Preparing for the Big One

It is no secret that living on the Northern Oregon coast has potential hazards. Japan's earthquake and tsunami highlighted one possibility rather starkly. Recently, new information has been released to the public on the potential catastrophes that can hit our little corner of the world one of which is a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami. Unfortunately for any area along the Pacific Rim, it is really a matter of when, not if. In addition to the possible 9.0 earthquake and following tsunami, our area has the possibility of being cut off for weeks, months, and even a year!
I have mentioned the wonderful community we are fortunate to live in several times. Another of the strong points in this community is the active, and dare I say activist, participation of many of its members in emergency preparedness. Our little town is not only being used as a model for emergency preparedness but our community leaders in the field are actively reaching out and training others how to get their own towns ready. It is most impressive!
I recently attended the annual Nehalem Bay Emergency Volunteer Corps meeting. Now, I am not a huge fan of meetings but my mate is involved in C.E.R.T. (community emergency response team) and I appreciate what all these hard working people do and want to do my part in being prepared. When we arrived at the local community center where the meeting was held, every seat had a MRE (unfortunately too many of us know what these are but for those who don't: Meal:Ready-to-Eat) and a bottle of water. Mine was beef enchilada. Hmmm, are there vegan MRE's? Not at the meeting but I decided that I needed to look that up. Here is what they look like:

The Penne with Vegetable Sausage is vegetarian but not vegan. Quite honestly these would make me physically ill to eat them. There was a person or two who told me that if I was hungry enough I would eat them. I had to respond that I would only eat them if I was on the point of death. Why would I take a healthy body and deliberately eat something that would make me ill in a critical emergency survival situation? That could actually kill me faster than starving to death!
Well, the point of this post is not to criticize the lack of vegan MRE's in the world. I did do a little research, they make 12 vegetarian MRE's four of those are vegan and not all the components, such as the desserts, are vegan. As you can see from the ingredients list, they contain a lot of chemicals too.
This did make me think. Having ready to eat meals vs. meals one has to cook is a good thing to have in the emergency kit. It would be difficult to have enough instant meals for a year but we should have enough to see us through a week or two while we slowly get the basics of life together as we recover.
I have pretty much pared down any packaged foods in our daily diet to just a few cans of beans for quick meals and canned or jarred tomatoes. I buy tofu in bulk for the most part in addition to nuts, seeds, legumes, etc.. I need to figure out what we could store for emergencies that can actually be rotated into our daily diet. Not an easy task. So far, I have decided on aceptic packs of organic tofu (even though I wince at the waste), and instant dried soups, beans, and other meals that one can add water to. Not quite ready to eat I know but close. I will have some canned beans, tomatoes, and a few bottled condiments too.
I have a food dehydrator. I need to get it going on instant meals. I should also note that at this time, we do have enough emergency food to cook and eat for about a week but it isn't instant.
This will take a while but if I work steadily away, I should have a nice supply in over the next couple of months. Our house is barely outside of the tsunami inundation zone. If we are fortunate in an emergency, we will be able to shelter in place. There are ways to get water and our emergency preparedness people have put together some rather wonderful solutions utilizing "third world" technology. Both my mate and I have experience in living in conditions with no electricity, running water or sewage.
We do need to be prepared and, as a gluten-free vegan, it is up to me to make sure my vegan needs  are taken care of. I could go on about the wonderful solutions the folks of the EVC have put together to help our community get through the worst. I will place their link in "community resources". You can also look at the website here. They are in the process of updating it soon.

So what did I do about the MREs? Well, I took them home and put them with our emergency things. There will be people in need and they can either be given or traded if needed during a disaster.

I will post updates as I work my way through this necessity.
Do you have emergency supplies? Plans? I know it can be a pain and no one really likes to think about the possibility of actually having to rely on them. I am fortunate to live in a community that has a dedicated and enthusiastic emergency preparedness group.
Take a look at their website and definitely click on the blog link scroll down and read the post on Living Through Sandy too.
-Renee