By Dudley Evenson

These hurricanes have blown everybody’s preconceptions apart. Now the prissy little rules that prohibit us from strolling down the front walk in our bathing suits, or heaven forbid our birthday suits, become irrelevant in the face of power outages, no water, no food and no gas for extended periods of time. Here in South Florida, we have been greeted each day with enlarging piles of debris from the two storms that hurled their winds against our coast, ravaging buildings, blowing down trees or ripping off branches. I even snapped a picture of a church whose steeple had been blown off during a recent hurricane and had stabbed the church roof with its point. What kind of metaphor is that?

At the moment, I am staying in my mother’s condo that overlooks a spreading beach with infinite waves rolling in and incessant winds still blowing. Our unit was hard hit by Wilma which knocked out the roof flashing and sent a heavy force through the eaves blowing out the ceiling in two ocean-facing rooms. It brought to mind an image of a hurricane-in-a-room with all its force and power, swirling around in a spiral of motion as part of a huge, whirling weather system relentlessly following its course.

In any event, its course flowed right through my mother’s place it took me many days to get to the heavy lifting task of cleaning out the debris, the fallen ceiling dry wall, the overturned television, little tables cascading in a tumbling motion amidst broken panes of glass and sand everywhere. One shard of glass got into my foot but fortunately I was able to remove it before my body would react to it.

This wild weather has caused a change in the people patterns in our area and I am pleased to see more neighbors outside cleaning up and relating to each other. I have even met some new people who live next door in the Cloisters. One guy is a contractor so we may get his advice or help in fixing some of the damage. I am in charge of interfacing with the public adjuster who will help us get our insurance claim settled to our advantage and to the board’s satisfaction.

Dealing with shortage and deprivation in modern America is often quite a shock. If anything, it is a wake up call for us to have a plan and a system of reaction to deal with large disruptions in our lives. Terror arises from not being ready, from being unprepared both mentally and physically. Many of us have such a set routine that it troubles us to deviate even slightly and we get irritated and impatient when things don’t go our way and we are inconvenienced. Natural or human disasters can cause great stress and turmoil for people unless they are prepared to cope with a traumatic reality that might present itself. We have all experienced the lights going out for a little while during a wind storm that causes power lines to fall down here or there. We merrily go about lighting our candles or lanterns, grabbing our battery driven flashlights, or even cooking a meal over a camp stove. But in the morning, the electricity has been fixed and is back on, letting us go humming along in our normal routine.

After hurricanes Katrina and Wilma that battered coastal areas throughout the entire southeast and Caribbean regions, Americans have a more vivid idea of what it really means to live without basic needs. What’s interesting is these needs, specifically electricity, running water and flush toilets have not always been needs for human beings. In ancient and not so ancient times, families and societies have lived quite well without the convenience of flipping on an electric light, keeping food refrigerated, or taking a hot shower. Even washing dishes with hot water would be a luxury for people in some parts of the world today.

In New Orleans, we saw how the world can deteriorate into chaos when basic human needs aren’t met. We saw what it looked like for a whole city not to have a comprehensive plan to evacuate its people or feed and provide for sanitary functions for large numbers of people. People managing attendance at a football game have done better but of course they had electricity at their disposal. It is no wonder that people weren’t prepared. We in this country haven’t really had to face such real life and death issues such as we saw in New Orleans when the levies broke and people were trapped in their houses, or they were told to go to a stadium where they languished in squalor while bureaucrats wrangled in decision-making quandaries and no water or sewage needs were provided for

Our American tragedies were minimal compared with horrendous earthquakes, tsunamis, mudslides and even war in other parts of the world causing a death toll far greater than ours and basic needs such as shelter and food, not to mention medical care, would be a long time in coming. How can one not start thinking about what to do in the face of such situations? From these marauding thoughts have emerged some precepts for getting our act together and finally, once and for all, becoming prepared for the “what if, whatever” situation that might one day drop into our world. We won’t always have Big Daddy to swoop in and drop K-rations in our lap or answer our insurance claims. Who knows, maybe one day we may all be on our own, so might as well get our act together as if our lives depended on it!

