to be prepared for something to happen outside of the expected. For those of you who participated in Boy Scouts, you know that the motto is:

Be prepared for what? Anything. A good portion of being prepared is just having the ability to take in a situation, not panic and then decided what options there are for you to get beyond the situation. This method is part of a problem solving system called

OODA Loop

Observe, Orient, Decide and Act.

By being prepared for any situation, with either the right knowledge or the right tools, you decision process can be expanded. You won't be limited to the same options as those around you who are panicking about the situation. And as the "loop" part of OODA Loop suggests, once you make an action, you should start the process over to make sure you aren't heading down the wrong path towards something worse.

Source : NOAA

Currently, there is a nice guy named Harvey hanging out in the waters of the Gulf of Texas minding his own business. But, Harvey is causing all sorts of problems inland and it seems he's going to mull around for a few days causing even more of a wet mess.

The people in Harvey's path are apparently in for a huge mess and a lot of them have run to the store to clean out the shelves. While this is not the first hurricane to hit land in Texas and it isn't the worst hurricane to hit Texas, apparently it has been so long since it happened, people were lulled into a sense of calm and weren't ready for Harvey's unannounced arrival.

The first part of being a prepper is picking a location to live and prep. Sure, there are people with bugout locations, but that's a little harder to do without a significant amount of extra cash. Preppers should not live on the shore of an ocean, in a swamp , a flood zone or anywhere below sea level. Sure, some of those places may look pretty, but they come with a price tag of uncertainty. Also, there is a good chance, that gardens are hard to grow in areas next to the ocean, due to the salt. Best bet is not to live on the coast.

However, if you have to live near the coast, then you should always have a backup of water. Water systems below sea level are already on the iffy side, having to worry about them after the sewage and water stations shutdown due to lack of electricity is a bigger issue than the reward of living near the coast. Also, I'm not sure how safe any well water or septic tank would be in those areas.

So, okay, you decided to be a later pepper and you live on the coast and don't have backup water and food storage. Well, when you head to the grocery store and the parking lot is full, then you should do your OODA Loop. You see that there are no spaces and there are cars circling the lot trying to find a space. Well, that means you should make sure you have all of your valuables secured and that you need to start heading further inland. Don't wait until the hurricane is upon you, Get Out Of Dodge now! HINT: You should have had your GOOD bag already packed.

Why are you leaving? Well, because your experience at that one grocery store will be repeated at the others. If you haven't filled up your gas tank, you probably wont' have a chance to do that either. Maybe you knew to keep an extra fuel can to get your far enough away to find a gas station outside of the Panic Zone. You should have a plan for securing your property. Only bringing with you the things that you know you must have when you leave. If possible you have made connections with someone outside of the Panic Zone to stay with or you found a park to camp at.

But, the key is, get out before the roads become jammed with other people who didn't prepare, because it wasn't cool to be a prepper.

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Let the positive energy sing!

More Power to the Minnows!!