Categories of Preparedness

Since I obviously need a review of what I learned previously about being prepared, I am just going to re-post some basics.

Often when discussing preparedness or provident living, people think Food Storage or Emergency Kits and that’s all they work on. Within the three Priorities of Preparedness, there are several categories to consider when preparing a household to survive the various emergencies / disasters that can come along. These include:

Emergency Kits

Food Storage

Water Storage

Communications

Shelter

Sanitation

Medical

Safety

Spiritual / Emotional / Mental

Community

Knowledge / Skills

Consideration also needs to be made for short-term and long-term options and mobile and static options (Bug Out vs Shelter in Place) for each category.

Short-term vs. long-term: most emergencies last a relatively short period of time, but not all. A good example of this is, when working on your food storage, start with a three-month supply of everyday, grocery-store type foods but then add long-lasting food like rice, wheat, powdered milk, etc. to take care of your family for a year. After that you can make plans for a garden, an orchard, whatever you are able to do to make your household more self-reliant.

Static vs. mobile: different emergencies will require you to shelter in place and some to leave your home. The needs for each scenario are different. For example, the recent pandemic lockdown required people to stay in their homes, but, when Hurricane Florence was predicted to hit my area, I re-located to my daughter’s home further inland. (Ironically, that storm changed course and swung down and around leaving my area alone but causing damage further west – right where I had gone for safety!).

This looks like a lot, doesn’t it? It’s important to remember though, if all you can do for now is keep a few weeks worth of food in your pantry, or a couple hundred dollars in your emergency fund, that’s fine. Don’t stress, it doesn’t mean you are inadequate when you are doing the best you can within your circumstances. Just keep moving: a step at a time, is still moving forward.

🙂