[Hoot Gibson]

Are you a dedicated prepper? Are you minimally prepared for a one to two week emergency situation, during which electrical power, water, and/or food supplies may be interrupted? If not, maybe now would be the time to start filling jugs with water and stocking up on non-perishable food. I am not a prepper but I am minimally prepared for a disaster. Nobody who lives near a large city should consider themselves to be a real prepper and that is my situation.

I posted this in the General Discussion forum and not the Politics forum because basic emergency preparedness can and should be a non-political, non-controversial topic. There is an awful lot of chatter right now in our nation's capital and some of it is coming from people who have been reliable sources of information in the past. Some serious people in the federal government are urging Americans to have a 12 day supply of food and water on hand just in case of a SHTF event. 

It does not really matter where you fall on the political spectrum, there is an increased probability of a national emergency occurring over the next few days. Whether that increased probability is 5 percent or 50 percent, I have no idea, but there is a lot of unusual activity going on in our nation's capital. It just seems like a good time to assess how prepared we are for a natural or man made disaster.

Please do not try to turn this into a political debate. If events transpire that cause us to draw on emergency food and water stores, then we can debate the cause of the problem in the Politics forum.

My family and I probably have enough food to withstand a few weeks without going hungry. We will be filling up jugs of water today, just in case. We will also be stocking up on batteries of all sizes and charging devices that use rechargeable batteries.

After food and water, emergency communications is probably our next priority and we are in good shape there. I am a licensed amateur radio operator (a/k/a "ham") and I have a multitude of battery operated radios. We also have a Sangean emergency AM/FM radio that works with a small solar panel, batteries, or a crank. (Most emergency radios are poorly built and include a plastic crank that breaks easily.)

Are you prepared to shelter in place for a couple of weeks or more?