Personal emergency prep critical

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for April 3, 2019)

Never before have I needed my emergency preparations twice in so short a time. For the second time in just over two weeks, I'm glad I make a point to prepare for the unexpected.

First, it was the power outage from the wind storm. I was ready, so it was only a minor inconvenience.

Then, this past week a broken water main meant I, along with most of Farwell, had no running water for several hours. When the water was restored, we were under a 72-hour boil order. Again, a small inconvenience which could have been a real problem if I weren't prepared.

Because of where we live, water is the most critical emergency supply you can stockpile for your family.

This is a dry area without much surface water. All the usable water is deep underground. You can't just take a bucket to the creek for water. Even if you aren't on a town water system, if your water source depends on the electric grid to bring it to the surface, you could be in trouble.

Water is important for drinking, washing, and cooking, but also for flushing toilets. If you aren't careful, toilets can quickly use most of your water.

I won't claim to have enough water stored. I don't believe such a thing is even possible since you can't live without it.

You don't need to buy a water tank-- but if you can afford one and have a place for it, why not? Two-liter soft drink bottles, cranberry juice jugs, and other food-safe clear plastic bottles are a good way to store water. Keep them out of the light so they don't become a biology experiment and change them out every year or so. Once you have all you think you need, try living without running water for a day and see how quickly you use your supply. Then store more for next time. This would be good for you, and that's important to me.

The next time there's a disruption to the water supply wouldn't you rather pull out some jugs of water instead of wondering when the water will be turned on again, and when it will be safe to drink? Sure, maybe you can visit someone who still has water and fill your jugs from their faucets. I prefer to not be a burden on others, and I'd rather not feel the anxiety from not having what I need when I need it, on hand, at home.

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The Book vs the bumper sticker

Often I'll answer someone's question on an issue with a highly detailed explanation. I'll go into details, include links, and do the best I can to make sure what I'm saying is complete. You can see some of these efforts preserved in this blog.

Statists will usually then complain that they didn't want a book, just a simple answer.

Other times I'll pare it down to the simplest answer I can come up with, free of links or details they didn't ask for. Thinking that if they have a further question about some specific point, I can expand on that later. If they are interested.

The statists usually then complain that if I'm just going to reply with "a bumper sticker" they're done with me.

I finally came to understand this is a trap. They don't want to get it, so they'll use whatever excuse is most convenient to avoid facing the harsh truth. It wouldn't have mattered how I responded. Not really.

This is why it's more productive to write for The Remnant.

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