Batten Down The Hatches?
But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
The Apostle Peter - New Testament, Matthew 14:30.
Porcupine purchased fifty percent of all the disposable face masks in his local Cape drug store the other night, but charitably left the other box for somebody else.
Today, August 29th, is first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina which ravaged the entire Gulf Coast area. Porcupine mentions that, as New Orleans gets a disportionate amount of the coverage about this, but communities like Mobile, Alabama were devastated too. It’s rather like the Pentagon getting lost in New York 9/11 memorials.
Porcupine freely admits that he is little better prepared for disaster than a year ago. We are threatened with so many - hurricane, blizzards, bird flu, Triple-E, nuclear accident, terrorist incident – all of us on Cape Cod and the Islands know that whether the disaster in question is howling winds or a pandemic, our reality will be the same. We will be stranded here.
Our various newspapers, our Red Cross, our police and fire – all have tried to get us into a more prepared frame of mind. We continue to whistle past the various graveyards. So – we must issue a different call to arms on this anniversary!
Democrats – do you want to trust in government with George Bush in the White House?
Republicans – do you want to trust in government EVER?
Independents – do you want to live up to your name?
The odd thing is, the instructions are the same for ALL these varied disasters. In essence, we all need to be ready to be cut off from normal life for 30 to 45 days.
Months ago, Gov. Romney suggested that when we go food shopping, we include one extra article and use it to begin to have a store of food. Porcupine has done this, and it works, right up until he runs out of peanut butter or tuna fish. Porcupine speaks feelingly as somebody who tried cooking macaroni and cheese on a wood stove after Hurricane Bob, and who knows how impossible that is. Food that only needs to be warmed is essential. In exploring a web site that sells MRE’s - the government K-rations that last five years - he learned that SOMEBODY is doing a better job of preparing, because their stores are 2/3 sold out.
Porcupine also found KI, potassium iodide pills - a 100 day supply for a single adult for $12 including shipping, and bought two, rather than wait another five years for the state to distribute them why they squabble with the towns who do not want to accept responsibility for distribution, and querulously want to know if the state wants summer or winter population numbers.
We should all have a few hundred dollars in cash for emergencies, but that hoard suffers the same fate as the tuna fish. Porcupine wishes he COULD get the extra medications needed in a disaster, but that is just about impossible as insurance companies won’t allow you to fill your prescription more than once. There is an extra bag of dog chow, but he’ll be awfully hungry after a week or so.
Porcupine has camping gear, and so has jugs capable of storing 30 gallons of water, and he knows about filling the bathtub as soon as disaster strikes for washing water. There are also candles, lights and a generator – in Maine. Porcupine can go live in the cellar again, like during Bob, but after a few days he will be hard up.
When – not if – disaster strikes, there will be hundreds of seniors and others who will be utterly helpless. The Lord helps those who help themselves, so please, as a Katrina anniversary observance – begin to make a disaster hoard, no matter how rudimentary.
Porcupine is going to get some tomato soup to go with his sterilizing hand gel, packets of flavored oatmeal, KI pills and face masks. It’s not much, but it might be very much better than noting at all.
The Apostle Peter - New Testament, Matthew 14:30.
Porcupine purchased fifty percent of all the disposable face masks in his local Cape drug store the other night, but charitably left the other box for somebody else.
Today, August 29th, is first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina which ravaged the entire Gulf Coast area. Porcupine mentions that, as New Orleans gets a disportionate amount of the coverage about this, but communities like Mobile, Alabama were devastated too. It’s rather like the Pentagon getting lost in New York 9/11 memorials.
Porcupine freely admits that he is little better prepared for disaster than a year ago. We are threatened with so many - hurricane, blizzards, bird flu, Triple-E, nuclear accident, terrorist incident – all of us on Cape Cod and the Islands know that whether the disaster in question is howling winds or a pandemic, our reality will be the same. We will be stranded here.
Our various newspapers, our Red Cross, our police and fire – all have tried to get us into a more prepared frame of mind. We continue to whistle past the various graveyards. So – we must issue a different call to arms on this anniversary!
Democrats – do you want to trust in government with George Bush in the White House?
Republicans – do you want to trust in government EVER?
Independents – do you want to live up to your name?
The odd thing is, the instructions are the same for ALL these varied disasters. In essence, we all need to be ready to be cut off from normal life for 30 to 45 days.
Months ago, Gov. Romney suggested that when we go food shopping, we include one extra article and use it to begin to have a store of food. Porcupine has done this, and it works, right up until he runs out of peanut butter or tuna fish. Porcupine speaks feelingly as somebody who tried cooking macaroni and cheese on a wood stove after Hurricane Bob, and who knows how impossible that is. Food that only needs to be warmed is essential. In exploring a web site that sells MRE’s - the government K-rations that last five years - he learned that SOMEBODY is doing a better job of preparing, because their stores are 2/3 sold out.
Porcupine also found KI, potassium iodide pills - a 100 day supply for a single adult for $12 including shipping, and bought two, rather than wait another five years for the state to distribute them why they squabble with the towns who do not want to accept responsibility for distribution, and querulously want to know if the state wants summer or winter population numbers.
We should all have a few hundred dollars in cash for emergencies, but that hoard suffers the same fate as the tuna fish. Porcupine wishes he COULD get the extra medications needed in a disaster, but that is just about impossible as insurance companies won’t allow you to fill your prescription more than once. There is an extra bag of dog chow, but he’ll be awfully hungry after a week or so.
Porcupine has camping gear, and so has jugs capable of storing 30 gallons of water, and he knows about filling the bathtub as soon as disaster strikes for washing water. There are also candles, lights and a generator – in Maine. Porcupine can go live in the cellar again, like during Bob, but after a few days he will be hard up.
When – not if – disaster strikes, there will be hundreds of seniors and others who will be utterly helpless. The Lord helps those who help themselves, so please, as a Katrina anniversary observance – begin to make a disaster hoard, no matter how rudimentary.
Porcupine is going to get some tomato soup to go with his sterilizing hand gel, packets of flavored oatmeal, KI pills and face masks. It’s not much, but it might be very much better than noting at all.
posted by Peter Porcupine at 9:22 AM
1 Comments:
You did not mention getting more peanut butter. I certainly hope you did.
I suggest getting a couple cans of lima beans. I've got some and they will stay in the disaster pack and not get used like peanut butter and tuna does.
Of course it is a good idea to rotate the stock on occasion...
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