Recently, Californian’s experienced what is called a “Public Safety Power Shutoff”; a situation where the public utility company turns off all power in the name of public safety. Many people were told they might be affected, but failed to prepare. Hysteria set in, and people came to realize that they needed to prepare for their future. This blog aims to help you get to where you need to be.
The Importance of Being Prepared
I have listed three important facts below. They are not meant to scare you, but are intended to make you aware and willing to prepare for you and your family’s future.
1- You are not prepared.
2- What you have is not enough.
3- Don’t rely on others to help you.
You are not prepared.
The earlier that you accept this, the better off you will be.
Simply put, you need to have supplies, at the ready, for you and all of your family members. This includes water, food, shelter, and medicine for everyone (including your pets). Supplies must be accessible in the event of a disaster. If they’re located in a storage facility away from your house, packed away in the back of a closet, or anywhere else that is not immediately accessible when needed, then it is useless. Ideally, supplies should be staged together at the front of your garage or somewhere equally accessible.
What you have is not enough.
Most people will rationalize this statement with “I have food in my pantry” or “I can get water from my faucet, I have enough supplies”, but the truth of the matter is that most of that infrastructure will not be available to you. How are you going to cook if the electricity or the gas mains are off? You can’t get water when the pipes are broken or turned off. You need to have a dedicated supply of food and water for everyone in your family!
Don't rely on others for help.
More than anything, I hear people saying, “I’ll just go (to this place) to get help” or “The Police (Government, etc.) will help me”. Another sad fact is that those agencies will be overwhelmed and, truth be told, you are not their priority… as a matter of fact, your problems are at the very bottom of their list.
Unless people you know have specifically made provisions for you, you are not going to find help anywhere!
Communication is key.
How will you communicate with your loved ones? What if someone is stranded out on the road, stuck in their office building, or otherwise unreachable? Phone lines will be, in the very least, jammed up. What if they’re down altogether?
Have an alternate meeting spot where messages can be left. Better yet, get your HAM License and be able to use handheld communication that requires no infrastructure.
Start right now!
This does not have to be a huge undertaking or a massive financial set-back for your family. It is easy to start now and collect as you go.
You should have food, water, medicine for everyone in your family for a minimum of 3 days. You can add an extra can of food every-time you go to the grocery store. Grab an extra gallon of water each time too. Before you know it, you will have proper food stores for you and your family. There are a lot of great resources out there to get the supplies you need on the cheap.
What to do when that day comes.
Having a gameplan before something happens is the best course of action. Like I tell my Little League Baseball team, don’t wait until the ball is hit to you to decide what to do with it. Think about what you will do before it is hit to you.
1 - Don’t panic. Stay calm and remember the gameplan.
2 - Collect yourself, inventory what you have, follow the plan to contact your loved ones.
3 - Put the plan into action. Listen to the Radio/TV to follow what is happening. You are prepared, you got this!
Is this just paranoia?
This blog arose from a real experience that Northern California experienced in October of 2019. Our Public Utility Company (PG&E) stated that they were enacting their PSPS plan that would affect more than 800,000 customers. I saw gas station lines wrapping around blocks, people buying food, water, and batteries in droves with mass hysteria on social media.
To prepare for this outage, I simply went into my garage and checked to make sure my fuel, food, and water stores were still good. I am not perfect by any means, but I had no anxiety regarding this power outage knowing that I was completely prepared for it. You can easily be as prepared as I was; it is time for you to start preparing now.
