You Don't Pack Your Parachute on the Way Down

With all the distress in the economy could you imagine a worse time for another disaster to take place?  But isn't that what often happens?

Remember that morning you could have made it to work on time if the traffic hadn't been backed up by a blizzard and the bad roads caused such big delays that you ran out of gas in the gridlock?  Things like that happen all the time.  One surge of bad luck often attracts another and then another.  This is a phenomenon that is so common in fact that the expression "trouble comes in threes" sometimes seems optimistic.  Sometimes we just wish it would stop at three.

With everyone reeling from the economic downturn this would be a very bad time for a pandemic to present itself.  We aren't sayng the economy will be responsible for a potential pandemic, but if you still need to prepare a stockpile of goods for disasters in general, a strained budget on top of last minute panic will add another stressful element to your planning. 

There are several philosophies surrounding disaster preparedness.  Some people focus on the merely practical, prepare for the worse, hope for the best; and then there are the people who prepare with the survivalist's zeal.  At Pitsel & Associates, Ltd. we lean more toward practical, moderate approaches and leave the gun totin', cabin-in-the-woods, secret entranceway, moonshine swillin', good-ol'-boys approach to others.  You choose.

This week we discovered a "Preparedness Challenge" on the internet that could help set easy goals spread over a 10 week period.  It appears to be a safe window in terms of pandemic events as they stand now.  It breaks the time and costs of preparing into manageable bites, and in ten weeks we're ready for any disaster and can get on with our lives.  After all, would you rather be smug and prepared after 10 weeks, which are going to pass anyway, or still feeling guilty by the "should have dones", and not have anything to show for just stewing about it?  (Memo to self:  put stew on grocery list for pandemic shelf.)  After all, you can't pack your parachute on the way down!

The following preparations are additional to food stores which will be addressed in subsequent newsletters.  These preparations may paint a graphic picture, but unfortunately it's really not a pretty picture.  There's no way to sanitize the reality of pandemic influenza.  Here goes...

WEEK #1

• 2 buckets
• 1 box contractor type garbage bags (to make your own porta-potty in case we lose utilities).
• kitty litter - 1 bag per person.  This can be used for absorbing all bodily fluids.
• extra garbage bags - for soiled/contaminated clothing, towels, or regular garbage disposal.
• pet foods/ pet prescriptions/ water.

See?  Small steps.  Not even that expensive, compared to the benefit it will pay.

WEEK #2

• oral-rehydration formula - buy it, or make your own.  To one litre of water add 8 tsp. sugar, and 1 tsp. salt (and look how much they charge for it when they slap a label on it.)
• thermometer, and alcohol to clean it
• prescriptions, pain and fever reducers, vitamins, hand sanitizers

WEEK #3

• water - drinking water, and water to mix with bleach and other detergents to clean with
• 1 gallon liquid bleach, disinfectant cleaners
• liquid soaps - dish, hand, laundry - if utilities go out these will be easier than powdered cleaners
• 2 boxes of N95 masks for each adult in the household - make sure it fits firmly against the face