Today I discovered some Surprising Statistics on American’s Preparedness, from the FEMA website.
Surprising Statistics on American’s Preparedness
- 44% of all Americans do not have first-aid kits in their homes.
- 48% of all Americans do not have any emergency supplies stored up at all.
- 53% of all Americans do not have a 3 day supply of nonperishable food and water in their homes.
Imagine how these number are when applied to a global scale.
What can we do to make these numbers better?
I don’t believe we can fix this situation for everyone, but we can ensure that our friends and family are covered. When you are prepping, take into account those in your lives, who do not prep.
If you know, deep in your heart, that you’ll be providing for those, in your life, who didn’t prepare, stock up when you can.
- Store more water, you can always recycle empty 2 liter bottles or buy some containers designed to hold water.
- Have a means to filter more water. You can boil, treat with bleach, or use a big filter (Big Berkey or build your own)
- Stock up on buckets or bags of rice and buckets or bags of beans. Sure it isn’t fancy, but its food.
- Get a couple air rifles, slingshots, bows and arrow and traps to acquire food.
- Get some books on foraging and wild edibles.
- A method to cook this food. After the propane runs out on our Gas Grills, we may be using campfire tripods, dutch ovens, griddles, skillets and camp grills. Practice now, and have some family fun with it.
- Have a means to heat without electricity or gas. This leaves us with using a Wood stove or fireplace. Make sure to have a proper chimney installed or your current chimney inspected before building a fire.
- Extra sleeping bags, those unprepared loved ones are probably here for the long haul.
- Heirloom seeds to grow food. Add some gardening tools, like shovels, rakes and hoes, so you can put all these unprepared people to work in the garden.
- Toss in a nice sized first-aid kit or two!
While we can’t take care of everyone, we do have a responsibility to help our friends and loved ones, as much as we can. These Surprising Statistics on American’s Preparedness show us, that we’re going to have a lot of company invited and uninvited. Prepare well, my friends!
……I am really surprised that that the percentage of those even marginally supplied is so high…….
We dont have to go to SHTF is they dont know what we have.
They wont be able to do anything if they think they are outgunned and they dont know where the guns are.
Here is informaiton about privacy.
I’ve enjoyed your site. I always pickup something new to think about my own preps. I think I read in one of your posts about storing water, that you could use plastic milk & juice bottles. I think the American Red Cross and FEMA have suggested not using those, but saying that the 2 liter pop bottle is the best. We store water, rice and oatmeal in these containers. Another thing I think I read in the same post was that you stored your water in the garage. This is not recommended due to summertime temps. A cooler storage place was suggested, like a basement.