The Imperative That Every Household Have at Least Ten Days of Everything

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While sometimes Zerohedge's articles are sometimes ridiculous, this one is important. Yes, at least for the time being, Texas is a third-world country. 

And, as usual, FEMA is clueless. Posted Wednesday afternoon.

By the time Washington's "preparing" is finished, the giant generators needed now will be unnecessary because the power will be back on. My over/under is Saturday 4pm. 

Remember the great respirator fiasco of 2020? Washington went crazy, forcing (via the Defense Supply Act) manufacturers to build respirators for COVID treatment that were, in many cases, actually harmful to patients. I suspect Washington has shipped these millions of respirators off to a giant warehouse where "top men" will make plans to eventually give them away at McDonalds ("buy a burger, get a respirator"). 

FEMA is operating in its usual precision mode:
The spokesperson could not say where the generators had been sent. 

Based on weather forecasts and storm warnings, FEMA should have been ready late last week and should have been shipping supplies over the weekend when the scope of the catastrophe was becoming apparent. It doesn't matter who is in power in Washington: FEMA is a disaster itself and no one can count on them to help rescue them in a disaster.

So what do we do? Every home should have ten days (I used to say three) worth of food, water, essentials (e.g., flashlight, weather radio, batteries, can openers, etc.) and medicines. Everyone who uses medical equipment should at least have an uninterrupted power supply that will last for at least 12 hours. Medicines should be refilled promptly and see if your physician will prescribe 90-day refills. The Smith Family does all of this. I also usually fill my fuel tank at the 1/2 level. To help you get started, here is a great list. You will have to rotate bottled water and other supplies so you will want to put that on your calendar. 

On a short-term basis, when natural disasters threaten, pay attention to the advice from meteorologists. Here is the advice from this blog Saturday morning below a map of the start times of the cold wave and winter storm:
For a decade, meteorology has been intensely working with social science to improve our ability to assist everyone before and during disasters and we have learned a great deal. 

Finally, I thought of this as I was writing this piece and this ad came on:
It was for General Motors' electric vehicles. 

I would be extremely reluctant to electrify everything. Our house has natural gas for fuel and a new gasoline powered car; chosen intentionally for that reason. If the electricity goes out, you can keep your home warm so that pipes do not break, et cetera. If the natural gas goes out, you can run space heaters. 

If you take this advice, and I hope you will, there is a side benefit of being prepared: when there is a shortage (toilet paper in 2020), you aren't in the grocery store making the problem worse. In a major crisis, when say, your neighbor's pipe's have burst, etc., you'll have enough food and supplies to invite them into your home and be a Good Samaritan. 


All blog content: © 2021 Mike Smith Enterprises, LLC

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