Everyone has been telling us not to panic. The media, elected officials, business leaders, and most people I know on social media have been saying the popular phrase, “Don’t panic.”
What does that even mean? When they say that, what are they actually intending us to not do?
I’m confused about this because panic is not an action. Panic is a feeling. Take it from someone with severe anxiety and panic attacks. Panic is a short, intense burst of severe anxiety.
So, when people say, “Don’t panic” are they really saying that we shouldn’t have feelings of extreme anxiety?
I’m not sure why it matters how I feel.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been experiencing a lot of anxiety. People would, then, repeatedly tell me not to panic. As a result, I’d overthink everything and beat myself up for having so much anxiety. I wasn’t supposed to be panicking.
I’ve spent two years figuring out how to manage severe anxiety. One thing I’ve learned is that:
Anxiety is when you have feelings of fear when there’s nothing to be afraid of.
For example, if I’m worried that my boss will fire me if I tell her I don’t want to do part of my job, that’s anxiety. I did this recently when I no longer wanted to be part of conflict mediation or termination discussions. The reality was that she was completely fine with this request.
To be clear, if there is a legitimate reason to be afraid of something, it’s not anxiety that I’m feeling. It’s fear.
For example, if there is a global pandemic that’s already killed thousands of people and is spreading at an exponential rate, this is a legitimate reason to experience fear.
Another thing I’ve learned over the last few years is that every emotion that we have is valuable. While negative emotions are unpleasant, they are usually sending us important messages. They tell us what actions we should take.
When we experience fear, it means we should take action to keep ourselves safe and healthy.
If we tell people how to feel and say that they shouldn’t be experiencing feelings of fear, we are also telling them that they should not act on that emotion.
Fear is a healthy emotion to be feeling at a time like this. If we don’t experience fear, what will motivate us to prepare?
I’m glad that many leaders in our country have begun to take action. They are encouraging people to work from home, avoid large events, and more social distancing. Even with these measures, it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.
It’s okay to panic, as long as those feelings of panic motivate you to prepare.
Experience with Disasters Motivated our Disaster Preparedness Plan
We’ve experienced some disasters first-hand, and we’ve seen other disasters second-hand. These have all motivated us to create a comprehensive disaster preparedness plan.
We graduated from college in 2009 right after the recession. It was a huge challenge to find jobs. We lived in a high cost of living area and worked low wage jobs for a few years until the economy recovered. Having more of a safety net during that time would have been very beneficial.
When we lived in New Jersey, we lived through both Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Irene. Both of these hurricanes caused extensive damage. We were about 15 miles from the coast. Because of this, we only experienced downed trees that caused power outages for a few weeks. Then, a combination of flooding and power outages caused contaminated water.
While we haven’t personally experienced a house fire, the house that is 4-doors down from us burned down last year. Another multi-family house up the street burned down the year before.
I’ve never been squarely in the midst of a war or political unrest. I did almost get stuck in a tiny town of Nicaragua while I was studying abroad because of election protests. The opposition party accused the ruling party of “ballot-box stuffing.” They protested by stopping all transportation coming and going from where I was. Luckily, they stopped the protest the day before I needed to leave.
Another classmate in my program had a much scarier experience. He was in Managua at the time of the election. He was walking back to his homestay, and he got stuck in the middle of a large demonstration of very unhappy people. He told me that he found a bush and hid there for three hours until it died down.
While I’ve never experienced a pandemic, I’ve watched enough TV shows about epidemics and bioterrorism to have a healthy amount of fear.
We wanted to be prepared if any of these happen to us again or for the first time.
How to Prepare for a Disaster
There are many components to our disaster preparedness plan. It took us a few years to build up this entire plan. You don’t need to do it all at once, but it’s important to get started.
Financial Preparation
We know that any kind of disaster could cause financial challenges. One or both of us could lose our jobs. The stock market will likely plummet, and products might become more expensive.
This is why we’ve built up a large emergency fund. It’s recommended that you keep at least 3-6 months of expenses saved in an emergency fund. We are more comfortable keeping 6 months or more. Because we’ve also been saving extra money for a rental property, we have almost 2 years’ worth of expenses in cash.
Our emergency fund will help us if we have any large expenses, such as medical or home maintenance expenses.
Our emergency fund also gives us the confidence that we will be okay if one or both of us lose our jobs. We would be able to live for a period of time on our savings without having to dip into our investments.
Because the stock market has dropped, we definitely do not want to take money out now. That would mean that we solidify our losses. It’s much better to wait until the market goes back up before doing anything.
Another important aspect of financial preparation is to spend frugally and figure out where you can cut costs if needed for a period of time. During good economic times, we’ve focused on living well below our means. We save about 55-60% of our income. If we lost half of our income, we would still be able to cover our expenses.
We can also identify areas where we could cut costs for a period of time if needed. Discretionary spending like restaurants, groceries, and entertainment could all be reduced.
