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All my life I have had the mindset of a survivalist.  I was not raised 
that way ... my mom never made a meal from scratch her whole life... I 
grew up on Hamburger Helper, Hostess, and KoolAid.  And it has ALWAYS 
amazed me that so few people have a survival instinct.  It doesn't take 
much effort to do a few simple things to ensure your survival.  
Granted, it's impossible to account for ALL things, but surely it isn't 
unrealistic to expect people to take care of themselves.

Please don't get me wrong here... I am NOT putting down those poor 
people trapped in New Orleans.  I am simply pointing out there is a 
lesson to be learned.

Those of us here (endurance riders, on ridecamp) are lucky, I think.  
We, as endurance riders must think of our survival each and everytime 
we get on a horse and go up the trail.  And we do things accordingly.  
Stretching those skills into day to day life isn't that hard for us. 
But,  anyone can set aside food and water, candles, flashlights, etc 
for times of need. Even if it takes months to save up a decent "store" 
And once your "store" is in place, it's easy to maintain it.

There have been many times in my life when people have questioned me as 
to why I do the things I do. And my answer today is "Because of the 
hurricane in New Orleans"  And I try hard to educate the willing as to 
how easy it really is to be prepared for the worst, and how satisfying 
it can be to "be prepared".  It's been a lifelong "cause" of mine.

We had a horrible blizzard here two years ago.  And Alan and I sprent a 
lot of time rescuing neighbors who had not taken precautions in spite 
of warnings.  No power, no water, no food, and no feed for their 
horses.  And even though Alan and I (and the animals) fared well, it 
showed me a few weaknesses in our preparations, which we are still 
working to correct.  Life is an act of survival, and people are 
blissfully ignorant of that much of the time.

For those of you  on the front lines of this disaster, I commend you.  
You will do what you can, and learn from the experience in ways I can 
only imagine.  For the rest of us, this is a wake up call.  A time to 
evaluate and rethink, a time to plan.  Our survival may one day depend 
on it.

Julie



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