Tuesday, March 6, 2012

How Long Do We Have To Wait For Help In A Disaster?

It has probably already occurred to you to wonder how long you need to have supplies last to be prepared for emergencies. This is one of those annoying, "It depends," answers.


It depends on a lot of things. Alaska, where I live, is separated physically from the rest of the United States. That means we can expect to wait at least two weeks for help from the Red Cross in a widespread disaster. An earthquake is an example of such an emergency. 


The governor of Alaska recently announced that he was going to buy emergency food for Alaskans including baby formula and insulin. That will help us make it until we get outside help. I expect there will be a gap between the Alaskan state food and the arrival of the Red Cross with more food, however.


It would be a good idea to find out where your disaster help will be coming from and how long it will take for them to actually help you with food, etc. You need emergency supplies from the time of the disaster until help arrives with adequate food and other emergency supplies.


I think some leeway is a good thing. If you read much about what happened in the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the assistance was another disaster. People did not get very timely help. FEMA was not prepared for such a large emergency and did not even have the resources planned for it. This can happen again. I believe it will and maybe it will be in your area.


Your personal resources and your available storage space may the the factors that will limit how long a time you can store food for. Do the best you can. If you can afford three days, get that. If you can't afford that much, get what you can. If you can afford more get that.


If you can afford whatever amount of emergency preparedness supplies you want, then you will need to decide what kind of emergencies you wish to prepare for.


An Electromagnetic Pulse Disaster is expected to last for years and it could cover most or all of a country. If it is the result of war, an electromagnetic pulse could affect most of the world. Some people think the world would never recover from such an emergency.


If you believe that last sentence is correct,  and you want to prepare to survive without benefit of the trappings of modern civilization for the rest of your  life, you will need to prepare differently than if you think all you have to worry about is a few days.


It is my personal belief that an Electromagnetic Pulse disaster is not the only disaster that could take the world back to a more primitive lifestyle. I believe that it will not only be difficult to keep our modern lifestyle, but our lives. I hope that readers of this blog will learn what they can from it and go on to more advanced blogs about survival and preparedness.


One of the ones of that sort that I like has mp3 files that you can listen to. I often listen to those while I write posts to this blog. I would be very happy if my readers, or at least some of you, will click my link to that blog and listen to his files. His posts are much more intense and advanced than my posts are. If his material is too much for you at first, just listen once in a while and work your way up to more. He has a nice selection of information packed podcasts available on his site.


His name is Bob Mayne and I really like his files. He also does a radio show if you want to listen to that. He puts his show into the mp3 files for his blog. Here is a link to Bob Mayne's blog:
http://www.todayssurvival.com/ 


I let the address show so you can type it into your browser for safety, if you prefer not to click links.

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