by Valerie Lucus-McEwen: Degrees, certificates and relevant research for Emergency Managers
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These are the blogs related to the one you are about to read.
Doomsday Preppers are Socially Selfish (posted 11/29)
Doomsday Preppers: Mea Culpa (posted 12/4)
OK, I get it. Preppers Are Not Selfish. I was wrong. I apologize. (posted 12/6)
The Case for the Lifestyle Prepper (posted 12/8)
Merging Preppers with Emergency Management (posted 12/11)
A Short Note From A New Prepper (posted 12/13)
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A few days ago, I posted this blog: Doomsday Preppers are Socially Selfish. The role of a blogger is to foment discussion an it certainly appears that’s what I did. I very much appreciated most of the 150+ comments – except perhaps the ones that called me ‘stupid’, ‘nuts, ‘arrogant’, ‘ignorant’ – and a few personal emails that were much more graphic.
I wrote this for the emergency management community, who pretty much understood what I was saying. Social media is certainly powerful and I had no idea this would be so controversial.
FIRST .. let me offer a heartfelt apology. The title of that blog was misleading because there is a difference between DOOMSDAY Preppers and DISASTER Preppers. My sister, Marilyn, is a great example of a Disaster Prepper – although she calls it stocking up while working with her community. I asked her what the difference was and she said Disaster Preppers want to prepare for a prolonged power outage (all to common these days), while Doomsday Preppers are preparing for half the world to be destroyed.
For the record, I was a practicing emergency manager for over 20 years before I retired last year. The words 'All Disasters Are Local' are permanently inscribed on my brain. I would NEVER discourage or disparage work being done in communities as part of CERT or any other volunteer group. Those are the folks who are going to save the world. I can also unequivocally state (and I don’t know an emergency manager who would disagree with me) that NOBODY should expect help from their government during the first few weeks of any major disaster. The issues we saw in Katrina and Sandy (among others) only confirm it. The people who needed help right away were the ones who didn’t prepare. They took away resources that could have been used to recover infrastructure and bring the communities back on line a lot sooner.
Also for the record, I did go watch six of the more recent episodes before I wrote the blog. What I saw was a reality show that celebrated extreme people taking extreme measures for a black swan event, with an very heavy emphasis on security.
The most interesting comment was one about altruism. I define altruism like most dictionaries do – the principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others. One commenter suggested that altruism is only done out of selfish interest to feel good about oneself. I would have liked to discuss the differences, except he/she called me stupid and suggested I was too old for a social collective and old, ignorant people like me were a drain on resources for the young and strong. Harsh. Definitely not conducive to an intelligent conversation.
There were many suggestions that I should do some research before I started writing crap, and I’d like to throw that back. If it has been a long time since you paid any real attention to what FEMA was doing, and before you just dismiss them now, look at their “Whole Community” initiative. This is a summary of what it says, but I’d encourage you reading the whole thing:
We fully recognize that a government-centric approach to emergency management is not enough to meet the challenges posed by a catastrophic incident.
This larger collective emergency management team includes, not only FEMA and its partners at the federal level, but also local, tribal, state and territorial partners; non-governmental organizations like faith-based and non-profit groups and private sector industry; to individuals, families and communities, who continue to be the nation’s most important assets as first responders during a disaster.
Both the composition of the community and the individual needs of community members, regardless of age, economics, or accessibility requirements, must be accounted for when planning and implementing disaster strategies.
When the community is engaged in an authentic dialogue, it becomes empowered to identify its needs and the existing resources that may be used to address them.
Principles
- Understand and meet the actual needs of the whole community
- Engage and empower all parts of the community.
- Strengthen what works well in communities on a daily basis.
In other words, FEMA doesn't believe in a government-centric approach to managing disasters; the first responders are always the individuals and the community; the needs of everybody in the community must be considered (including the elderly, disadvantaged and disabled); and empowering the community to help itself is the way to make this all happen.
Outside of the FEMA logo on that, what is there to argue with? It is the difference between being altruistic and being selfish. Selfish is defined as concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself, seeking or concentrating on one’s own advantage or well being without regard for others. By that definition, Doomsday Preppers are socially selfish – Disaster Preppers are not.
Finally, let me repeat what I said in the last blog: I am optimistic. I believe in the power of working at a local level within our communities while looking at the larger picture of making society better. I don't believe preparing for Doomsday helps make that happen.
