Reply #26: well many people have lost electric for quite a few months now

[pitohui]

stockpiles did little as in the event of the catastrophe you were evacuated a long way away from your stockpile

insurance was a mixed bag as insurers in the worst-hit areas are dragging their feet on paying people so they can get lives back together

the best "plan" turned out to be that you have family or friends in an area distant from the disaster where you can live until the lights get turned back on, which still hasn't happened in many parts of st. bernard, orleans, etc.

if the lights go out all over america, then you're screwed, just as large extended families who all lived in st. bernard parish or all lived in lakeview are screwed, because the gov't don't give a damn and there's nothing to help the middle class yet you have no family member outside the zone of devastation to fall back on

stockpiles are just a way to waste money now, because you can't carry that much clean water, especially

america had its renaissance in the 50s,60s, and 70s, i don't think there is any rule that we get another if you missed the boat and weren't born soon enough to enjoy it or didn't appreciate it while you had it

i'd say the best thing is to enjoy life now because you can't control the future

but we already know what happens when the light goes out, people soon forget, even progressives don't realize that it's going on right now today in their own country and not just to poor people, not just to the "other" but to the middle class and even to some well-to-do or formerly well-to-do who lost everything in an hour

pay off your credit cards if it makes you feel better, have a garden, stick some extra chocolates in the larder, but don't kid yourself it counts for anything in event of a real disaster