Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
This might be an easy one for some of you, while others may not have yet considered it. Today’s challenge is a thought exercise.
Out of all the disasters in the world, what is the most likely one for you and your family?
This could be anything from natural disasters to financial problems to drought to gang violence. It all depends on where you live and what your family situation is like.
So today, tell me the most likely disaster that you and your family could face. Think carefully because tomorrow’s challenge ties into this one.
If you have some runner-up disasters you can list them too but try to narrow it down to the things that are extremely likely. (boy can I relate to the multiple disasters after living in the mountains of California for 5 years).
If you want to qualify for the free ebook, be sure to pop over to the forum to post your answers. 🙂
The most likely near term disaster for us here in VA has got to be a long term, wide spread power outage. It has happened before and it WILL happen again. It might happen this week!
To mitigate the risk, I’ve got a big Generac generator, fuel with Stabil additive, and a honkin’ big pile of firewood for the wood stove. A good supply of Duracell batteries in all flavors, and of course all my firearms are cleaned, lubed and ready to go at a moment’s notice. All my power tools are in good working order and of high quality.
And as a precaution, all my vehicles have full fuel tanks in case a bugout is required.
Happy Labor Day!
Blizzard.
No power
No heat
No running water
3 kids under 8.
All ready did it for week-BEFORE i was a prepper and why I am a prepper now.
It would be tornadoes with long term power outages, gas leaks, contaminated water. Complete shelter destruction. We have two tornado seasons. Spring and Fall. Other than that financial fall.
For us, I think finances. Work for my husband slows down in the winter, and consistently every winter we find ourselves tight and behind in payments.
Well, Canadian winters can be pretty brutal at times, so one always has to be prepared for not being able to leave the house for at least a week and for lengthy power outages after ice storms bring down power lines. But actually, my personal most likely disaster is the one I have been living for some time now – financial disaster. I have virtually no income at all, and my retirement savings are near their end (in only my mid 50’s!) I spend very little on groceries and am eating off my preps almost entirely. At least it will mean less to move next year!
Hi, Jennifer
Can you think of anything you can do as a side gig to earn some money? Is there any thing you can grow, raise, bake, make, etc?
Mine is grass fires due to extreme heat; possible tornado although not has common out here as in other areas; No gasoline due to shutdowns or shortages. I am off grid so power outages are not a big problem for me. Lack of available animal feed would be another problem for me. I would quickly butcher excess poultry (turkeys, ducks & chickens) and can them. I have propane tanks, plus I can use an open fire if I had to for canning.
In Southern CA, the possibilities/probabilities are wild fires and earthquakes, along with all the resulting utility outages
Snow storm. Could be a blizzard, could be bitter cold or large amount of snowfall. Two sources of wood heat. Propane cook stove and Bakers Choice wood cook stove that has thermometer in the oven door for better temperature control when baking. I love the warming oven. Also has a water reservoir on back with spigot. Being prepared for that brings the possibility of electricity outage. Solar power lighting and generac for emergency power. Pretty standard for this area.
Likely events in include last Winter’s snow storm. My area doesn’t typically get a lot of snow but we got almost 2 ft of wet snow. The trees couldn’t take it county wide so they fell, branches fell and power lines were taken out, roads were closed and people were stranded.
Wildfires are possible in our area but not so much in town where I live.
The BIG event possible where we live is a very large quake ( they say a 9 or so) due to the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
Where I’m at, I think the most likely are probably power outages and financials. The one that scares me the most is a major earthquake. I live right along a big fault line.
earthquakes, lots of snow. Although, this summer, it’s been wildfires. Currently burning north & south of town. In june there was a small one 5 miles from my house – and i’m in the middle of town! Weather has been crazy in Alaska this summer – record breaking heat, lack of rain, and Fall showed up overnight. think it’s going to be a long winter.
Tropical storm/hurricane. I live in the Florida Panhandle. Went through hurricane Michael
last year. I was on the western edge so got some 100+ mph winds but suffered minimal damage.
No power for 7 days. Have 2 generators that are dual fuel so did OK. Had plenty supplies and water.
Major area I needed to improve was having meal plans better organized. Had to sort through boxes
etc. to put stuff together. I now have 2 boxes set up with a weeks worth of meals in each one with
menu plan in each box. After a week I will fill the next box so I am at least a week ahead of the game at all times. One of my generators is connected to my well so I was able to supply fresh
water to neighbors, mainly for animals. Most had water for themselves but no provisions for livestock.
I have since bought a portable on demand hot water heater. I can set it up by the well (shelter on 3 sides)
so folks can get a shower every few days. Beats a sponge bath.
Bless you!
Tornado! Mostly because no matter how a person prepares, there is usually only a short time to get out of it’s way. You just hope your insurance is enough.
In the mountains of WV, our most likely, and regularly accruing, emergency, is power out either by heavy snow or another derecho like we had 6 years ago. We are well set for that. The second one I worry about is forest fire.
Tornadoes, Earthquakes, Floods and financial disasters.
Tornado and financial for us.
Winter storms causing power outages most likely here. Easier to deal with than second most likely, which is tornadoes.
Personally-I’m preparing for power outages and how to access water as I have a well.
The most likely emergency here is a blizzard.
Monkeys with Car Keys
Anyone who tries to go thru a long line of cars waiting outside of a gas station bumper to bumper, rather then go a short distance around them.
Behavior includes blaring of car horn, shouting and waving of arms with hand gestures.
Another reason to stay indoors in the early stages of the SHTF.
(File under People to Avoid/
MWCKs.)
