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blog:2020-09-14:emergency_preparedness_podcast_episode

Emergency Preparedness Podcast Episode

I've been listening to Gimlet's How To Save A Planet podcast and their latest episode, Unnatural Distaster, was very practical.

Personal Preparedness

At first, I thought it was going to deliver prepper-type information, but it did much more. On the personal side, they talked about having a go-bag, and the items listed were:1)

  • a spare outfit
  • a spare pair of glasses (if you wear glasses)
  • toiletries
  • your passport as a backup ID or in case you need to flee the country
  • about $1000 in cash in case power is out and ATMs don't work
  • food (between 3 and 10 days' worth)
  • 3 x 500mL bottles of water + a water filter and iodine drops
  • a camp pot, a camp cup, a camp stove with propane
  • a portable phone solar charger

And because of COVID:

  • a tent
  • a sleeping bag

So basically, think of what you'd need to go camping on foot for a week. There are a lot of pre-made kits available, but she adds that:

You shouldn't buy a premade preparedness kit or go bag. Because the thinking through of the process of making one is almost as important as the bag itself. So you're thinking about like what circumstance you'd use the bag under and what your contingency plans would be.

Community Preparedness

But just as important as being individually prepared is being able to band together as a community:

There's like a saying in a disaster research that one of the best things you can do to prepare for disaster is to bring your neighbors a basket of muffins.

The story about the community kitchen that was opened ad-hoc by community members in Puerto-Rico after the storm was a perfect example of this.

And with eerie timing, Cory Doctorow's novella story The Masque of the Red Death explores how a group of rich preppers fare after an environmental catastrophe compared to a larger group of folks who work together to help each other.

1)
See Sunshine Coast Emergency Communications page for recommendations from PreparedBC.
blog/2020-09-14/emergency_preparedness_podcast_episode.txt · Last modified: 2021/06/05 12:26 by va7fi