Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
That "bit of bad weather" is what causes mudslides and flooding. If a cosmic disaster decides to hit, you are toast anyway. The things you can deal with on a human scale are disasters you can reasonably extrapolate in your area and prepare for. A subduction zone quake and the associated tsunami is going to kill a lot of people, prepared or not. Japan had spent decades preparing, and mother earth killed a lot of people anyway.
Some people refuse to engage reality, and spend their time fantasizing about some improbable catastrophe that is impossible to prep for. If Yellowstone erupts, it will depopulate 1/3 of North America. You can fantasize about that all you want, but you are more likely to die because you neglected to buy snow tires in advance of that "bit of weather."
snow is not really a problem in my area, neither is flooding, that is why I live where I live.
its all a matter of personal opinion, what you may call improbable I may think is very possible, and vice versa.
being prepared may be the very thing that saves some of us, whilst the "it'll never happen" people might not even see the thing that kills them-because they aren't looking for it and aren't expecting it.
It's phenomenal how many people will ignore the need for special measures even when they have days of warning. We saw it in Katrina. How big a deal would it have been to fill some empty 2 liter pop bottles with drinking water? The coming storm this weekend on the East Coast will result in all sorts of easily avoided hardships. "Oh yeah, maybe I should go grocery shopping in case I can't get out of my driveway."
An amazing number of people don't seem to pay attention to weather forecasts. Maybe they don't believe them, even though with modern radar and computer technology, forecasts are remarkably accurate except perhaps on timing and exact pin-pointing of "ground zero" for landfall or highest snowfall or snow/rain amounts for peripheral areas.
No one on this board is looking down their noses at anybody. We put out suggestions to try to help as many open-minded individuals as possible. But if these so-called "little people" are walking around with the latest iPhones and have Wi-Fi and cable TV at home, well...there are at least 2 of us regulars here who use flip phones put out by TracFone, and buy minute cards for it at Walmart. In my case, I own no TV and have not watched it in over a decade.
It's all a matter of priorities. This board may not be for everyone. You have stumbled upon a group of preparedness-minded individuals who tend to live very frugally and save a great deal of their incomes. We tend to live in remote or rural areas. We are not government-dependent. If this does not fit your philosophy or lifestyle, that is fine.
But please don't come here to tell us we are all wrong, because some financially-challenged people can't or don't want to change their ways. They may need financial counseling. We are always happy to offer low-cost solutions, but our way of life is not "wrong".
Yes. It's called "saving for a rainy day." Or a snowy day.
Everyone in the US should be prepared as best he or she can be for a short-term stoppage of basic services--three days to a week without power or water or being able to shop. You put aside a bit each month as for any other savings program.
If a person lives in a tornado zone, he should have some relatives or friends he knows he can stay with for a few days and have a bag of essentials already in their closet...and theirs in his.
If a person lives on an active flood plain or hurricane zone--if he finds himself listening anxiously to rain reports once or twice every year--he should have a "mobility bag" packed and know who he can move in with in another county, city, or state at a moment's notice.
That might mean--omg--actually making friends or making amends with relatives.
your talking about a bit of bad weather, when I talk of a disaster i'm thinking of the Asian Tsunami where people did die, the mudslides and flooding in China where people did die, the Japanese nuclear disaster, Chernobyl, The Twin Towers....lots of people died then. a bit of bad weather is nothing compared to these and other sorts of disasters, but all some people can focus on is a bit of bad weather and nothing more, its sad really.
There isn't a lot of point in focusing on a disaster that will strike with little or no warning with more ferocity than anyone can withstand.
You can't "plan" to survive an airliner crashing into the building you happen to be in at the moment. Being anxious about a Texas-sized asteroid somehow escaping long-range detection and catching the whole world by surprise is the sad thing.
But you can plan for those things that you can be reasonably sure will happen in your area--the things people in your area anxiously listen to weather reports for every year.
Yes. If a person lives in a tornado zone, he should have some relatives or friends he knows he can stay with for a few days and have a bag of essentials already in their closet...and theirs in his.
If a person lives on an active flood plain or hurricane zone--if he finds himself listening anxiously to rain reports once or twice every year--he should have a "mobility bag" packed and know who he can move in with in another county, city, or state at a moment's notice.
That might mean--omg--actually making friends or making amends with relatives.
People who live in areas like these should not expect to survive. It's interesting that areas known for hard climates are the least likely to experience weather emergencies. It's rather easy to survive snow and cold.
We see it every fall, when the first 2 inches of snow arrives. Lack of preparedness!
Very few people have snow tires.
Most people have forgotten that a vehicle will not stop on a dime on a snowy road, and may not even be able to turn like it usually does.
"The Weather" gets blamed for many fatalities.
It is never the fault of the foolish person who just didn't prepare for the weather that they knew was coming, just like it isn't the fault of the person who believed the GPS instead of seeing what was perfectly obvious; that road is NOT passable! It is the fault of the GPS, or the county for not plowing the road, or the weather for having below freezing temperatures, or something.
