Posted on 11/03/2012 4:10:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
Here's the big lesson from mega-storm Sandy: Mother Nature sneers at high tech, mocks modern convenience and couldn't care less about what kind of person you are. She will smack you if she wants to.
As we have become addicted to machines, many of us have forgotten about nature. We must have gizmos. Sandy laughed and took them away. Power, gone. Internet, dark. Cellphones, not happening. Even your landline phone, not available, because "all circuits are busy."
Suddenly, it's 1850 with one exception: battery-operated flashlights and radios.
So what is the lesson here?
Actually, there are a few.
First: No government agency can help you when disaster strikes. Any assistance will be after the fact and painstakingly slow.
Second: In order to ride out any storm effectively, you should be self-reliant and resilient. That means you have to anticipate problems and have some solutions at the ready.
For example, where I live on Long Island, the power infrastructure is a disaster and has been for years. The power company, LIPA, simply cannot keep the juice flowing under duress. I have accepted that, and so I bought a generator. However, during Sandy, the generator did not work. You can imagine how many four-letter words were uttered. But I had a Plan B. I know some guys who can repair generators, and they fixed mine very quickly. I have a long-term relationship with these guys and will reward them.
So, I rode out the storm pretty well, and that's good because there are children in my home.
Not once did I think the local, state or federal government was going to help me in any way. When President Obama speaks about government being there for you, I roll my eyes. In the history of mankind, no government has ever been there for the individual. Ever.
Sadly, we are becoming a nation dependent on other people and very reliant on machines. Sandy's destruction brought us back to the 19th century, as the collapse of the machines was something to see. Many people were lost without their appliances because they are not self-reliant. They do not think ahead. They do not figure out Plan B because they don't even have a Plan A.
Life is hard, and then you die. But while you're alive, you'll be far better off if you forget about the big-government nonsense, deemphasize the machines and begin incorporating the discipline of self-reliance into your life.
Sorry for the lecture, but my father always said that out of bad things can come some good. Americans need to wise up, and with the election just a few days away, we have an opportunity to do so.
We the people need leadership that will solve problems, be fiscally responsible and promote individual responsibility. The charlatans that promise big-government protection will always be around, but they are no match for Sandy and her furious friends.
That is the lesson of this terrible storm.
"With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high-tension wires down
Helpless people on subway trains
Scream, bug-eyed, as he looks in on them
He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town
Oh, no, they say he's got to go
Go go Godzilla
Oh, no, there goes Tokyo
Go go Godzilla
Oh, no, they say he's got to go
Go go Godzilla
Oh, no, there goes Tokyo
Go go Godzilla
Oh, no, they say he's got to go
Go go Godzilla
Oh, no, there goes Tokyo
Go go Godzilla
History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man Godzilla!
History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man Godzilla!"
- Blue Oyster Cult
A popular musical group agrees with you - and so do I. Government is like Mommy to a little kid; eventually you'll get some of what they think that you should want, but not on your schedule and not necessarily what you would choose for yourself. I enjoyed having Mommy take care of me when I was little and could not do it myself, but I absolutely love being an adult and making the adult decisions for my own life, as I have done for several decades. Why would any sane person choose dependency?
That sounds like something Romney should teach this country. The Mormons know how to do prepare long term.
Ping
Preppers’ PING!!
I had the good sense to marry an ex-Mormon. Growing up in the Midwest, my Grandmother had a root cellar. “What’s this?” “Well, people didn’t always have super markets and had to can food from their garden to get through the winter.” Thankfully, I don’t have to can (I’ve done it and it was a pain),I just buy in bulk.
Another lesson: If you bask in the envy of your friends because you live near a body of water, don’t go to them begging for help when that body of water bites you in the ass, as bodies of water, even small streams, have a tendency to do from time to time, so that you can rebuild and once again bask in their envy.
Sandy’s lesson is right before your eyes just as it was with Katrina; You either prepare and stand on your own or you can depend or a bunch of self-serving politicos, third class bureaucratic and chance to provide your basic needs.
