Okay so this post has been a few days in the making now.
I guess it all comes down to how prepared do you think you really are?
I have been watching different news agencies. I can’t help but notice that they have seemed to have forgotten about the rest of the country. I understand that In Texas the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey is causing widespread flooding. Our hearts go out to the family’s that have been affected. Now we have another hurricane about to hit Florida and it’s all over the news! But I can’t help but think where is the news coverage about the western United States and the widespread forest fires. There are fires going on in Oregon, Idaho, and Montana right now. They are so big that they are making smoke linger over the west coast and Canada. The smoke is making it hard for people to see and to breath and that’s just the people not close the actual fire.
Currently, Washington State has nine fires that are over 1,000 acres in size. Both Oregon and Idaho have 19 fires over 1,000 acres and each state’s largest fire is well over 150,000 acres in size. That is 234 square miles or more in each state of land consumed by fire. This is a photo taken by NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite it took a photo of the smoke obscuring most of the Pacific Northwest on September 5th 2017.
More wildfires are popping up all over because the wind is blowing the hot ash and/or coals to other areas.
But this doesn’t seem to be a big concern to the media. Just today I seen a interview from CNN with a FEMA worker. They said that FEMA would be in Texas for months or even years to come because of this storm. But here is the sad part the FEMA worker said they are running out of money! I will now insert part of the article here. It is from CNN you can read it your self.
(CNN)As Hurricane Irma barrels toward Florida, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is on the brink of running out of cash for disaster relief and could be in the red by the end of the week.
The lack of money could force the agency to essentially start operating on IOUs if Congress doesn't act in time.
As of Tuesday morning, FEMA'S Disaster Relief Fund had just $1.01 billion left. Of that, $541 million was "immediately available" for response and recovery efforts related to Hurricane Harvey, according to a spokeswoman.
Not one word was spoken in the whole article about sending FEMA to help with the wildfires.
This has just helped me know even more that when it comes down to it you are on your own. When a disaster or a simple event that you may think is an emergency you have to be ready. You have to be ready for the fact that their may not be anyone coming to help you. You have to save your self. The sad truth is you may have to be ready to do this with out any of your preps that you have stocked up. So what would you do if you had a wildfire barreling down on you? What if you only had just minutes before you had to leave? What if it was flood waters rushing in on you? How will you get all the preps you think you need in just a couple of minutes? But you also have to make sure you have your loved ones safely with you.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Great post @ozarkoffgrimfam ! These are questions that everyone should be asking themselves. I feel like a lot of people have that mentality of "this will never happen to me". Now, these people have become a burden to everyone apart of the rescue and cleanup effort.
I'm glad you brought this up because I did a recent article of what I keep packed inside my Medium ALICE pack for camping, survival, and emergency situations. I will inlcude a list of my top ten items if you need to leave home.
I feel these items will cover a lot of bases and give you something to build on. Once you get your bases covered you can include more luxury items in your kit. I don't feel like I need to worry anymore when an event happens because I will make the best of the situation.
If you have any questions on these items let me know. I will include a link to my ALICE pack setup if you don't mind. I'm sure FEMA has helped a lot of people, but I wouldn't want to be caught dead inside one of their camps!!
https://steemit.com/camping/@rakkasan84/lightweight-survival-bushcraft-and-camping-setup-using-the-medium-alice-pack
I feel the same way about the FEMA camps! The reason I put FEMA in this post is because so many people think that they will be there to save them. Thank you for sharing your list with us. I know it will help a lot of people on what to get get started on.
In all of the scenarios out there of disasters, wildfires sure get overlooked, don't they? Great post!
(Also, we are not off grid, but we are in the Ozarks - would love to connect sometime.)
That would be great to connect sometime! We also love reading your post! I just have to say your pig tractor was great! We really want to try one now!
thanks for sharing @ozarkoffgridfam
Your Welcome!
A good thought provoking article. We live in Central America and choose to do so with the knowledge that if anything happens we are on our own. So you prepare to the best of your ability for what natural disasters may occur. The one I have trouble preparing for is the event of a tsunami which could happen at any moment. Disasters usually occur at the most in opportune times. On the night of Sept. 7th, there was an 8.2 earthquake off the coast of Mexico. We received our tsunami warning via cell phone from Switzerland 8 minutes after the quake, giving us the time to prepare to leave if we need to. Fortunately, we were at low tide and the predicted wave would be a half meter. No real danager. But if that were to happen in the ocean at our beach, we would feel the quake an need to evcuate. We would litterally only have minutes before the ensuing tsunami hit. That means run for higher ground. You have no time to take anything with you. So being prepared has little value in a case like this.
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