This week I saw the film World War Z, which is about a world-wide zombie apocalypse. I’ve previously stated that all these apocalyptic scenarios in movies and TV makes you think how you yourself would fare in those situations. Most people would be probably ill-equipped to survive such events, myself included. This summer, with all this extra time on my hands, I’ve started to get serious about emergency preparedness.
I don’t even have to look towards works of fiction to be inspired. Just this month, the flooding in Alberta put people in extraordinary situations where normal access to food, water, shelter, and electricity was interrupted. On a personal level, several weeks ago, a contractor in my neighbourhood damaged a water main. The damage caused the water in my building to run extremely muddy and dirty. While the problem was being fixed, I didn’t feel comfortable using the water to drink or wash with. I realized I didn’t have any other sources of water I could use in my apartment. Now I could have just gone downstairs and bought as much water as I wanted but what if the store was closed or didn’t have any water left?
To drive the point home, all water in my building is being shut off between 9am and 4pm tomorrow for some pipe repairs. For most people, they’ll be at work so this won’t even be noticed by them. I’ll be home tomorrow though, so I have to prepare. Again, I could just go downstairs and buy drinking water but I still need water to wash with tomorrow when I wake up. To that end, I’ll be filling up some large pots with water before I go to bed tonight. The tricky thing will be the toilet. Something something yellow mellow, brown flush down. Technically, I could refill the tank with my saved up water but that seems like a waste. I think I may just use the movie theatre washrooms downstairs tomorrow.
So what’s the plan going forward? Well, I’ve already looked at an emergency preparedness kit. It also seems prudent to perhaps buy a survival kit as well. I already have a hand powered flashlight but getting a manually powered radio is a good idea as well. Lastly, I need enough water to last about 48 hours and some non-perishable food. The food doesn’t need to be fancy, it could be canned goods or energy bars of some sort.
Ideally, no one should ever have to use their emergency or survival gear but it’s always good to be prepared.