The Helping Season

Welcome to hurricane, tornado, and flood season in the South. These and other pestilences afflict all of us either directly or indirectly every year. We have all helped others or needed help ourselves at one point or another in our lives. Being there for each other is one of the markers of a healthy society, but just wanting to help and being effective at it can sometimes be at odd with one another.

Here is some helpful advice on how to make the biggest impact, whether you are helping a friend, preparing for your own family, or helping the community down the road. I have had years’ of experience in this arena and most of these lessons I’ve learned by doing things incorrectly, or working harder not smarter.

First off, you cannot help anyone if you lack a family emergency kit and it puts you in a position of needing help, instead of the other way around. Have at least two months worth of food on hand. This can be as elaborate and as expensive as freeze-dried meal kits ($600 – $1,000 for a family) or as simple as a case of peanut butter, 50lbs rice, 50lbs beans and pork bullion powder ($100). Flashlights, or my favorite headlamps, is a must (three pack $20) with batteries. A Coleman 2 burner camp stove ($40), a six pack of mini-propane containers for the camp stove ($20). Dollar General three packs of sensitive skin baby wipes for skin sanitation ($10), two packs of Lysol or Clorox wipes for other surfaces that get dirty quickly ($8), 3-48 packs of drinking water ($15) and an assortment of canned goods. This will total only a few hundred dollars and you will be more prepared than 90% of your neighbors.

To be minimally prepared, I keep three gallons of tap water in old milk jugs next to toilets for flushing in each bathroom (should you not have water pressure). I cannot emphasize how important having non-potable water on-hand is. Two years ago, we had the power go out for five days because a hurricane flooded my part of the state. I’ve been a prepper for almost a decade now, so I had food, flashlights, Coleman cook stoves, guns, you name it. I thought I was good to go, however, three days in I realized that my lack of water (I’m on a well but no power meant no well pump pumping water to my house) was my biggest enemy. Sanitation, or rather the lack of it, was the single most important prep I could have outside of drinking water, especially with women in the house. So, a generator to hook up to your well or a camping shower set up in your back yard using gallons of water will be your second most important thing you can get to help your family in a crisis.

Food is tricky because while we all think of spam, Vienna sausages or ramen noodles hearkening back to our independent college days, it can put us at a nutrient deficiency when we need them the most. It is particularly important to think “healthy” during times of duress. I recommend beans, rice, canned chicken, canned tomatoes, canned green beans, as well as, canned fruit. The problem with just canned apocalypse meats like spam is it has salt for days but not many other nutrients. Beans and rice add the calories/carbs you will need to cut fallen trees or to swim to save your dog. Green beans and peas will add a complete nutrient package your family will need during this time. Healthy snacks with a long shelf life, like nuts or granola bars, are great for morale as well.

Another mistake people make is that they store foods that require perishable items to cook. Think cereal without milk, powdered baking or pancake mixes that require milk and eggs, macaroni that requires milk and butter – these items are ineffective to store for an emergency, yet 50% of all food items require perishable ingredients to cook. This is important for your own preps, but also when you think of helping others. Giving them food that they can’t cook is useless for them, and a waste of money for you.

If you are going to an area to help others that aren’t your direct neighbors, I highly recommend you expend your efforts to help by working with the local fire departments and churches. I’ve tried to help through FEMA and the majority of the things my group brought (clothes, in particular, were thrown in dumpsters by the FEMA guys because they weren’t new clothes). The single best way to help a community you’re not familiar with is through the local community, not Big Government.

In the last few days, we have had Vice President Harris telling us to buy our Christmas presents now, as they may not be available later in the year. This is unheard of outside of a time of war! At the grocery stores there are random things out of stock. A month ago, it was half the frozen section. Last week, it was breakfast sausage and pork. Today, it is dish washing detergent at my local Sam’s Club. Whether it be a natural disaster or the current supply chain issues (along with the “kung flu”), I highly recommend you buy extra necessities when you go to the store. If I need a box of trash bags, I buy two, and if I need body wash I also buy two. You can do this with a few items this week, a few different items next week, and without breaking the bank you can build a little nest egg of necessities that will be creature comforts in hard times.                

Just think, in the 1980s we heard about the Soviet Union and how their people had lengthy lines for the basics, and we are seeing the same here now. I’m not suggesting panicking and maxing out your credit card or buying all the toilet paper at your local Dollar General, but buy a tad extra this week and again next week. The worst case scenario is that you won’t have to buy whatever it is as often because you have a supply at home.

Lastly, there is one more item you can add to your bag of goodies that will go further than anything I’ve so far listed, and that’s building a community around you. This can be daunting to the introverts among us, but simple gestures like mowing your elderly neighbor’s lawn, sharing food from your garden, and offering to help a neighbor put up a chicken coop can go farther than thousand of dollars in preps. Get in the habit of helping those close to you and getting to know them. This is good advice whether you get hit by a tornado or just want a healthy life.

I hope this helps and at least helps you get in a frame of mind on what you can do to prepare your family and to help others. The government cannot help you immediately and there may come a time when they just simply don’t want to.

Deo Vindice

-By Dixie Anon