Prevention

OK, you may say, "Why are you telling us this story?" Well, I am telling you this story because I think there are some important lessons here, for those of us who are trying to be prepared for whatever crisis may soon come to pass. I am certain that this little story will cause many of you to think twice about how secure your emergency preparedness materials and supplies really are. And I hope this story will cause you to re-evaluate what are really the most important things in your life. And I am telling you this story because I now know, first hand, that nothing, absolutely nothing, is ever 100% safe and secure, no matter how hard or how long you have tried to be prepared. And I am telling you this story because it is evident to me that this kind of crisis can happen to anyone at anytime. I know; because that man is my son ... because that crisis is real and present in my life ... and because sharing this story is one way that I can reach out and help in a way that perhaps no one else can. I am telling you all this story simply because I care!

• As you read this story and begin to think of solutions that could possibly have prevented this total loss, I am sure you will also think of ways to prevent this kind of crisis from happening to you or to those whom you love. Some of the solutions that I have been thinking about are these:
• When we have the opportunity to rebuild the well-house, we will be sure to have a separate, smaller unit, to house the well-pump, the water heater, and the pressure tank, as well as the control panel for these units.
• We will, eventually, replace some of the appliances. They will not all be housed in the same unit. Perhaps we could put the washer and dryer in one unit and the freezer and stove, along with cooking vessels and utensils into a separate small room, with a sink, divided from the main area of the well-house.
• We will house the bathtub and linen cupboard in an adjacent room, with fireproof wallboard as an enclosure.
• We will not keep all our emergency supplies and equipment for the coming earth changes in the same place. It will be stored in a couple of different places, built to be more fireproof, and not all together. That way, if a crisis does hit us again, we will not lose all of our stored supplies.
• We will build the new building with more fire protection, thicker insulation, less wood, and a more secure enclosure for the breaker box and electrical controls. We will have fire extinguishers in each part of the unit.
• We are also looking into a raised water storage tank, which can be filled and which will give us available water if anything ever happens to our water supply again. Being raised up on a girder-type structure, it will give us the necessary gravity feed for the water to maintain a constant flow for all our water needs. We may even build more than one such structure.

I hope that in some small way, my sharing of this story and our recently-conceived solution sets, will help those who read it. If any part of this story gives you cause to think about your own situation and come up with something better than what you already have, I will feel that I have succeeded in my efforts to help.

Offered by Shekhina.