I know it is difficult to consider the world today and identify one single threat that rises to the top.
When I did my 2024 threat assessment my summary was, “Everything will escalate and one or more major things is likely to boil over.“
…there were a lot of potential threats on the list.
And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.
–Mark 13:5-13 ESV
“But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
The core question is:
How do we prepare for the future in an uncertain world?
Fortunately, all disasters have similar preparedness strategies, but we naturally gravitate to the thing we feel is most pressing.
i.e. if a nasty storm is brewing we might make sure our flashlights and backup power are ready and anything that can be damaged by wind is as secure as possible.
The bottom line is, all our concerns can result in disruptions of systems of support.
Terrorism or cyber attacks could bring down the power grid.
Either of those or civil unrest or financial havoc could disrupt the supply chain leading to shortages > panic and more shortages and desperate people who might do violent thing they would otherwise not do.
Fortunately, the steps to take care of ourselves and those we care about are essentially the same. Please feel free to ask the group questions about any of the following areas where you’d like to level up.
Food
- Prepurchase as much as we can of things we normally eat. FYI: “Expiration” dates are best if used by dates…
- In an inflationary economy, converting money into tangible assets or food you’ll eat anyway when you find a good value is good stewardship (frugal).
- I’m not a fan of fancy high dollar long-term storage food. I’d rather spend that money on developing the ability to grow food.
- Beans and grains are popular, but shelf-stable protein like canned beef, chicken, wild-caught salmon and wild-caught tuna will provide a much higher energy density.
- Eating very low carb or straight carnivore is a sustainable healthy diet for most people.
- Work on producing our own food with minimal outside inputs.
- Produce food our food eats to reduce feed costs.
- Preserve food in shelf-stable forms like canning, freeze drying, etc.
A note about charity:
We all need to carefully consider our plans to help others. If you want to give away your food to strangers then buy enough for them and prepare it in bags or buckets ahead of time and keep it separate from your other food.
However, please bear in mind that people who find a meal at your home are likely to return. Sometimes they will return with friends and that single act of kindness can set you up for a life-threatening situation.
We should be wise as serpents but innocent as doves.
Water
Thank God we have lots of water around here 98% of the time.
- We need to pump it out of the ground and have backup power for that pump.
- We can catch it falling from the sky.
- We can store enough for drinking water.
- We should be able to filter funky water to a drinkable level.
Shelter
Barring a personal disaster, we’ve all got that covered. We just need to maintain our places and minimize the risk of fire and be prepared in case that unlikely tornado decides today is your day.
Maybe consider who you know that might show up at your door if things get really bad and figure out a plan for where you’d put them. Having an RV hookup and maybe a travel trailer to use as a guest house would be nice.
One thing I haven’t done that I need to do sooner than later is to set up a way to preserve all our important documents if our house gets destroyed. Most people scan all these items onto an encrypted thumb drive and stash it at a friend’s house. We’ve all seen on the news where people show up at disaster shelters without even their IDs.
If the unthinkable happens and our homes are destroyed, we don’t need the added stress of spending weeks of our time trying to prove what we had for insurance or whatever.
Energy
The steps we take to provide for our energy needs depends a lot on what we think will happen. For most localized disasters, a good generator and 30-50 gallons of fuel can get us through it.
NOTE: There’s a $150 emergency power solution I can share if people are interested.
Based on the snowmageddon experience having a source of heat that is safe and not tied to the power grid seems like a very good idea.
On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re concerned about grid fragility, cyber attacks, terrorism, EMP/CME or other significant power grid disrupters, you may want to consider investing in sufficient solar power to keep your essentials operating indefinitely. That is like pre-paying power bills for several years which can sting, but you’d feel pretty smart if the grid goes down for an extended period of time and you were able to keep your $2,000 worth of food in the freezer cold.
I know people survived in East Texas before AC, but they were a lot tougher than I am. Be sure you’ve got a plan to keep at least one room of your home comfortable no matter what the weather is doing.
Security
There is a lot of information about this topic, but the root of security is situational awareness. We need to be alerted to threats before they happen so we have time to respond to them.
Another cornerstone of security is the gift of fear. Many people who are victims of violence claim they didn’t see it coming. That’s rarely true. In nearly all cases there were clear indicators the situation was about to go badly but the people disregarded the voice in their head telling them to ‘watch out for that guy’ or ‘that driver is weaving’ or ‘that storm looks nasty’.
Of course we can’t become paranoid and fearful, but we must listen when our instinct is telling us a situation is dangerous so we can avoid it.
The first rule of survival is to not do stupid things in stupid places with stupid people. While we can hold up our end of that deal by applying a little wisdom, we need to keep an eye on the people around us.
We can also take steps around our homesteads to avoid being surprised by unwelcome guests.
- Early warning alarms: We have these…safely stored in a box waiting for me to set them up.
- Cameras: I prefer this brand because I can view it from my computer or phone and the footage doesn’t live on some big-tech server.
Video: STOP TRESPASSERS AND THIEVES! How to Build solar security camera pods that work anywhere!. - Gates with cameras.
- Personal defense: Have a gun and train to know how and when to use it.
- Neighbors that have your back.
Sanitation
Often more people die from disease after a disaster than the actual event. If you’re concerned about a long-term event make sure you’ve got redundant solutions for water and sanitation.
For example, if you have a septic system that requires power, set up the means to power that system.
Healthcare
This is another one of those big topics that varies a lot from person to person.
- Stock up on life-saving medications if you need them.
- Purchase antibiotics through one of the “Prepper” medication suppliers or purchase fish antibiotics.
- Build up a legit first aid gear and training on how to treat life-threatening injuries.
TIP: The longest recorded combat tourniquet application was 18 hours with minor nerve damage. We should all have high quality tourniquets close by anywhere we can get cut or crunched (tractors, chain sawing, etc) and know how to stop life threatening bleeding. “Stop the Bleed” classes are a great place to start.
Communication
We’ll get good with our radios and this signal group may be very handy.
Community
I’m glad I live in Sand Hill. We need to do our best to come to the aid of our neighbors whenever they call…and show up with our shovels if necessary and not ask too many questions. 🙂
Mobility
We’ve all got vehicles, but if times get really tough maybe we will co-op rides to town to provide a higher level of security for each other.