Be Prepared - Emergency Broadcast System.

When I moved to New York, I had quite a bit of food storage. It's part of my heritage, after all, to be prepared.

Somebody's Mother thought I also needed to be storing water. I am too cheap to buy bottled water. I then embarked on a fun task. I decided that I'd be able to acquire bottles for/of water for free by taking a bottle from each event at school where drinks are served. Each bottle became a delightful treasure, and I looked forward to getting them, bringing them home, and putting them under my bed.

I have acquired a pretty substantial collection. (If it's an event with bigger bottles, where you pour a glass of water, I have been known to grab the empty/full bottles of water at the end of the event and take those bottles, too.)

About a month ago, our fifth Sunday lesson at church was about hurricane preparedness. The bishop emphasized that the Stake didn't want anyone to panic and wasn't saying one was going to happen, but they thought we all needed to be prepared. We examined maps, looked at evacuation zones, made plans to acquire appropriate goods for our own personal storage, etc.

Flash forward to this week. Hello, Hurricane Irene! That counsel from our Stake is starting to look pretty prophetic.

You've probably heard some about Irene on the news. Here's what you need to know, if you're wondering how I'm doing:

• I do NOT live in any of the evacuation zones. I'm a little bit too far inland, and a little bit up a hill, so I'm in good shape. So far, they have ordered mandatory evacuation of only one zone in Manhattan. The storm is not on track to require evacuation of more zones, but if it did, that would still not be me. About 250,000 people have been ordered to evacuate so far.
• One of the girls in my ward asked, last month, if I could be her evacuation plan. I laughed and told her of course, thinking we'd never need to worry about it. Yet here we are! She's on track to be here tomorrow, so no one needs to worry that I'm alone or anything.
• All of the public transportation will shut down tomorrow at noon. I'm basically going to be stuck in my neighborhood, but since it's going to be a hurricane outside, I'll be okay.
• Church on Sunday is canceled because of the lack of public transit and the mandatory evacuation. I know, you're all jealous. :)
• I have plenty of water and food. I could live for a long, long time. 
• The girl who is sheltering at my apartment also has her own food and water that she is bringing, so we're set.
• The largest problem we face is a power loss. If we lose power, we won't have water. (Water has to be pumped to the tops of the buildings, but that doesn't happen with no power.) Again, I have plenty of water storage, and I will fill the bathtub if the power goes out for toilet-flushing purposes.
• Airports are all shutting down.
• The worst of the storm is supposed to be Saturday night into Sunday, ending by Sunday night.
• I anticipate being back at school on Monday. I have too much to do to take any days off!
• It is still 100% possible that the storm will fizzle out or change course, and that it'll just be a touch rainy and unpleasant instead of hurricane-y.

All in all, things here are fine. No need to worry about me. It may be difficult for me to reach you or for you to reach me. This week, after the earthquake, cell service was down because the towers were overloaded with calls. That same phenomenon could occur this weekend. Additionally, if we lose power, I'll need to conserve my phone battery. I'll be in communication with Somebody's Mother as much as possible, so if you are wondering about me at any point during the weekend, you can contact her.

Rest assured, I'm well prepared, perfectly located, and not at all concerned about the coming weekend. I am blessed by following the counsel of prophets and leaders and wise parents, who raised me to always be prepared and self-sufficient. I didn't have to go out and buy food or water or anything. (Confession: I did go buy a carton of juice, after deciding I might want some juice this weekend.) I was just already ready to deal with it, and having been prepped a few weeks ago about the unlikely possibility of hurricanes in NYC, I feel ready to deal with the situation. It's like they say--if you're prepared, you don't have to fear. :)

I'll shortly return you to your regularly scheduled Bacon Blogging, assuming NYC doesn't decide to have some other random natural disaster in the next week...