Be Prepared

[Cutter]

Most people have insurance on their house, their vehicles... even their cell phones (which I, too, might consider if I were foolish enough to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a phone), but never really consider what insurance does and does not do. In a nutshell, it's a cardgame that you "win" by losing, and that pays out after you "win". insurance may compensate you for your losses, but it doesn't make you any safer.

While I'm not a hardcore prepper, I do like to think I'm better prepared for emergencies than most people, but from time to time I'm reminded that no matter how prepared we are, it's just never enough. My most recent wake-up call came around midday on February 10th. I'd been seeing and smelling smoke all morning but didn't think too much of it until I heard the whoop of a police cruiser outside my gate around noon. When I went out the officer advised me that the fire was basically right behind my house. While my acre-and-a-half is mowed, the land beyond my fence and in the direction of the fire was a tinderbox of 3 foot high dry grass and weeds, with a stand of trees a few hundred feet from my property that conceivably could have caught fire. My only defense was a 50' garden hose and about another 50' of RV water hoses cobbled together that just reached the corner of the property toward the fire. I intended to wet down the area outside my fence, but I honestly think I can pee farther than what dribbled out of that hose.

In hindsight, even if the trees behind my property had gone up in flames with the wind directly toward my house, I think that most likely the house with its metal roof and composite siding would have been okay, but the situation makes a great reminder that no matter how prepared you (think you) are, it's never enough. My worst case scenario would have been losing my home and all my prepping supplies except for what I could quickly load into my truck, and then there's the added danger of having to traverse miles of open country during a wildfire or tornado to get to a place of safety.

One of the things that I'm extremely unhappy about here is that unlike in Arizona where I continually monitored all the state, county and local public service traffic and so was abreast of what was happening, I'm completely in the dark here until an officer shows up at my gate. I was involved in ARES and SKYWARN in Arizona, but everything - training, repeaters, etc,  is so sparse and spread out here that I haven't been able to get connected. And the weather - and the threats,  are MUCH higher here than in Arizona.

Being prepared requires being informed; if anyone has information regarding scanner modes and frequencies with unencrypted public service bands, online links to local priority information sources, and other information sources (TV, radio, etc) with information about where to find out about emergencies and what to do when the occur, please share them!