Failure to prepare on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part

I just found this story which seems to paint a pretty balanced picture about what is becoming more mainstream — preparing for whatever most-likely disasters any of us might incur (Californians have earthquakes; Kansans have tornadoes; the Gulf Coast has hurricanes…not many of us escape the path of at least something major). I’m a bit dismayed — but not surprised — at some of the snide comments being made about preppers, but I’m just guessing that most of these people just haven’t yet had major occurrences in their own lives of everything hitting the fan. Here are just a few links on various disasters that left collectively millions of people unprepared — but I dare say that in a lot of cases (Hurricane Katrina comes to mind) — people made very poor decisions both before and after disaster hit. If you live in a hurricane-prone region, not having a bug-out bag is foolish. If you live in earthquake-prone areas, not having extra food and water stocked up is foolish. I saw a quote on another site that a lot of willfully unprepared people might hear from others who did prepare:

Failure to prepare on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.

Notice that I referred to people who are willfully unprepared. These are the people who disdain the efforts of those of us who are trying to prepare to become self-sufficient yet who will expect us to help them when disaster strikes — and who may react violently if we refuse to help them compensate for their foolish decision not to prepare. The links below should make for some interesting reading — and I hope it will inspire a lot of you to pick up the pace with your prepping.

NATURAL DISASTERS:
** Diary of a medic after Hurricane Katrina: http://www.doomers.us/forum2/index.php/topic,46497.0.html
** Tips from Katrina survivors: http://www.frfrogspad.com/disastr.htm
** More on Katrina’s aftermath: http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/freedomcontent.cfm?fuseaction=FEMA_Katrina
** Lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike: http://www.survivalblog.com/2009/10/lessons_learned_from_hurricane.html
** Lessons from the January 2009 Midwest ice storm: http://www.survivalblog.com/2009/02/letter_re_lessons_from_the_jan.html
** Lessons from another ice storm: http://www.survivalblog.com/2010/02/lessons_learned_from_an_ice_st.html and http://www.survivalblog.com/2010/02/two_letters_re_lessons_learned_1.html

AFTERMATH OF THE 2010 HAITIAN EARTHQUAKE
** http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N21203781.htm (hygiene, especially in large public gatherings, will be a huge problem–plan now)
** http://www.google.com/search?&q=haiti+disaster+lessons
** http://www.survivalblog.com/cgi-bin/mt43/mt-search.cgi?search=haiti&IncludeBlogs=2&limit=1000
** http://www.google.com/search?q=preparednesspro+haiti

ECONOMIC DISASTERS (hyperinflation, etc.):
** http://www.marketskeptics.com/2009/10/funding-budget-deficits-through.html
** http://www.shadowstats.com/article/hyperinflation
** Lessons from Peru on Third World living: http://www.survivalblog.com/2009/01/lessons_from_peru_on_third_wor.html
** Tips from the Argentine collapse: http://ferfal.blogspot.com/
** More on the Argentine collapse: http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2009/11/argentine-crisis-and-current-situation.html

EMP ATTACKS:
** http://www.preparednesspro.com/blog/the-timing-of-an-emp-strike