157 comments
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These are the blogs related to the one you are about to read.
Doomsday Preppers are Socially Selfish (posted 11/29)
Doomsday Preppers vs Disaster Preppers (posted 12/2)
OK, I get it. Preppers Are Not Selfish. I was wrong. I apologize. (posted 12/6)
The Case for the Lifestyle Prepper (posted 12/8)
Merging Preppers with Emergency Management (posted 12/11)
A Short Note From A New Prepper (posted 12/13)
--------------------------------------
Writing a blog is a funny thing – there are posts you expect to be controversial and aren’t – and then there are the posts where you don’t expect any reaction and are overwhelmed with the response.
I posted a blog five days ago intending to draw attention the National Geographic Channel show, Doomsday Preppers. I watched the last half dozen episodes and was appalled at what I saw. These folks are planning to survive an ‘end-of-the-world’ catastrophe and all their preparations were narrowly focused on themselves and their families. They have stockpiled resources including lots of guns and ammunition, and created bunkers or safe houses where they will defend themselves against hoards of unprepared neighbors. This is, as a fellow emergency manager noted: “a level of indulgence that is selfish and counter productive to providing for the common good.” I called it socially selfish.
I recognized that the show was melodramatic and exaggerated – what reality TV show isn’t? I was concerned enough to write a blog because it was commanding a space in the media market that could discourage ordinary people from preparing at all. I have spent my career pushing emergency preparedness and I know there are lots people out there who are apathetic, ignorant and would use any excuse to avoid taking care of themselves. I saw this show as a detriment to overall emergency preparedness.
And even though I was targeting only those extreme preppers, the whole ‘prepper’ community came unglued and there was a firestorm of impassioned comments. Much more, quite honestly, than I expected. Silly me.
It turns out there is a continuum of ‘preppers’ out there, ranging from the family with three days of supplies to that guy in the bunker planning for Armageddon. In between there are both the obsessed, compulsive hoarders who give all preppers a bad name, and the seriously dedicated people preparing themselves and working with their neighbors and communities
The comments from the blogs could pretty much be divided into those two groups:
The obsessed preppers condemned me as a government shill, living on taxes paid by an oppressed people, and part of the state who would use force to make them give up their ‘preps’. This group had a lot of real bad things to say about the government in general and FEMA specifically as they prepared for a total societal collapse. Here is an example of a comment from this group:
"FEMA wants people to have enough food that they don't get out of hand before the buses come to take them to the camps where the "emergency managers" can properly "manage" them. Don't want to go? Too bad, that's why they bought 400 million rounds of 40 S&W hollow points."
These preppers threatened me, called me names, addressed me as “Ms. Hypenated-Progressive” (who knew?) and worse. My apology is not for this group, which is just as well, because I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t accept it.
The dedicated preppers are the ones to whom I am addressing this blog: These folks were angry and hurt because I didn’t recognize the work they were already doing to help themselves, their families and their neighbors. They wrote intelligent, passionate posts about why I was wrong and talked about the concept of personal responsibility and accountability. They were frustrated by how hard they had tried to get their families and neighbors to be prepared, and the barriers thrown up by their local authorities. Lots of them don’t like the NGC show because it paints “all” preppers as extremists. They are amateur radio operators, community volunteers, and active on local CERT teams. They were angry and hurt they would be called selfish for taking care of themselves. These are two of those comments:
The prepper I know tries earnestly to educate his family, friends, and neighbors, not by giving sponsored presentations, but by having heart-felt talks with them. Those who understand, prepare. But most laugh and ridicule the prepper as "crazy", then run down to the mall to buy more stuff they don't need with money could've spent preparing for short-term or long-term disasters.
No one here said anything about existing outside a community, and I don't know any preppers, myself included, who intend to try to exist on their own.
I would like to very sincerely apologize to these dedicated preppers. I hope they understand that I didn’t intend to lump them in with the extremists. I am awed by what they have done against some pretty heavy odds and I am grateful they are out there. What is the phrase? To err is human, to forgive is divine. I erred and I am asking forgiveness.