Me I don’t want to be beholden to anyone for providing what is needed for me and mine. I certainly don’t want to have to kiss some ‘gubberment’ third class bureaucratic to try and coax some help from them, I don’t want some ‘jack booted’ thug herding me in line and telling me where to stand, sit, eat or sleep. And last but not least I don’t want to be shut up in with a bunch of ‘zombies’ and have to worry about not only trying to get basic necessities but having to fight to keep what I manage to get.
Its your choice you can prep or you can stand around on a bridge waiting for FEMA to bring you a bottle of water, a MRE, a warm blanket and a kiss for your boo-boo. Maybe while you stand there you will get a chance to a prop in some politico’s photo op and even get your picture on the national news.
For those who are just starting or are old hands at prepping you may find my Preparedness Manual helpfull. You can download it at:
http://tomeaker.com/kart/Preparedness1j.pdf
NOTE! THIS IS A FREE DOWNLOAD. I DO NOT MAKE ONE CENT OFF MY PREPAREDNESS MANUAL!
For those of you who haven’t started already it’s time to prepare almost past time maybe. You needed to be stocking up on food guns, ammo, basic household supplies like soap, papergoods, cleaning supplies, good sturdy clothes including extra socks, underwear and extra shoes and boots, gas cans, cooking stove/fuel, tools, things you buy everyday start buying two and put one up.
As the LDS say “When the emergency is upon us the time for preparedness has past.”
Or as the bible says: A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.
NIV Proverbs 22:3
I also like to recomend FReeper’s ChocoChipCookie Blog The Survival Mom (Please Blog Police let this one slide!) Where you can get lots of useful information like:
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2011/11/20/8-morale-boosters-for-any-worst-case-scenario/
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/02/02/survival-priorities-the-rule-of-three/
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/12/29/normalcy-bias/
And More
“There is no greater disaster than to underestimate danger.
Underestimation can be fatal.”
The lesson is, that Obamacare will do to our American medical systems (plural) what hurricane Sandy did to the east coast.
you’ve been mentioned...
Yet; where are the stories of them munching away on their year supply of food they have stored away?
They do, its called rotation.
Besides what makes a better headline?
Family dips into food stock they prepared for bad times
or
Family forced to dumpster dive to feed themselves
How ironic ... Blue Oyster Cult was from the place where Bill O’Reilly lives, and he describes in his piece (Long Island, NY).
My husband’s family was Mormon back to the 1700s. Originally, they were told to have a 2 year supply of food. The government eventually took issue with that. It was negotiated that the church would back it down to a one year supply. They buy what they eat and rotate stock. For example, I don’t have a year’s worth of Marmite/Vegemite because no one here would eat it. I do have some Spam for in a pinch, having lived in Hawaii. Growing up in the Midwest, living through bad snow storms, tornadoes, etc., we’d lose power for days. I’m not an Apocalypse prepper, but I do have a very well stocked pantry. I buy what we eat and rotate so that the earliest bought can is used first. It just seems like common sense to me.
“They do, its called rotation.
Besides what makes a better headline?
Family dips into food stock they prepared for bad times
or
Family forced to dumpster dive to feed themselves”
Indeed, the MSM won’t report that. I lived through the Auckland blackout in 1998. It was 5 weeks long. The power company told people to go live with “rellies” in the country. Well, I was a foreigner with an infant living in a 9th floor apartment. We hit a camping store to tide us over till we could make arrangements to move. I currently have a gas grill and a propane tank. Having lived through the black out, and lived in a 4th world country with spotty electricity, it’s saved to warm up beans, not cook my steaks. I also have clothes line and hangers. I know what it’s like to haul water to flush a toilet, too. The MSM will print whatever will get them attention.
Computer models of the atmosphere are pretty good for 5 days out.
One thing I’ve been accumulating are human-powered tools - drills, saws, hammers, sandpaper, etc. If the power ever goes out here, I’ve got tools that are not dependant on the power company or batteries to function.
I MIGHT draw the line at a chain saw; I just can’t find the two-handed kind.
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