Food for Emergency

You never know when you might need food for an emergency.

We live in an uncertain world. In the United States, we're so used to safety we forget that it's never 100% guaranteed.

Thanks to the oil leak in the Gulf right now, I've been thinking more about storing food for emergency.

Stock Up Now on Food for Emergency

I know that's not the kind of emergency you think of when you think of storing food, but it's still going to be a major problem for the people affected directly. It's going to be a major problem eventually for all of us who are American taxpayers or who have to pay for energy.

However, there was recently a flood in Arkansas in Ouachita National Forest which does help to emphasize the need to store food for emergencies. It was the worst flood there in thirty years.

It hit a campground where many people were sleeping in cabins. They got awakened, and immediately plunged into cold water. Eighteen people died, unable to get out in time.

It was a wall of water that smashed houses and tore trees apart. It came from the Caddo and Little Missouri rivers. It even tore the pavement from roads. It's lucky that so many of the campers were able to escape death from the waters.

You May Never Need Any Food for an Emergency, but You Can't Bet Your Life on That

But it illustrates the point that you never know what's going to happen, so you have to be prepared. As campers, they no doubt had food on hand, but it didn't do them any good when the water drove them from their cabins of the Albert Pike Recreation Area before dawn.

Nor is that all. An earthquake of 7.5 magnitude struck in the Indian Ocean near the Nicobar Islands. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued a tsunami watch for all areas of the Indian Ocean, which includes India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia. Fortunately, however, the earthquake failed to produce a signficant tsunami and the watch is cancelled.

However, it brings back horrible memories of the post-Christmas Day 2004 tsunami that took so many lives.

True, nobody can prepared for a giant wave which comes unexpectedly and wipes your beach front and a considerable swath of land higher than the beach, in just minutes. And if your house is on the beach, and that's where your stored emergency food is, then it'll be gone.

We associate beach houses with wealth, but this is not always true.

Even Cave People Saved Up Food for Emergency

I remember staying a few days at a small resort in Sri Lanka. I forget the name of the area (this was about ten years before the tsunami), but it was not far from Colombo and the international airport, on the west side of the country, so I don't think it was hit by the tsunami.

Still, I saw many huts on the beach. Most houses of common people have thatched roofs of dried palm fronds that have turned gray. It has kind of an ugly compared to the bright greenery of the living vegetation.

I doubt the people store much food for emergencies, since they are largely very poor. Economic development has been slow partly as a result of a long civil war between Tamil rebels in the north of the country. This forces the government to pour lots of resources into its military instead of more productive avenues, and discourages private capital from coming in to help develop the country.

I know that some Sri Lankans on the coast are fishermen.

Here is a video about preparing food for emergency:

Next: Food for Survival -- keep emergency foods on hand.