On Being Prepared

If we really were prepared for the next big cyclonic weather aberration or outrageous human disruption to toss our world up side down, what would ‘Being Prepared’ look like?

1. Staying in touch - one of the most important things to consider is how to stay in touch with our family and loved ones should we suddenly have to leave our normal routine and location and have no access to cell phones, voice mail or email. Make a plan now.

2. Water - we need to have an adequate supply of water or way to catch our own water on a continuous basis for drinking, bathing, cleaning. Rain barrels and roof catchments are easy solutions. No person or community can live without water for very long. We need purify our drinking water and use our gray water for washing and watering gardens or plants. Water could one day be more precious than oil.

3. Food - have on hand dried fruit, veggies, jerky, herbs, teas, seeds, flour, grains, beans, sprouts, dry milk, yogurt, etc. In the long run, we need a consistent food supply - preferably with crops being grown close to home or in nearby regions, fish caught locally, kitchen window and balcony gardens, etc. Preparing and preserving food needs to be considered when the power is down. Solar ovens and dehydrators can be very useful. Without refrigeration and running out to the store every few days, food reserves can dry up pretty quickly. Why not invest in a food dehydrator and start experimenting with drying fruits that are in season and in abundance? Raw foods recipes depend a lot on dehydrators which can be run passive solar.

4. Shelter - simple protection from the elements with a knowledge of how to create and repair our shelter with minimal hand tools (hammer, nails and saw) and a willingness to do the hard work to make it happen in an elegant, practical way to protect one’s family and self.

5. Transportation - if there were no gas to fuel your car or you couldn’t drive for some reason, what would you do? How would you get from place to place, both regionally and long distance? Some options are bicycles, skooters, skate boards, buses, trains, community car sharing, walking, running.

6. Communication - how would we communicate with family, friends, coworkers if electricity was out for an extended period of time? Now is a good time to develop systems and word of mouth networks to keep in touch while we still have the phone and Internet access.

7. Energy - How do we stay warm? How will we capture energy from the sun, wind, or our own waste? Why not honor excrement for the powerful resource it is? Compost it or turn it into a gas and burn it. Develop systems of ‘no waste’ and catch as much energy as you can right where you live. Use less of course and recycle more.

8. Fiber - Clothing, Blankets, Curtains, Rugs - So many people in the US have way more clothing items than they need so we are covered in this area for a long, long time. It’s a good time to share with those who do have greater needs. Spinning, knitting, weaving, sewing, quilting make a come back. Boots, shoes, sandals - learn to make and repair shoes from natural or recycled materials. Collect wool from sheep, hemp fiber, weed fiber, natural fibers, recycled fibers, weaving our own.

9. Containers - Baskets, jars, bottles, bags - How do we carry things around? No more one-time-use plastic or paper bags, plates, or utensils. Develop a system of reusing, always having our own containers. Recycling isn’t enough. We need to reuse and reuse our containers and bags. Buy food and many things in bulk through cooperatives.

10. Health - do we have the medications we or our family need? In the long run, can we take care of minor illnesses or scrapes with minimal equipment, drugs (aspirin, St. John’s wort, mint tea, Golden Seal, Echinacea)? Can we maintain our health for a time without the conveniences of hot running water, food from a grocery store or even doctors?

11. Kids - how are our children cared for and protected in times of crises? Do they know how to stay connected with the adults in their world? And are they aware of the needs and new responsibilities that they may be called upon to exercise. Young people have great awareness and capabilities and rise to the occasion when called upon and respected.

12. Spirit - how do we keep our spirit up in the face of disruption of our normal routine? Do we have creative ways to enjoy the moment even with minimal comforts of home? Singing together, working together, being creative and just hanging out can find new meaning in a world with less material security. We may discover parts of ourselves we never knew about!