Reason #1 – Natural Disasters
It happens every year to someone. Almost every part of the country has it’s natural disaster to be concerned with and each year, there are hundreds, if not thousands of people that are (to some degree) affected by it in some negative way. And like me, you may not have experienced a major event yet, but I’m under no illusion that it can’t happen to me and neither should you. Here are some very common disasters that could affect you.
- Earthquakes: a common, low on the Richter scale earthquake can cause municipal utilities (electricity, water, gas) to go out for a couple of hours and that’s usually it. No big deal, right? But here in California, everyone kind of knows we are due for the “big one” and when that happens, things are going to suck real bad for many, many people. I’m thinking zero municipal utilities for extended periods (weeks if not longer), unserviceable roads, damage to homes, injuries, and just total chaos.
- Wildfires, floods, tornadoes & hurricanes: any one of these may force us to evacuate our homes for an undetermined amount of time and cause damage to property or possible loss of home. People may sustain injuries of various degrees. Utilities will most likely be out for a while and roads may become unusable.
- Harsh winter weather: heavy snow falls or a severe cold fronts may cause roads can become unsafe to navigate. This means that grocery stores and other retailers may not get supplies to restock their shelves. Severe weather may also cause utilities and infrastructure to fail and if you weren’t ready for a cold winter, then things are going to be very uncomfortable at best.
- Droughts and heatwaves: with global warming, we experience droughts and heatwaves of greater intensity every year. I know some people say global warming isn’t real, but I say it is.
Basically, no matter where you live you may experience a natural disaster of some sort. When that happens, the people that depend on you (your loved ones) are going to thank you for having the aforethought to put away a few items that’s going to improve your otherwise crappy situation. Who knows, your preps may safe the life of the one you hold most dear.
Reason #2 – Financial Hardship / Economic Collapse
Ok, so I’ve lumped financial hardship (aka losing your job) and economic collapse under one topic for a reason. Why? Because when you are confronted by either of these, the end result is the same: you lose the ability to provide for yourself and your family. It’s simple, but let’s break it down just so we are all on the same page.
Losing your job – almost everyone has experienced this at some point in their life. When you were a kid, it didn’t really matter so much, but now when you have a lot more on the line, it can cause levels of stress and desperation that can easily lead to irrational decisions. Think: your child crying for food that you can’t provide.
Economic collapse – for the past decade or so, the US has been going through what I would call a series of mild economic crashes. The news reports that unemployment is at an all time low and stocks are doing great, yet our unfunded liabilities (welfare, social security income, social security disability, etc) is at an all-time (and staggering) high. You ever get the feeling that someone isn’t tell you the whole truth? That facts are being twisted in an effort to trick you? Well, I feel something is amidst. Disclaimer: I don’t know enough about economics in general to give you guys an accurate estimate of what’s going on in this country. I can tell you from what I’ve heard on various forums and from talking to people, that despite what I hear on mass media, I’m going with my gut feeling which is tell me things aren’t going to be all sunshine and rainbows in the future.
Remember what happened in Argentina in the early 2000’s? I bet their mass media wasn’t telling their citizens to prepare for an economic collapse before it happened. If you haven’t heard about that, google search Fernando Ferfal Aguirre. He survived the 2001 collapse in Argentina and shares his stories about how people (regardless of social class) were digging in trash cans looking for food in less than a week after the crash, how all banks closed their doors and ATMs for months, and about the lack of public utilities and not being able to buy gas for car. All this for months on end.
You get the idea. When anyone runs out of money (you or the government-well, more like their ability to print more) then things start to hit the fan rather quickly. In this instance, it’s better to invest some money now and have a stock of basic necessities at home, before you lose your job or money becomes worthless and can’t buy you anything anyway.
