Events That Have Happened and Those Still Unfolding That Show the Need for Preparedness
Natural and manmade disasters dominated the news cycle in 2014, everything from Ebola, to droughts in California, to the ice Storm in Atlanta. The Southern Border of the United States also became a hotbed of contention that caused many to take to the streets in protest, blocking buses and making their voices heard in congress.
Thousands of people flowed freely across the Southern Border possibly carrying diseases we thought had been eradicated in this country for decades, while others snuck across possibly carrying plans for our destruction.
North Korea made threats and videos showing the nuclear destruction of America’s capital. Now it seems possible they can dictate what we watch, because fear of what they might do caused people to change, to bend to another country or organization’s demands. Freedom is lost when we let others tell us how free we can be.
Keep in mind it is only alleged that North Korea hacked Sony.
North Korea has nuclear weapons and by all accounts, the dictator is capable of horrific acts of violence against his own people, so when will the dictator act against the world.
Ukraine is still a smoldering pile of embers that may burst into a full-blown, out of control fire at any time. Russia is playing chess while the rest of the world is playing checkers. China it seems is beating us at every turn and has succeeded the United States economically. Bullies never pick on those that fight back. The United States is being bullied in a way that we may not realize until it is too late.
Polar Vortex and ISIS became household words for a while.
The end of 2014 is just the beginning. What have we learned what have we discovered about this country and about ourselves when it comes to being prepared for anything?
Is 2014 the year of the Prepper?
There Will Always Be Disasters
If you live in Buffalo, New York, you expect snow and you prepare for it, but did anyone expect the snowfall they received recently. Even though snow is common in the North East and no one doubts it will arrive every winter, many still were not prepared for the amounts in such a short period. They used history as a template, and because it happened a certain way in the past people assumed it would be the same today, it was not, and people were caught unaware, and unprepared.
Loss of Civility
People have protested since there were people and events that stir the emotions. Protests are common in the world today, but the violent protests in Ferguson, Missouri gripped the world and left many staring aghast at burned out structures, armored tanks, and other military vehicles in the streets of America.
Now we know what civil unrest can do to a community and to a country and now, you know what you have to do to be ready for next time, because there always is a next time.
Nature Has Not Changed
Polar Vortex, now we have another phrase, another weather phenomenon that we can use as an excuse to force people to bend a certain way. Like climate change that is blamed for any unexplained weather event like droughts in California. We as humans caused it not nature, so humans are to blame and we must change or else.
Nature has cycles that have been ongoing for millions of years and yet we still call today’s weather events historic. Experts claim to have never have seen anything like it and yet weather events have happened for countless millennium, long before humans arrived on this earth.
The ice storm in Atlanta, Georgia in February 2014 caught everyone by surprise. Officials there gambled and they lost. The officials used history again as a template and once again, what happens in the past cannot always be used to predict what will happen today. The city did not prepare, because nothing like this had ever happened, and thus the citizens did not prepare.
People left for work in their loafers and heels, and so they could not even step out of their vehicles without falling to the ground, they were stranded in their vehicles, and not prepared to be stranded.
Those that could walk more than a few feet on the ice left their vehicles, because they left home unaware and unprepared. Escape was the only option in some people’s minds, but now they and the rest of us know what can happen, and likely will happen again. Who learned from the Atlanta ice storm, who can now survive in their vehicle when it happens again?
Water Rationing
Water is not free and it is not plentiful in many areas of the country and in particular in many parts of the world. People by the millions die each year because of a lack of safe drinking water. California has had to take drastic measures to ensure enough drinking water is available to the citizens, let alone enough water for irrigation of crops and other uses in their state.
Once again, people seemed surprised about this. Lack of rainfall means less water available in reservoirs, rivers, lakes and streams. Droughts go in cycles, and experts have known this for decades and yet they wait until the crisis is full blown before reacting to it.
Contagion
Ebola may very well have created the most fear in the country in 2014. It is a deadly disease with a high mortality rate and yet the common flu kills more people every year, well so far it does anyway, because Ebola is not contained and in fact, the cases have risen, but the fear has subsided, so obviously the crisis has also subsided in some people’s minds. We have not seen the last of Ebola however.
The virus causes a visceral reaction because of the way it kills. Contagion was bantered around, and ancient fears buried in our brains surfaced and caused panic. Humans can now control and enhance deadly diseases, and we all will live with the threat of a worldwide pandemic for the rest of our lives, whether it is Ebola or some other disease that is let loose or gets loose in the world. You probably know what to do by now to prepare for one, and those that have not been paying attention will be some of the first to go.
ISIS
Beheading Americans at will, it seems as we sit helpless staring at videos they produce showing the horror they plan for all of us. Demonstrating to the world what is in store for those that refuse to convert, to bend to terror.
Are they coming to a city near you, possibly, but right now, they are grabbing up land that they cannot hold on to, so they are pre-occupied for the moment. They may self-destruct but the ideology will always be there, it will always be a threat, one that hovers at the edges. Once we turn our heads away however, we lose.
Who We Are
Some people tend to wait to make sure the threat is real before preparing. In other words, they let others do the research and thinking, and once others have determined the threat is real and upon us then they may prepare, but in most cases, it is a half hearted attempt because someone tells them they need to and so they do not really understand why they need to.
Then there are those that look ahead and come up with possibilities, things that may happen, but are not as likely as the ones staring them in the face. Sometimes it is easier to believe in the outlandish than it is to face the reality of day-to-day life.
Some of these people are believers in doomsday scenarios, but all you have to do is look back at 2014 and realize that doomsday is ongoing and it unfolds in stages. Some scenarios are outlandish, while others have merit.
Then there are the Preppers, people that realize preparing is not a fad or a hobby that you pick up when nothing else is going on. It is a lifestyle. Many do not make predictions they simply know that anything can happen to anyone at any time.
Preppers naturally assume the power will be disrupted and snows will come along with ice, winds and floods. Preppers are not surprised they are prepared. Preppers know that there are certain things that they will need regardless of the crisis, and yet realize that some situations do require specific things and thus stay informed about developing threats. They did not wait to be told that Ebola is deadly and that you must take precautions and prepare, Preppers already knew what had to be done.
Is 2014 the beginning for you?