There was small subset of the dedicated preppers who emailed me directly and were more interested in educating me than condemning me. They taught me a lot, helped me alter my perspective, and led me to some great resources. Check out the Marshall Preppers in Alabama, who have over 500 members and are actively engaged in neighborhood outreach. I bookmarked a website that allows preppers to share ideas about how to overcome some of their problems– they also have a Facebook page and a mention in Wikipedia. I was invited to a CERT Rodeo in Harris County, Texas in February.
They talked about how hard it is to get people interested in preparing – which should resonate with every emergency manager out there. They talked about the problems they have with their local emergency managers – who see them as extreme or ‘kooky’. Several mentioned the reluctance of their local jurisdictions to use their skills because of liability – and all you emergency managers out there know what I mean.
Emergency management professionals spend a lot of time lamenting the fact that the public doesn’t listen to their messages about preparedness. All sorts of approaches have been tried. In my experience, the only one that really works is when the community itself wants to be prepared. That is the basis for FEMA’s ‘Whole Community’ program: “…individuals, families and communities, who continue to be the nation’s most important assets as first responders during a disaster.” It seems to me there are resources out there emergency managers could work with and don’t.
So, this is what I’d like to do: I’d like to offer some of this blog space to those preppers who are struggling to prepare themselves and their neighbors: let them to use this space to talk about how they feel, show what they have done, what they want to do, what their problems are, and what they need. A lot of emergency managers read this; some of them might appreciate the education I have been given.
My agenda is to create a dialogue that might help EVERYONE be better prepared. Up front, I will add that I can’t answer everything sent to me or use everything offered, because I am only human and have a life outside this blog. If you are one of those dedicated preppers and want to talk to me, I’d like to listen. Send me an email directly to vjlm55@gmail.com Please put ‘prepper’ somewhere in the subject line.
Finally, one commenter dared me to make a video apology and post it on YouTube and offered me $100 if I did. Uh … I’m not gonna do that. Besides, I’d rather he used the money to buy disaster supplies for one of his unprepared neighbors.
68 comments
These are the blogs related to the one you are about to read:
Doomsday Preppers are Socially Selfish (posted 11/29)
Doomsday Preppers vs Disaster Preppers (posted 12/2)
Doomsday Preppers: Mea Culpa (posted 12/4)
The Case for the Lifestyle Prepper (posted 12/8)
Merging Preppers with Emergency Management (posted 12/11)
A Short Note From A New Prepper (posted 12/13)
---------------------------------
NOTE: Several constructively critical letters, without insults, without invective, and without threats, were more effective at changing my mind than all that other stuff put together. I offered space for preppers to respond to these blogs. Here follows one of them...
Valerie,
I believe that you are prepared to change your opinion based on new information. It is a rare thing to admit your mistakes in public and try to make it right. I give you credit for that. I also understand that the “reality” show Doomsday Preppers is, in many ways, unhelpful to everyone who is trying to encourage people to be more prepared. But you were openly critical of the “real” people on the show, and/or the people who are like them.
The people featured on that show have been portrayed in a certain light; edited, massaged, put in a certain context that may or may not really exist. I know for a fact that they were given certain false choices that they had to respond to on camera. It makes for better "drama" you know? E.g., would you kill and eat your pet if you had no other choice?
What you saw, is not really how they are in real life. You used the phrase, “socially selfish”. I think, in a nutshell, that’s the phrase that pushed so many hot buttons.
Let’s examine the idea of selfishness in the context of a typical community. Let’s rank selfishness in the following group:
- Totally unprepared folks. Couldn’t care less. Could do something, got the resources, but just don’t. Not helping their neighbors either. Will absolutely be a burden on the system when, not if, something happens.
- Sort of prepared. 3 days worth of food, water and a few flashlights. Hey, that’s what the government recommends.
- Disaster prepper (your term). 3-6 months worth of food, water and everything else. Two generators, and a plan, which has been tested and revised several times.
- Doomsday prepper (your term). A years worth of stuff, and then some.
- Doomsday prepper that really doesn’t care about anybody but themselves and their immediate family.
Group #2 is selfish by default. They just never really gave much thought to it, but failure to plan is still morally reprehensible. To me, #3 and #4 are all the same people from a practical point of view. Perhaps a difference in degree, but it’s really a continuum. #5 is extremely rare, and I still rate them as less selfish than #1 and #2. And let’s not forget that #2 is doing what “you” recommend. It can be made to look like “you” (the government 3-day recommendation people) are making fun of preppers for doing more. I know that’s not really what you personally think, but it could easily be interpreted like that.
