Survivalism

Yes, I consider myself a “survivalist” but rest easy I am not some nut job. No, I am not sitting with 100,000 round of ammo living in the mountains of Idaho convinced full collapse of western society will occur any day now. The reality is that type of survivalist mentality represents a very small fraction of those that actually practice true Survivalism as part of their lives. To be a survivalist is simply to be prepared.

So what am I prepared for? Well a lot of things but the good new is what you do to prepare is pretty similar across all types of disasters and life changing events. Don’t think you need to have any survivalist mentality? Well consider the following things at least one of which, actually have a pretty good chance of occurring sooner or later in most peoples lives. Remember a disaster can happen to the world, to a nation, to a state, to a city or even just to a single individual. Such events include…

• Blizzards, Ice, etc. which create extended power outages
• Flooding - Unless you live on a mountain it can happen
• Loss of jobs
• Serious illness, disease or injury to you or family members
• Death of a family bread winner from any event can really harm a family
• Tornadoes - over half the nation has at least some risk
• Localized Terrorist Attacks
• Localized Riots

Please realize that list could go on for page after page. There is an endless list of things that can go bad enough to seriously alter your life and the lives of those you love. Many have little you can do to prevent but there are simple things you can add into your life to make you better prepared. With out getting out the tin foil hats and digging into massive bunkers with 3 years worth of dehydrated food we also do need to acknowledge that a world wide catastrophe could indeed occur.

Some of the events I am about to list actually have a moderate possibility of occuring some will certainly occur but when is the issue, they may happen tomorrow or in 30 million years. Who knows when, but we do know they will occur. Of course some are things that are highly unlikely to ever occur but they could. What I suggest is not living a paranoid life but simply acknowledging the danger. So what things could or will someday occur that could effect life on most or all of the planet.

• Asteroid or other major bodies striking our planet - This is a real honest risk and it has happened in the past and it will 100% happen again. If the strike was from a huge asteroid or comet the reality is it won’t matter we could all be gone in seconds. However the bigger risk is smaller bodies that have the effect of hundreds of nuclear bombs when they impact the planet. Such impacts could lay waste to a major region and via a trickle down effect devastate the economies and environments of the rest of the world. Again this has happened and it will happen again.

• Pandemic - Sooner or later a major and difficult to fight disease will spread across the globe killing millions. Now it could be 100 or 1000 years away or it could be the next flu season but sooner or later a “super bug” is going to hit and hit hard. If you catch it and die your troubles are over, yet if you survive even uninfected you really need to think about what such a global catastrophe would mean to even those who survive or even never get sick.

• Global War - Americans have become quite arrogant that no forigen power will ever invade or even directly and consistently attack U.S. territory. For over a century the only instances were Pearl Harbor, the Japanese occupation of a useless rock in the Allusion Islands. We then had the bombing of the World Trade Center and later the 9-11 attacks. The recent events are simply seen as terrorist activities and not something that can really be an ongoing event.We need to realize though that we have some real enemies in the world and at times our leaders do some real stupid things. The prospect of a true global war is a real potential threat. One we hope never happens but it is far from impossible. Please understand such a war could be nuclear or chemical/biological but it could also be “conventional” in nature and still be a global and certainly a national disaster.

• A Yellowstone Volcanic Event - Many people do not realize that Yellowstone National Park is sitting on top of one of the largest volcanic craters in the history of the world. It wasn’t until we had satellites that we realized exactly how big this volcano is. With images from space we found a caldera (the historic outline of a volcanic crater) larger then the state of Rhode Island. Let me be clear a true Yellowstone Eruption would make Mount St. Helens look like a popped pimple!Discovery Channel ran a made for TV movie called, When Yellowstone Erupts that was a drama based on what could happen with a major eruption of the Yellowstone system. The direct effects would hit 50-70% of the US with in hours to days of the event. Ash would pile onto buildings and collapse them just to name one effect that reaches past the lava flow and explosion. If you get a chance watch this show when it comes back around. Eye opening to say the least. So what do I think the odds of this happening during our life time are? Perhaps 1 in a billion though some smart scientists do disagree with me. I only bring it up because just a few decades ago we did not even understand the danger. So the next question is what other possible disaster could be possible that we do not even know about?

Now look I don’t want to depress anyone, I don’t want you paranoid and I don’t think a deep hole and 5,000 packs of ramen noodles and 20,000 gallons of fresh water should be under every home. What I do believe is that a true disaster of some sort can happen to us all at any time and small localized or even individual disasters do happen every day.

The simple solution is to be prepared for things to go wrong. Some things you can do are as simple as carrying the right type of insurance, keeping a reasonable amount of cash on hand and yes having a few weeks worth of non perishable food on hand. You should carry first aid kits, tools, jumper cables and additional things in your vehicles. To be practical a Triple A card ain’t a bad idea either. In the future I will blog on a lot of things you can do, like keeping Bug Out Bags on hand, knowing where you would go if your home was damaged or other possible events.

I just put this page together here to make people aware of a few possible dangers and help you to understand that being of a survival mindset is just part of proper planning and it goes along perfectly with financial planning and responsible spending. Beliveing nothing bad will happen or that someone else will take care of you if it does is both naive and arrogant. It is also a real good way to end up in very big trouble as many residents of New Orleans can attest to.

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