Introduction

I've been worried, probably more than I should be, about the fragileness of our existence. It is easy to get comfortable in our lives and routines, but it is naive to assume that everything will always be just as it is. Some change is slow and gradual, and some change is sudden and catastrophic. We can adapt to gradual changes, but be completely overwhelmed and unprepared for sudden changes. Since sudden change is typically unpredictable, you have to try and anticipate potential needs and prepare for those possibilities. Life change can take on many forms. This change can be physical (loss of health, loss of home), emotional (divorce, loss of a loved one), financial (loss of job, unexpected expenses), or even spiritual (loss of faith or inner peace). Some catastrophic events can cause all of these kinds of change at the same time.

I first started preparing for these events back in 1999. I have to say that the potential Y2K crisis scared the crap out of me. I read an article that year in Wired magazine about computer programmers that had been working to fix the Y2K computer problem. They were so convinced that the repairs could not be completed soon enough that they quit their day jobs and moved into the country to start living off of the power grid, growing their own food and everything. We toyed (briefly) with the idea of moving and starting a working farm. We had a young son and I was in the middle of a 3 year internship program at my job that would have derailed my career if I abandoned it. We decided instead to prepare enough food, water, and alternative heat sources so that we could sustain ourselves for a couple of weeks if we had to. We thought it would be a good idea also if we had a bad snowstorm and couldn't leave the house for a few days. Thankfully nothing bad happened, but we resolved then to at least stay prepared for a bad winter storm.

Recently the WTC attacks on 9/11, the 2004 Indonesian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, more bad winters, fears of terrorism and bird flu have prompted us to continue our preparedness. I even volunteered in Louisiana after Katrina and saw what happens to a community when everything falls apart all around you. It's one thing to prepare for a snowstorm and yet another to deal with the destruction of your neighborhood or city. It hit even closer to home last month when my brother had to abandon his home with his 3 young children for the night because an ice storm knocked out his power. I completed the FEMA Citizen Preparedness course. I am in the process of collecting disaster preparedness kits for different scenarios. I've bought several textbooks and field guides on wilderness medicine and I'm taking a course on wilderness medicine this summer. I'm assembling important financial documents to make a sort of emergency financial first aid kit.

I'd like to use this blog to catalog and describe some of these efforts. I want others to be able to build on what I've done and modify it to fit their circumstances. I am not an expert at this, but I'll try to point you to some. I'm just an ordinary guy, trying to prepare his family for unexpected circumstances. I have medical training as a family physcian, so I'll try to bring that experience to bear. Nothing I say here constitutes medical advice, so please consult your doctor to make sure that whatever you read here is right for you. I'd like for this to be a discussion, so please feel free to share any ideas, tips, or helpful resources in the comments sections. If I try out a product and like it, I'll talk about it here. I have nothing to sell, but you may see ads on this page for products from Google or Amazon. Please check them out if they interest you, but don't assume I know anything about the products unless I've talked about them in the blog. If you want to contact me directly instead of posting a comment, email me at jlevansfp{at}gmail.com (substituting the @ symbol for the {at} of course.

Jason Evans, MD