Venezuela update.

A while back we talked about Venezuela and the crisis they are having in which people could not find food or other basic items to survive. Again we will try to stay out the politics and focus on what the people are doing to survive. By doing this maybe we can pull ideas or answers which can assist us in our own emergency preparedness. If the opportunity presents itself we should learn from other people's experience instead of having to learn the hard lessons ourself.

Here is link to the original post. 

http://broadheads.blogspot.com/2016/05/venezuela-reality-check.html

Not much has changed from the time we originally looked at the situation. This is a really good example of why people need to realize emergencies can last long than a day or two. Help just might not be coming along any day soon, preparedness needs to be thought out for both the short and long haul and at the end of the day, you are responsible for your family.

The bridge talked about in the link below. Read the article. These people traveled by public transit and walked to secure food for themselves. Then look at the photo of what they came home with. These were not people already close to the poverty line or part of an underserved community. No, the husband was an auto mechanic and had his own garage before things started going south. The wife has a good job but with the situation spiraling downward her income is not enough to sustain the family.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/venezuela-food-shortage-family-liquidates-savings-to-stockpile-food/

  

I hope you read the article but if you did not here is what they brought home. How long could you and your family live on this amount of food? 

Here is what another family brought home after "shopping". They expected to eat for two weeks off of this amount of food.

Daily people stand in these lines hoping they can afford the prices of what little might be in the store.

Everything you might have stored up is likely to be used up after what, two weeks, a month, six months? Most of us do not have the space to stock up on much more than a maybe a weeks worth of food.

Yet food is not the only thing in short supply. Medicine is also lacking with doctors and hospitals not having anyway of getting more.

How long could you last on this? Heck do you even have the cooking skills to utilize these ingredients? Some of us have no idea how to cook from scratch and for these folks at this point in their situation all there is to work worth is items to make food from scratch.

http://todayvenezuela.com/2017/01/10/venezuela-set-for-murderous-2017/

The situation is not just one in which people can not find food. Read the article linked above. Not only are they looking for food people are more and more having to defend what little they have. Protecting their supplies not only from other hungry people. They have to defend themselves against gangs and the government. Problem for most of this people is when they try to defend themselves the gangs, police and military are the only ones who have firearms.

This is starting to get kind of long. Let's bring this around.

Prepare for the 'quick' emergency. Three days maybe a week.
Always be mentally prepared to go longer.
Utilize whatever supplies you have but always work to add more. Do not wait till you are running out of supplies to try and acquire more, everyone else is probably doing the same thing.
Be prepared to defend what you have, even from people you shouldn't have to defend things from.

As Always,

Stay Safe