The public perception of preppers is often one of a mentally unstable individual with a bunker full of guns and ammo waiting out the end of the world. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. It doesn’t take a nuclear war or an economic collapse to bugger up your life. As we see now, a simple strike in the transportation industry can do that just fine!
This point was made over and over again by one of the people most responsible for getting me into the preparedness community, Tom Martin from the American Preppers Network. He often spoke about his time spent as a trucker delivering food to and from distribution centers and how dangerous a simple strike would be to the general public. Now I see for myself, just how right he was!
Recently, a strike by CN rail workers has given rise to shortages of grains and other goods, most notably propane. The average Joe who needs a twenty pound tank filled likely won’t feel the impact right away, but farmers, hospitals, and others like senior’s residences now face a shortage so severe that rationing plans are being put into place in Quebec, as Ontario and Nova Scotia are also starting to feel the pinch.
Propane is used by farmers to both heat their facilities and dry grains to ready them for storage. Hospitals and other institutions use propane for heating and cooking. There are also numerous households using propane for heat and cooking…not the kind of thing one wants to run out of at the start of winter.
Of course, what my friend Tom was telling me about was a much more serious situation. Supermarkets these days receive their goods on a daily basis, and with few exceptions, there is no food being stored in the back warehouse of the stores. Having worked in a supermarket, I can personally confirm this!
Tom was right all along…it doesn’t take a major global disaster to seriously mess up the world as we know it.