Your comments in the original blog post made it sound like #5 was THE problem, worse than anybody. In real life, they are not selfish. They are better than most. They have been portrayed in a very slanted manner by the TV producers. At the very least, they won’t be a burden on the rest of the rescue effort. Why not acknowledge the fact that the TV show, Doomsday Preppers, has nothing to do with the 99.9% of the rest of us real preppers? Nothing selfish about us, or them for that matter.
I think you raised the ire of the preparedness community because the “doomsday prepper” who really doesn’t care about anybody else, is vanishingly rare. Do they even exist at all? I’m sure they do, but it’s really a straw man argument. They have to be less than 1% of the larger preparedness community based on my knowledge.
And your hoarding comment was wrong. Hoarding is what happens a day or two before the emergency, and during. Buying extra ahead of time, even a year’s worth, even just for your own family, is NOT hoarding, or selfish. It’s the antithesis of hoarding. It reduces demand on limited resources during the event.
If you want an education, go read the Zombiehunters forum for a while. Then go read the Survival Podcast forum for a while and listen to Jack’s podcast for a month or two. Did you know they are developing their own DRT, Disaster Response Team? How’s that for selfish? Then go read the Frugal Squirrel Forums for a while and James Rawles Survival Blog.
This is the real prepper community, not some “reality” show. They care. They make a difference in their community. They are evangelistic about it. That’s how most preppers are. Most “doomsday preppers” as you call them, have tried everything they can think of to get their friends, family and community to give a shit. Mostly unsuccessfully.
If you want to make peace with this community, how about publicizing the good preppers, which are 99+% of them? Post links to resources and plug them when you’re working with the public. There is a ton of good resources available. Now THAT would be an unmistakable olive branch!
Finest regards,
The Libertarian
62 comments
These are the blogs related to the one you are about to read:
Doomsday Preppers are Socially Selfish (posted 11/29)
Doomsday Preppers vs Disaster Preppers (posted 12/2)
Doomsday Preppers: Mea Culpa (posted 12/4)
OK, I get it. Preppers Are Not Selfish. I was wrong. I apologize. (posted 12/6)
Merging Preppers with Emergency Management (posted 12/11)
A Short Note From A New Prepper (posted 12/13)
-----------------------
NOTE: Last week, I wrote a blog about Doomsday Preppers that resulting in an overwhelming number of unfavorable – and ultimately instructive – comments. I apologized and then offered space for preppers to respond. The first one was from the prepper who’d help me alter my opinions about what I had written. Here follows another, this one from a prepper with a rural, farming background.
Over the past several days I have been watching your series of blogs and reader responses on the subject of prepping.
I am NOT an obsessed prepper. I have no bunker excavated in my backyard and I do not have six months of food stashed away in a shipping container 100 miles from home.
I am NOT a dedicated prepper. I have no training or specialized education that would be suitable for community support during a genuine disaster.
I consider myself a “lifestyle prepper,” for lack of any other definition. I was trained as a child to be ready for unforeseen circumstances simply by living my young life.
I was raised in rural Iowa during the 60s Cold War era. I remember “Duck and Cover.” I remember fallout shelters and Civil Defense bunkers in public buildings throughout my community. As a child, living within a 10 mile radius of a nuclear power plant meant annual drills by the community for an emergency evacuation.
I remember the approach of winter meant topping off the fuel oil and bringing in wood. Winter meant doubling the pantry in case you were snowed in. Winter meant preparing a kit for the car to dig yourself out or hunker down and await help. You knew how to thaw snow on the engine of a car and make fire from the spark of two battery cables.
Spring meant preparing for floods and having sandbags at the ready as the rivers always threatened to flood. Spring also meant preparing for tornadoes. To have a prepared corner in the basement with food, water, light, heat, sanitation & a radio was a standing consideration.
After a lifetime of conversation with friends and family who remain in my home state of Iowa as well as friends and family in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Nebraska, I am pleased to know the rural lifestyle remains largely unchanged since I left 25 years ago. For every annual disaster this population endures, they will recover.
A former rural boy, I am now a big city man in my 50s living far and away from my childhood home. I have a pantry stocked with about 6 weeks worth of food which costs less per unit since I buy much in bulk. I do this because it is economical, not because the world is coming to an end . I can live off the land if necessary, not because I could create a fortress in the woods but because I enjoy camping and have a practical understanding of how to do it.
