My take on it -- if one prepares, you have choices to respond to the variables. If one doesn't prepare, then you are a leaf on the wind, and your
choices are minimalized. Put another way, you can choose to share your resources with the worthy if TSHTF, but you can't share what you don't have.
While I'm on a mini-rant, I want to encourage folks to prepare with the thought of a long haul. Much of what I see in the way of preps seem to
center around a short-term situation. Hurricane preparations are nortorious for this sometimes. Granted, it's better than none, but with a little
tweaking, our resources have the potential to carry us through long, bad times. An example? I see people getting cheap, portable first aid kits.
Most of these, to me, are primarily things that aren't lifesaving. Oh yeah, it's a good thing to have some alcohol wipes, and band-aids and
perhaps even scissors/tweezers, etc. Think about getting a sectioned bag, fishing tackle box, compartmentalized backpack -- whatever -- and
compiling your own med kit based upon what things might be vital for your and your families if you have to administer your own medical treatment.
The first and foremost in this category, IMO, is knowledge. Collect books. You can take training on how to suture, set broken bones,
steralization techniques, CPR, and the like. I started out with a military medkit for emergency surgery, took classes, and so it's somewhat
appropriate for me to have more elaborate tools. Naturally, I defer to those really trained in these proceedures, but what if it's just us two?
SAM splints are wonderful -- cheap, effective and very lightweight and portable. Duct tape can do a myriad of things for you and some of them
lifesaving. Burn creams, medical suturing glue, meds, antibiotic cream, iodine, sterile gauze...... I could go on an on. These are things that
are real and necessary and should be customized to your situation and your perceptions of what might be needed if you're on your own (YOYO).
Closely tied to this is hygiene needs. I know from personal experience how important it is to keep your feet clean. Go ahead and giggle, I don't
mind, hell, I'll laugh with you.....
but, if your feet are FUBAR, your survival is greatly minimized.
Thanks for the thread. We can prepare for the unknown without injuring our pocketbooks if we do it a little at a time, with specific goals in mind.
Compulsive listmakers have an advantage here, I think.