Governments are now telling their citizens to keep days of supplies on hand. For most of us, that’s just called Tuesday.
In the past week, two major governments asked their citizens to start living a little more like boondockers.
On October 22, the United Kingdom launched Be Ready (https://www.gov.uk/beready), a three-year national campaign asking every household to be able to manage on its own for three days. The checklist covers bottled water, food that needs no cooking or refrigeration, medications, a first-aid kit, a flashlight, a battery or wind-up radio, a charged power bank, and cash. Wind-up radios reportedly started selling out within days.
Japan followed this week. Disaster Management Minister Goshi Hosono announced that a notice going to every household on November 2 will ask people to keep at least three days of food, water, and toilet supplies. His preference is a full week.
Neither country is first. Germany has recommended ten days of supplies for years, Sweden has spoken openly about the risk of conflict, and the European Union asked all of its citizens to keep a 72-hour kit last year. Here in the U.S., FEMA’s Ready.gov (https://www.ready.gov) has long recommended at least three days of supplies, and ideally two weeks.
The reasons vary: cyberattacks, wildfires, earthquakes, extreme weather, and infrastructure failures. The answer is the same everywhere: water, food, power, and a way to get information when the grid goes quiet.
If you boondock, you already know the drill. You carry your own water, you make your own power, you cook without hookups, and you plan around the fact that help isn’t next door. The skills that keep you comfortable at a dispersed site for a week are the same skills these governments are now asking everyone to learn.
So here’s our challenge: take a fresh look at your rig as a home-preparedness asset. Is your water topped off? Are your batteries charged? Do you have a radio that doesn’t need cell service? If the lights went out at home tomorrow, could your camper carry the household for three days?
For a lot of our readers, the answer is already yes. And that’s worth being a little proud of.