Dear Friends,
It seems to me… it is better to be prepared than to be ready to act. No matter how fast on your feet you might be, catastrophe often is sudden and unexpected, as it was during hurricane Harvey. When disaster comes, those who are the most likely to come out on top are not the strongest, smartest nor the fastest, but the most prepared, the wisest. Preparation need not cost much either, what does a few cases of water and some canned food stashed in the basement cost? Nor is preparedness difficult, how hard is it to learn to shoot a gun? Many of us think that a disaster only happens other places, the coast, near volcanoes or just to other people. The truth however is that a catastrophe can happen anywhere at any time and need not be local. Isn’t it better then to prepare and watch everyone else working hard, running fast and struggling to get a meager case of water? Moreover, those who prepare are a godsend to those who haven’t after a calamity.
Since the Solar eclipse, there has been a steady stream of cataclysms, from Harvey inundating Houston and the solar flare threatening our electronic infrastructure, to Irma flattening Caribbean Islands and now aiming it’s wrath at Florida, so it should be obvious to everyone that we are all susceptible to natural and man made disasters. There is not a place on Earth that is not occasionally subject to some type of catastrophe, whether it be flooding, hurricane, earthquakes, volcanoes, blizzards, tsunamis and even the long tailed events like meteor strikes, solar EMPs and super volcanoes. We live on a dynamic, ever changing planet and as such, only the Pollianish believe they are immune.
The first part of preparation should be to choose a home that is not in a flood plain, next to a smoldering volcano, on a coast subject to regular tsunamis or on an earthquake fault. Amazingly, these are the exact places where real estate is the most expensive! Everyone wants to live by the ocean, on flat land and with an astounding view of Mount Saint Helens. Of course, these are the very places where preparation is the most important, because they are the very places where you are certain to experience a disaster. Since no amount of preparation can save you if your home is covered in fifty feet of red hot ash, ten feet underwater or flattened in a hurricane, all of us should have a plan to flee if we are forced to. Those who rely on the government in case of a disaster are the ones who experience the worse results. Look at all the people who fled to the Superdome during Katrina. Do you want your family to end up in a FEMA camp?
While no amount of preparation could have saved you if you lived in Pompeii or Herculaneum, sometimes the only answer is to flee, but even then a well thought out plan of action in such an event, is much better than running screaming, with your arms in the air as the pyroclastic cloud races toward you and your family, at sixty miles an hour. You are not going to outrun that! On the plus side, maybe in a few thousand years some archaeologist will fill the void left by your rotted corpse with plaster, and make a grotesque statue of your last moments. Thin comfort that. There is more to fleeing than running helter skelter. You have to think long and hard beforehand, where will I go, what will I bring, how will I get there and have a backup plan if any of these scenarios become unworkable.
Those who survive, are most likely the ones who have thought out a plan, prepared and acted on that plan. Driving down a road that has become a raging river to escape a flood is never the best option. With all the disasters we have seen recently, do you want to be the guy on the evening news stranded in his Suburban in the middle of a torrent, begging the news camera for help? Do you think that guy thought it out? Be the person who thinks it out, build or buy where catastrophes are less likely, have water sources not dependent on the local infrastructure if possible, have food and water stored and have a plan of escape. You are not immune nor are you too important to face death by disaster. Imagine how terrible it would be, to loose a beloved child or even dog to a cataclysm, when it could have been avoided by burning a few calories beforehand, thinking about what you would do? Be safe, be a blessing to those who haven’t planned… and God bless.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
