Prudent Prepping:Plan C?

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping. 

I know that most of us have a Plan A and then a Plan B, but how many of us have a Plan C?

Plan The Next
A family member is now on their Plan C after a trailer kept in a storage facility caught fire. There wasn't a lot kept in the trailer, but it did have extra supplies of food and clothing in case of a local disaster, like the expected big earthquake.

photo courtesy eastcountytoday.net

As you can see, the fire was visible from several miles away and burned several motor homes and trailers. Their biggest loss was the shelter and possible last-ditch bug out vehicle.

The plan in case of earthquakes was to:

1. Evaluate any damage to everyone's home.
2. Consolidate from most damaged to least damaged housing, if necessary.
3. Get to the trailer on surface streets (doable but tedious) with all the bug out gear, if everyone had severely damaged houses.

As you can see, that isn't happening now. It was quite a shock for them to go to the storage facility to put the current registration sticker on their trailer, only to see everything shown in the photo below. (The storage yard sent out a letter asking for a call back, but didn't try to call them.) Obviously it was quite a shock for them to roll in and see their property gone.

photo courtesy of www.patch.com

What Now?
That is a question still unanswered as of this week. Calls are being made to the insurance company and lists are being made of the things stored inside. As with most insurance claims, the paperwork seems endless and the money paid will probably be less than expected. 

This leads into the other part of prepping: keeping a good record of your stuff. Since this was a trailer that wasn't used often, there wasn't an accurate inventory of the contents. Many of the things lost were of little monetary value but did have some sentimental value. Even so, an accurate listing is important for situations just like this.  I didn't lose any property in the fire, but I have lost my Plan C as well. 

The Takeaway

• Always have a backup plan to the backup plan. The old cliche' "Two is one and one is none" does have some truth in it.
• Insure your gear and equipment properly.
• Keep an accurate listing of everything, even if it isn't high-value goods.
• Replacing a large quantity of gear all at once out-of-pocket hurts.

The Recap

• Store things in as good and as safe a place as possible.
• Don't rely on strangers to be as mindful of your possessions as you are.
• Plan for as big a disaster as you can afford.
• Expect your plans to change at the first sign of 'action'.

Nothing was purchased this week, but I am making a very thorough listing of all my gear starting last weekend.


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 NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.