Nancy Gregg’s Y2K Series
As presented in the
Siskiyou Daily News
ŠN. E. Gregg 1999
Apartment living doesn’t change responsibility. Get Y2K ready!
As I entered the grocery store I met a friend who lives in an apartment complex in Yreka. Are you getting prepared for Y2K, I inquired?
"What can I do? I can’t do anything. I’ll have no heat, no place to cook, what can I do?" These retorts blew me away! Just because he was an apartment dweller he had abdicated all responsibility for his own well being! This was not a young person in his twenties, this was a mature adult male in his sixties!!! There was a lot that he could do instead of adopting an attitude of defeat!
I have given these issues a lot of thought. I believe that under Federal Marshall Law some health and safety codes would be suspended. This means landlords will not be held responsible for giving you heat when they do not have the means to do so because of the emergency. Since our Nation has not faced such a national all encompassing crisis since the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the rules will be written as we go. We are not going to like some of these rules! Some of the rules will depend upon how we function in our individual communities. Most assuredly, the rules will depend upon how we function in our individual communities. Most assuredly, the rules will be dependent upon how well our citizenry is prepared!
For those in apartment complexes, you will need to see that you have plenty of blankets or some very good sleeping bags. Close off the bedrooms and just live in the central portion of the unit. If you have a couple of families living together that will be good, people generate heat. Cooking can be done in a central location. In the parking lot you can take a petal trash can, filled with sand, build your fire on the sand and use an oven rack for the top. This will allow two or three pots to be cooking at once.
Food in bulk can be purchased on limited incomes. Each week buy a few things in bulk! Fifty and twenty five pound sacks of rice, beans, lentils, split peas or a large can or two of powered potatoes. Don’t put them away, use them. Since they were bought with food money, use them now! By purchasing the larger sizes you are just storing up food! Do you like quick and easy stuff? The quick and easy prepared food are now on sale, buy a couple of cases! Noodles with soup base, several flavors at ten cents a package, macaroni and cheese, tuna helper, hamburger helper and scalloped potatoes, are items that just need water. (They are the same dehydrated foods people are paying premium to acquire!)
Depending upon the time of year, dandelion greens can be added to soups for extra nutrition. Store flour in one gallon sip lock bags. (A one gallon bag will hold about five pounds of flour.) they stack very nicely on shelves. These bags will also hold other dry goods and stack well. Do you have an empty space under your bed? Slide in your fifty pound bags of rice and your twenty five pound bags of dry goods.
Apartment living requires creative storage solutions. Take dehydrated foods out of the boxes and put the contents into five gallon buckets with the seasoning packets. Put one box into the bucket to give you the proportions of water to be used and to let you know what flavor is contained in those particular packets. Acquire extra noodles and condensed soups. When opening canned goods, use them with dry goods for making your own quick casserole meal. (Don’t waste the liquid.) there is no way that enough food will be available in the area to take care of everyone at our accustomed needs. It is very important that each unit has sufficient supplies for it’s occupants. Look out for each other. Check on the elderly in your unit.
In this type of emergency the water supply will be responsibility of City government. They have the resources to bring us water. Limited use will be mandatory to keep the supply available for limited toilet flushing and limited bathing. Use the old fashioned basin of water to clean up and refresh your body.
Medical supplies are very important. Make sure you have the over the counter medications for colds, sore throats, etc. for young children. Purchase a package of cloth diapers. You may find this a necessity if supplies cannot be acquired for an extended period of time.
Store extra bleach. When doing dishes put some bleach in the water. Having hot water may require you to put a pot on the fire in the parking lot, to heat water for everyone to do dishes. Bleach in the water will kill germs. Everyone should share these facilities as much as possible to limit the consumption of water and fuels. (Yreka especially.) Some communities such as Mt. Shasta have gravity feed water supplies.
When an emergency happens the stress from the event can cause a deterioration in our immune systems. Everyone should have on had an extra Vitamin Supply. B Complex is used for stress and C helps it to be assimilated into the body.
When I was in the 1972 earthquake in the San Fernando Valley, I had a Doctors appointment the next day. The doctor was not only my are provider, he was a personal friend. He was quite relieved to see me and my children walk into the office two hours late. He made us most welcome. He had great concern. As we talked he picked up a large brown grocery bag, opened a closet door and swept all the bottles n one shelf into the bag.. He then picked through the other items on the shelves and added to the supply.
He knew that I was working nights at a hospital. He explained, all nervous systems need iron. As people constantly experience the shaking of the earth with the after shocks, it effects the nervous systems. In the fall of the year when the flu virus comes through more people will need to be hospitalized and a higher percentage of the elderly will die. My job at the hospital was posting the bills and keeping statistics. His prediction was right on. Also the golf courses supported the pine trees and put iron nutrients into the ground by their roots for their nervous systems. After faithful use of the vitamins that entire year, my family remained healthy through the flue season.
My children are scattered all over the United States. We keep in touch on a regular basis by this wonderful computer age. It has been interesting to note that our grocery stores are having bigger and better sales than anywhere else in the country. Take advantage of this! Petroleum products in Los Angeles are down to sixty nine cents a gallon for gasoline. It would appear that reserves are being redistributed in all the basic commodities.
Solar ovens located in neighborhoods for mutual use would be very beneficial. They do not require a lot of materials, but do require time and patience to put them together. This could be a good project for students in their sciences classes. Their finished products could be distributed throughout the community as a service.
The bottom line is not where you live, it is that you are responsible for yourself and your family. Having a substantial amount of food is very important.
God bless you all and God, please bless our America.
Nancy Gregg’s book, The Rebirth of OUR Republic by sending $16.00 which includes mailing and handling to The Grassroots Press, P. O. Box 516, Yreka, Ca. 96097
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