Thursday, June 28, 2012

Backups to backups to backups

A reader just left a comment on my post Pray for Colorado that was so thoughtful and true that I wanted to highlight it.
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I wanted to reiterate to everyone to have backups to your backups to your backups.

I live outside of Price, Utah. We've had over 60,000 acres of fires within 50 miles of us. Yesterday we had one 6 miles away from my home. We figured if we were evacuated we would go to our cabin about 40 miles away. It is our bug out location. We know every back trail to get there. We even have horses that are trained to pack us in. We have supplies there and could hunker down for quite a wile. They evacuated that entire area yesterday while we were getting threats of evacuation here. Our back ways in were on fire. That would have left either heading for the evacuation center at the nearby LDS stake center or the desert to the south. We were prepping to bug out to the desert because it wouldn't have just been us it would have been our animals too. There's not much to burn in the area we were heading.

I felt good about getting everyone out there until Hubby told me that if we were told to evacuate he would be called in to the hospital where he works to evacuate patients. We would have been down one driver. Now it became which animals get to go and which one get set free and hope for the best. Luckily we haven't had to evacuate because the final decision came down to my son driving the big trailer with the small livestock while I packed the horses to our rendezvous point over the scorching desert 6 hours (for me) away while hoping the fire wasn't too close behind. We were very aware of how close the fire was and how much time we had to get out. If the fire moved too quickly we would have left the animals and ran for our lives. With this plan there would have been no room for supplies just our bug out bags, animals and a few bales of hay.

It hasn't happened, thank you Lord, but it made me very aware of the chinks in our armor. I'm grateful that I have been able to see those chinks now and will be better able to prep for any future disasters.

And to reiterate what Patrice said, please pray for everyone. I have friends in CO and MT that I can't get a hold of. Their ranches that feed our nation are burning and their livestock with it.

Don't get cocky with your preparedness plans like I was. Backups to backups to backups. To backups. Good luck and Blessings to everyone who's burning or flooding right now.

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What she says is true: The ranches that feed our nation are burning and their livestock with it.

Keep the prayers coming, the folks in these states need 'em. Meanwhile, as this reader points out, now might be a good time to start thinking through the chinks in our armor. Backups to backups to backups...

6 comments:

  1. That is scary. You can never be prepared enough

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  2. http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/

    Above is a good website to find out how much acreage has been burned, how a fire started, how much has been contained, when the expected date of containment will be, etc.

    The fires are devastating and we will be praying.

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  3. My thank you for highlighting my ignorance, I live in the UK and was unaware of the tragedies that were unfolding. You will all be in my thoughts

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  4. The given story is quite scary and also a informative, which provides knowledge that how the fire started.Plumber Edmonton

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  5. Having formerly lived in SoCal with fire season being a bit of a way of life, I found if the fire did not directly affect me, it was an excellent time to update my emergency plans. At those moments it's quite vivid that you need to know WHAT to gather, WHERE it is, a WAY to gather it all into a vehicle fast! In fact, I felt this urge yesterday when I read this post! Our county fire department had a document: Ready, Set, Go, which listed items under each of those headings. Here is the link: http://fire.countyofventura.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=9hQO1rR_ezw%3D&tabid=231

    Blessings,
    DWlee3 now in Bend, OR
    P.S. There was a forest fire behind our present Bend home 14 years ago, (and we were living in SoCal) and afterward our neighbor's property taxes were raised because "now you have a view". "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help." NOT!

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  6. Words from the front. Wow.

    The advice contained in that letter from your reader is coming from the heart and I appreciate the time she took to write it. I can feel her fear all the way out here. Realizing that there may be terrible choices to make....

    This is the kind of advice I always pay attention to. In her time of chaos, she still wanted to help others. That's pretty incredible. Thank you, reader.

    Juat Me

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