Emergency: Part I

Food Storage Makes Sense

Editors Note: The following is an excerpt from the book by Philip Hoag entitled “No Such thing as Doomsday”. To learn more about this book, including purchasing information, visit them online at www.nodoom.com

Most Americans take food and the farmer for granted. The majority of people today are no longer attached to the land and are totally out of touch with the rhythms of nature. Ever since the 1940s, the bulk of the American population started moving away from involvement with the land, and away from personal participation in the annual cycle of putting up food for the coming winter months. It used to be that most of the population had gardens and canned food every year. This change represents a very brief exception in the longer span of human history. The current norm of cheap and abundant food with no real participation on the consumer's part has an unnatural and artificial basis. Since the public has not experienced a food shortage in recent history, they tend to take the welfare of the nation's farmers for granted. A combination of bad weather and economic conditions has caused thousands of farmers to go under in the last several years. Most food is no longer grown locally. This is a potentially vulnerable situation. What makes things even worse is that a lot of the food Americans eat today comes from outside of the U.S.

Under normal circumstances, the modern just-in-time warehousing system provides the consumer with a variety of foods at bargain prices, but as a result, at any given time, the average supermarket only has about 3 to 4 days worth of food in stock. Research and history have shown that most people do not prepare ahead of time. They usually wait until the last minute to prepare, even if they have received advanced warning. Instead, they start shopping when the snow starts falling, or when the hurricane is less than half a day away, or when the river is starting to overflow its banks. A survey of supermarket managers concluded that the general public never purchases food more than a few hours ahead of an expected emergency.

In the typical pre-disaster scenario, a few hours before the storm hits, the general public rushes in and buys what they think they need-primarily bread and water. This is referred to as panic buying and is quite different from making preparations. This is not a good plan.

The infrastructure for the production and distribution of food is much more vulnerable than most people think, and also much more technology-dependent. Most of the major crops produced by farmers are shipped by rail to food processing facilities. The railroad system is computer dependent. Getting the food from the field to the table involves a lot more than going out in the field and picking vegetables.

In the case of a nationwide food shortage, local communities would be placed in a desperate struggle to feed themselves.

Prepared people are not dependent people. In the event of a disaster they aren't a burden on strained and inadequate government relief efforts. They take care of themselves and they also help others. People stocking up when there is abundance helps the farmers and the economy. More importantly, in the event that a real shortage occurs in the future, the fact that some people have stocked up will mean that fewer people will have to compete for the limited available supplies.

Emergency: Part II

Safety Around Emergency Vehicles, Police Cars, & School Buses

Hopefully you know that when you see a yellow school bus, a police car on a mission, or an ambulance responding to an emergency, there are certain things you should do (or not do) while driving.

The following tips are provided for sharing the road with school buses, emergency response vehicles, and police cars.

School Buses
Most school bus accidents occur when children are exiting buses. These accidents could easily be prevented if all drivers stopped when bus drivers flashed their lights and put out their stop sign. Therefore, if you’re sharing the road with a school bus, show the bus driver extra courtesy by keeping your distance and making a complete stop when a school bus signals it’s making a stop. You could save a child’s life as well as your own.

Ambulances
When you share the road with an ambulance on an emergency call, you’ll hear a siren and see lights flashing. The instant you’re aware an ambulance is near, you should try to get out of the way safely. First, you’ll want to check traffic around you, and slow down, if possible. If traffic allows, signal and try to move to either the right or left lane. If you’re leading the pack of traffic, you may even want to put on your hazard lights to signal to traffic behind you that there’s an emergency ahead.

Police Cars
Police officers in a hurry are generally responding to a call or in pursuit of someone. When you see a police car flashing its lights and sounding its siren, try to get out of the way as soon as you can do so safely. Always use good judgment when you do get out of the way. You don’t want to cause an accident or delay the police officer from his or her duties.

Remember, when you encounter an emergency vehicle or school bus, slow down or get out of the way. That way, you avoid endangering anyone (including yourself) and avoid potential costly auto insurance claims.