Reason #3 – Pandemics
Has anyone ever told you “this is the mildest flu season ever!” Probably not. I’ve never heard it. I was so curious why this was, that on my last visit to the doctor, I asked her, “why is it that every year is the worst flu season ever?” Her response “because every year it gets worse.” She went on to tell me that there are actually two flu seasons (A & B) every year. They are rated based on how many people have died that year in Australia and the east coast and projected death for season B. If the death toll from the flu exceeds a certain number (more than last year) in any one category, it’s safe to say that it’s the worst flu season ever. And that’s just regular old flu. What about all the other viruses and diseases we don’t normally hear about?
Not so fun fact: did you know that for the past decade or so, there have been an average of 7 cases per year of the bubonic plague in the United States? In 2017 while working at the local general hospital, I witness this first hand. The entire hospital was in a frenzy and rightly so, and that was with one patient having the plague. What if that patient had spread it unknowingly to bunch of people before coming to the hospital?
Crazy right? And let’s not forget the 2014-2016 Ebola scare. It’s now 2019 and it’s not like ebola just went away. You don’t hear about it anymore because it’s old news. There are still outbreaks around the world and it wouldn’t take much for it to come back to the US, especially if some lowly terrorist wanted to bring it into the States.
Reason #4 – The Big Reset (EMPs & Solar Storms & Cyber Attacks)
EMP attacks – If you’re new to the prepping community, mere mention of EMP attacks is enough to set off the tin hat radar, and rightfully so. A nuclear bomb going off over United States and the ensuing Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) wiping out the nation’s electrical grid sounds crazy, right? Our first thought is “nobody is going to set off a nuclear bomb over our atmosphere.” Perhaps not, but as a prepper we are dealing in the what-ifs. Just think about it. If a terrorist group in possession of a nuke really wanted to cripple the United States, doesn’t an EMP attack seem like a no-brainer choice? Still too far fetched? How about a naturally occurring solar storm?
Solar storms – they’ve been around since the sun and earth was created and nobody’s every been hurt by it, so why worry now? True, people haven’t been hurt directly by a solar storm, but our technology has. Storms on the sun’s surface, more specifically solar flares, send out a huge burst of radiation which is usually intercepted by the earth’s atmosphere. However, once in awhile, these solar storms will send out what’s called Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) which is a mixture of gases and magnetic fields. And when CME’s strike the earth’s atmosphere, it creates a geomagnetic storm (think Aurora Borealis) and when the CME’s are powerful enough, their charged particles strike the earth’s surface, causing electrical devices to fail (more like burn which leads to failures).
Will it ever happen here? It already has. In 1989 Quebec and parts of Northeastern United States were affected by CME’s, resulting in millions of people going without power for about 9 hours. I know 9 hours doesn’t seem like a lot, but what if the next CME is even larger? It could be, and thus result in greater damage to our electrical grid.
Cyber attacks – I’m no computer expert so I can’t elaborate on this topic, but I can tell you that in today’s era of technology, a cyber attacks seems like the most likely of the three. There are smart deviates all over the world, many of whom have beef with the United States. If one of those window-lickers ever gain access to our electrical grid, you can be sure things are gonna go sideways for us real fast. Hell, it’s documented that other nations are constantly trying to hack into our systems, and I really doubt their intentions are “just for fun”.
Reason #5 – Life in General
This one is something that everyone on this planet should have experienced already. Hey look, things don’t always go our way. Life will throw you a curve ball once in awhile and you just do your best to deal with it. Other times, it may just throw you a fast ball, so fast that it just nails you right in the forehead and leave you stumbling about. Fact is, even without all the sensationalized prepper scenarios, there are plenty of things that can (and will) go wrong. And when it does, it’s your job (not someone else’s) to get your life back in order and having alittle something stashed away can be a real lifesaver.
So there you have it folks, my top 5 reasons to start prepping today. I hope you found this article informative. I know some of the reasons may seem far fetched to some people, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. And as you read some of my other articles on prepping, you will quickly see that it doesn’t take much to ensure a more comfortable time when the stuff hits the fan. Alittle here, alittle there. Before you know it, you will have put away enough to get you and your family through whatever hard times may come your way.
Happy prepping.
