By Kellene Bishop
Last night I was begrudgingly up until 1:45 a.m. Finally I resorted to a sleeping aid so that I could get some much needed rest. (Thank goodness it kicked in at 2:00 a.m.) In spite of being reasonably comfortable in my personal preparedness efforts to be independent and thrive regardless of the scenario, I do have a nagging thought that plagues me and won’t let me sleep at night. What keeps the Preparedness Pro awake at night? It’s YOU.
I’m sincerely worried about you. If I’ve ever smiled at you in a grocery store, communicated with you via letter or e-mail, attended church with you, or seen you in one of my classes, I worry about you. In fact, even when I get a solicitation call and hear a human voice, I worry about that person. Here they are going on in their life conducting a mundane task and they aren’t the least bit aware just how vulnerable they are. When I sit down for a meal in a public place and watch people walk by, I genuinely worry about them. I find myself very aware of the human connections in nearly every aspect of my life. My postal worker, my doctor, the tellers at the bank, the TV news anchors and even the kids who left an empty beer bottle on my lawn—these are real human beings to me, not just an interaction. I worry because the vast majority of the people are completely unaware as to what I believe is coming soon that will alter their lives tremendously. I worry not that trouble will come, but that when it does, real human beings will needlessly suffer because they failed to take action now. It’s as if they are seeing the rows and rows of beautiful harvest but assuming it will always be there, never spoil, and thus they leave the reaping for another day. There will be much suffering of real people as a result. This is why I worry.
You don’t have to be a Christian to see innumerable evidences that our nation is ripe for a bumpy ride. You don’t have to believe in global warming to notice that our weather patterns have been peculiar as of late and devastating to many. (For the record I am a Christian and don’t believe in the global warming rhetoric.) A person’s political affiliation does not exempt them from cause for concern. An earthquake or tornado does not set its boundaries of damage by voting precincts. Clearly this year’s wheat infestations are no respecter of religion, income level, or astrological sign.
The fact is, our nation’s currency is only one courageous expose away from being worthless. The performers are stoically committed to their charade, but commitment does nothing to alter reality.
I clearly expect Iran and Israel to be involved in a widely prophesied war within the next 3 months, the ramifications of which will be undeniable to our nation.
Our nation’s enemies are merely emboldened in their evil intents as they watch our economy fail, our leaders bumble, and our citizens do nothing noteworthy in response.
The swine flu may fall short of its mainstream media billing, but considering the alarming increase in the numbers of tuberculosis and other diseases which we had previously eradicated from our nation, H1N1 is simply a dress rehearsal of what is legitimately to come, in my opinion.
Regardless what the talking heads say, we are about to see a food shortage unlike any since the days of Joseph in Egypt. Even the wealthy will find themselves in want for wheat and sugar in due time. These are just a FEW of the obvious concerns that make up a perfect storm for the unaware and unprepared. This is why I worry about you.
There are at least 12 different studies which I’ve read over the last month which conclude that less than 2% of the homes in our nation are prepared any differently than those persons were who were involved in Hurricane Katrina—even after we all witnessed their suffering as a result of a lack of preparation. To me, it’s just as ludicrous as watching the 10th season of Survivor and seeing that they STILL can’t start a fire. You would think after a couple of seasons these so-called ardent fans who find themselves as contestants would have had enough time to figure out how to build a fire in the wild! The majority of the homes in this nation do not even have two weeks worth of food and water. In fact, some of you mistakenly believe that the water in the nearby lake is your own personal answer to water storage. That’s why I worry about you.
Some of you refuse to prepare for your own defense, thinking that the military or law enforcement will be miraculously available and trustworthy to aid you in your moment of despair. Over half of the homes that own firearms for self-defense do not have more than a round of ammo to go with them. I worry not only about you in this regard, but for our nation as a whole. No defenseless people have ever been able to obtain freedom and independence.
Some of you are working feverishly at a late hour to get prepared. But in your haste will you remember it all? Will there be enough time before you have to rely on what you have right now? For those of you who have seen a smidgen of light, don’t you wish you had started sooner in your preparedness efforts? I stay up at night wondering if you’ll be ready for what’s coming.
