Still Not Convinced?
There are those I have spoken with over the years that believe any type of personal preparedness or self-sufficiency is mere paranoia, and that for one to prepare for unforeseen disasters is too much work and worry without a probable end. “Do you believe the world will end?” they will ask me. I am not a doomsayer. Like many optimists, I believe that, in general, human beings tend to work out their problems before disaster has a chance to rear its ugly head, but the whole point of preparing for unforeseen disasters is that they are exactly that: unforeseen. What if the world´s oil is running out, as some claim, and world markets begin to collapse due to the sudden lack of the world´s primary energy source? What if global warming has more immediate effects than we can anticipate? Or worse, what if disaster comes in a form that no one had previously even thought about? People will also ask, “Is the government going somewhere?” This is an idea that only those who happen to know nothing about the red tape that encompasses local, state and federal governments could possibly espouse. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina sunk the city of New Orleans. Some citizens are now permanently displaced because of the sheer power of a single storm. Would the citizens of New Orleans have been wise to prepare for long term disaster, especially knowing their precarious position along the gulf coast? I think so, and no doubt some did, but clearing the shelves of your local supermarket days before a disaster is no way to prepare for the disruptor of a natural disaster.