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Emergency Preparedness Supplies First of All Include Food and Water

"Survivors survive."

That's a quote from science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein that points out why you need to stock up with emergency preparedness supplies now, before you need them.

He wrote a number of books dramatising the problems people face or could face in the universe. One was a post-atomic war novel, a common theme in both science fiction and popular fiction of the 1950s-1980s.

In many post-catastrophe science fiction novels the main characters are people who are alive basically through luck. The blasts killed many people, but not them.

Not Robert A. Heinlein. His characters were a family who'd built a bomb shelter. The husband insisted on it, was made fun of, but carried it through, and so he and his family made it through the war.

His point was that you didn't count on luck, you prepared for things that could happen. Even if you find yourself on the roof of your house during a flood, you'll be much better off if you have food and water there with you.

Survival Outpost is a website dedicated to helping people with their emergency preparedness. They carry Mountain House freeze dried foods and disaster kits.

Mountain House has for thirty-five years carried dried food primarily for people to pack with them on camping trips, hikes, float trips, hunting and fishing, and mountain climbs. However, the same light weight, convenience, long shelf life without refrigeration, quality nutrition and good taste that makes it a favorite of backpackers also makes it idea for an emergency pack and emergency food supplies.

For example, their bestseller kit contains: 1 - Beef Stew, 1 - Beef Stroganoff, 1 - Chicken Teriyaki, 1 - Lasagna w/Meat, 1 - Scrambled Eggs w/Ham, and 1 - Raspberry Crumble. Just add hot water. If you need to, use cold water. Keep a small hand stove or at least candles and waterproof matches on hand.

Water is another important part of your disaster preparedness. During the 1993 Mississippi River flood, my mother was high above the flood waters because she lives close to the highest point in Madison County Illinois (across the river from St Louis).

Yet she had to boil her water because the treatment plant in Alton Illinoise, on the shore of the river was covered with water and not operating. Anheuser-Busch wound up distributing six pack cans of clean water. (I told her to keep one of them in case it ever becomes a collector's item for Anheuser-Busch collectors, but I don't believe she did.)

You can get water storage containers in 15 and 30 gallon sizes, plus a water preserver-purifier. And water purification tablets. Keep them in the corner of your basement in case you ever need them.

They also have water filtration bottles you can take on campouts, and keep in your car in case the disaster demands you flee your house, such as a Hurricaine Katrina. And home water filtration systems. You should be filtering your drinking water anyway.

Think carefully about what emergency preparedness supplies you and your family need to have on hand for both short-term and long-term disasters. Survive.