The Top Difficulties Encountered With Disaster Preparations
There are many difficulties you will encounter when preparing for disaster. These aren’t just difficulties that you will encounter during the disaster itself, but also during preparations such as in your day-to-day life right now.
What are some of these challenges and difficulties? They include but are not limited to:
A LACK OF MOTIVATION
There are many people who understand the value of prepping and the reasons for doing so yet don’t feel any real motivation to take any steps because they convince themselves that they are in a safe part of the world and that no disasters will ever happen to them.
In reality, this is a very naive worldview. The power going out for a week, for example, may not be a disaster on a grand scale but is still something that stockpiling provisions will help you out with.
Often, the biggest motivator to actually prep is to prepare for natural disasters, which are far more believable in that you can see how they could actually happen. Other disasters such as terrorist attacks or economic collapses, on the other hand, may seem like something that will never happen to you (at least in your mind).
THE EXPENSE
Needless to say, prepping is not exactly a cheap endeavor. On the contrary, it can be incredibly expensive. For example, search online for a six month supply of food and you’ll be taken aback by the fact that it can cost several hundred dollars.
For many people, especially those with very tight budgets, that simply isn’t doable; and while smaller preparations such as buying a $20 first aid kit or stockpiling a few bottles of water may be much cheaper, they may also feel rather insignificant.
But the truth is that every disaster preparation you make, no matter how small, counts. If you buy a collection of water bottles for a few dollars, for instance, that’s much better than not gathering them in the first place, right?
ROTATING OUT FOOD AND WATER
When it comes to food and water, you will have to rotate them out. For example, water should be rotated out at least once every six months in order to be on the safe side, though admittedly some preppers will wait for a year. For food, it depends on what the shelf life is.
Many preppers can be annoyed by having to often rotate out their water and will therefore not even bother to do it. This can be a major mistake as the water can become contaminated and unsafe to drink, and drinking bad water can be more dangerous than not drinking any water at all.
NOT STOCKPILING ENOUGH
Another serious problem is that many preppers feel they aren’t stockpiling enough, even if they have entire rooms or garages filled with food, water, and other supplies. The truth is indeed that you can never stockpile enough, which is why many preppers are never happy with their stored supplies.
The best solution is just to stockpile a minimum amount for a certain length of time. In other words, stockpile enough provisions to last you and your family for a day, then for three days, then for a week, then for two weeks, then for a month, then for three months, then for six months, and then for a year.
PREPARING FOR POOR SANITATION STANDARDS
Sanitation standards are going to drop significantly during any disaster situation, and this is one of the most difficult things to prepare for, especially if there are diseases spreading rapidly and little way to protect against them.
The best solution is to invest in first aid equipment, cleaning equipment such as baking soda, and medical masks that you may be wise to wear all the time a few days after the disaster happens and once the trash is no longer being picked up.