Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness 101
What is the difference between emergency and disaster?
An emergency is an unexpected and sudden event that must be dealt with urgently. The declaration of an emergency is a governmental action used to authorize reallocation of resources suitable for use in an instance requiring, providing, and giving immediate attention to victims subjected to particular conditions.
Community circumstances dictate declarations and personal or individual catastrophes are disregarded no matter how terrible. There in lies the differences between two very specific terms which are often used interchangeably. Disasters are events; emergencies are the responses to them.
That means that on any given day one or more persons may be involve in a single or a series of chance occurrences that cause serious loss, destruction, hardship, unhappiness, or death. Those negative events may occur in any order, but when whole communities are subjected to an overwhelming of their local resources, we call that a disaster and declare an emergency.
It is strangely coincidental that we also call somebody or something that fails completely, especially in a way that is distressing, embarrassing, or laughable, a disaster. When otherwise intelligent people fail to plan for foreseeable disasters, this is probably where confusion comes into play. No one wants to be thought of as a disaster.
Food and first aid supplies will always be necessary in the event of an emergency. Personal disasters do not necessarily require us to set aside appropriate supplies in storage compartments. Typically, we can insurance against risks such as automobile accidents and house fires. We prepare for these possibilities so that they can be contained or restricted to the number of people who are directly affected by occurrences.
However, the increasing rate of occurrence and the rising severity of natural disasters for which we are compelled to declare regional emergencies have caught most of us off guard. Some questions are now being posed that inquire if the vigilance with which we have appraised our capacity to respond has been lax. This kind of serious doubt lends credence to climate change theories that suppose that insufficient attention has been given to maintaining a balanced stockpile of the necessary resources. One can’t help but wonder if the current official food storage and emergency preparedness programs that are in place are being overtaxed.
In the USA, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) has directed the Homeland Security Agency (HSA) to release documents recommending all U.S. citizens adopt short term food storage plans for what kinds of food supplies are recommended in their communities to store in case of a disaster. The geography of the United States is so diverse that regional criteria’s have been determined to address the likely occurrences of various types of misfortunes. Additionally, HSA has address the National Terror Alert methodology to include appropriate personal food storage issues in the event of biological or nuclear assaults in key highly populated communities where immediate evacuation or relief may not be forthcoming under such circumstances.
These facts point to the conclusion that although the effort to provide for community emergency security through government planning has been a hallmark of our society’s civilization; the ultimate responsibility for you and your family members’ survival rest with your personal strategy for averting disaster in the event of a declared emergency.
High Energy Biscuits is the beast food for emergencies.

