Crisis Reality: “Within An Hour the Stores Were Emptied”

When toxic chemicals spilled into the Elk River in Charleston, West Virginia a couple of weeks ago we got another glimpse into what the world might look like in the aftermath of a major, widespread disaster.

Wal-Mart has quite the emergency plan nationwide when there are events. I’ve been impressed how rapidly they get to a site.

A few years back we had a severe ice storm in these parts that left hundreds of thousands of people without power for up to two weeks. All the mom & pop hardware stores were immediately sold out of generators, flashlights, batteries, camping gear and other items people don't think to get until after their power goes out. And they stayed sold out. They even hung giant signs in their windows announcing what they ran out of. Pretty pathetic.

But Wal-Mart was prepared. Over the next two weeks, they had truck after truck deliver all those essentials and never ran out of anything. And they didn't ratchet up their prices either. I remember reading an article at the time that they had these trucks on the road from all over the country before the power lines even started coming down.

People love to beat up on Wal-Mart but they have their act together with respect to logistics.

We keep three of the blue 55 gallon water containers filled

It's a lot cheaper doing it that way than buying it by the gallon bottle.

We have several WalMart 5 gallon frosting buckets ($2 each from the bakery) filled with tap water in the basement. It can be used for flushing, washing, or even drinking/cooking. We also keep a few dozen 1/2 gallon apple juice bottles we washed and filled with tap water for drinking. That suffices for our panic/emergency needs, and then we fall back on the bucket based water filter and a local pond.

Why wait until an emergency to pay big bucks for bottled emergency water when it is free right now with just a bit of foresight?

I have no issues with WAl-Mart....only people in America have a problem. Overseas Wal-Mart is held in high regard and the elite go there as well and think nothing of it.

I think too many in this nation think too highly of themselves, and this at every level of society here.

I watched a video on Wal-Mart getting to emergency areas long before others. Their system is astounding in how they get things rolling and maintain it!

The frosting buckets are a good idea. Mr. GG2 has made friends with the ladies in the bakery at Ingles and they sell him the bucket for about $1 I think. Way cheaper than buying them at Lowes.

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