Emergency preparedness is more than simply owning specialized pieces of equipment or stockpiling food and medicine for a bad day. Being prepared for the worst is a matter of perspective and active self-evaluation. If there was a prolonged power outage, would I still be able to feed myself? If a tornado struck my town, where would I get water while the municipal water system was down? If there was another national disaster like the pandemic, would I need to panic buy materials to make it through the ensuing economic shutdown or lockdown? These sorts of hypothetical questions can be a starting point for evaluating where you stand. Emergency preparedness doesn’t just include being materially prepared, but also being financially prepared for economic upsets, emotionally prepared for the stress of an emergent situation, and mentally prepared in the sense that you have the necessary knowledge or skills to use the preparations you’ve made.
I believe the foundation to preparing for emergencies is to adopt a preparedness mindset. First, you must recognize that the services we rely on to function are imperfect, vulnerable, and subject to human error. For example, while municipal water supplies are highly engineered, they are still affected by stresses on supply chains, the local electrical grid, and material or operational failures. You should consider your options if the local water supply went down for several days and bottled water was unavailable due to sudden demand. Second, you must have an attitude of personal responsibility for your well-being. In cases of emergency, the various levels of government have plans in place to distribute supplies and provide aid to those affected, but these efforts are not instantaneous and there will be a period of time where you will be without external support. Third, you must make a plan and act. Making a plan and acting on it can come in many shapes in sizes since the most likely emergent situation someone will face and its consequences is dependent on geography, financial status, marital/family status, health, etc. This is where you will need to critically analyze your current situation and brainstorm what form of preparedness best meets your needs and lifestyle.
Having a preparedness mindset is all about recognizing faults, weaknesses, and problems in systems. It is built on critical analysis and, perhaps to some degree, pessimism or playing devil’s advocate. This doesn’t mean you need to constantly be concerning yourself with how the world may end, or how fragile our society is, and so on, but it should be a periodic practice where you evaluate the weaknesses of your local community or your own home and how that relates to national or global events. It is especially important to emphasize that this analysis be framed locally. Think practically about the services you have in your community you rely upon and the consequences of no longer having them available. Consider as well what material goods you would have available at home if you couldn’t access stores or get goods resupplied. Basics such as water, food, health supplies, electricity/heat, and so on should be your first concern and it should be tailored to your living situation. Preparing for a toxic gas attack in rural Utah is more of a fantasy while stockpiling clean water and canned goods in case of a hurricane in coastal Florida is a smart use of time. The preparedness mindset can be expressed in small everyday acts throughout everyday life. For example, keeping your gas tank filled above half a tank in case you needed to leave the area or picking up a few extra canned goods here and there to build your food stocks. The small additional expense is a worthwhile investment into your own security.
Personal ownership is a vital component of emergency preparedness. Most Americans do not prepare for emergencies and as a result they are forced to rely upon government and non-government relief efforts. This takes control of the situation away from the individual (who will be feeling the stress and frustration of the event) and transfers it to a bureaucratic organization that can be slow or hampered by conflicting priorities. Simultaneous interrelated emergencies can especially stress the ability of government to respond quickly and may cause you to be without support for even longer periods. This is why government agencies recommend at a minimum that people store enough food and water to support themselves for at least 72 hours in case of emergency. Not only does this provide you insurance but it reduces the demand on emergency services allowing them to more effectively combat the problem. So, emergency preparedness is not only an exercise in individualism and self-determination but it is a socially conscious act that frees up responding authorities to focus their efforts on the more vulnerable parts of society. It’s more appropriate that government resources go to the sick elderly woman living alone or the poor single mom with 4 children than to someone like myself, a healthy young man living on my own.
Planning and acting on your plan is the meat and bones of emergency preparedness but is built on the foundation of having a preparedness mindset and taking personal ownership of your security. The planning phase grows naturally out of taking a critical look at your situation and weak areas in your life. The vulnerabilities you recognize will lead you to a solution and will dictate how you plan your preparations. Someone who lives in an apartment in the city with little space will necessarily prepare differently and for different emergencies than someone who lives in a house in a rural community. Much of this is pretty common sense and can be adjusted wildly depending on the person. For most people, having extra canned food and dried goods, a simple first aid kit, batteries and flashlights, and water bottles stashed away will be as much as they want to pursue in the way of emergency preparedness. For others, they may go much further and learn how to use radio equipment for emergency communications and get training in performing first aid for victims of traumatic injuries. The level you choose to go to is a function of your interest, time, money, etc. I would like to stress that it is easy to get into the mindset that buying things will make you prepared and this can provide a false sense of security. Just because you own a radio doesn’t mean you will know how to use it when the local cellular network goes down. It is perhaps more valuable to learn skills that will make you more self-reliant and practice them occasionally to maintain proficiency. Someone living in the city who plans to “bug out” with all their supplies and go survive in the woods but who has never practiced the required skills or performed dry runs to test their plan is going to exponentially worsen their problems and at worst get themselves killed. The farmer who has a home stockpile of water, food, cooking gas, and has various handyman skills he uses regularly is going to be much more resilient in a sticky situation.
On that note, there is an entire industry built around emergency preparedness and therefore there are a lot of companies who sell kits, multi-tools, and one-size-fits-all solutions for people who don’t want to take the time to prepare. I caution you against these options as a lot of these supplies are overpriced, of subpar quality, and steal from you the experience of evaluating your scenario and preparing for it thoughtfully. Some of these options can be worth exploring, but generally it will be better for you to customize your preparations and to practice with what you have. The tools you buy for use in an emergency should ideally hold some practical use outside of an emergency scenario so you can get experience using them and have more confidence in carrying out your plan.
I encourage you to consider these points and to practice your preparedness mindset. Take some time to seriously evaluate how you’d fair during an extended loss of drinking water, electrical power, gasoline, food supplies, or other modern necessities. Also, consider how you will financially cope with rising costs resulting from global events and how frugal options can give you more security from supply chain failures. Those old school tricks your grandma uses to pinch pennies can in fact be valuable skills for getting the most out of your emergency supplies if society grinds to a halt. Increase your proficiency in home repairs and living without some modern amenities as it will make it less of an adjustment if things break or modern conveniences are unavailable for a time.