Thirty Minutes. Do You Feel Lucky Today?

If there ever is a cause for a run on the grocery stores, the supplies will be depleted in thirty minutes. That’s it.  One half hour warning is all you will have to get more food, more water, more produce, more seeds, more medical supplies, etc.—you and the rest of your community.  Yet in that thirty minutes, your local stores will only be able to supply less than 1% of your community with the goods they would need or hoard.  Do you really want to risk that you’ll be a part of that lucky 1% and that you’re fast enough to get all of your necessary goods available in that one half hour?

  • hackers-power-gridWheat shortages
  • Threat of Global War
  • Escalating oil prices
  • A trillion dollar national deficit
  • Constitutional freedoms being shredded
  • Threat of banking collapse
  • High rate of home foreclosures
  • Threat of H1N1 Flu epidemic
  • Unprecedented inflation of the dollar
  • Foreign hackers successfully tapping into the power grid
  • Skyrocketing unemployment

These are all sound reasons and even warnings why many Americans are beginning to wake up and take steps towards emergency preparedness today.  Thank goodness many are beginning to notice some signs which cause them to take such actions.  My greatest concerns are for those who still ignore the inevitable.  Grocery stores aren’t stocked for any kind of a panic.  They are orchestrated solely for a consistent replenishing of cupboards throughout America.

Pakistan Petrol StrikeGas stations will last approximately one and a half hours depending on the day a rush to hoard comes into play.  Again, are you willing to risk that you’re a part of the select few who will have access to gasoline in a crisis?

No one has to play Russian Roulette with the security, safety and survival of their family today.  Everyone has been sufficiently warned that the need will exist in which you will need your own emergency preparedness supplies.  Whether you’re a reader of the scriptures, or simply a viewer of the broadcast news, evidence is mounting just how vulnerable our current way of life truly is, and as such we must be prepared.

Stocking up for the future is not only wise preparation, but it’s very therapeutic one as well as it exerts a proactive control in an uncertain world.  The choice is ultimately yours.  Will you prepare or perish, suffering needlessly?

Join us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter here

To see our upcoming event schedule, click here

Check out our inhome-course programs

Subscribe to Preparedness Pro today and never miss a thing!

For any questions or comments on this article, please leave a comment on the blog site so that everyone can benefit!

Copyright Protected 2009, Preparedness Pro and Kellene. All Rights Reserved. No portion of any content on this site may be duplicated, transferred, copied, or published without written permission from the author. However, you are welcome to provide a link to the content on your site or in your written works.

© 2019 Of COURSE this post is Copyright Protected by Preparedness Pro. All Rights Reserved. NO portion of this article may be reposted, printed, copied, disbursed, etc. without first receiving written permission by the author. This content may be printed for personal use only. (Then again, laws are only as good as the people who keep them.) Preparedness Pro will pursue all violations of these rights just as vigorously as she does any of her other freedoms, liberties, and protections.


Comments

I for sure don't want to be at any store with a bunch of panic stricken people--could get dangerous. You know, like the day after Thanksgiving sales only lots worse. Great post. :)

Yup. We can prepare in comfort or MAYBE "prepare" in chaos. It's our choice.

While I agree with this assessment, do you have evidence of this situation or time-frame happening recently?

Three weeks ago in NY and NJ... People could not buy gas, food, etc. It took over a week for people to get things in and that was a localized emergency. I was just there. Many servces are up but people are still without power. Many have running water-in cold.

Hurricane Sandy, for one. For my personal experience, my house has never burned down, but I keep a fire extinguisher. I've never been in a natural disaster, but I keep emergency food and water. Getting ready AFTER something happens is a bit silly. Better to be ready and never need it, than have something happen and not be ready.

It is based on simple math and previous experiences with over 28 previously forecasted hurricanes, floods and tornados.

Here's what I noticed for Houston: If a hurricane forms in the Atlantic and causes quite a bit of damage, the perishables slowly start to leave the shelves little by little, until they determine if it'll continue in the Atlantic up the eastern coast, or head west into the Gulf. Once one gets into the Gulf, shelves start moving more quickly.

Occasionally a hurricane forms in the Gulf. Perishables disappear more quickly then. If one forms that could possibly land near me, I was off to the store ASAP.

Hurricane Claudette '03 formed in the Gulf, and looked like there was a chance she'd head my way, so I just bought extra non-perishables as soon as I heard. The shelves were only half empty by that time. She ended up veering east away from us, and was only a cat 1, so shelves weren't barren like they were a few days before Ike.

That's the year I decided to do full hurricane preps every year. If a weak storm that's still fairly far out can half-empty shelves, imagine if one were to actually hit us, like Ike '08.

So before Ike, instead of rushing to the store like everyone else, only to find shelves mostly empty, I had enough non-perishables for 3-5 months on hand, so I could spend that time storing and freezing water, thawing frozen meats to eat before the storm, and helping clear the yard and put up boards over windows.

I bought a few cans of evaporated and condensed milk today. If there's no major storms by mid-October, condensed milk becomes pie, and evaporated milk becomes potato soup. I use powdered milk in baking, or to thicken soups. Hubby likes most of the canned meats I buy. The only challenge to use up is the spam LOL

shreela is spot on! for ike (and katrina and rita), the stores were picked clean. sadly, the 1st thing the stores were out of was beer and ice. not only were the supplies limited, the shopping was crazy! no parking places at the store, women screaming... etc.

and here's the kicker. katrina and rita didn't hit houston. but... the stores were out of stock for almost a full week. it took 2 weeks for them to return to what felt like normal. in the case of rita, the stores were closed for 3 days, even with no storm.

my youngest son was born 2 days b4 rita hit. i was discharged the morning b4 the storm hit (when it was still aiming for houston) with NO BREAKFAST. the hospital had not received a food delivery, and they had no food to give to patients. i was fine. i went home to find a house full of refugees from the storm. since i'm such a planner, i had enough stockpile of everything to cover us for the week that stores were closed.

i can't say that 30 minutes is an exactly right timeframe. i can tell you it's less than half a day.

