Comment: Not almost. The writing on the wall is stark and clear and points to events that are just around the corner.
Last year, there was great controversy around the shooting of a black teen by a white police officer that led to rioting and protests that lasted for weeks. Then, after a few months of hearing almost nothing, two police officers were shot amid a protest in Ferguson, Missouri, last week while another racially charged situation developed as the result of another police shooting in Wisconsin. Who knows if things will get better or worse, but I am almost willing to guarantee that there were many residents who wish they had been better prepared to deal with the dangers of such protests and the inherent risk of leaving home in the middle of this. I can't tell you if these events led anyone to stock up on food and water, but there was a great increase in the purchase of firearms.
There are other recent incidents that have happened and lend credibility to the practice of prepping in one form or another:
- Reports out of Venezuela outline a plan by the Venezuelan government to install fingerprint scanners in grocery stores to prevent the stockpiling of food. This has become a concern because of the plummeting value of their currency and the low prices of oil.
- The recent attempt by the federal government to ban the popular M855 ammunition for the AR-15 series of rifles, a move that was aimed at ensuring the safety of law enforcement officers. Ironically, M855 ammunition has never been used in the murder of a law enforcement officer.
- Our power grid has been deemed susceptible enough to going down that Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) proposed legislation to provide better security for our fragile infrastructure. This threat is real enough that NASA is scheduled to launch a two-year study of the magnetosphere to assess the nature of its threat to the power grid.
- Our European friends (whom we are following closely but are about 20 years behind) have expressed an interest in having a closed-circuit television camera in each and every home in the United Kingdom.
Establish food and water stores
The most basic action that can be taken by anyone wishing to be better prepared for a disaster, storing food and water is the most logical place to start prepping. Without food and water, a person will not survive anything for very long. It is no secret that wars have been fought over food and water. Having a stockpile of these goods will also help prevent any need to scan your fingerprint at the grocery store in Venezuela!
When establishing your food and water storage, there are a couple of key things to keep in mind:
- Try to have at least seven days' worth of food and water stored and build it up from there. The more, the merrier.
- A day's supply of food should be 2,000 calories for the average adult.
- A day's supply of water should be at least one gallon of water for drinking and cooking. If water for hygiene is a concern, storing another gallon of water for each person will allow bare minimum hygiene practices to be followed.
- Track appropriate expiration dates and have a plan to rotate and replace items as needed.
Implement a security plan
Disasters often bring chaos and fear with them. Because these can be such scary times, they will often lead people to do things that they might not ordinarily consider doing. This makes security a vital function of preparedness. Security considerations should include:
- What weapons do you have that can be used to ensure your security?
- Are you trained to use these weapons proficiently?
- Do you know how to clean and maintain these weapons?
- Can you perform basic repairs on your weapons, and do you have the parts and tools needed to make these repairs?
- How much ammunition do you have?
- Are your weapons of a common caliber that make it easier to find more ammunition for them?
- Be familiar with who your neighbors are and what skills they may have that could be useful in securing your neighborhood.
- Knowing who and what are around you. Are there key targets around you that someone may wish to strike in a moment of vulnerability? Are these targets something that you may need to take advantage of to help ensure your own security or to prevent a greater risk to your security?
Comment: Another thought on security plans and keeping safe is the idea of Situational Awareness. From Wikipedia we get this:
Situation awareness is the perception of environmental elements with respect to time or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status after some variable has changed, such as time, or some other variable, such as a predetermined event. It is also a field of study concerned with perception of the environment critical to decision-makers in complex, dynamic areas from aviation, air traffic control, ship navigation, power plant operations, military command and control, and emergency services such as fire fighting and policing; to more ordinary but nevertheless complex tasks such as driving an automobile or riding a bicycle.
Situation awareness (SA) involves being aware of what is happening in the vicinity, in order to understand how information, events, and one's own actions will impact goals and objectives, both immediately and in the near future. One with an adept sense of situation awareness generally has a high degree of knowledge with respect to inputs and outputs of a system, i.e. an innate "feel" for situations, people, and events that play out due to variables the subject can control. Lacking or inadequate situation awareness has been identified as one of the primary factors in accidents attributed to human error.[1] Thus, situation awareness is especially important in work domains where the information flow can be quite high and poor decisions may lead to serious consequences (e.g., piloting an airplane, functioning as a soldier, or treating critically ill or injured patients).
