Preparedness Thoughts

As stories came out of North Carolina following the hurricane, there were a number of videos people posted listing things they wish they would have had on hand or things they wish they would have done before the hurricane that could have helped them through the first few days. If you have decided to take the next step in your preparedness journey (no matter where you are at now), I encourage you to look up a few of these videos from people who have lived it - they are certainly more experienced than many, and they have a lot to teach us.

A Few Takeaways from the Flood Videos

Here are a few highlights from what was said:

1) You can prepare for a disaster and still loose everything. Prepare anyway - you may end up being one of the few in a position to help your neighbors.

2) It is nearly impossible to be completely prepared for every possible scenario. 

3) If you can afford it, a generator is wonderful to have, but only if you have enough fuel stored to run it.

4) Store water. The minimum is one gallon per person per day. People on the ground were saying that this was barely enough to get by. You will need water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. The longer people were out of water and electricity, the greater the need was to use water for cleanliness - washing clothes, dishes, etc. The lack of clean water affected many people. Those with wells had no electricity to run their well pump (thus the need for a generator). Those in town were without water due to the floods compromising community water sources and damaging infrastructure.

5) Have instant meals on hand for ease of use and peace of mind in the first few days until you can get yourself and your family better situated.

6) The ability to prepare a warm meal cannot be overstated. Be prepared with several options for heating water and cooking food. 

There are many more lessons to be learned from those who have survived a disaster. The post-hurricane situation highlights the benefits of having some preparations set aside. So, what should you do if you want to prepare? You can check out where to start on our website.

Action Items You Can Take Now for Your Pantry

While there are still many holes in our own preparations, we are using some of the comments to help us better focus our pantry preparation. One thing that struck me was how people were not able to prepare many kinds of food due to lack of water. Since even municipal water systems were affected, the lack of water was a huge issue for many. While beans and rice, a great source of protein when eaten together, tend to be a part of many preparedness plans, water resources were so limited that cooking these was an issue. Both beans and rice take a lot of water to prepare and cook, water that was needed for drinking and sanitation. 

With this in mind, there are a few affordable things we are working on that you can do, too, to better prepare your own pantry:


1) Can some of your beans now while you have plentiful access to good water. They will be pre-cooked and ready to consume. Alternatively, you can keep store-bought canned beans on the shelf.

2) Consider storing some instant rice in addition to regular rice. It takes less water to cook than traditional rice and still gives you a complete protein when consumed with beans.

3) Can broth (or purchase canned broth). Broth is a good source of both nutrients and flavor. It can be used to drink, as a soup base, or to cook rice, pasta, or potatoes.

4) Can water. It may sound odd, but if you have extra jars, can some water. If canned in a boiling water bath or a pressure cooker, the water inside will have boiled. Boiling water kills microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and protozoans. Furthermore, storing water in glass canning jars avoids the negative effects of microplastics leeching into your drinking water. Whether or not you can, be sure to have plenty of stored water in whatever safe storage manner you are able to achieve in your circumstances.

5) Can or store some pre-prepared meals. Having something you can pour out, heat (even over a campfire), and eat will make a stressful situation easier. A number of people talked about how tired they were of cold meals and packaged snacks after a just a couple of days. They were longing for a hot meal that didn't take hours to prepare.


With these things in mind, we focused on having some canned beans, broth, stew, and water on the shelf. The canned water and broth will give us what we need to cook rice. Combined with the beans, we have the potential for several protein rich meals. Canned stew (not shown here) gives us a ready-made meal containing both meat and vegetables to add variety to our diet.

Do you have any ideas to add? We would love to hear them! Feel free to post your ideas in the comment section below.





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