Prepping For An Emergency?

Fear has gripped most of the continent and people are buying up all the toilet paper. Yeah, you heard right.  There isn't any toilet paper in the stores and people are freaking out.  I cannot remember panic like this in recent years.  Well, maybe I can but I was younger and paid less attention to the world around me. This time, it's the Coronavirus that has people up in arms and running to the stores to prepare for the end.

I am not scared, not of the actual virus. But what is happening is a little scary.  When people panic, it causes even more problems than there needs to be.  And the media and government aren't helping. Their scare tactics and fear reports make matters worse.  And of all the things to have a shortage of, I had no idea toilet paper would be one of them.

In Costa Rica, there are no hand sanitizers left on any of the store shelves.  Customers can only buy 2 to 3 bottles of Lysol and antibacterial soap and hand wipes. Well, you can buy 2 to 3 IF you can find them. The shelves are bare. And that is understandable.  The Coronavirus is a cold like virus that is highly contagious and precautions include washing your hands and cleaning your surfaces.

As for why toilet paper has disappeared off the shelves is a mystery to me.  What can you do with TP in an actual emergency? I get it's a necessity that we need, for the most part.  But hoarding it isn't really preppingfor a worse case scenario.

As per my hubby's suggestion, we decided to do a little prepping of our own and stock up on a few essentials.  We went out and got the basic necessities we would actually need in case of an emergency, like a 2 week lockdown or quarantine.  If a worse case scenario occurred and we couldn't leave our house for about 2 to 4 weeks due to emergency precautions set by the government, we wanted to make sure we would be ok.  We got the basics: rice, canned beans and veggies, pastas and sauces.  Pancake and mashed potato mixes that just need water and, of course, a case of bottled water.  We got a few other items as well and a few comfort foods too, but we had to keep it simple because we wanted to avoid a panicked mindset. Plus, creating an emergency food stockpile is expensive and takes time.

If this situation has taught us anything, it's to try and be prepared in case of any event.  We have now decided to start stocking up little by little each month, adding a few basic and staple necessities to our monthly grocery haul so we have at least a months' worth of food supplies stockpiled at home. There is nothing worse than trying to go shopping in a pandemic.  Well,maybe there is something worse: leaving the saftey of your home when there is a raging virus outside.