My Story......

If you're one of those people who think disaster preparedness is for whackos and extremists, this page is not for you. On the other hand, if you think the government cannot (and should not) protect you from every harm imaginable, read on.

I'm one of those odd individuals who is really into emergency preparedness. It's a weird thing to be passionate about, to be sure. Many are passionate about the environment, or the arts, or fitness, or church involvement. For me, it's knowing that I am better prepared for what life may throw at me.

It started as a kid. Growing up watching the news every night at dinner time, I wondered if Jimmy Carter was going to get us killed. I liked the guy (I was 8 years old), but I just knew he was going to get us into a gunfight with the Russians. And when a bunch of Iranian yahoos overran our embassy in November 1979, I wondered why they weren't threatened by the United States.

So I worried. I bought a book (which I still have) by Ragnar Benson entitled The Survival Retreat. I loved that book. I must have read it fifty times, much to the chagrin of my mother, who wanted me to read something other than a book on how to prepare for anarchy and martial law. I took one important quote away from that book, which remains one of my moral lodestars even today:

Never, under any circumstances, ever become a refugee. Evaluate your situation and circumstances. Make your plan and then, by God, win, lose or draw - even when its weaknesses start to show up -- stick with you prearranged scenario. Be flexible, versatile, and sensitive to what's happening; but most of all, implement your plan and basically stick with it. Die if you must, but die on your home turf with your face to the wind, not in some stinking hellhole 2,000 kilometers away, among people you neither know nor care about.

Heavy stuff for a 10 year old, but when you consider the news back then was filled with the energy crisis, hostages in our embassy, escalation of the Cold War, and Egyptian President Sadat getting whacked, it truly made me think: what would we do if that happened here?

Fast forward to August 24, 1992. I moved to Miami a week before Hurricane Andrew destroyed half of Dade County. I hardly knew anyone within 600 miles of me. My car was in the shop when the storm hit so I had no transportation of my own. I didn't know how to prepare for a hurricane.

For the next 17 days, I learned how bad it really is to be unprepared. I had no electricity. The water was undrinkable. People in the apartment below me argued constantly, brought on by the stress that none of us had air conditioning or a decent meal in two weeks.

Ever since, I have strived to keep myself prepared for whatever the good Lord throws my way. Am I paranoid? Perhaps. Am I prepared for every conceivable contingency? Nope. Will I have an easier time of roughing it through the hard times than others? I'd like to think so.

Preparedness is not about buying a bunch of food and water and storing it up. It's not about getting really good at hand to hand combat or firearm marksmanship. It is about achieving a mindset: a mindset that allows you to foresee potential problems in life, take steps to mitigate their harm, and adapt to the conditions as they change.

To be sure, there are some items you need to buy, but it won't be that expensive. And if you're worried about what your friends and neighbors will think when you start preparing your home and family, here's a tip: don't tell them. I can assure you the people that make fun of you or criticize you will be the first SOBs at your door asking for a handout when things get bad. Mark my words on this.

Have I scared you off? If not, read on.