Better Times Emergency Notes

I found these flyers a while ago and filed their location away in my archive. I recently came across them again and discovered the original website had vanished. Its creator, Bob Waldrop, has passed away in 2019.

Because the information contained in the flyers is helpful and compact, I wanted them to give them a new home on the internet. I downloaded the PDF's from archive.org and converted them into HTML.

Please note that these flyers have been written for people living in Oklahoma City in the United States. If you intend to use them, they still need to be adapted to your local situation and circumstances.

This is what Bob wrote as an introduction to these flyers:

The various disasters of the last few years have taught critical lessons:

• When the going gets rough, your local, state, and federal government may leave you behind for the wolves to devour.

• A very large disaster – and/or several disasters coming on at the same time – will stretch the ability of the government and private aid agencies to respond adequately.

• Government disaster response agencies are plagued with politics. Their decisions are not always made in accordance with the best practices of disaster response. Politics can delay or reduce to the point of inadequacy government responses to disaster. Your mileage may vary with this issue, depending on local conditions and the disaster.

• Even with the best of intentions, the government can’t do everything, be everywhere, or rescue everybody. During disasters, people may be left to their own resources for an extended period of time. The cavalry may not always come riding over the hill to the rescue.

• Besides weather-related disasters, we are at risk of terrorism, military attacks, financial crises, resource exhaustion, & collapse of irrational economic structures. Some disasters, such as an “Electromagnetic Pulse” attack, could affect all of North America. An EMP would destroy all electrical generating and distribution systems on the continent. It could take years for them to be replaced.

• We are dependent upon a long and fragile supply line for gasoline and diesel. There are a hundred things that could happen as early as tomorrow that could break that supply chain. If the fuel stops, then so do the trucks that haul groceries. Most major supermarkets only have 3 or 4 days of food in their inventories; if the trucks stop, their shelves will be quickly stripped by panic buying.

  The purpose of these “Printable Flyers” is to give general, basic information on coping with a fast-acting, long- lasting disaster where rescue will be delayed. Make copies of these flyers now, so you will have them ready if they were needed. Everyone hopes that something like this would never be needed – but if it is needed, the copy shops won’t be open. So make lots of copies now, when they are cheap and access is plentiful. When your neighbors need the info, you’ll have it for them. That could make a big difference in your neighborhood. The time to copy your printable flyers is before the grid goes down and the copy shops close.