Would you Starve
If there were a widespread power cut tomorrow, would you be able to buy food or fuel? If you are one of those relying entirely on your debit (or credit) card for purchases, remember, they won’t work in a power cut, nor will ATMs. There doesn’t have to be a war to create a situation where food and household necessities are in short supply and life is disrupted, even if just for a short time. It just needs a power cut, a flash flood, a fire, or fuel or food shortages for life to become difficult, especially if you have a young family or older people to care for.
Panic Buying
Many people will have experienced problems in the lockdown situations starting in March 2020 and the shortages of toilet paper and bread created by panic buying for instance. In some parts of the USA, the first snows of winter create a panic buying situation of snow shovels and bread every year. Others will have experienced floods or fire and realised they had no cushion to allow them to survive even a few days.
No one is saying this is the end game or that total chaos will erupt if power goes out for an extended period but it is VERY LIKELY that some disruption will happen. It may not be widespread but if it happens in your area, you are the one facing a cold autumn and winter or kitchen with no food or no means of cooking it.
Prepare Ahead
Being prepared does not mean stacking your garage to the ceiling with baked beans and toilet rolls or blowing your bank account on hotel rooms abroad but it does mean having some food that doesn’t need cooking, having some way of keeping warm and thinking about how you could deal with some of the things that might happen.
Even if you only have 3 weeks of extra supplies, you are giving yourself a cushion against shortages. Three or six months of supplies would be even better.
You know your circumstances best, so articles on this site provide ideas and hints on what to do and suggests some things you can do to prepare ahead, within your budget to stay warm, sheltered and fed, with some light and means of contacting others.
Sections include or will include shelter, food, cooking, household essentials, water, electricity, children, babies, elderly, disabled, warmth, medications, first aid kit and imported items.