Some of you may have “stuff” but no sense. The solar oven has been sitting in your basement and you’ve never used it. The empty water barrels in your backyard are now an accepted part of the scenery. I once had a gal tell me that she LOVES her pressure cooker but she’s never used it with the lid on it. Some don’t know what a mortar and pestle is for, what to do with a shovel, how to ensure heat remains in a home, or how to filter their water safely.
Some of you have no plan for how to reunite with your family if you are ever separated. I’m sure there are lots of families who lived through those awful hours following 9/11 wishing they’d had a plan.
A wise friend once told me “People who stop living the way they believe, start believing the way they live.” In other words, I hear hollow excuses from countless individuals as to why being prepared in any capacity is “categorically crazy, unrealistic, impossible, irresponsible, and futile.” But these excuses will be inconsequential when the real turmoil manifests itself in their lives. This is why I worry about you.
Unfortunately, the problem is that none of you are reading this. Surely your loved ones have pleaded with you to get prepared, but you’re not inclined your comfort zone and fluffy state of mind to do so. Perhaps they will share this with you in another futile effort to calm their fretful minds. That’s why I worry about you. But that’s also why I do this every day. While I may not know your name, your history, or your dreams, I do know that there exists a beating heart and a soul beyond all of those formalities. I know that you are important to someone. And as such, I feel like you’re important to me. I may not ever benefit or change a single person through my knowledge and passion, but it won’t be because I did not give my all. I can answer to God with clean hands. May you go and do the same.
Copyright 2009 Preparedness Pro & Kellene Bishop. All rights reserved. You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Preparedness Pro & Kellene Bishop.
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Showing posts with label preparedness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preparedness. Show all posts
Monday, October 26, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Just What Kind of Disasters Should You Be Prepared For?
By Kellene Bishop, Preparedness Pro
A frequent reader of our site once commented that she felt I may be a bit “paranoid.” I truly wasn’t offended by such a label. I’m sure for individuals who aren’t as zealous in their preparedness efforts as I advocate, it would be reasonable for “outsiders” to perceive mindful individuals to be “paranoid.” However, I did correct her that I felt that I was merely “aware” rather than paranoid. I’m convinced that such awareness has had a significant impact on my emergency preparedness efforts. So today we’ll be educating you on just what it is that you should realistically be prepared FOR. A combination of natural disasters and the consequences of viable attacks on our nation are addressed here. This information is not coming from a mind obsessed with science fiction and any biblical influence has been eliminated. Rather this information is derived from a great deal of research.
EMP Attack: Understand that such an attack is not hyperbole science fiction. We presently use EMPs in various parts of our life, just not on a large scale. Remember watching the “Ocean’s 11” movie? They accomplished their robbery by using a simple EMP device. An EMP (Electric Magnetic Pulse) is actually a likely enemy attack on the U.S. While it is considered less heartless than a nuclear bomb or a bio-bomb, it’s launched in very much the same way. If an EMP bomb is launched in your area, then it will essentially “fry” all electrical devices that are not stored more than 6 feet under ground. In a viable book I read recently, it estimated that only 6 EMP bombs launched onto U.S. soil would completely obliterate life as we know it. Think about it for a second. If everything electrical in our nation was debilitated, how would your life change? The banks wouldn’t be able to function. Airplanes won’t be able to travel. Cars post-1978 would indeed be useless (unless they were “hardened” specifically for such an event as the military does to many of their vehicles.) I hope you like riding a bike under such circumstances.
A massive scale EMP attack wouldn’t create a simple power outage. It would destroy power grids all over the nation to the point that they would have to be rebuilt from scratch. (Kind of hard to do without power to rebuild them, eh?) Trucks would not be able to transport your foods and other valuable supplies. Stores would be emptied. Most everyone would be without a job of any kind, without access to money, and they would be forced to truly live off of the land and their emergency preparedness supplies. Are you ready?
Earthquake: While you may feel that you are in a part of the country where you have escaped such a disaster, you may want to rethink that premise. While it’s clearly no secret that California and Alaska are well known areas for earthquakes, there are actually areas in the U.S. that are more apt to experience even stronger shakes.
