How prepared are you for a real emergency?

Imagine if you will, being stranded in New Orleans during the height of the looting and lawlessness. Could you survive? Could you protect your family? Could you keep the supplies you stored for this situation from being taken?

This is not a question that most Americans would ever think of. I have thought about it, I believe that I could answer in the affirmative to those questions.

Growing up in the country, I have plenty of experience with small scale disasters. When you live 40 miles from town, the power going out is a regular occurrence. I remember the having to live without electricity for two weeks at a time. Without power, your well does not work, that means no water. You learn to adapt and more importantly, to prepare.

Water is life, most everything else you can do without for weeks. If you have never thought of what you would do if the water from your tap stopped for two weeks, and you could not get out of your house or city, what would you do?

What would happen if the power went out for two weeks and your community had been cut off from the outside world? What if you looked out your windows after the third day to see looters kicking in doors on your block? No 911, no police, nobody to come to your aid. Could you protect yourself and your property?

Scary? You bet.

Please don't think I am some 'survivalist nut' who has a 6 year supply of MREs in my basement, I don't even have a basement. I do not advocate people who have never handled a firearm to go out a buy one to throw in a drawer. That is a recipe for tragedy. I believe that everyone should take a training course before they think of buying a firearm. If you are willing to buy a $200-800 firearm, you should be prepared to purchase a safe to store it in. You will also find the safe very useful for storing all those important documents and heirlooms that are not protected right now.

A firearm in the hands of a trained owner is an essential part of protecting home and family.
A water filtration device that can handle liters of water, not ounces is expensive but not that expensive.
A 3500 watt generator and spare gas cans, safely stored, can be the difference between a week of agony or relative comfort.
A few hundred or thousand dollars in cash, in your safe, can go along way when the lights go out.
With the threat of terrorism as well as a natural disaster always a possibility, you may want to look at your emergency kit. A flashlight and a transistor radio are nice to have, but nothing says 'get out of my house' quite like the sound of a pump shotgun putting a round in the chamber.