I do not expect my big city friends and neighbors to comprehend the depth of what it is to survive a disaster in the absence of ever experiencing it. I do not expect my big city friends and neighbors to help in the emergency birth of a child if they have never witnessed the birth of a calf. I would not expect my big city friends and neighbors to even consider draining their home water lines after a city boil water order. In virtually any disaster, lifestyle preppers are the ones the unprepared ask the question "what do I do now.”
The preppers I see on television who make the news are, in my opinion, frightened urbanites scrounging for a sense of security in an unsecure world. In the absence of life experiences, they are sheltered from the practicalities of life and, as a result, are not capable of considering emergency situations absent a support structure. They prepare contingencies (big guns against looters, hoard & defend) against what they see as a threat because of their urban living. In an “end-of-the-world” disaster, the commercial preppers are merely a line of defense for lifestyle preppers who know how to live within nature's circle of life.
Life is a risk in its mere existence. Personally, I just do not understand how people move through life without an awareness of their environments and risks and a plan to overcome adversity.
Brian
15 comments
These are the blogs related to the one you are about to read:
Doomsday Preppers are Socially Selfish (posted 11/29)
Doomsday Preppers vs Disaster Preppers (posted 12/2)
Doomsday Preppers: Mea Culpa (posted 12/4)
OK, I get it. Preppers Are Not Selfish. I was wrong. I apologize. (posted 12/6)
The Case for the Lifestyle Prepper (posted 12/8)
A Short Note From A New Prepper (posted 12/13)
-------------------
NOTE: Last weekend, I wrote a blog about Doomsday Preppers that resulting in an overwhelming number of unfavorable – and ultimately instructive – comments. I apologized and then offered space for preppers to respond. The first one was from the prepper who’d help me alter my opinions about what I had written. The next one was from a ‘lifestyle’ prepper with a rural, farming background. This one is from an emergency manager in Tennessee.
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It seems to me preppers and emergency managers share 90% of the same goals. We both want strong resilient communities that can respond effectively and recover quickly from disasters of all types. We both recognize that resources are limited, and that preparation is needed to mitigate the effects of disaster.
The emergency management community has long held that every family needs some level disaster supply – the numbers range from 72 hours to one month of resources. Preppers have heeded the call, and in large numbers exceeded the recommended supplies because they want to ensure that they are not a burden on an already overworked response network.
In my opinion, both groups of people should learn to work together; such a partnership will benefit both parties. Emergency managers have long used ham radio operators during large scale disasters. Ham operators have specialized knowledge, skills, and equipment that is personally owned so that they are not dependent on government infrastructure to communicate. That sounds a lot like the prepping community, and as a point of fact, many ham radio operators are preppers.
However, one thing that worries emergency managers about preppers (and the public in general) is the problem of unaffiliated volunteers. Volunteers that spontaneously show up, and begin work without any coordination can complicate response activities, in many cases untrained and underequipped volunteers can become a danger and need rescuing, which takes away from the total emergency response. Ham Operators have been able to organize pre-disaster and become part of the response team, so that the emergency response incorporates their talents and abilities and makes them a part of the response framework. They do this by forming groups and then having the group volunteer with the local officials.
Preppers can do the same thing. I know that if a tree falls on my road, during a disaster, I am likely as not to just dig out my chainsaw and clear it. I am not going to ask permission; if it needs doing a prepper will probably do it. That’s how we are. However, if that clearing activity was part of the coordinated disaster response, then the local government can get “credit” for clearing the road; this credit can be used toward the state’s share of the response costs. Presidentially Declared disaster allows the federal government to pay a majority of the costs associated with the response and recovery. Typically that state has to cover 25% of the costs of the disaster; however, much of this can be “in kind” meaning labor and consumables. When volunteers are used, no money changes hands, but it provides a significant cost savings to local and state governments. Volunteer work saves local tax dollars, as well as speeds up disaster response, which is a huge win for emergency managers.
In return for this cooperation, preppers can get additional training, experience, and insight into areas of disaster response that may be new to them. I know that I am a much better prepared citizen because of the training I have received as a part of the governmental response. If preppers reached out to emergency management, we can lead by example, and begin to be seen as the valuable citizen resource we are.