In the Rocky Mountain area, much of Utah and Idaho can expect a “doozey” of an earthquake anytime now. And since most of Utah is developed along the mountains, the majority of Utah is right on a fault line. Now, for those of you in “God’s Country” a.k.a. the Midwest, don’t be deceived into thinking that you’re safe. In all actuality, you may be in an even more likely earthquake zone than California or Alaska is right now.
Few citizens are fully aware of the New Madrid fault line affecting Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee and Mississippi. The New Madrid fault even affects some parts of Iowa and Arkansas. In 1811, a succession of 4 full strength earthquakes occurred, followed by horrific aftershocks. As a result of the earthquake, huge fissures opened in the earth and spewed “volcanoes” of silt and bedrock all over the area as well. Today, this same fault line has the potential to create an 8.0 seismic sized earthquake in the next 5 to 10 years which would seriously affect the heartland of America.
When the earthquakes in 1811 to 1812 originally hit this area, their effect was felt across roughly 50,000 square miles. In comparison, a somewhat “more famous” earthquake in San Francisco in 1906 only affected 16,000 square miles. As a result of the bedrock make-up in this earthquake zone, the aftershocks of the 1811 earthquake rang church bells as far north as Boston, which was over 1,000 miles away. In contract, the San Francisco earthquake was felt “only” 350 miles away.
More information on earthquake potential in your area can be found here. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/?old=state_largest.html
If you are able to survive an earthquake, assume that access to the norms of life will be seriously interrupted for a long period of time. As a result, you will be forced to live off of what you already have on hand that hasn’t been destroyed. Now multiply this reality by millions of hungry mouths to feed. Heaven help us if a catastrophic earthquake occurs in the midst of a bitter winter as well. Are you ready?
Flood: Once an earthquake has hit an area, it can bring about extensive flooding. For example, here in Utah where I reside, an earthquake study has been conducted in which the Jordanelle River Dam is expected to be breached, thus flooding down it’s natural course into the Deer Creek Dam area. Such a domino effect would subsequently cause extreme flooding as high as 4 stories in the Utah Valley area, particularly Provo. This same scenario can be applied to states all throughout the U.S. We’ve already seen first-hand the flooding disasters that have plagued Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and other coastal areas in recent years. But have we learned from them? Are you any more prepared for such an event today than you were in 2005?
Understand that flooding doesn’t happen solely because you are in a flood zone. If you are near a large body of water, even if that body is a lake, a relatively small earthquake can propel water beyond its borders and as high as 30 feet. Receiving a large amount of water in such a short period of time is a recipe for a disaster.
For more information on the presence of a viable flood threat in your area, check here: http://www.usgs.gov/hazards/floods/
Nuclear Attack: In the event of a nuclear attack, the fatalities would be horrendous. If you survived such an attack then you would indeed need to plan on sequestering your family away from the fallout of the nuclear ash. A basement is ideal. If the attack hit even 1,000 miles away from your home, you would still need to avoid any water or plants exposed to the outside air, and tape up your windows with tarp to prevent sickening air from coming into your home. Since other countries are unwilling to give up their nuclear weapons, a nuclear attack is a plausible scenario for which we should all be mentally prepared. Bone fractures, cancer and radiation poisoning are all common affects of a nuclear bomb attack. Do your research on how to handle such ailments as you should assume that medical assistance will be far away. (We’ll cover these remedies in another article, FYI.)
Economic Collapse: I’m not talking about hard economic times. I’m talking about our currency becoming worthless. Unfortunately, this is the most viable of all disasters, folks. Paper currency is only worth something so long as others are willing to accept it. Unfortunately our paper currency is no longer backed sufficiently by gold as it was originally intended (at least I’d like to think that that was the virtuous goal originally). Additionally, our nation is no longer being provided an accounting of how much currency is in circulation (Google “M3 Report”). This makes for a very ripe possibility of an economic collapse. If it is finally discovered that our money is worthless, then all commerce, travel, and society as you know it will cease to exist. No one will accept your money, regardless of how much of it your bank account says you have. Your presentation of cash for purchases will do little to acquire necessary goods. Your money will be useless. As a result, a devastating ripple effect will be felt throughout the entire world as other nations who are heavily invested in the U.S. dollar will suffer unfathomable consequences. While you may have power and gas and food, you will be unable to purchase any more with currency. Instead, expect to pay for such goods via trade of hard assets such as gold, silver, wheat, and ammo. The goods you’ll have access to will be strictly what others have on hand as no one will have the necessary hard currency to produce more of what we buy.
