Ask Dr. Helen: Preparing for Disaster — Prudent or Paranoid?
Here in California, it seems there is always a “Horseman of the Apocalypse” riding around the state. Two events made sure I understood the value of preparedness. The Northridge earthquake and the Rodney King riots. Anyone who has been through a major earthquake with the aftershocks knows you’ll be without power and water for up to a week and maybe longer. People tend to be orderly, you get to know your neighbors you never met and people generally help each other.
I think the riots were scarier. Knowing that if you were to call 911 that no one would answer, watching buildings set on fire and looted less than a mile from my apartment with a sliding glass front door and a civil insurrection with no end in sight. I’ll never forget the experience of going to the grocery store a day after things broke down and seeing lines of panicked people 20 deep at the cash registers with the shelves stripped bare. Don’t bother to try to buy a gun legally in this kind of situation, if you have any desire to protect yourself. We have a ten day waiting period in California to protect the criminals. The businesses that survived in the riot zone were Korean — they sat on the roof with their shotguns plainly visibly, while the looters ransacked and destroyed unprotected businesses just down the street, proving the value of deterrence and the Second Amendment.
After those experiences, we have a year’s supply of food, a safe with some cash (food and tools are far more valuable) and guns, ammo, water, a large garden and woodpile. A lot of Hollywood stars built safe rooms, bought guns and did some firearm training — they just don’t advertise it.
Someone wise said, you are always three days away from anarchy. Be prepared.
