What can I do? (Laying the Foundation)

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This is the beginning of the “practical” part. This practical part is also broken down into two areas; 1) the learning, 2) the doing. The ‘learning’ part can be fun and accomplished pretty quickly if you have the time…and to a lesser degree, if you have the money.

As I’ve documented many times through my decades of experience in professional incident and emergency management there are 7 Common basic threats/risks to every emergency, disaster, or grid-down event. They are:

  1. Violence
  2. Injury or Sickness
  3. Poor/No Communications
  4. Poor/No Organization
  5. Dehydration
  6. Exposure
  7. Starvation

So these are the areas, the only areas, you need to worry about and concentrate on when it comes to the practical part of prepping. Why? because it covers all the bases.

There are a whole lot of so-called ‘experts’ out there that will preach all sorts of systems and methods. Don’t be sucked into, or suckered into, all that crap. No doubt they may have some skills in certain areas but few will have decades of experience with a wide range of incidents and 1000’s of hours of training in an approach to preparedness that makes sense and is organized…and is proven successful.

Why are the “7” numbered 1 – 7 in my list above? Because that is their priority order to be worked on and accomplished. It is also the same priority order of risk of killing you and your family. Listen to me…hear this loud and clear…the priority order is an absolute! Anyone who tells you anything else is laying the groundwork for YOUR failure…which means your family’s failure.

How so? Simple, as an example notice the ‘starvation’ threat/risk is priority #7? Let’s do a little exercise…you decide, because you read it on the Internet, that you must have food storage before anything else. So you spend hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars buying two years worth of food storage. Yea for you! Oh, wait…you completely ignored priority #1.

Now along comes a disaster, you are all set to go…plenty to eat, no problems. Yeah, no problems until a couple of guys come along armed with nothing more than a baseball bat…and take all of that food storage that you so diligently acquired. And no, you can’t do anything about it other than getting your head bashed in because you ignored priority #1.

Let me make this real clear for you…How long do you last in a gun fight if you don’t have a gun…maybe 1 – 3 seconds? Further clarification…Did you know an average person can last 3 – 7 days without food? Hummmmmm…1 – 3 seconds vs 3 – 7 days…which is the higher priority again?

Do prepper ‘experts’ have knowledge that is worth learning? Of course many do, some don’t. Pick up quality skills and applicable information from any source you can. But if you don’t prepare correctly with a proven system, then you are prepping for somebody else’s benefit other than for you and your family.

And let me share this serious danger with you right now…I know men who have a simple plan when times get tough…they plan on taking whatever they need from people who have it. And I will also share this with you…they have the skills to do it. And if you don’t have the weapons and skills to stop them…your ‘stuff’ will become their stuff. And taking your stuff will be the best case scenario when talking about kids and women. Yes…a dark warning…a very dark and very real warning.

Enough of that…let’s get to laying the foundation practical prepping…

Broadly speaking you are prepping for emergencies. However, there are different types of emergencies, so you must learn how to prepare for each type. Otherwise, you are just flopping around like a fish on the dock.

Categorizing Emergencies –

Within the broad stroke of ‘emergencies’ (a.k.a. incidents) there are actually three categories; 1) emergencies, 2) disasters, and 3) grid-down events. And they are far, far different in sense of urgency and potential for loss of life. Let me share this with you:

  1. cut finger = emergency
  2. wildfire = disaster
  3. EMP attack = grid-down event

Here’s another way to look at it…if you get a cut finger maybe a simple first aid kit can handle it, or a trip to the 24-hour clinic for stitches may be required. Chance of loss of life is virtually nil. Now, a wildfire comes through your community might entail you evacuating, or fighting the fire yourself, and potentially losing your home. Chance of loss of life is real, and far above a simple cut finger. Finally, an EMP attack on the country could be devastating, shutting down the entire power grid, taking out all chances of hospital care, and collapsing the economic system. Chance of loss of life skyrockets due to looting, theft, desperation…to say nothing of traumatic injury and disease.

Here is a way to look at this ‘probability’ of each occurring. You are far more likely (probable) to cut your finger than an EMP attack occurring against the country.

And that comes to setting priorities for ‘how’ you prep or ‘what’ you buy. Here is a great example of all of this…if you put together a basic first aid kit you probably have the cut finger covered as far as being prepared to provide self-care. Therefore, when you put together your Individual First Aid Kit (BOK & IFAK) it still applies to all three levels. Eventually you want your family to have a Field Trauma Care Kit (FTCK) to take care of far worse injuries, such as you might find in the EMP attack. But, the time, effort, and money you put into the BOK & IFAK is just as valuable as it ever was.

So once you know how to categorize emergencies you can readily identify which to prepare for.

Resources:

Setting Priorities –

So once you know which emergencies are ‘where’ on the severity scorecard…how do you know what to prepare for first?

I already hit on that…it is the “7”. But how do you come up with that “7” and which to go after first in prepping? For that you have to understand setting priorities. Not hard…LIPS.

Resources:

 

Articles in this Series –
Related Articles –

 

Wanted to throw out some funny prepper memes just for the heck of it…you know…the expert preppers!

Prepper Geek with equipment and gear

 

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