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Five days after the storm there are still bodies in the streets, desperate people looting for food & water, and the Philippines government can't even seem to establish order or regular relief missions even in the cities while the rural areas have had to go without any help at all. What aid is getting in seems to go exclusively to the cities while rural/outlaying areas literally haven't received any help at all.
It's not like the whole world cares, there are a few countries that have relief efforts moving but in todays economy they are fortunate any care is forth coming.
Look how slow our own country acts on events like this .
Look closely at the situation and imagine it happening here in your own home .
What are you doing when the dollar finally dumps or other disaster strikes ?
Have you made provision for these events?
Other than donating to organizations that are geared for these things, if you are unskilled or can't afford to participate ,giving money is the best support one can do and a lot of us are strapped as it is.
Because for those with Normalcy Bias, it is being psychologically blocked out in order to not disturb the perfect world assumption.
I suppose for the rest of us, we could say, "see, I told you so"; but there is no point. Nothing will change as far as the typical American attitude about being prepared for much of anything. "It can never happen to me," is our motto in the good ol' US of A and it won't change until something like that does happen here.
It does underline the exact situation many here fear, but at the same time, those that already prep just see it as more of the same, which is why they prep in the future, those that commonly deride prepping on this forum wouldn't want to address it because it negates their arguments.
Katrina, Sandy, the midwest tornadoes last summer, events ad infinitum happen all the time, the results are usually the same, but the sides are well marked out and not likely to change just because we discuss it here.
Everything we talk about applies to any of the disasters that happen all the time. The preppers say, "see I told you so", the other side says "you are nuts, that could never happen here, the government will provide for you".
Same dance, different song, nothing changes. Those that want to provide for themselves will, those that depend on the government for safety/security and their daily bread and shelter will call us nuts.
MT, I don't think that's accurate at all. Many people are into disaster preparedness, just like FEMA tells them to be, but where people draw the line and start labeling things as "crazy" is when someone claims you have to move to BFE and hoard a two year supply of food and supplies. Having a few weeks of food & supplies tucked away is normal, safe, and reasonable while liquidating your 401k and moving to a non-economically viable area out of some vague fear that "those people" will be coming to steal from you... Well, that's when people start getting labeled as nuts.
I'm seeing a big difference between those two positions.
I know this is harsh, but the Philippines kicked the USA out, with great national celebration. I feel absolutely no need to rush tons of resources to their aid.
The press is showing lots of people crying that no one is helping them, no one is bringing them food and water. That is the same attitude that you can see from Americans after every disaster in our own country. Whining because no one is taking care of them.
As far as I can see, after every natural disaster, no one learns anything from it. Some still do zero preparation and then whine and cry because it takes a week or more to get aid to them. Some keep preparations and they did before and they still do after.
There is this to say about the Philippines, though. It wouldn't have matter how well you were prepared. Everything is gone. Your house and your food and water and weapons would all be scattered over miles of rubble.
There are some interesting lessons to learn even if one is a prepper. For instance, just about any preps in place would have been lost when virtually every home was destroyed and the area flooded so those stores would have been a total lose. If you had an underground bunker any where near the sea or a flood plain than your bunker would currently be flooded though I suppose some hilly or mountain areas might not have had such a bunker flooded out. Next, let's say you have an alternative location with backup supplies; how do you get there when all the roads are flooded and impassable due to debris? Most bug out plans call for driving, walking, or horse back riding (some even for flying) but virtually all of those methods are out if you're on one of the islands effected so getting to one of your two backup locations is going to be a real task. Heck, the storm surge even wrecked all the boats so even using a boat to sail out is out unless you have an inflatable boat but I would call crossing 50 miles of open ocean in an inflatable raft iffy at best.
It seems that many of the most cherished prepper notions wouldn't have worked in this event. Especially the part about thinking people should live in BFE because BFE doesn't get any help what so ever while cities at least do get some.
Personally, I pay very little attention to FEMA, or most other government entities for that matter unless I have no choice. Their track record with disasters isn't really great, plus they always tend to be a one size fits all solution to everything.
Most of the folks on this board are pretty stable folks, just putting away what they can, trying to make all the preps they can within their budget and space restraints. I don't see a lot of "Doomers" here.
You are correct, there are several different types of preppers, the doomers are the most radical. Always have been.
I think the majority of the regular folks I have seen here are more into self sufficency/natural disaster preppers with economic prepping thrown in for spice
I am not sure why whenever the subject comes up the first preppers that some folks think of are the Armegeddon/Zombie Appocolypse types, they are not the majority of folks that prep in my experience.
I will agree there is a strong anti government sentiment among most self sufficency types, but that has very little bearing on the majority of folks that want to live in a simpler manner by growing/producing their own food or having a generator for power outages, or having some supplies laid in in case of an emergency.
Urban areas will always have the most casualties due to population density, they will run out of food and water first, they have the greatest demand for resources that may not exist simply because there are more people that need those resources.
Nothing new here. Storm hits, people suffer and demand the government come in and make things right, the government is overwhelmed so they send out a call for international aid.
Same thing every time, nothing changes, responses never improve, lots of folks ignore what may happen and don't have anything to fall back on if they need it.
So what's to discuss?
Preppers take care of themselves because they know nobody else will. Simple.
There are some interesting lessons to learn even if one is a prepper. For instance, just about any preps in place would have been lost when virtually every home was destroyed and the area flooded so those stores would have been a total lose. If you had an underground bunker any where near the sea or a flood plain than your bunker would currently be flooded though I suppose some hilly or mountain areas might not have had such a bunker flooded out. Next, let's say you have an alternative location with backup supplies; how do you get there when all the roads are flooded and impassable due to debris? Most bug out plans call for driving, walking, or horse back riding (some even for flying) but virtually all of those methods are out if you're on one of the islands effected so getting to one of your two backup locations is going to be a real task. Heck, the storm surge even wrecked all the boats so even using a boat to sail out is out unless you have an inflatable boat but I would call crossing 50 miles of open ocean in an inflatable raft iffy at best.
It seems that many of the most cherished prepper notions wouldn't have worked in this event. Especially the part about thinking people should live in BFE because BFE doesn't get any help what so ever while cities at least do get some.
You posted this at the same time I was answering your earlier post, so I will double up.
Prepping is basically knowing where you are and what dangers exist. If you live on a flood plain, you have to understand that everything you have can be washed away. The Phillipines have a lot of highlands, so you have that option. The roads are not that great in a lot of the country anyway, but a person on foot can move through very rough country if they have to, so if there is a highland within say 10 miles of your home, you can still get to it, and if you listen to the weather reports, you could be at the second site prior to the storm hitting if you pay attention.
Part of prepping is looking ahead to all possibilities and having a plan in place for what you would do in an event.
In this case, a typhoon doesn't just appear. It takes time to develop and move in on land. There was probably up to a week that the storm was being reported prior to it hitting.
If it was me, I would just get out of the way before it got there. If you are standing on a railroad track and a train is coming, you don't just stand there until it hits you.
The same could be said for many natural disasters. Some like tornados or earthquakes you have no warning, but you can look ahead and have a storm cellar or a bug out bag so you still have resources after the event.
The first rule of prepping is to be preppared, know what dangers are endemic to your area, and prepare accordingly knowing full well you may have to have fall back plans if something destroys your first plans.
Adapt and overcome. Plan, prepare, make fall back plans, think ahead about what you would do, run evacuation drills, in short, pay attention to the world around you and you might just live.
. Why no threadabout the post typhoon Philippines.
Because I moved away from where hurricanes can impact me.
And there have been.... Generic, not just this storm specific.
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