Category: Commentary

Verne Kopytoff’s article on The Importance of Disaster Plans highlights the reactive nature of people and business to disaster preparedness. One Florida hospital decided to start making plans for the likely disasters in their area: “In 2004 we had what we called the hurricane trifecta—Charlie, Francis, and Jeanne,” says Robert Goodman, disaster recovery coordinator for Florida Hospital. “The hurricanes got our management’s attention.” The take home message should be that it took not one or...

Lauren Kirchner’s article from this morning makes the point that there is a growing industry to support the increasing number of people who are interested in some flavor of preparedness, survivalism or prepping. She focuses much of her writing on the marketing of food storage and we agreed with some of her opinions in our own article last month. In short, the overzealous marketing of long term storage foods is often ridiculous and much of...

Laura King published an article earlier today about her experiences in a recent course that is supposed to train the participants on how to survive in the aftermath of a disaster. They covered topics such as bug out bags, supplies and security. The class sounds like it would be a fun, except for the caffeine deprivation, and the author seems to have gotten a lot out of the experience. The quote from her article that...

Bre McAdam’s recent article is focused on a woman in her area, Tammy Brooks, who is moving towards a more self-sufficient lifestyle. She quotes Ms. Brooks as saying “It’s great to have a storage room full of this, that and the other thing, but if you have no idea how to do it yourself, you’re lost.” This could not be more true. There is no point to just collecting up a garage full of military...

The Westwood Press ran this article today with the usual assortment of basic advice. One comment, though was a good reminder: “Consider investing in a cell phone and always keep it charged. Phones can be charged with a car phone charger, an emergency phone charger, or at a public building that has emergency power.” Modern smart phones can do all kinds of helpful tasks in an emergency, especially if the cell towers are up and...

James Figueroa wrote an interesting piece about a big survival group in LA that is getting ready for something bad to happen. Some of the members think that 2012 is the end of the world, but others are prepping for a different disaster. Either way, I think that they really miss the point of it all. Families in our country have traditionally been prepared for emergencies. It is only within the last fifty years or...

David DiSalvo just published this article which discusses the emergence of a new coronavirus which has been confirmed so far in two Middle Eastern countries. Coronaviruses aren’t all bad, as viruses go. They are responsible for some types of the common cold, but this new one seems to favor SARS, which back in 2003 had a 10% mortality rate. There really aren’t enough documented cases of this new virus yet for us to know how...

With the frigid part of the year now creeping into most of the country, an article by Abby Dyer is a good reminder of the need to be ready for cold weather emergencies. Around your house you should have a way to keep warm and basic supplies stashed away in case of  power failure or a similar emergency.  A weeks worth of food, water and other basic necessities will put you in a good position...

Jill Terreri, in her recent article, takes a look at community groups in Buffalo that are working together to make preparedness a goal at the neighborhood level. The decentralized approach seems like a good idea, since it will be easier to get supplies from the end of the street to those who need them, as compared to getting needed items from a warehouse on the other side of town. It would still be better if...