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May 21, 2013

In Defense of Prepping, Life and Data

I’m not writing about the wearing of shirts with little alligators sewn on them. Come on now, we’ve all seen the Prepper shows on TV where people seem worried about asteroid strikes, super volcanoes or some other unlikely disaster. What I am in favor of is preparing for likely disasters that might reasonably have serious consequences. If you live on Tornado Alley, then it is useful to prepare for tornadoes. If you live on an active fault line, prepare for earthquakes for goodness sake. If you live on a relevant coastline, then prepare for hurricanes. If you live in some parts of the upper midwest, prepare for flooding.

The deadly tornado in Oklahoma has prompted this post. How do you prepare for a tornado? Well, warnings have gotten real good. Get a radio that warns of this sort of thing with a special signal, and keep it on during tornado season. Mostly what you need to do is to prepare a shelter. Shelters are easy and cheap to create. One can use large precast concrete culverts or used steel shipping containers. For best effect, bury the shelter. How about burying it under the patio you have wanted to create? Finally, use the shelter when warned of tornadoes.

Each of the likely disasters one might face has a short list of preparations or “preps” that a reasonable person might utilize. Some of these include moving. For example, if you are worried about hurricanes, then moving just a bit inland can often provide a substantial amount of protection. If you hear that floods are likely, then move your vehicles and animals to high ground. If you are in the area of wildfires, clear your immediate area of combustibles and develop a water source from which water can be pumped on your buildings. If your life is threatened by staying, then get up and move yourself. Create a bug-out bag and take it with you, but move.

In this day and age, data can be some of our most valuable stuff. Move it. You should not keep your data backups near your computer. Instead, your backups should be sent to a data center far away . . . and preferably to a region that is not faced with threats from natural disasters. There are such places. For example, consider the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. No hurricanes or tornadoes or earthquakes. Very little flooding and only modestly high winds. Much of the electrical generation capacity is hydro. Huge access to fresh water. You get the idea: evaluate places in terms of their likelihood for experiencing disaster.

Be safe.

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