It’s recommended by Ready.gov to have the ability to provide for yourself for 72 hours, that’s 3 days. Locally, in just hours (NOT DAYS) after Irma hit Florida, people started complaining they didn’t have power, food, water. I’m not talking about ravaged victims, but everyday people who did little to prepare. They were certain that the storm wouldn’t hurt them, and while they weren’t hurt, they didn’t have the convenience of power. And they seemed lost.
72 hours sounds easy. It’s a long weekend camping trip. But clearly folks aren’t even prepared for a little camping trip anymore. At the time of this writing, power is still being restore across Florida. The island of Barbuda has been completely evacuated, and Key West looks like a 3rd world country where a bomb exploded.
People were upset because they couldn’t make coffee and had tired of peanut butter sandwiches by the end of the first day … 24 hours hadn’t passed and folks were not ready for even that. When they went out and discovered traffic lights were out everywhere, the drivers in every direction forgot everything they learned in driver’s ed.
THEN THE COMPLAINING STARTED when the places didn’t have full menus or options they wanted. A whole lot of bitching and moaning was going on. Do yourself a favor, keep safe and of harm’s way, and even if you’re a reluctant prepper like me, just having the basics will mean that you may be able to avoid some of the initial chaos of whatever SHTF event is going on.