I hope that this brief exploration gives you a little bit more “color” as to what kinds of realistic events you should prepare to overcome now. We’ll cover the remedies for each event on a separate basis in future articles.
Copyright 2009 Kellene Bishop. All rights reserved.
You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Kellene Bishop.
Preparedness Pro Note: If you would like Kellene Bishop to present an Emergency Preparedness message for your community or church group, please contact us at 801-788-4133. Ms. Bishop is an experienced speaker on Emergency Preparedness topics and also has created a great “Preparedness Party” platform which makes the learning of such a topic more enjoyable for all.
A frequent reader of our site once commented that she felt I may be a bit “paranoid.” I truly wasn’t offended by such a label. I’m sure for individuals who aren’t as zealous in their preparedness efforts as I advocate, it would be reasonable for “outsiders” to perceive mindful individuals to be “paranoid.” However, I did correct her that I felt that I was merely “aware” rather than paranoid. I’m convinced that such awareness has had a significant impact on my emergency preparedness efforts. So today we’ll be educating you on just what it is that you should realistically be prepared FOR. A combination of natural disasters and the consequences of viable attacks on our nation are addressed here. This information is not coming from a mind obsessed with science fiction and any biblical influence has been eliminated. Rather this information is derived from a great deal of research.EMP Attack: Understand that such an attack is not hyperbole science fiction. We presently use EMPs in various parts of our life, just not on a large scale. Remember watching the “Ocean’s 11” movie? They accomplished their robbery by using a simple EMP device. An EMP (Electric Magnetic Pulse) is actually a likely enemy attack on the U.S. While it is considered less heartless than a nuclear bomb or a bio-bomb, it’s launched in very much the same way. If an EMP bomb is launched in your area, then it will essentially “fry” all electrical devices that are not stored more than 6 feet under ground. In a viable book I read recently, it estimated that only 6 EMP bombs launched onto U.S. soil would completely obliterate life as we know it. Think about it for a second. If everything electrical in our nation was debilitated, how would your life change? The banks wouldn’t be able to function. Airplanes won’t be able to travel. Cars post-1978 would indeed be useless (unless they were “hardened” specifically for such an event as the military does to many of their vehicles.) I hope you like riding a bike under such circumstances.
A massive scale EMP attack wouldn’t create a simple power outage. It would destroy power grids all over the nation to the point that they would have to be rebuilt from scratch. (Kind of hard to do without power to rebuild them, eh?) Trucks would not be able to transport your foods and other valuable supplies. Stores would be emptied. Most everyone would be without a job of any kind, without access to money, and they would be forced to truly live off of the land and their emergency preparedness supplies. Are you ready?
Earthquake: While you may feel that you are in a part of the country where you have escaped such a disaster, you may want to rethink that premise. While it’s clearly no secret that California and Alaska are well known areas for earthquakes, there are actually areas in the U.S. that are more apt to experience even stronger shakes.In the Rocky Mountain area, much of Utah and Idaho can expect a “doozey” of an earthquake anytime now. And since most of Utah is developed along the mountains, the majority of Utah is right on a fault line. Now, for those of you in “God’s Country” a.k.a. the Midwest, don’t be deceived into thinking that you’re safe. In all actuality, you may be in an even more likely earthquake zone than California or Alaska is right now.
Few citizens are fully aware of the New Madrid fault line affecting Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee and Mississippi. The New Madrid fault even affects some parts of Iowa and Arkansas. In 1811, a succession of 4 full strength earthquakes occurred, followed by horrific aftershocks. As a result of the earthquake, huge fissures opened in the earth and spewed “volcanoes” of silt and bedrock all over the area as well. Today, this same fault line has the potential to create an 8.0 seismic sized earthquake in the next 5 to 10 years which would seriously affect the heartland of America.
