I would love to hear from people in British Colombia who can provide first-hand reports as to how western Canadians are dealing with the strange situation that Vancouver, BC is completely cut off from the rest of Canada.
Here is what the media are reporting:
There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada.
The Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley are now completely cut off from the rest of British Columbia and the country by road.
Flooding and mudslides had closed most routes between the coast and BC Interior over the past 24 hours, but the back route through Whistler on Hwy 99 remained open this morning.
That changed shortly after 11 am, when DriveBC reported that a mudslide 42 kilometres south of Lillooet had shut down Hwy 99 as well.
The only way to drive between the coast and the rest of Canada at this time is through the United States.
However, Washington is also seeing highway closures due to the inclement weather and residents would need a COVID-19 test to re-enter Canada.
When I made a comment on Facebook a few years back in favor of food storage, a snarky former friend from high school sneered: “oh, you’re a prepper now!” No, I’m not a prepper, but definitely more prepared than I was in my youth. Given supply chain disruptions and other concerns in our post-modern world, perhaps just some practical food storage would be a good idea?
I’m wondering about all the “minimalists” who don’t keep a supply of anything on hand. I’ve read some books recently, written last decade, that talk about how we don’t need to keep things in our homes because we can use the stores as our warehouse. Uh, how’s that working out for you now? I’ve been grateful so many times over the course of my life that I’ve followed the counsel to keep a supply of basics on hand.
As a former Emergency Prep guy in the Ward, I was laughed out of the room when I claimed that we could easily have a major highway closure and that there is always a potential for a pandemic.
Geoff, even for a household of one, I can’t put up food fast enough on my income given current prices of gasoline and more. But I have been using local food banks for the past several weeks in order to stockpile canned and dry goods and to offset inflation and financial strain. I also took a second job. I educated myself, some years back, on foraging practices for edible weeds; I have chickens and have kept milk goats and raised sheep and rabbits, and while I don’t have the right situation to do any of that at this time, I did inherit two fishing poles recently and they came with a lesson and a tackle box.
Nicole, sounds like you have thought about it, and personally I think any effort at all is better than nothing. Our church urges one year of food storage for everybody in the household, but we have more like 3 to 4 months. But that effort could save us in a crunch.
Food storage and emergency preparedness is about peace of mind. When everything shut down at the beginning of 2020, yeah sure we were nervous, but also we figured we could handle several weeks without going to the grocery store – and we considered it a good stress test.
Well, we ended up going out to the store about once every other week for most of 2020, but we didn’t *need* to for the most part.
Now, I think that long-term knowledge and skills are what’s about to get really valuable – knowing how to grow your own garden, care for livestock, preserve food at home, cook from scratch, etc. – all of which my parents have taught me. I’ve actually been teaching a friend from my YSA ward how to can this harvest season, and since I live with my parents, I pay rent by gardening our 1/2 acre plot and preserving the majority of our harvest (among other things).
I hope and pray that the people in Vancouver are okay.