Now I want to talk about electricity: if you don’t have electricity, then what to do? Candles, matches, flashlights and recharge batteries for the flashlight. You can also install one big battery with a single light bulb in the room most used, but that won’t last much, if the big battery is not recharged. Some if they can afford it, can buy a small generator, silent type in order not to bother the neighbors or attract unwanted attention. But you don’t know for sure how much petroleum supplies will be available. Potus and team have prepared the emergency message to send to your cell phones but what to do if your batteries are flat? That is why I think you need some sort of solar recharge, at least to keep your cell phone running. And let’s face it, if this scenario takes place, you gotta wake up with the light and sleep with the light as the Lebanese say. As in you wake up when the sun rises and if there is no sun, you sleep. You gotta shift your daily habits and adapt according to how many sun hours you’ve got.
Which brings me to what do to when you cannot go to work and have no electricity? Well, you need to keep yourself manually busy, as in pick up a hobby. My wife has stacked materials for knitting and stitching. Me, I’ve got me tones of books. So find something to do in your spare hours to keep you busy. It’s important for your mental balance during the crisis if it hits.
Alcoholic beverages are good to cleaning and for attending wounds, they could be put to good use during crisis as well, don’t forget that. Also you should put additional locks on your doors and windows, I’ve reinforced my doors as well. If you have big glass windows and live in a dangerous area, you should prepare some sort of shutters, like what they do when a hurricane is about to hit. If the crisis is stretched for a long period of time, thieves and robbery will roam. So you need to protect yourself and take precautions. And whatever you do, don’t go attracting attention to yourself buy moving big quantities of groceries to your house in one go, do it in bits and pieces so no one will notice. In times of hunger or anger, people tend to forget friendship and family ties as well, and they will even kill you if they knew you’ve got food stored in your house. What to do then? Help them out by giving them some food or not? It’s going to depend on you and what you choose to do. But let me remind you that if you give them once, a few days later, they will come to ask for more and more and more. Till your own supplies are dry and you won’t make it out yourself and you will become stranded just like the one you are helping. So whatever you choose to do, use our head.
Don’t forget to prepare a first aid kit as well. As for fuel for the car, when the D day comes, you should go fill whatever vehicle you’ve got and lock that car in your garage. The first targets of thieves will be food as well as the fuel in your car since both are going to be scarce. Use bicycles if you need to make a short trip. Keep the fuel of your car to emergency situation, as in if you need to run away or rush to a hospital. It’s better if you don’t go out from your house, even to your front yard. Don’t attract too much attention onto yourself. And you should consider there will be curfew and even martial law. If that kicks in, you should not forget that the gvt can get into your home and confiscate whatever they want. So take precaution in that as well. Oh I just remembered that olives are also a good source of vitamins and they can be stored for a long time as long as they are submerged in olive oil. Try to look for types of food that can be stored in a dry condition like onions and garlic and okras, or dates, dried raisins etc, potatoes last long as well.
If you want to stay alone, or gather the family in one place, then you should make preparation according to your choice. You should also prepare for each individual an emergency backpack in case you will have to evacuate the house in emergency. Don’t forget to take your valuables and your “official” papers (house deeds and passports etc) if you are forced to evacuate your house and don’t store everything in one bag, it might be stolen or snatched from you. What I do when I travel to “dangerous” places is I put whatever is important in my front jeans pockets and I stitch with a thread and needle that pocket close. What is the thief going to do = take my pants off? And at the end, don’t forget to PRAY.