Disaster preparedness (page 6)

redvip2000

You can live 2 days without proper shelter

Where? Antartica? You can live much longer without shelter as long as the temperatures cooperate.

redvip2000

I'd much rather know how to grow and store food than have a bag of stale bread and MREs. If things are so bad that you couldn't keep a garden, I don't see how a bag of old rations and a flashlight are going to make any difference.

Well..depends. If you have to evacuate and kept our of your area, then the garden won't help. MRE's are a good emergency food. You might find yourself in a situation where supermarket shelves are cleaned out. I mean, even during Covid there were periods where shelves were bare. During evacuations, you cant find available hotel rooms.

If you have a van or big SUV, you can make that your temp home in case shit hits the fan. You can drive a few hours away, sleep in it, keep emergency items in it, and get away from crowds who will exhaust resources

Mikejw

If you have a van or big SUV, you can make that your temp home in case shit hits the fan. You can drive a few hours away, sleep in it, keep emergency items in it, and get away from crowds who will exhaust resources

Yep, this is the JW plan. Everyone takes with them their go bags and the reasonable amount of food and supplies that every JW has been told to get.

First we all go to our KHall if that is an option but if not every congregation has an emergency RV.

It’s usually a large retail estate with large car parks. Each group with 16 or so people so maybe 3 or 4 vehicles have been assigned different general parking areas so as to spread out and not draw attention.

the group overseers and their assistants are to make sure everyone is accounted for.

then the disaster relief committees will give directions what to do next. Most probably go to nearest congregations that have not been affected by the disaster whatever it was.

Dagney

^^thats interesting. One of my relatives told me they went in with 4-5 bros and bought an RV. I didn’t think a thing about it, just told him I thought it would be a fun thing to have. He sent a pic of the group partying in the RV. Now I’m thinking the intention may be for this disaster thing.

no-zombie

To Mikejw

While I agree with you in principle, regarding being part of a group in survival situations, I understand that the devil is always in the detail.

Referring a previous post I made, if the disaster you are fleeing from is basically a large local event (say to the level of cyclone Katrina), then pulling out your Witness card may provide some benefits. However if the problem is a national or international one, where relief aid will take a very long time to arrive in sufficient quantities (like what happened to Haiti), then its not going to help anyone being part of a congregation.

In fact I firmly believe, that it will most likely reduce the odds of you and your family surviving.

This is because, as water, food and shelter becomes harder to get, people in your group must all be able to value-add to the whole or at the very least, be able to replace the resources they personally consume. So while it might seem like a nice idea to bring along Brother and Sister Oldtimer with you in your car group, you have to ask ... what will they contribute. I know that its cruel I know to think like this, but for every extra person you take along, the more it will drain your personal strength to provide for your own. Or ultimately you might find yourself crushed by the fact that you don't have enough to go around and be forced to decide who gets how much.

In any case, the reality is that many, many older people are kept alive artificially today by a medical system that will not be able help Diabetics, people with a respiratory or cardiovascular disease or cancer during a wide scale disaster. And, these people will most likely die even with all your efforts and best intentions. And we haven't begun to consider the logistics of those who are chronically overweight or wheelchair bound. Interestingly even the writer of the 1939 book 'Grapes of Wrath' recognized that the very the evacuation itself, could be too much for the elderly to physically endure, anyway.

And don't get me started on how stupid it is to depend on refugee camps, where theft, rape and murder are historically common place.

No, survivalism is not a game that plays fair when things get really bad. And its not going to be very funny, when you have to start burying your friends (or god forbid, family) in roadside graves because of Typhus or Cholera, which has happened more often than you think, when people drink stale water out of desperation.

Finally, from my own experience dealing with various Elders, I'm sure most are not able to improvise in dynamic situations, as their 'training' centers around getting instructions from others, which costs time and depends on a country's infrastructure working reasonably well.

Thus if I have to evacuate, my plan is to bug out with one or two well chosen small family groups, people with a similar basic mindset as me, who already have enough to care for their own immediate needs ... but can add something to the collective. However if they are not ready when its time to go, then I'm leaving without them.

To Dagney

Yeh, Dagney ... when the SHTF those 4 to 5 brothers who bought an RV together will turn easily into 16 to 20 people when they bring their families along. And then you'll see some fun and games, when they realize that there is not enough room for everyone. Lets hope no-one brings a gun.

nicolaou

Forgive my ignorance (I've been out for almost 25 years) but is this 'go-bag' preparedness a global thing? Is my 80 year old Mother living in the English shires and shopping at Morrisons once a week really being instructed to do this?

road to nowhere

The local city just sent out instructions to have go bags. A good idea.

My service guy is an old fart, the assistant is severely diabetic. Sure hope a long legged woman is in the group.

As for guns--yes I do and will.

LongHairGal

NO ZOMBIE:

I am in total agreement with your VERY realistic post!…I don’t think too many Witnesses ever thought any of this out.

Yes, if it’s a localized disaster it might work. But, if it’s a big or national disaster, it won’t help them. And you are very RIGHT to point out that when it gets down to survival it will matter that there will be people with you who can’t contribute anything. In truth, they will be a liability.

The Witnesses can keep their unrealistic pipe dream of ‘togetherness’ in disaster situations. The reality is they’d be fending for themselves and their families. An outsider or single person like myself would be lucky to get crumbs!👎 Just the way it plays out in the ‘hall’ is the way it would play out elsewhere. And, in a disaster situation it would be many times worse.

I remember the days of district conventions years ago being in car groups with annoying people I didn’t want to be with.. If there was ever a disaster nowadays, I would NEVER want to be with any of these people or any group of strangers if I could help it.. Maybe a few family members and that’s it.

Dagney

I haven't paid much attention to the preparedness discussion from JW. Of course it's good to be prepared. I live in earthquake country so I'm kinda sorta there.

I get their spin ("where's Kevin?), is for the world turning on them...do they still call it the Great Tribulation? I was RAISED with that verbiage, every.single.day. of my childhood. I hated cooked carrots and my mom said to me "what if that is all you had to eat while you're in prison during The Great Tribulation!!! TM"

Annnnd I didn't pay that much attention to a former JW BFF talking about a new business they started which is preparedness training. I heard later about flyers and FB page or website or something. NOW it makes sense. Duh. They must see the opportunity to "help" their fellow brothers based on the direction from HQ. Interesting.

Mikejw

Forgive my ignorance (I've been out for almost 25 years) but is this 'go-bag' preparedness a global thing? Is my 80 year old Mother living in the English shires and shopping at Morrisons once a week really being instructed to do this?

Yes every year they have to replace with new supplies. You can be sure her group overseer and his assistant will look after her if disastrous events happen.

however if she is unaffected but lives just outside the disaster zone then she may be asked to take in other JWs displaced by whatever happened

the same as everyone

Disaster preparedness

Share this