5 Events We All Need to Prepare For

In January of 2020, all was relatively normal in Maine, the most northeastern state in the United States. It was a typical winter, with a typical amount of snow, a typical amount of cold temperatures, and everyone was living their typical lives with hopes that spring temperatures would arrive soon. 

Wicked Prepared had not been born quite yet, although we were in the early stages of planning 'something' because we knew we wanted to be prepared in case the world were to change. It didn't seem like anything was going to happen, but having lived through 9/11, several highs and lows of the economy, and even the Ice Storm of '98 here in Maine, we've become accustomed to expecting life to change when everything seems to be going smoothly. 

It seems like we tended only to think about being prepared after the electricity went out, or after our water was shutoff while the town repaired our road. I can clearly remember returning home after our daughter's soccer game one fall afternoon, coming inside the house, using the bathroom, then turning the faucet on to wash my hands. Water came out for about 5 seconds before tapering to a trickle, and then ceasing to flow at all. Simultaneously, the toilet stopped filling as well. I had wondered why there were so many construction workers at the nearest intersection, and after a quick check with the neighbor, realized they had severed the water main that supplied our homes. We have a river that runs around the boundary of our property, so my first course of action was to retrieve two pails full of water that could be used for flushing the toilets. But the water certainly didn't look clean enough for anything but that. We took a trip to the closest grocery store and purchased six-gallon jugs of water to use for everything we needed. Luckily the workers were able to repair the water line by the end of the day, or else we wouldn't have had a solution for showers that night or the next morning.

This ordeal with the water was a turning point for our family. This is when we decided we needed to be proactive, not reactive. This could have easily been a far longer situation. Or it could have easily been a lack of food, or medication, or any number of things we require to live. We vowed to not procrastinate any longer, and made plans to be prepared for whatever unexpected scenarios could come our way. Never again would I have to make an emergency trip to the store just because no water flowed from our faucets. Because, what if the store was closed? What if all of the town's residents had been out of water, and depleted the store of it's inventory? There were a lot of "what ifs" but we were determined to find the solutions ahead of time, instead of panicking after it was too late.

So we watched video after video about "prepping." We read countless articles about what to stock up on, what to keep in our home, and how to live without modern conveniences. We spent many mornings drinking our coffee together, brainstorming ways that we could be more prepared. Keeping a stockpile of water seemed pretty simple, but then we moved onto thinking about food, which seemed overwhelming and certainly less straightforward. Where do you start? How do you keep a balanced diet during an emergency when it seems like everything that is shelf stable is just pasta and starches?

It was toward the end of January 2020 when, after months of research and scouring through YouTube, we made the decision to begin ordering freeze-dried food from Thrive Life.

Finally, we had found a solution to keeping a good supply of food on hand in case of emergency. 

Then, well, in March and April of 2020, everything changed, as they say. The pandemic hit home, the spread ramped up, and businesses closed down. COVID-19 was here to stay and would change the world as we had known it. 

We had received our very first delivery of Thrive Life food, we had a few cases of water bottles in the basement, we had plenty of cereal in the pantry, and ironically had a surplus of toilet paper due to various deals and coupons we had taken advantage of over the winter. But even with all this, we felt less prepared than ever. We had been caught with our pants down, both in our family and as a nation. 

It was at that moment we realized two things. First, we needed to seriously focus on being prepared to survive. Second, we wanted to share our mindset with as many people as we could, so that we could ALL survive whatever came our way. In March of 2020, nobody knew what would lie ahead. And as it turned out, it was a crazy year, and so far 2021 has shown us things may not get much better. 

The title of this article is "5 Events We All Need to Prepare For," but the truth is, the list is limitless. None of us can predict the future, it is the root of nearly all anxiety and worry for most people. But the best thing we can do, as humans, is prepare for the unknown. Being prepared gives us a sense of readiness, a feeling that we can conquer whatever challenge comes our way. So if we prepare for what experts agree will happen, or could happen, chances are we'll unknowingly be just as prepared for the unforeseeable occurrences and emergencies that nobody could have ever seen coming. 

Without further ado, the 5 events for which we all need to be Wicked Prepared.

No electricity

We are a society dependent on electricity, so it's no wonder this is one of the events that is most important for which to prepare. The difficult part with this is not knowing how long you would not have electricity. A storm may knock out your power for a day, or two, possibly a week or more, depending on the severity. However, an electromagnetic pulse, a solar flare, or any number of naturally occurring or man-made attacks, could render our grid useless and leave an entire region, entire nation, or the entire world with absolutely no electricity. 

Preparations vary, of course, depending on how long you could be without electricity. But if possible, prepare for the worst case scenario. A generator will only last as long as you have fuel, so you can only rely on one as a temporary solution. Gasoline begins to go stale after being stored for only 30 days, making stockpiling gasoline useless. Diesel and propane powered generators are of course limited by the amount of fuel on hand as well, although the fuel doesn't expire as quickly. 

Keep in mind that in the event of a power outage, you will also lose the ability to refrigerate or keep your foods frozen. Unfortunately, once the electricity goes down, there isn't much you can do salvage a freezer full of thawing meats. Obviously if it's cold outside, that may be an option. But other than that, your best bet is to be prepared for this ahead of time and not be dependent on a surplus of frozen/refrigerated goods to last you through an emergency. We keep an extra chest freezer packed full of meat we find on sale and refill it just as quickly as we take from it. But it dawned on us at some point that there would be enough meat there to feed our family for weeks, but it would most likely thaw quicker than we could consume it in the event we lost electricity for an extended amount of time.