1. Tornado or other windstorm that would knock down the big trees in our yard. Or make them crash into the house, destroying our home. Possibly a rare winter ice storm could do the same.
2. Recession/unemployment also huge worries.
3. Droughts happen a lot here. If they kill the trees, see #1.
Hurricane Dorian is the biggest threat we are facing since we live close to the coast of South Carolina.
Will be back home tomorrow. Can I do catch up?
Just hop right in and go back to the other days – you can find them all on the homepage of this website 🙂 Look for the gold glittery photos.
For us it would be injury and then off of that financial loss and coming into summer this year bushfire season is gonna be the worst ever their saying
Power outage due to storms, mostly. I hate tornadoes, but have only had them around me not close to me. I’m taking care of my elderly mother, so that’s an added issue that I don’t really know how to address at this point.
an extra wet winter created lots of overgrown brush, prime fuel for wildfires in our area. Earthquakes are in the forecast for SoCal.
We’ve lived through several different SHTF scenarios already. Weather and power outages are fairly regular visitors. Financial ruin is one no one ever expects to have to deal with. But it can happen to anyone anytime. Thankfully, we had some preps in place that helped get us thru the rough times after I lost my good paying job. Unfortunately, it also meant we had to dip into our savings. It took me 2 yrs to find another job, since I was ‘aged out’ of my previous field (at this point in my life, taking on student debt to make the same amount of money I had been making did not make any sense at all) Since I now work for about 1/3 of my previous salary, rebuilding preps and savings has been rough. But we are slowly and steadily getting back on our feet and rebuilding.
The most likely is probably financial problems. I hope we don’t lose all of our investments, but it’s always possible.
I live in an area that has tornadoes, and earthquakes are always possible.
A brush fire could devastate me. We have a fire break around our house and fire extinguishers. They wouldn’t be able to help on a wild fir though.
In the South, weather is always an issue. Summer usually means 98+ degree days with 115 degree heat indecees. Winters are generally mild, lows of 25, but chill factors of single digits, due to humidity. You never know how to dress from day-day.
For us in northern California, 300 miles north of Frisco, first is earthquakes. Next, per PG&E, is loss of power due to high winds and wild fire danger.
Snow Storm/Blizzard.
We have been pretty lucky as power outages at home have been short and generally haven’t happened at all. But cannot depend on luck.
Severe Thunderstorms are the most likely thing to cause damage in our area, be it hail, flooding, lightning, or damaging winds.
– Kansas City area
We would most likely be hit with a tornado, possibly flooding, but wind and storm damage and power outages.
We are pretty prepared, so biggest threat would be a financial crisis that closes the local banks suddenly. #2 might be water contamination since we live on a creek and have several irrigation diversions for livestock and gardens. #3 would likely be a hit to the power grid since we have ones every summer at times 48 hours. (That is what started me canning our meat). #4 drought that minimizes the regular amount of creek water.
We’re getting older and want to keep as healthy and active as possible so regardless of the disaster we’d be at our best to try and handle it. We’re concerned about The Big One (9.+ quake off the coast of Oregon) and the grand solar minimum.
Most likely disasters for our family in order of likelihood:
Medical issue
Power outages
Blizzards/ hurricanes/nor’easters
Financial (lay off or bank account hacked)
These have all happened, so they are likely to happen again. Two years ago ALL of them happened within the year.
If you look at the stats, a house fire is far and away the most likely disaster you will face. I don’t mean slightly higher, it is the most common localized disaster by orders of magnitude. Have your important documents readily available, be able to find them in the dark and be out of the house in under a minute. Good luck out there.
Natural disasters, power outage, tornadoes, contaminated water.
I suppose everybody is talking about natural disasters because they are perceived to be the most likely. Daisy has published 10 or 12 articles in the last month about losing our rights, privacy and tools of self defense. That frightens me more than anything else. What if they turn off the SS checks until we turn in our tools of self defense? I think the left and oppressive government is a much bigger threat than bad weather.
Making sure husband and dogs have what they need. I’m a 911 dispatcher and when the shtf I’ll be needed at work.
Most likely the disasters around here would be tornado ,snow or ice storm.
I keep my house well stocked especially in winter. I have many blankets , solar generators and several ways to heat a small room have neighbors with a fireplace and several ways to cook if necessary. I also have and have a WEll stocked basement in case of tornado .
Preparing for worst case scenarios. That way by preparing for the worst I am prepared for all of them.
Here in Western Montana we have earthquakes, wildfires, flooding, ice storms, and blizzards. We are also down wind from Seattle in case of nuclear accidents. Must prepare for almost everything.
Well…totally forgot my password having been gone so long but the most likely disaster is power outages, blizzard/ice storms, and tornadoes here in the midwest.
We have a firepit with some stored wood but not enough, I’m afraid. Woods nearby so I could collect some if there’s power outages. Small camp stove and smaller “bug-out” stoves to take as well.
Keeping gas filled in car, buying batteries and have several kerosene lamps/wicks on hand as well as a big computer paper box full of candles.
Right NOW in South Africa, our biggest challenge is a possible revolution, with white genocide. Not joking! We are prepared to run or bug-in, although the latter is not a good option in a big city. Power and water will be cut off, and shops looted, then they may turn to the houses.
Hurricanes, flooding, tornadoes. I haven’t had to deal with them with my kids, (both under 4yr old) but I’m under prepared for sure..
I wasn’t living here for it, but during Katerina, apparently a lot of looting and crazy people were breaking into homes and attacking people in brod day light. Stealing generators and gas and a lot of people had make shift, “if you take another step we will shoot you” signs. Freaks me out, knowing something could easily happen again.