Having complete, accurate and up-to-the-minute SA is essential where technological and situational complexity on the human decision-maker are a concern. Situation awareness has been recognized as a critical, yet often elusive, foundation for successful decision-making across a broad range of complex and dynamic systems, including aviation, air traffic control, ship navigation,[2] health care,[3] emergency response and military command and control operations,[4] and offshore oil and nuclear power plant management.[5]
Situation awareness is often studied in the context of leadership and roles involving time-critical applications, however it is often referenced in other fields as well. For example, in the study of influence, situation awareness is found to be a critical component. This is further extended into the animal kingdom, where very often the alpha pair demonstrates superior situation awareness with respect to the well being of those within the animal pack.
Definition
Although numerous definitions of situation awareness have been proposed, Endsley's definition (1995b), "the perception of elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future," is firmly established and widely accepted. While some definitions are specific to the environment from which they were adapted, Endsley's definition is applicable across multiple task domains. Several other definitions have been suggested, generally restating the same themes:
- "knowing what is going on so you can figure out what to do" (Adam, 1983)
- "accessibility of a comprehensive and coherent situation representation which is continuously being updated in accordance with the results of recurrent situation assessments" (Sarter & Woods, 1991)
- "the combining of new information with existing knowledge in working memory and the development of a composite picture of the situation along with projections of future status and subsequent decisions as to appropriate courses of action to take" (Fracker, 1991b)
- "the continuous extraction of environmental information along with integration of this information with previous knowledge to form a coherent mental picture, and the end use of that mental picture in directing further perception and anticipating future need" (Dominguez, Vidulich, Vogel, & McMillan, 1994)
- "adaptive, externally-directed consciousness that has as its products knowledge about a dynamic task environment and directed action within that environment" (Smith & Hancock, 1995)
- "what you need to know not to be surprised" (Jeannot, Kelly, & Thompson, 2003)
- "keeping track of what is going on around you in a complex, dynamic environment" (Moray, 2005, p. 4)
- The "aim of efficient situation awareness is to keep the operator tightly coupled to the dynamics of the environment" (Moray, 2005, p. 4)
- "the ability to maintain a constant, clear mental picture of relevant information and the tactical situation including friendly and threat situations as well as terrain" (Dostal, 2007)
- Situation awareness is a state achieved when information that is qualitatively and quantitatively determined by given configuration as suitable for assumed role is made available to stakeholder by engaging them in appropriate information exchange patterns. (Sorathia, 2008)[6]
Be prepared for a medical emergency
When disaster strikes, medical emergencies are bound to happen. Injury can result from a deliberate attack, a stray bullet, being hit by a falling object or getting cut by broken glass; having a medical kit and training is a must.
Here are some basic considerations for being ready for a medical emergency:
- Is your medical kit geared toward illness, injury or both? (Your medical kit will ideally be capable of treating both injuries and illnesses.)
- How close is your nearest medical treatment facility?
- If your closest medical treatment facility is not available, where will you go or what will you do?
- Prescription medicines are relied on to sustain life more and more these days; do you have all of the medication that you need?
Have a plan to get out
Sometimes, things get so bad that the best decision is the decision to leave and go somewhere away from the madness. There are even times when you may not have a choice in the matter. This dictates the need to have a plan to get out. Typical evacuation considerations include:
- Determine primary, secondary and tertiary routes that can be taken. These should offer options that can be taken in three different directions as a way to circumnavigate threats.
- Do you have a load plan for your vehicle?
- What is included in your load plan?
- If you can't make it home or load your gear, do you at least have a car kit that can sustain life for two or three days?
- Do you have cash available to cover expenses along the way? This is especially important if the power is out and credit card machines are not working.
There is never a guarantee that things will go bad, but it does seem like it is more likely to happen in today's world than a sudden outbreak of world peace. Whether you consider these possibilities happening to you or not, you will likely not have the chance to put anything together once it is already too late. Take a look at the writing on the wall and take the steps necessary to ensure your future survival today while it is still both practical and easy to do.
Comment: See also: