Tuesday 23 April 2013

Getting Started: Prepping Plans, Part#1



I’m always asked “how did you get started” or “where can I begin?”
It seems the concept of starting to prep can be pretty daunting for some. I can sympathise with that – when I first started my prepping plan/list of what ‘necessities” my family would need it was enormous! 

There are literally hundreds of items that you could possible need for your family and each family is different and therefore needs different preps.  There are also dozens of situations that require different preps or some that could utilize the same preps … It goes on and on.

The advice I try to give people who ask is “at first try not to over think it”. Which might sound a bit contradictive however if you start with a basic need or a few situations you can grow your supplies, skills and experience from there. I too often here about friends and customers giving up on prepping due to the enormity of it and basically starting to big to soon! 

The first thing you need to think about before you do anything is “what do I want to be prepared for?” 

For me the world wide natural diasters are ever increasing. We are often watching some poor state/country being ripped apart from Fires, Earthquakes, Tornados, and Floods and this makes me very uneasy. Instead of sitting on the couch watching others tragedies I wanted to learn from them and survive them!
 
With the increasing amount of natural disasters taking place and my want to be more prepared I started researching what I would need in case of fuel shortages, grocery stores wiped out, looting and water contamination.

Now to a newbie many of these situations may seem like non events – “Grocery stores wiped out or picked clean? That could never possible happen” “water contamination, is that what water plants are for?”… Like heck. 

In the January 2013 Tasmanian bush fires my extended family were affected by power outages, clean water and food shortages for a few weeks. Some stores that had provisions were even profiteering. Fuel and food trucks were unable to services the local regions effected by the fires as the roads were all engorged with flames, embers and ash which made them impassable. Luckily boats were sent to resupply the area after a week without road access. 

Also in January 2013, after drenching rains, residents of Brisbane were asked to restrict water use after the city’s drinking water dwindled to just a six-hour supply. This occurred after the city’s main treatment plant became clogged with sediment washing down from poorly managed land upstream

Now these are only a few examples and I do believe that people should prep for ALL situations but a natural diaster scenario is often the most relatable and easiest to start with.

However to understand what you need to be prepared for you need to think less about the situation or event that may happen and how you would live during and after the event takes place. 

There is a saying called The Rule Of 3’s: a person can live 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food. 

Use the rule of 3 to drive you, to keep you focussed. I do.

In our next update we’ll cover one of The Rule Of 3’s: Water. 

Hope for the best, Prep for the worst!

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