If emergency mangers reach out to the prepping community we have a built in group of highly skilled, dedicated, knowledgeable volunteers that have many essential skills and abilities, who have proven themselves responsible, and who do not need much more than coordination and some direction.
We can continue to distrust each other, and allow the 10% differences between us keep us separated, or we can focus on our goals and our commonality and make both groups, as well as our communities, stronger than either of us can do alone.
One thing is certain, disasters will continue to happen, and I for one don’t care if I am called a prepper, or an emergency manager, because I care about ensuring the safety and security of my family, my community, and my state, and no one disagrees about that.
David Nash (dnash1974@gmail.com)
12 comments
These are the blogs related to the one you are about to read:
Doomsday Preppers are Socially Selfish (posted 11/29)
Doomsday Preppers vs Disaster Preppers (posted 12/2)
Doomsday Preppers: Mea Culpa (posted 12/4)
OK, I get it. Preppers Are Not Selfish. I was wrong. I apologize. (posted 12/6)
The Case for the Lifestyle Prepper (posted 12/8)
Merging Preppers with Emergency Management (posted 12/11)
------------------
NOTE: My blog about Doomsday Preppers touched a lot of nerves in the prepper community. When I apologized, I offered space for preppers to describe who they are, what they do and how they do it. This was from a self-described “new” prepper, who started her email to me by saying: “I doubt that you will publish what I have to say because I am so new to prepping. However, I wanted to share with you a bit of WHY I prep now and what our family is doing as new preppers.”
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I started thinking about prepping when I came across a presentation about 37 things to stock up on in case of a crisis. I went ahead and bought some of the books that were being sold and read them. I had not really thought about prepping much - although we have often bought in case lot sales and purchased “loss leaders" from stores to stock up ahead a bit. My mom often talked about the depression and how hard it was - but how when she talked to friends later they talked about how lucky she was to have lived on a farm because at least she had "something" to eat - whereby they often went to bed hungry. I think that is part of why I liked to keep a full pantry.
As I started thinking about stocking up more on food, I also started thinking about things like "what if the power goes out?" and "Oh yeah...we need water too". I got my family together and we split up some of the researching tasks to look into gardening, herbal medicine, water storage and purification, solar energy, etc.
In the last month we've planted fruit trees and bushes, ordered books on some of these topics, started a garden using "square foot gardening" methods, and more. We're researching the best solar backup for our electricity - and yes - even looking into purchasing guns and ammunition - because we believe that at some point in the future that right will be taken away from us....so we're going to get them now.
Part of my problem is that I have friends I care about that don't formally prepare at all - unless perhaps a hurricane is bearing down on them. One family has a new baby and while the baby is still being breastfed, I found myself worrying about them running out of water for mom and dad or their apartment getting too cold due to the electric going off. I worry how they'll cook food for themselves or if they even have anything on hand to cook for themselves. I have other friends in the Tx/La area that have been through hurricanes and I know that they prepare somewhat ahead of time when they get a warning … but what if something else happened and their power went down or something?
My biggest concern right now though is inflation and how it is going to affect people and their ability to buy food. Let me give you an example. According to the LDS Preparedness Manual (I am not LDS) - they have a list of recommended food for one person for one year. Every year they price those same items - and between 2008 and January of 2012 - those items went up....33%. That is right - a 33% increase in food in 4 years.
That sounds bad - right?
I had heard earlier to expect wheat-based and corn-based products to start going up in price around the first of the year due to the crops (and as my son has since pointed out - expect meat and chicken to go up too) - so I was going to focus my "stocking-up" in December on wheat-based products. (I am trying to save up one year's worth of groceries in case my husband were to lose his job or we had friends in need, etc).
So now I am VERY concerned about inflation and when we get my husband's Christmas bonus on the 14th, you can believe we're stocking up on wheat-based products - probably up to 18 months worth - to give time for a new crop to come in.
Anyway - as I said, I'm a new prepper. Right now I'm still in the "let's store up some food" stage and "let's get a garden going and some fruit trees and bushes going" and I'm learning skills like canning and dehydrating and looking forward to making herbal medicines, etc.
This way - if we ever have a disaster happen in our area - FEMA will have four less mouths to feed....and we can take care of ourselves.
Peg (aka TexasMama)
1 comment
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