When the earthquakes in 1811 to 1812 originally hit this area, their effect was felt across roughly 50,000 square miles. In comparison, a somewhat “more famous” earthquake in San Francisco in 1906 only affected 16,000 square miles. As a result of the bedrock make-up in this earthquake zone, the aftershocks of the 1811 earthquake rang church bells as far north as Boston, which was over 1,000 miles away. In contract, the San Francisco earthquake was felt “only” 350 miles away.More information on earthquake potential in your area can be found here. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/?old=state_largest.html
If you are able to survive an earthquake, assume that access to the norms of life will be seriously interrupted for a long period of time. As a result, you will be forced to live off of what you already have on hand that hasn’t been destroyed. Now multiply this reality by millions of hungry mouths to feed. Heaven help us if a catastrophic earthquake occurs in the midst of a bitter winter as well. Are you ready?
Flood: Once an earthquake has hit an area, it can bring about extensive flooding. For example, here in Utah where I reside, an earthquake study has been conducted in which the Jordanelle River Dam is expected to be breached, thus flooding down it’s natural course into the Deer Creek Dam area. Such a domino effect would subsequently cause extreme flooding as high as 4 stories in the Utah Valley area, particularly Provo. This same scenario can be applied to states all throughout the U.S. We’ve already seen first-hand the flooding disasters that have plagued Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and other coastal areas in recent years. But have we learned from them? Are you any more prepared for such an event today than you were in 2005?Understand that flooding doesn’t happen solely because you are in a flood zone. If you are near a large body of water, even if that body is a lake, a relatively small earthquake can propel water beyond its borders and as high as 30 feet. Receiving a large amount of water in such a short period of time is a recipe for a disaster.
For more information on the presence of a viable flood threat in your area, check here: http://www.usgs.gov/hazards/floods/
Nuclear Attack: In the event of a nuclear attack, the fatalities would be horrendous. If you survived such an attack then you would indeed need to plan on sequestering your family away from the fallout of the nuclear ash. A basement is ideal. If the attack hit even 1,000 miles away from your home, you would still need to avoid any water or plants exposed to the outside air, and tape up your windows with tarp to prevent sickening air from coming into your home. Since other countries are unwilling to give up their nuclear weapons, a nuclear attack is a plausible scenario for which we should all be mentally prepared. Bone fractures, cancer and radiation poisoning are all common affects of a nuclear bomb attack. Do your research on how to handle such ailments as you should assume that medical assistance will be far away. (We’ll cover these remedies in another article, FYI.)
Economic Collapse: I’m not talking about hard economic times. I’m talking about our currency becoming worthless. Unfortunately, this is the most viable of all disasters, folks. Paper currency is only worth something so long as others are willing to accept it. Unfortunately our paper currency is no longer backed sufficiently by gold as it was originally intended (at least I’d like to think that that was the virtuous goal originally). Additionally, our nation is no longer being provided an accounting of how much currency is in circulation (Google “M3 Report”). This makes for a very ripe possibility of an economic collapse. If it is finally discovered that our money is worthless, then all commerce, travel, and society as you know it will cease to exist. No one will accept your money, regardless of how much of it your bank account says you have. Your presentation of cash for purchases will do little to acquire necessary goods. Your money will be useless. As a result, a devastating ripple effect will be felt throughout the entire world as other nations who are heavily invested in the U.S. dollar will suffer unfathomable consequences. While you may have power and gas and food, you will be unable to purchase any more with currency. Instead, expect to pay for such goods via trade of hard assets such as gold, silver, wheat, and ammo. The goods you’ll have access to will be strictly what others have on hand as no one will have the necessary hard currency to produce more of what we buy.I hope that this brief exploration gives you a little bit more “color” as to what kinds of realistic events you should prepare to overcome now. We’ll cover the remedies for each event on a separate basis in future articles.
Copyright 2009 Kellene Bishop. All rights reserved.
You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Kellene Bishop.
