Self Reliance in Preparing for Home Emergencies and Natural Disasters by Ronna Romney

On August 14, 2003 at 4:11 p.m. Lower Michigan, northern Ohio, southern Ontario, Canada, most of New York and New Jersey and parts of New England and Pennsylvania experienced a massive power grid failure. A blackout.

Within 9 seconds an estimated 50 million people were without power. As it so happened, I happened to be driving back to my home in Michigan from a meeting in Ohio. I was listening to the radio when they interrupted regular programming to announce that there was a massive power outage in the region. I drove immediately to the closest hardware store and bought batteries, flashlights, kerosene lamps…whatever I thought I might need. I didn’t really think the outage would last too long but I didn’t want to take any chances. I went next door to the local drugstore for water and some other items. Neither store had any electricity and none of their registers worked. I might also add that their youthful employees didn’t know how to manually add up anything . Luckily, in each case the managers were able to add things up, write down my credit card number and let me purchase what I needed ( I didn’t have enough cash ). Power was restored within three days but this really served as a wake up call for me.

Just imagine within 9 seconds fifty million people were in the dark. All the traffic lights stopped working. Fuel could not be pumped. We were on a well and couldn’t get water because our pump is electrically powered. No water. No toilets. My husband and I drove to a local pond to fill up buckets with water so that we could get the toilets to work for three days.

Detroit began to have problems with their water systems. The ATMS didn’t work so you couldn’t get cash. Every store and bank that relied on computer driven systems couldn’t open. The grocery stores registers didn’t work. They couldn’t get restocked and anything that required refrigeration began to spoil. Elevators stopped . Airports closed. Trains and Subways stopped. It was very difficult to get through on cell phones. Gas powered generators stopped working because they couldn’t get gas. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I got the message. I HAVE TO BE PREPARED. I can’t count on anyone to help out. I don’t believe that state, local or federal government can be relied upon for aid. The power was back on in three days but what would happen if we had to wait for a week, two weeks or a month? Could our trucking system keep us supplied? Would we have enough food or personal medications? Would we have fuel for our cars or our homes? If not, how could you get to work or travel to get even the basic necessities?

I hope that we never have to face malicious or natural disasters but I have resolved to make the basic preparations for myself and my family. SELF-RELIANCE.