“Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail!”
Forward thinking people tend to plan and/or prepare. The “or” is important here, because a forward thinker might plan what they would do in certain situations, but never get around to implementing the plan. Forward thinking preppers get on with carrying out the plan. Just as a soldier hopes and prays that they never have to use the deadly skills they have been trained in, the soldier makes certain that they are trained, because ultimately it is their life on the line. Forward thinking preppers hope never to have to fully implement their plans and use all of their preps, but they plan and prepare all the same, because they know that failure to do so could cause them and their family suffering or cost them their lives.
What are preppers preparing for? Worst case scenario situations, such as a hurricane landing ashore near them, or war happening in their country. The prepper wants to insure, as much as they possibly can, that they and their family will come through whatever catastrophe that should happen safely, They plan to be able to survive in the weeks, possibly months, while life returns to some sort of normality. Yet another situation is the one being specifically addressed in this book: a PANDEMIC.
What is a PANDEMIC? Merriam Webster defines it as,
“…an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population; a pandemic outbreak of a disease.”
How can a pandemic shut down society?
A pandemic can quickly shut down services. It is called the domino effect. The hospitals are quickly overwhelmed.
Hospital staff will bring home the disease whether it's the medical staff, the food staff, the janitorial or administrative staff. These people in turn will expose others, who will expose others. Many people will choose to stay at home rather than to risk exposure and their lives. People huddle at home and don’t go to work. Gas stations, stores and businesses could shut down as employees no longer return to work. The transportation system breaks down. The store shelves will be empty as trucks will not have enough gas to deliver groceries and panic purchasing has occurred. Quarantines are put into effect. Soon water and electricity will halt as the grid shuts down to lack of manpower. Society as we know it has collapsed. Be prepared – not scared!
Pandemics are not a new thing. The plague, the Spanish influenza of 1918, and the Ebola virus in Africa are examples that come readily to mind. Pandemics have been responsible for the deaths of millions of humans over the centuries. While the current Coronavirus (COVID-19 virus) has only killed a few thousand to date, we won’t know for certain a final number for quite some time.
Pandemics spread and kill because many people are contagious and do not know it… but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t still dangerous to others, particularly the elderly and those with a compromised immune system or some other serious underlying illness.
Keeping that information in mind, you might be of the belief that since (hypothetically) you, the reader, is under the age of 50 and healthy as a horse, you have no need to worry. Indeed, to some of the people who have caught the virus, the symptoms have been mild, somewhat akin to a bad cold. However, just because YOU might not become extremely ill or die from it (“might”, because there are always exceptions, and some healthy younger people have succumbed to COVID-19), you are at risk for causing someone else to become ill, possibly fatally, if you do not take the proper precautions.
To protect yourself and others, you should:
If your community experiences an outbreak severe enough, the government to may be required to quarantine the entire area. If it has come to the point where your community is virtually on lock down, it is probably too late for you to do any significant preparations to see you and your family through the pandemic. You might be fortunate enough to scrape by and come out the other side, but probably not in that great of condition. If nothing else, you and your family might be alive, but very hungry, having spent the majority of the last two weeks rationing food because someone failed to purchase any groceries just before the quarantine came down. Your neighbor, who happens to be a prepper, will survive and thrive during the pandemic because they were prepared for an emergency like this. Keep this well- worn phrase at the front of your brain as you plan for what you will do when (not if) a pandemic lands on your doorstep:
This should be engraved on every forehead. Seriously.
While the advice provided here is applicable to other situations than a pandemic, there are some things discussed that are specific to in a pandemic. The advice provided here is based upon the research and opinions of the author, and as such, is intended to be a starting point for the reader to create their own plan to survive a pandemic crisis.
Emergency preparedness is not a fad, nor a hobby. It’s a way of life. If you believe that, you’ll be much better off.