My email to a relative in Tampa

This was sent Tuesday to a cousin of mine who lives in Tampa. I asked how she was doing, and her response was that there was no bottled water to be had but she was hoping they'd be resupplied. I told her to fill sealable tupperware containers, pitchers, pots and pans.

She's not very preparedness or survival-savvy; this was my attempt to jolt her a bit and to hopefully get her to think about being ready. I tried to balance giving enough information but not so much as to make it impossible. Was there more I could have said? Sure. She has no guns, for instance, and now is not the time. But I was time-constrained and wanted this in her hands as fast as possible.

And, yeah, I kind of outed myself here, but she's family (I don't have a lot left) and sometimes you do things from love, not from a coldly-rational point of view.

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To: my relative
Date: Tuesday 9/5/17
Subject: Preparedness

Well, you might not be terribly surprised to find out the subject of the email is something i know a bit about.

There are six basic things one needs to prepare to survive an event:

Water (most important)
Food
Hygiene
Medical/Health
Light/Heat/Cooking fuel
Defense

And just in case, make sure your vehicle is ready to go, gassed up. Just in case.

Those things you generally need no matter what. The defense thing is probably iffy for you, but this Irma thing probably won't result in a societal breakdown, where that might be more important.

I am....fairly well prepared myself for a great deal of possible circumstances. I don't believe in preparing for specific events unless they are relatively likely (living in a place with hurricanes is one of those). Instead, I prepare capabilities.

You may wish to get one or two LED headlamps. They're good for reading, doing dishes, working on something that needs fixing, whatever. Flashlights are nice, but hard to keep holding.

I have a number of small LED lanterns, several LED headlamps, a bunch of small LED flashlights for moving around or whatever. Or to give out. I also have a ton of batteries. Some rechargeable, some just regular one-time-use batteries. I like to standardize on the smaller AA or AAA batteries, they make for smaller flashlights and LED is bright enough.

I wish I could send you the bottled water I have put away in the garage. In the meantime you've got a bunch of vessels to put municipal water away. The authorities, who are often wrong on this stuff, are right on this: you need a gallon a day for every day you think you might be cut off from normal supplies. Per person. In your case, and using Houston as a guide, you may need a couple weeks worth. 14 x 2 is... you can do the math.

That's for drinking, cooking, and hygiene. You can back off that a bit if you have milk to drink, soda (not the healthiest but maybe a good morale booster), or other kinds of drink.

I think you have to presume water is cut off. If so, you need something to flush the toilets. It takes about a gallon and a half to do that, maybe a bit more. Don't flush every time, just when you need to. If by chance the sewage system isn't working, you need another vessel for that purpose. A 5-gallon bucket works for that, not the most elegant, but it works.

A lot of people have canned food, but then they have an electric can opener and when the power is out...there you are. Need a hand-cranked one, or if you can use the old boy-scout-knife kind. Two is better than one.

I really have thought about this stuff a lot, and haven't limited my activity to just thinking. We're ready for most anything, short of a tornado that levels our house. I have a generator and 60 gallons of gas, a chain saw....bugout bag, clothing bags, food tub, etc.

Which brings to mind another thing. Suppose circumstances require you to leave. Mandatory evac, or services are just impossible, or whatever. It would be good to have a bag packed for each of you, with 2 or 3 changes of clothing, 7 days of undergarments, and things you'd wish you had if forced to stay in a shelter. Deck of cards. Way to recharge cellphone. Meds if and as needed. Ibuprofen, Aleve, Tylenol, whatever you may find best. Sleeping meds if they're useful. Extra pair of eyeglasses. Hygenic wipes. Wet washcloth in a ziploc bag. Bar of soap. Toilet paper (I'm not kidding on that one--scrunch a roll down and put in a quart Ziploc bag if you have them.) Deodorant (that's why you want the washcloth).

Being able to clean up a bit is a huge morale booster. Along with that is at least some food and snacks. Granola bars or similar are great. Chocolate if that's your thing, or whatever is.

I'm kind of convinced that Karma is something you don't play around with. If you prepare, you won't end up needing it. But if you don't....

This Irma thing scares the hell out of me and I'm 1300 miles away from you and out of harm's way.

I'm attaching a photo of something NOBODY else has ever seen. It's my bugout stuff. A bugout bag, two clothing bags one for each of us, a plastic tub filled with food and a way to cook it. Anything with Orange tape on it goes with us in a hurry-up and bug out situation. Behind the black tub are MRE's.

So--please be ready. The more ready you are, the less likely (Karma!) you'll need to be.

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So--will any of this matter? I don't know. I didn't hear anything from her since I sent the email Tuesday night; texted her this am (Thursday morning) to ask if I'd scared her or did she just think I was a crackpot? Answer: SHE HADN'T READ IT YET!

I texted back, imploring her to read it NOW when she might do something about it, as opposed to later when her hands were tied.

Wow. My cousin is very well educated, but suffering hugely from normalcy bias. Don't know if there's anything more I can do to shake her out of her complacency. Maybe not.

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My email to a relative in Tampa