Preparedness Pro Note: If you would like Kellene Bishop to present an Emergency Preparedness message for your community or church group, please contact us at 801-788-4133. Ms. Bishop is an experienced speaker on Emergency Preparedness topics and also has created a great “Preparedness Party” platform which makes the learning of such a topic more enjoyable for all.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Disastrous Emergency Money Myths
By Kellene Bishop
Should you save money in this economy in preparation for a disaster? If so, how much? What kinds of currency denominations should you have on hand? Should you buy gold and silver? These are questions that readers frequently e-mail to me. And while I will address several of these questions in this article, understand that ultimately the best monetary preparedness you can practice is to first prepare yourself mentally for the consequences of unforeseen events. Doing so will inevitably provide you with logical actions to prepare accordingly. Overall this topic actually requires extensive discussion, so we’ll explore it in more than one piece. For today we’ll discuss the most broad “monetary” recommendations in order to prepare and to AVOID making disastrous monetary mistakes in anticipation of an emergency.
An economic collapse or a natural disaster will obviously have an effect on the acceptance, issuance, and availability of money. Think about it. If all of the sudden your community, state, or even nation is disrupted due to an EMP attack, do you really think that anyone is going to give a flying flip about a useless piece of printed currency? The real question is, “how do you appropriately prepare for such events and possess mutually valuable wares to ride it out and survive?” I believe in a two pronged approach to preparation. Store what I know I will need, and then store items that I know others will need so that I can obtain the items that I didn’t foresee.
Should you put some cash aside in your home in preparation for a sweeping emergency? Yes. But don’t go overboard. Within days, if not hours, of a national disaster or an economic collapse, your money will be useless. Absolutely useless. (And in the event that currency is ever recognized at that level of insolvency, then hoarding it during a crisis in hopes that it will rebound is also unrealistic.) I would not recommend you having more than $1,000 cash on hand and be sure that you have it in small increments of 10’s, 5’s, and 1’s. Don’t have this money on hand with the intent to use it to save your bacon once the disaster has actually hit or in lieu of storing what you will need now. If you need that cash to purchase emergency supplies because you were caught unaware, you’ll be hard-pressed to actually spend $1,000 successfully as there will indeed be a rush on the stores. Mark my words. You can plan on there being insufficient amounts available in the stores or limited acceptance of cash in the event of either of these two disasters, suitable for you to spend $1,000. The $1,000 cash recommendation is for unforeseen circumstances in which you are fortunate enough to still have it accepted, not to correct your lack of foresightedness in the face of a disaster.
Yes, you should indeed have some gold and/or silver on hand. This currency has never been recognized under any circumstances as being useless. However, if you are going to invest in such, I would recommend you acquire smaller coins and pieces instead of “dollar-sized” coins. You can also collect regular U.S. coins that are pre-1967, as they were still made with some “real” metals in them. These will ultimately have trade value in an emergency situation.
“Currency” as you know it today is NOT what you should be focusing on for an emergency. Food items, skills, and other hard asset wares are what you should be accumulating if you truly want to be prepared for an emergency. With the exception of a job loss, and striving to eliminate your debt overall, I am 100% convinced that the best way you can “save” for a rainy day disaster is to have useful preparedness items on hand. Items such as wheat, rice, water, ammo, clothing, shelter, diapers, and fuel will be more valuable than anything the Federal Reserve could ever print out. I am so convinced of this, that I would blatantly recommend that those who are saving a set amount of money each month in a bank account to instead actually lower their monthly savings amount and increase the purchase and acquisition of emergency preparedness wares. If you find yourself in need of an item or food you can either trade for it or work for it. Educate yourself on skills that are not common in our society now as the result of the abundance which we now enjoy. The skills of a seamstress, carpenter, cobbler, blacksmith and cook will be much more valuable in a time of distress. With such skills you can always acquire that which you need in exchange for your labors.
Bottom line, currency is not what you want to focus hoarding for an emergency. Rather it is a much wiser choice to store that which currency can presently obtain.
Copyright 2009 Kellene Bishop. All rights reserved.
You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Kellene Bishop.
Preparedness Pro Note: If you would like Kellene Bishop to present an Emergency Preparedness message for your community or church group, please contact us at 801-788-4133. Ms. Bishop is an experienced speaker on Emergency Preparedness topics and also has created a great “Preparedness Party” platform which makes the learning of such a topic more enjoyable for all.
