Did you know that September is National Preparedness Month? The theme this year is “Prepared, Not Scared”. Of course the business model for Retreat Realty is to be prepared. I routinely write and speak about the importance of being prepared. There are various levels of preparedness, and it need not be something to speak about in hushed tones. Yes, many folks look at me a little oddly when I describe my real estate work as having to do with “bugout” or “prepper properties”, but invariably, they all recognize the need to be prepared for emergencies, yet most don’t take the first step. That could be a painful mistake.
Not everyone has the financial means or desire to have a “bugout” or “homestead” property here in the mountains, but everyone can do something to prepare their family for sudden disaster. The causes of such a disaster are many: tornado, earthquake, wildfire, flash flooding, etc. We recently saw, and continue to witness the desperation of those hit by Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. Other causes are more sinister and actually have a wider threat level such as a cyber attack on our banking system, communications or power grid. Most American’s have no clue as to how fragile our power grid has become, and should the power go down region wide, it could take months to recover and during that time there will be loss of business, property and lives. I was with a friend yesterday who’s brother is a lineman for a power company and when responding to Hurricane Katrina, he had a shotgun shoved into his face held by an otherwise well-to-do family man, businessman ordering him to get the power turned on to his street before getting to others. You think we live in a civil society, but take away our electricity for any length of time, and people go nuts. Just take a look at this post about an historic outage in New York City.
So I’m glad to see our federal government encouraging our citizens to be prepared. The more prepared you are, the less of a burden you become on emergency services. Plus you might be able to keep your family out of the clogged machine of refugee containment/management.
