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Structured Thinking for Practical Prepping for Suburban Life, by S.I.R.
I am writing this article based on my experience as Army Infantry officer, a Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and intelligence professional, but most of all as someone who uses structured thinking to plan against and mitigate threats. It is important to plan for events that are less of a threat yet highly probable that in turn provide the foundation to plan for extremely dangerous threats that are less likely to happen. Structured thinking and scenario development will assist the average reader with how to move beyond theory and talk to practical planning.
The Americans I interact with live in suburban middle income communities, where we balance affordable homes against the average 30-60 minute one-way commute to our jobs. Like many of those Americans, we are concerned with the “what ifs” of disasters. I find that many well-educated people have done little to prepare for the risks that are common to both naturally occurring and man-made threats. Not preparing is generally the result of not knowing how to prepare, assuming the government will take care of them, feeling overwhelmed, or not having the time to think through situations that are likely to happen. Therefore, I am providing a “how to” methodology approach for planning against threats and mitigating their associated risks.
I am not an advocate that all must prepare for “the end of the world as we know it” (TEOTWAWKI). Even though this is a personal goal, I believe we should be realistic and have practical preparations through planning as a way of life. Most of us cannot afford to move off the grid or far away from populated centers of work. While I dream of winning the lottery and doing this, it just is not practical for many of us. What is practical for the suburban homesteader is to think through common scenarios of threats specific to their region, what those outcomes might be, and then self-assess how prepared you and your family really are. Pending the results, follow a plan to improve deficiencies and mitigate the risks over time and within budget.
Many of the more common threats, even man-made ones, require the same core preparation and planning. Planning for the highly probably threats in your region will greatly reduce anxiety of the higher impact threats. Where I live in Virginia, we deal with power outages and hazardous driving warnings on the low end of the common threats, due to winter storms and hurricanes. Even as these can be scary or exciting depending upon one’s view, the power, utilities, and drivable roads are restored to most people within a week. If one can use the methodology below and work through this likely scenario and self-assess, then they are ready to plan for the less common/no-notice events, like financial collapse and temporary shutdown of commerce to downwind hazards associated with attacks or accidents associated with toxic industrial chemical (TICs) and toxic industrial material (TIMs) sites in your area. Some threat planning will result in sheltering-in-place or being prepared to quickly relocate for several days.
Source: http://survivalblog.com/structured-thinking-for-practical-prepping-for-suburban-life-by-s-i-r/
