by Misty S Bledsoe

A lot of speculation is happening around the globe in terms of end of the world, or end time apocalyptic events. Each religion has their own viewpoint and even those among the Christian religion have varying interpretations. I subscribe to my own personal beliefs on the matter but no matter how you view it, things in the world are bound to get worse for many people before they get any better.

Being prepared to survive in any situation requires knowledge, training, and a certain level of comfortableness in dealing with potentially catastrophic situations. If you’ve never thought about how to survive when life is turned upside down, one thing that anyone can do is simply begin to be aware that it could and might happen. Thousands lost their loved ones in a tsunami, Hurricane Katrina will forever be remembered by most, and right now in far reaching countries, children die from starvation and disease daily. Men and women fight to keep us safe overseas, regardless of your stance on the issue.

What types of things do you do now to be more prepared? Are you prepared enough? There are several types of incidents, natural and otherwise as outlined in history, that cause delays for supplies being delivered to grocery stores and interrupt water and power supplies.

Be more aware of your every day surroundings. How would handle it if you could not get your kids from day care because traffic is snarled? What would you do if everything seemed normal, yet when you got home and turned on the water to start dinner, nothing came out of the faucet? After investigating, you learn it’s happening to all your neighbors. No notice, no information from the city, no ETA of resolution, and no plausible explanation. How would that affect your daily life?

This actually happened to me one night and the water outage lasted nearly three hours. Since, I had a supply of emergency water equaling about 20 gallons or so stashed under my sink, I was prepared. I did not alarm my children or send them into a panic, but instead started boiling water to make macaroni and cheese for dinner. I put on pots of water with the largest pots I could find and began to warm them, one to wash dishes with, and the others to mix with a bucket of cold water, producing a “just right” temperature and introduce the kids to bathing with a bucket of water instead of a shower if I had to.

Luckily, the water came back on. I replaced my water supply and continued on with life. If I didn’t  have emergency supplies on hand, the situation of not having water coming into my home with two small children could have become stressful and uncomfortable.

The more prepared you are now, the less stressful it can be weather out very uncomfortable and possibly life changing events.