Should you save money in this economy in preparation for a disaster? If so, how much? What kinds of currency denominations should you have on hand? Should you buy gold and silver? These are questions that readers frequently e-mail to me. And while I will address several of these questions in this article, understand that ultimately the best monetary preparedness you can practice is to first prepare yourself mentally for the consequences of unforeseen events. Doing so will inevitably provide you with logical actions to prepare accordingly. Overall this topic actually requires extensive discussion, so we’ll explore it in more than one piece. For today we’ll discuss the most broad “monetary” recommendations in order to prepare and to AVOID making disastrous monetary mistakes in anticipation of an emergency.
An economic collapse or a natural disaster will obviously have an effect on the acceptance, issuance, and availability of money. Think about it. If all of the sudden your community, state, or even nation is disrupted due to an EMP attack, do you really think that anyone is going to give a flying flip about a useless piece of printed currency? The real question is, “how do you appropriately prepare for such events and possess mutually valuable wares to ride it out and survive?” I believe in a two pronged approach to preparation. Store what I know I will need, and then store items that I know others will need so that I can obtain the items that I didn’t foresee.Should you put some cash aside in your home in preparation for a sweeping emergency? Yes. But don’t go overboard. Within days, if not hours, of a national disaster or an economic collapse, your money will be useless. Absolutely useless. (And in the event that currency is ever recognized at that level of insolvency, then hoarding it during a crisis in hopes that it will rebound is also unrealistic.) I would not recommend you having more than $1,000 cash on hand and be sure that you have it in small increments of 10’s, 5’s, and 1’s. Don’t have this money on hand with the intent to use it to save your bacon once the disaster has actually hit or in lieu of storing what you will need now. If you need that cash to purchase emergency supplies because you were caught unaware, you’ll be hard-pressed to actually spend $1,000 successfully as there will indeed be a rush on the stores. Mark my words. You can plan on there being insufficient amounts available in the stores or limited acceptance of cash in the event of either of these two disasters, suitable for you to spend $1,000. The $1,000 cash recommendation is for unforeseen circumstances in which you are fortunate enough to still have it accepted, not to correct your lack of foresightedness in the face of a disaster.
Yes, you should indeed have some gold and/or silver on hand. This currency has never been recognized under any circumstances as being useless. However, if you are going to invest in such, I would recommend you acquire smaller coins and pieces instead of “dollar-sized” coins. You can also collect regular U.S. coins that are pre-1967, as they were still made with some “real” metals in them. These will ultimately have trade value in an emergency situation.“Currency” as you know it today is NOT what you should be focusing on for an emergency. Food items, skills, and other hard asset wares are what you should be accumulating if you truly want to be prepared for an emergency. With the exception of a job loss, and striving to eliminate your debt overall, I am 100% convinced that the best way you can “save” for a rainy day disaster is to have useful preparedness items on hand. Items such as wheat, rice, water, ammo, clothing, shelter, diapers, and fuel will be more valuable than anything the Federal Reserve could ever print out. I am so convinced of this, that I would blatantly recommend that those who are saving a set amount of money each month in a bank account to instead actually lower their monthly savings amount and increase the purchase and acquisition of emergency preparedness wares. If you find yourself in need of an item or food you can either trade for it or work for it. Educate yourself on skills that are not common in our society now as the result of the abundance which we now enjoy. The skills of a seamstress, carpenter, cobbler, blacksmith and cook will be much more valuable in a time of distress. With such skills you can always acquire that which you need in exchange for your labors.
Bottom line, currency is not what you want to focus hoarding for an emergency. Rather it is a much wiser choice to store that which currency can presently obtain.
Copyright 2009 Kellene Bishop. All rights reserved.
You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Kellene Bishop.
Preparedness Pro Note: If you would like Kellene Bishop to present an Emergency Preparedness message for your community or church group, please contact us at 801-788-4133. Ms. Bishop is an experienced speaker on Emergency Preparedness topics and also has created a great “Preparedness Party” platform which makes the learning of such a topic more enjoyable for all.
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