I have M&S tires on all vehicles.
I have sufficient food for at least a week.
I have a generator.
I have a 4X4 truck and two 4X4 ATVs (one has a snow plow and winch).
Does that mean I am adequately prepared? Not really, no, but I am in better shape than a lot of others!
People who live in areas like these should not expect to survive. It's interesting that areas known for hard climates are the least likely to experience weather emergencies. It's rather easy to survive snow and cold.
Exactly what I believe. I know folks living in the Carolinas who experience below-freezing temps in winter, and deal with some snow and ice most years. As much as Maine? No, not even close, but therein lies the problem. They are not up to dealing with it, don't know how to prepare for it, drive in it, or stay warm if the power goes out, etc.
I'll take Maine, any day. They know how to handle snow and cold up here. All but the most remote gravel roads are cleared in a jiffy. Vehicles are outfitted with the proper tires and heavy -duty heaters. Firewood is available at decent prices; so is heating oil and propane. Most rural folks have generators. "Wool" is not a bad word up here. Even LL Bean carries boots than will last through many Maine winters. And folks here know exactly how to help each other out.
In short, winters are warm, comfortable, and scenic for Mainers. Whiners down in the warmer states assume that everyone up north suffers the way southerners do, in the cold. No way. Living in a state where dealing with serious weather is a normal, expected occurrence, is the best way to go. It's a rare thing for a Mainer to die of cold or snow. We're just too savvy about dealing with it!
bad weather is not a priority where I live, wet weather is the normal weather here not snow.
I prepare for more man made events rather than a bit of bad weather, if I lived somewhere where weather was a serious problem i'd move.
We see it every fall, when the first 2 inches of snow arrives. Lack of preparedness!
Very few people have snow tires.
Most people have forgotten that a vehicle will not stop on a dime on a snowy road, and may not even be able to turn like it usually does.
"The Weather" gets blamed for many fatalities.
It is never the fault of the foolish person who just didn't prepare for the weather that they knew was coming, just like it isn't the fault of the person who believed the GPS instead of seeing what was perfectly obvious; that road is NOT passable! It is the fault of the GPS, or the county for not plowing the road, or the weather for having below freezing temperatures, or something.
I have M&S tires on all vehicles.
I have sufficient food for at least a week.
I have a generator.
I have a 4X4 truck and two 4X4 ATVs (one has a snow plow and winch).
Does that mean I am adequately prepared? Not really, no, but I am in better shape than a lot of others!
I do feel sorry for the poor people who live in town with no resources. The automobile culture means many of them live in areas where groceries are not accessible by foot, and their only source of food is to buy it. I fill 50 or 60 mason jars with food every summer, and about 40 jelly jars, and they only thing I buy is the sugar and pectin for the jelly and the lids for the jars. Canned salmon, anyone? Hunting season puts venison, geese, pheasant and ducks in the freezer, which is the only thing I need a generator for. Heat is wood, I'm a bit of a nut about collecting oil lamps, and most of them are wall hung where they won't get knocked over and start a fire.
Since I'm retired with no mortgage, I don't care if I can't go anywhere. I do keep an eye on the forecast and stockpile 100 lbs of dog food if things look chancy.
In my area, the survival threat is wildfire. During the dry season I keep a travel trailer stocked and ready to go. All I have to do is back up to it and hitch it up. Back in the '50s a Cat operator died in my valley not a mile from my house by getting trapped in a wildfire. They say he suffocated when the fire took his air. If one is heading my way I'm not going to try to save the house, I'm going to run for it and leave the future to the firefighters and homeowner insurance. Of course, my bugout bag is a FSC travel trailer with a very nice built-in entertainment system. Popcorn, anyone?
The sensible thing is to evaluate the threats and prep for the most likely challenges. If you live in California, you prep for earthquakes, wildfires and landslides. If you live along the Mississippi you prep for floods. If you live on the coast you prep for storms and tsunamis. If you live in Manhattan, you prep for stock market crashes and bank failures.
A snow storm is pretty trivial, but I have seen people shivering in a cold, dark house without even a candle or flashlight for light once their cell phones went dead, with the plumbing frozen up and no way to get to shelter or food. In one case, a man and woman had the flu, and were seriously miserable. My wife had the flu too, but she could take a hot shower, sit next to a wood stove, eat chicken soup and read a book. Hiking out may seem realistic until you have a 102 degree fever and feel like hammered ****.
Please keep in mind that some people, (my brother, a paramedic), HAVE to work and be out in this crap:
EMTs, Police, Fire, Sanitation (they plow our roads), Hospital and Nursing Home Doctors, Nurses, Aids and maintenance staff, mail carriers, school custodians, bus drivers, cab drivers, subway and train conductors...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Popcorn, anyone?
