When I moved to Florida in August 2004 I was greeted by a windy chap by the name of Charlie. For all of us
that remember, Charlie was the third hurricane that year. He was a Cat 4 and came ashore along Florida’s west coast in the Punta Gorda region.
Being new to Florida what I remember most about Charlie was not the damage; but rather the run on gasoline and water. Gasoline lines were a quarter of mile and bottled water was all but gone. Walmart shelves were empty and gas stations were running out of gas. As we have seen with other hurricanes, (Katrina) is that the United States (The Land of Plenty) can in very short order become a third world country.
Fast forward to 2012. I spent most of the summer this year at my families farm in Ohio. Working the farm and meeting with old friends and high school classmates I was reminded of just how self sufficient the faming community is. This is a community that bands together when in need. I was talking to an old friend and as we recalled the great blizzard of 1978, I immediately compared it to Charlie.
I remember 20 below zero temperatures with 40 degree below windchills. Power was out throughout the area. My family hopped into our truck and drove to a neighbors house who had a wood burning stove. What was amazing is that when we arrived a mile down the road, there was already a few families like us there. W actually had a great time. Food was not a problem. Being a farm community it’s not uncommon for the freezer to be fiiled with a butchered beef, and canned goods from the garden filled the pantry. We actually talked to each other,( not text or e-mail) and sang to live guitar and banjo music. Everyone knows one another and we all look out for each other. If we need something we borrow it; sometimes without even asking the owner. How can we do this? Because if we break it we fix it. If we take it we put it back, in better condition than when we took it.
During Charlie I was fortunate to have a place to stay in Nort Port during the hurricane. My house was in the process of being built so I was living in my motor home. The people I stayed were from another small farming community in Ohio. I knew them from Ohio so it was like homecoming. Florida is great place to live but one of the biggest problems that I find is that nobody knows anybody. It seems that nobody was born here. Mostly snowbirds and transplants. Therefore there is no community closeness.
Suppose there is a major colapse in the US economy. I’m talking a 1920’s depression. No jobs, soup lines, foreclosures, etc. Without a community to rely on that help each other I doubt many will survive. To borrow the title of a Hank Williams Jr. song, “A Country Boy Can Survive”. In the song it talks about how during bad circumstances people from the rural areas will be able to survive the bad circumstance. I tend to agree. I also believe that the urban folks will have extreme problems with day to day survival. And they will not be very successful if they try to take by force from the rural people. The rural farm community is the most heavily armed group of people in the country. This has been one of the reasons why no army has ever attempted to invade the United States. It is due to our armed civilians in our country.
It is time to prepare for just this type of econmic colapse. Food and guns will be the new currency.
