Posted on 12/26/2012 7:04:56 PM PST by Kartographer
Preppers’ PING!!
Look what is happening right before your eyes and take heed. There’s a Great Storm coming you can feel it.
Listen to what the bible says: A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. NIV Proverbs 22:3
One of the things Selco covers in this article is the fact that many will not accept that a breakdown is occurring even as they watch it happening before their eyes. Why don’t they realize it? It’s caused by a condition called ‘Normalcy Bias’ a mental state people enter when facing a disaster.
It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.
A good article on ‘Normalcy Bias’ is on our own ChocChipCookies Blog The Survival Mom:
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/12/29/normalcy-bias/
You either prepare and stand on your own beholden to no one or you become dependent on others to provide your basic needs and become their ‘serf’. Me I don’t want to be beholden to anyone for providing what is needed for me and mine. I certainly don’t want to have to kiss some ‘gubberment’ third class bureaucratic to try and coax some help from them, I don’t want some ‘jack booted’ thug herding me in line and telling me where to stand, sit, eat or sleep. And last but not least I don’t want to be shut up in with a bunch of ‘zombies’ and have to worry about not only trying to get basic necessities but having to fight to keep what I manage to get.
Its your choice you can prep or you can stand around on a bridge waiting for FEMA to bring you a bottle of water, a MRE, a warm blanket and a kiss for your boo-boo and maybe you can even get your picture as you stand there on the national news.
For those who are just starting or are old hands at prepping you may find my Preparedness Manual helpful. You can download it at:
http://tomeaker.com/kart/Preparedness1j.pdf NOTE! THIS IS A FREE DOWNLOAD. I DO NOT MAKE ONE CENT OFF MY PREPAREDNESS MANUAL!
For those of you who haven’t started already it’s time to prepare almost past time maybe. You needed to be stocking up on food guns, ammo, basic household supplies like soap, papergoods, cleaning supplies, good sturdy clothes including extra socks, underwear and extra shoes and boots, a extra couple changes of oil and filters for your car, tools, things you buy everyday start buying two and put one up.
As the LDS say “When the emergency is upon us the time for preparedness has past.”
Again I like to recomend FReeper’s ChocoChipCookie Blog The Survival Mom (Please Blog Police let this one slide!) Where you can get lots of useful information like:
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2011/11/20/8-morale-boosters-for-any-worst-case-scenario/
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/02/02/survival-priorities-the-rule-of-three/
And More
Also there is Ferfal’s Blog a survivor of Argentina’s first collapse:
And there is Selco’s Blog a Bosnian War survivor at:
“There is no greater disaster than to underestimate danger. Underestimation can be fatal.”
bttt
I had the government train me for that part, tailored to likely disasters for my area. Sometimes I was in uniform, sometimes I was a volunteer. Seemed like I should get something from my taxes.
The other stuff was mostly self-study and field training.
/johnny
different than swatting a skeeter or stepping on a bug. you have to put it in the back of your mind and never have a second thought of it.
Mrs L and I spent quite a bit of time getting trained for the town CERT Team, Fire Corps, our County’s Citizen Corps and the like. Each round of training got us a cool bag of taxpayer financed gear amd more importantly, in our view, Official Credentials complete with our pictures.
Those could come in mighty handy someday. Just sayin’.
Then there are the uniforms, shiny vests with Official acronyms on the back. Yep, could be mighty useful someday.
/johnny
It's amazing if you carry a clipboard, wear a hard-hat and reflective vest, and have a radio what you can get away with.
/johnny
This is very true. The average Joe simply won't question "apparent" authority. A more benign example of this is as a photographer, a simple self made press pass can get you access to places that others with a camera can't get to.
Wrong - we're not gonna be in, we have long since been in that situation. With tons hitting the fan almost daily for the better part of almost 4 years.
“Theories claim the eruption of Toba led to a 6 – 10 year volcanic winter and a decline of the average temperature in some areas by 15 °C / 59 F that changed life on earth dramatically and killed off many species.”
For the record, if you decrease temperature by 15C, it is the same as decreasing temperature by 27F, NOT 59F.
bfl
People react to what they are used to, whether it is real or not - they don't question - especially in an emergency situation.
I've got my medical jacket and an EMT emblem if I want it on there, plus my doctor fancy gold colored name pin (a Ph.D. doctor). I actually wore that to an emergency room with my husband in order to get him immediate care and it worked. A doctor in the emergency room thought I was just like him so he started care immediately, explaining every little step he was taking, for my approval. I was determined to get immediate action from that emergency room, whatever it took.
In an emergency situation, it is good to identify yourself as “something” so you are not just one of the crowd. Johnny is right that a hat and a clipboard, reflective vest, means something and people will pay attention.
You could go to a store that sells medical clothes and buy a scrub outfit - the pull over top and pants and look like you work in a hospital. You don't have to claim that - a person will automatically think it. It sets you apart as “something” of worth - you have a skill they don't have.
Buy a cheap stethoscope and hang it around your neck along with your hospital scrubs. Or buy a white medical coat and again, hang the stethoscope around your neck. You could buy an arm cuff and actually learn how to take a blood pressure. Always tell the truth if you are asked about your clothes or anything you have. Why are you wearing scrubs? Scrubs are comfortable so you wear those at home to relax. Why do you have a stethoscope? Because you know how to take a blood pressure and someone might need to know that and you want to help.
Attitude is all important along with your choice of “clothes”. If you act like you are confused and upset, you get no “respect”. If you are calm and helpful in your garb, you are one of the leaders and have influence.
If you are a John Boehner and cry, it is doubtful you will be a speaker, urr, I mean a leader.
I picked-up 2 vests, hardhats, clipboards from Home Depot, and had some Uniden Multi-Band Hand Radios left from the Family Farm Business, and they’re now ready for Dad and I, should we “need” them.
I was also rotating-out some soups the other day and found 2 cans of 1998 Campbell’s Ready-To-Eat Beef Veg and Chicken Dumplings. They were fine and edible. All the rest of my stocks are only 1-3yrs old. Don’t know where those ancient ones came from... but shows that some things can survive a long time if they’re properly packaged and stored.
Did you notice if those old soup cans were thicker than the ones now days? I’ve been noticing cans in general are getting thinner and some can be bent easily. Could be these newer ones won’t last as long and be prone to damage.
THe clip board, vest, and radio thing is an old sales trick for getting into buildings. We had an entire class on Symbols of Authority. Honestly....
*
They WERE noticeably thicker cans! You’re right! Perfect condition too, as I don’t buy any dented or spot-rusted canned goods, no matter the price.
Hmm, so it’s not my imagination. This isn’t good news for long term storage. We are going to have to be more careful and check canned goods carefully. The last can of tuna I opened was so thin I bent the can just opening it. Also, many foods are being packaged in paper cartons which is another growing problem long term wise.
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