PP isn't being an alarmist. it's real.

i keep everything i need to be ready for hurricanes. i do an annual review at the start of the season to make sure i have enough of what i need. i do another review when we get our first freeze of the year. (my water pumps aren't on a backup generator, and i KNOW that i'll lose water pressure in an extended power outage. no water impacts a lot of stuff in daily life. ice storms are the 2nd biggest reason we would loose power for an extended period).

it pays to be prepared. i don't pay jacked up prices before a storm, and i don't loose sleep worrying about "what if."

It's hard to believe that there are people who still don't see the need to store emergency food, water, etc. With all the fury that Mother Nature is throwing at us these days, not to mention man-made calamities, it just makes sense to be prepared for something drastic to happen at some point.

We have a year supply just in case. It was literally a life-saver when we were without an income for 5 months a few years ago. As they say, if you fail to prepare, you are prepared to fail.

Hopefully the SPAM article will help you a bit with that one. :-)

Yes, I agree with a previous post. Why in the world would I want to be out and about in the chaos of unprepared individuals, when I could be at home getting things in order? And I hadn't even thought about addressing the jacked up prices. Great point!

Unfortunately there is only a very, very small percentage of individuals who are prepared in even a semblance of manner. And panic spreads. Which means that violence spreads. Which means being prepared for food and other emergency supplies may not be enough. We need to be prepared to protect them as well...which is why I wrote the "Meet My Friends, Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson" article. :-)

During Ike, or rather, before Ike, the gas stations were empty. No gas. Also, duct tape was hard to find!

If you HAVE gasoline, though, you can drive an hour or so inland (we went to College Station) and stock up there (we bought 20 loaves of bread to share with the neighbors!).

I have a 30 day supply of NON perishables, but we sure did miss eggs and fruit after Ike!

I used to work for a WalMart Supercenter. My office was adjacent to the grocery stock area. We had trucks coming in throughout the day and several nights each week. I can attest that IF there was a major emergency the shelves would be emptied very quickly. IF there was staff who was willing to stay and restock the shelves while there were panicking customers grabbing everything in stock, the storage room would be emptied probably by customers who would take whole cases of items. Don't count on truck drivers being loyal enough to travel on to a store to unload their truck before trying to get home to their families. Better to prepare now than wish later.

I lived in the Northeast for

I lived in the Northeast for the first half of my life. I now live in the Southwest. Here is my personal experience from growing up with snow and ice. While living in PA, the snow was not as big of a deal as it was in Northern VA. In the DC Metro area, I am here to tell you that if there was a brush of snow. The world stopped. Businesses shut down and I mean down. School was canceled one time as we (high school aged kids)were on our way to school on the school bus. The bus turned around and dropped us all back off at our bus stops. There was hardly any snow on the ground. Had I been in PA, we would have had school that day no doubt. The reason being, PA was more prepared for the snow and would have had crews out and salting roads all morning. In Northern VA, that was not the case in the seven years I lived there. If it snowed, people freaked out, ran to the store and bought all of the bread, milk and toilet paper they could. I am not kidding when I say this.

My family always had a supply on hand of those items. However, one day we just happened to be out doing our shopping for the week. A snow storm began while my mother and I were in the store. I will never forget watching people run into the store, fill their carts with bread, milk and toilet paper. I was shocked at how many people did that and how fast it happened. The check out lines became insane and tempers short b/c the weather was getting worse outside. Thankfully, we were just finishing as people were running into the store in a panic.

Keep in mind all of this happened in the late 1980's early 1990's. If it only took under an hour for me to notice what was happening and I was a teenager. Imagine, just imagine how fast stuff will fly off the shelves that are hardly stocked right now!

Please think of your family and friends who aren't always thinking. Share with them the current events and ask them, "what would we do if that happened here?" It will get them thinking. If they don't see the need and shut down the conversation like some do, than you know you tried to get them to think about things. I know I sure have made small comments to my friends and family. I also know that I have a box I am getting ready to take to a few of our elderly family members, if I need to, of supplies they will need.

People think us folk who prep are crazy when everything functions normally. Yet, the moment things don't function as they are use to, those same people look at us folk who prep as some of the wisest people on the planet!

I've lived all over the

I've lived all over the United States. Each region has it's vulnerabilities for weather and natural disasters. I know before ice storms in the midwest the shelves are cleared out quickly. I remember feeling very confident about having food, water and plenty of supplies to shelter in place before a storm until a family member had a tooth break and the tires on my car were too slick to make it over the steep icy hills to the store. The dentist was closed due to the ice storm. Fortunately a neighbor with a truck took me to the store 8 miles away over icy roads to pick up some Dentemp. The shelves at the store for water, propane and ice melt crystals were completely cleared out. It pays to plan ahead especially for the medical and dental emergencies. I now live in an area that doesn't have ice storms, but the habit of stocking up during the good times hasn't left me. I keep the gas tank at least half full at all times, because you don't have the luxury of scheduling times of crisis but you do have the option of preparing in advance.

Disclaimer

Please note that the name you use in the "Name" field above will be the name displayed on your comment.