dystopia « Robin Writes

Yeah, yeah, I’m running behind. Shocker, yes? Ha.

I had a topic, but it will have to wait for another time since I didn’t have a chance to finish my research and besides, I’m in a hurry to get this posted before I forget. Again.

With all the news of the Colorado floods, I decided to mention, once more, how important prepping is for EVERYone. I have family out there, my mom and her husband live in a small mountain town that was almost completely cut off from everywhere else. They were evacuating folks in choppers – heh – and the local Safeway, fortunately, got in a delivery after a couple days. Mom said she had to run down there and see if they had jugs of water.

I, of course, pointed out that, if she’d stocked up on a few things, she wouldn’t have to worry or even to go out and try to navigate closed roads, traffic, mud, and, well, water. I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures online.

Besides regular, basic supplies running low, there was no landline service OR cell phone coverage for three or four days. None. Nada. Once in a while, someone could get a call through inside the town itself, but nothing to the outside. One road open, and being it’s September, that could close at any time – due to snow.

Now, we all don’t or can’t keep walkies or shortwave radios around, but it’s definitely something to consider. Oddly, the town had Internet access, so email was working . But communication, timely communication, is key.

Most of us don’t live in areas that could or would be completely cut off from civilization, but you might want to reconsider that – after all, half a dozen roads out there were covered with water or had collapsed. That’s ALL of them. You wouldn’t think, say, here in St. Louis, that all the bridges over the Mississippi or Missouri rivers would be closed at the same time, or that all the major highways would collapse. Probably not.

But isn’t it better, and less stressful in the long run, in a just-in-case way, to be ready? To have alternate methods of communication, to have basic necessities for a few days? The point is that basic stuff should be at-hand all the time – in case of flood, fire, or collapse.

People always seem to think that it won’t happen to them, or that, if it does, things will just magically work out. I hope it does work out. But if not, well, there’s prepping.

Prep Monday – A To-Do List

Come on, ya’ll knew I’d make a to-do list for this too, right?

It occurred to me that, while we have quite a few supplies laid by and know what we’ll do when SHTF, that none of these things matter unless we’re practiced and prepared to move – to take action, to follow through, you know the drill.

First, I’ll start with before it all goes down:

“Stuff” is in one spot, with an updated inventory.
Weapons, etc. are in another spot.
We have a truck, and extra fuel.
We know where we’re going – and if that isn’t possible, we have emergency instructions and maps to go elsewhere.

Next, we need a plan if SHTF decides to happen on any day besides Sunday, when we’re all together. And “the others” need to know where to go if they aren’t here that day. So, odds being what they are, that’s six days of the week where our immediate family will be scattered. Who knows about the others, which means they need to know the meeting spot and have a code word to make sure this IS SHTF and it’s time to GOOD.

Whoever is at home or closest will grab the weapons and secure the house
Whoever has the truck will immediately stop whatever else he or she is involved in and high-tail it home. Whoever has the car will do likewise. Parent closest to school picks up the kid.
Truck loaded, everyone out.

Sure, it will take time. Maybe forty minutes, tops. Can’t be helped. Not like we can sit around waiting for it all to go down, right? We, like you all, have jobs, school, lives, etc.

But the point is that there IS a plan, and since we’re prepared, both mentally and with supplies at hand, it’s more like taking a fast camping trip. A really fast one!

And sure, we practice. Not necessarily the load-it-all-up-and-go, but the rest of it, yes. You can too:

Designate which person is where at the time of SHTF – change this up now and again, so you can prepare for any eventuality. (Practice, too, for other variables, like traffic and general panic and accidents. Know when you should leave, when you should wait for others.)

Note the time. Yell “GO!”

Those who have to drive to arrive at home must first wait and do nothing during that “drive time;” whoever is at home, swings into action. Others “arrive” and the task is completed. See how long it takes.

Once in a while, depends entirely on you, take a practice run to your bug-out destination. Try different routes. Be aware of changes – ownership, construction on roads and neighboring properties, improvements, etc. can all turn out to be surprises. Bad ones.

To sum it all up, it doesn’t make much difference if you have a pantry full of food and a garage with your gear and other supplies if you don’t A) have a place to go and B) a method of transport. And if you run around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to GOOD without practice, you’re going to forget at least half of what you need.

Remember those fire and tornado drills in school? Yeah, they still do those – in schools. Some families do them at home, too, but we never did. You probably didn’t either, but now might be a good time to start having SHTF drills.