Prepare for no electricity by stocking up on the following:

• batteries and flashlights 

• candles

• butane or propane cookstove

• firewood for cooking and heat

• water 

• food that requires no cooking and no refrigeration  

No Running Water

Running water and indoor plumbing is certainly something the civilized world has come to rely upon. Power outage at home or at the city pumping station, pollution, or even drought could put an end to this modern convenience. But what will you do when you turn the faucet and nothing comes out?

It's important to keep a good supply of drinking water on hand as well as having methods to harvest water. In our article "3 days," we discuss the fact that a human body can only survive 3 days without water, and we cover all you need to know about not letting yourself and your family run dry. This includes keeping jugs or barrels of water stored in your garage, basement, or even a closet, as well as implementing a system of rain barrels that capture runoff from your home's roof. Check that post out by clicking here. 

To prepare for a day without running water, you should also keep in mind that a toilet can still be used and flushed without running water by simply dumping a bucket of water swiftly into the bowl of the toilet. A way to conserve water would be to keep the water used from washing your hands, laundry and dishes and using this water to flush the toilet. Or of course, you could skip using the toilet all together and build yourself one of these bad boys. 

Yes I built this and yes I put Christmas lights on it 😄 

Food Shortage

If the pandemic has taught us all one thing, it's that our nation's supply chain system is very delicate, and it doesn't take much of a disturbance to disrupt the flow of goods. A scary chain reaction unfolded before our eyes, as people began to hoard what food was left, grocery stores became more and more bare. 

But it's not just a pandemic that can upset our supply chain and leave our nation hungry. Any number of events have the potential of leaving your family without even the most basic of ingredients. Loss of employment, reduction in income, or illness or death of a household's breadwinner can leave a family struggling to buy groceries. But luckily there are measures you can take to keep food on the table, no matter what might be happening outside. 

• Grow your own garden every year

• Can the vegetables you harvest to keep them stored for the winter

• Keep your pantry stocked with non-perishable food

• Create a stockpile of Thrive Life freeze-dried food which allows you to keep preservative-free vegetables, fruits, meats, dairy and more - all shelf stable for 25 years! 

Civil Unrest

It's something many of us never dealt with or even considered an issue until the year 2020. But widespread civil unrest is a real thing, as we've seen, even in developed countries with clear, organized leadership.

Having crowds of unhappy people swarming through your city or town could certainly put you in danger, no matter if you agree with their cause or not. There are some steps you can take to keep yourself, your family, and your home protected before, and during, a protest or riot happens on your street.

• Remove political signs, flags, bumper stickers - anything that could make it appear you support one side/cause or the other

• Be prepared with weapons and ammunition and know how to safely use them to defend yourself

• Keep food and water stockpiled in the event you don't feel safe leaving your home

• Stay inside, lock all doors and windows, but keep a watchful eye on what's happening outside

• Don't go looking for trouble and don't add to the chaos, just keep to yourself and mind your own business

SHTF (S#!t Hits the Fan)

This is the big one, and the focus of most "preppers." The term envelopes several different scenarios, impacting various percentages of the population, with events including:

• Major natural disaster

• Pandemic 

• World War 

• Electromagnetic pulse

• Solar flare 

• Asteroid impact 

• Nuclear attack 

As you can see, this is a scary list. And the frightening part is that each of these events are very likely to occur. These are not made up scenarios that you only see in movies. These are actual events that will happen, it's just a matter of when. Will it be during your lifetime? Your childrens'? Your grandchildrens'?

As a side note, on the list above is "electromagnetic pulse." This was a term I had never even heard of prior to our research on prepping. I won't get into the science here, but an Electromagnetic Pulse, or EMP, is essentially a burst of energy either naturally occurring (such as through solar flares from our sun) or created by humans. This energy, depending on the size and magnitude, has the potential to render every single item that contains a circuit or magnets, useless. That includes, but is certainly not limited to: all electronics, all automobiles manufactured since roughly 1970, all electric motors and appliances, all generators, and all aircraft. An EMP is the event most preppers consider most likely to occur, while also being the most misunderstood.

So how can you prepare for S hitting the F?

A good start is to prepare for all of the above in this article. So if you are prepared for no electricity, no running water, no food, and for civil unrest - you're well on your way to being ready for SHTF. 

Preparing for a possible end-of-days scenario can seem overwhelming. But breaking it up into these categories makes it much more manageable. You don't need to do it all at once, you just need to get started. You don't need to drain your savings account to become prepared overnight. You don't need to quit your job and spend 24 hours a day getting ready for the apocalypse. But you can, and you should, create a budget of time and of money that allows you to become a little more prepared each week. 

The reality is - you could spend a lifetime preparing and still not have everything you need in a SHTF scenario. But if you start prepping today, you're certain to be more prepared than you were yesterday. And look at you, now that you've read this article, you're even more prepared than you were 10 minutes ago! 

Now take a few minutes to see how Wicked Prepared has helped this happy couple: