About
After hurricane Katrina devastated much of the southern U.S., most of the water cooler talk at work centered on the hurricane. Discussion about its effect on infrastructure, ‘everyday life’, or the government and other organized relief efforts were commonplace. They would often degrade to mainly criticizing and pointing out apparent shortcomings during the relief process. Most of the opinions boiled down to three distinct themes:
- The government wasn’t prepared and slow to respond.
- Many of those affected were lazy and unprepared, thus don’t deserve help.
- In responding, the government stomped on many rights and civil liberties.
While I could see validity in all three perspectives (and agreed with the basic arguments), it affected me in an entirely different way. I started to realize how vulnerable most of us (specifically ME) are to events beyond our control. While hurricanes are unlikely given my location, earthquakes, floods, and fire are very real possibilities. I started thinking about all the other things that could be considered an ‘emergency’ in my life (civil unrest, unemployment, family, medical, etc…) and realized that I wasn’t very prepared for any of them.
That was my awakening. I had always learned from parents and church the importance of being prepared for the unexpected, but never took the opportunity or placed enough value in doing anything about it until then. I began searching out and compiling resources I felt would benefit me in times of uncertainty.
In the springtime of 2007 I was given the opportunity to speak at my church on the subject of preparedness. This was my first opportunity to compile all of my random thoughts, experiences, and discoveries into a single source to share with others. It went over pretty well. Afterwards I was approached by a woman who was visiting and asked to talk to her church as well. I gladly accepted as I love sharing my passion of this subject with others. It presented new challenges since it was more of a presentation with a Q&A session. In preparation for the presentation, I decided there was just too much information I wanted to convey in the time alotted. I decided the best way to both organize and flesh out my own ideas and techniques, as well as help share that information with others, was to start an online repository. That was when Preparing Utah was born.
Please, join me in this process. At the very least, read the Why Should I? page. It contains my best argument and reasons for encouraging you to begin (or continue with a new vigor) preparing for emergencies and to continually become more and more self-sufficient. I whole-heartedly believe in preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.