Fireproof Safe
A few years ago we bought a fireproof safe. In the safe, we keep cash and all our important documents (e.g. passports, insurance, etc.). In the case that our house was on fire, we could focus on grabbing our dog and getting out safely. Our important documents would be safe.
NOTE: We also have a fire extinguisher, so if we have a small kitchen fire, we could first attempt to put it out ourselves.
Go-Bag
We now live closer to the ocean than we did when we lived in New Jersey. If there was a hurricane, it could have a greater impact on us. There could also be other reasons why we might need to get out of town quickly, such as other extreme weather or political unrest.
To prepare for this, we’ve created a “Go-Bag.” We’ve used an old hiking backpack and included all the essentials. If we needed to leave and only had 5 minutes to prepare, we could remove everything from the safe, grab our go-bag, and get ourselves into our car.
Here’s what we have in our Go-Bag:
- First aid kit
- Water filter
- Dog food (1 gallon)
- Spare clothes
- Flashlight/headlamps
- Medicine (Ibuprofen, Migraine, Allergy, etc.)
- Baby Wipes
- Rain Gear
- Blanket
- Radio
- Batteries
- Garbage Bags (5)
- Tarp
- Masks
- Work gloves
- Paracord (100 ft)
- Hiking Towels
- Headphones
- Toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss
- Soap
- Compass
- Whistle
- Pocket Knife
- Screw Drivers
- Portable Camp Stove
- Pens and Paper
- Playing Cards
What we have easily accessible to grab along with the Go-Bag includes:
- 21 day supply of freeze-dried food
- Water (15 gallons)
Food Storage
Besides our 21-day supply of freeze-dried food, we have extra food stored if we were to get stuck in our house for a period of time.
We tend to buy the vast majority of our food in bulk from Costco. This means that we typically have extra cans of beans, boxes of pasta, bags of granola, etc. We also have a chest freezer in our basement that is full of various types of meat. In our freezer right now, we have chicken breast, chicken thighs, pork shoulder, bacon, ground turkey, and steak. We also have frozen spinach, frozen berries, frozen vegetables, bread, pizza, etc.
If we needed to, we would have enough food in our fridge, freezer, and cupboard to feed us for 4-6 weeks. Yes, this often means our grocery bill is often higher than others (it has come down a lot in the past couple of years). Yet, situations like this remind us that it’s okay to be prepared as long as we don’t let food go bad.
Water
We are also prepared if our water supply becomes contaminated.
We keep 15 gallons worth of water bottles in our basement. These are fresh enough because we swap them out every few years when we go camping. We also have a 7-gallon water container that we use for camping. We can fill this up in preparation if needed.
If we run out of the water from those sources, we can also get the water purifier out of our Go-Bag.
Power Outages
If our electricity goes out for a period of time, it would be unpleasant. Here’s how we have prepared for that.
For light, we have candles, a camping lantern, and flashlights. We also keep quite a few extra batteries in the house.
We would also still able to cook food. The stove in our house runs on gas. We have a gas grill in our backyard. We also have a portable camping stove that we could use if needed.
How This Disaster Preparedness Plan Prepared us for COVID-19
To be completely honest, I never thought we’d actually need any of these supplies. Corey took the lead on our disaster preparedness, and I made light of it. Now, I am very appreciative of his forethought.
Recession Preparation
As shared above, we have a fully-stocked emergency fund. If we lose our jobs in the upcoming recession, we wouldn’t need to pull any money out of our investment for at least a year.
We could also probably have it last longer because we could cut other costs. There are many categories where we will likely spend less during this time anyways. We will spend less on food while we eat what we have in our cupboards. We likely won’t be eating out much, so we’ll save on restaurants (although I may buy some gift cards for local restaurants). Our entertainment, travel and transportation spending will go down if we aren’t leaving our houses.
This would allow us to not need to pull any money out of the market during a downturn.
Social Distancing or Quarantine
If either of us starts showing any symptoms, we will self-quarantine. We also need to create social distance between us and others even if we aren’t sick. We could be asymptomatic carriers and want to come in contact with fewer sick people.
I’m prepared for the possibility that we may need to stay in our homes (or we choose to stay in our homes) for at least 4-6 weeks.
Here’s how we prepared for this.
Food
We have enough food to last us this amount of time.
Currently, Imperfect Foods is still delivering ugly produce (and other pantry items and meats). This means that we can still get our regular shipments from them. I am prepared for this service to be suspended within the next couple of weeks. We are continuing to stock up on longer-lasting produce, such as peppers, potatoes, brussels sprouts.
If that service is suspended, we’ll likely run low on fresh vegetables and fruits. But, we know we won’t go hungry.
Medicine
I have prescription medicines to last me for about 4-5 weeks. If we are in our house for longer than that, we’d need to go out and get the prescription medicines. I opted to not go through the hassle with my insurance to get more in advance. The pharmacy that we use is 0.4 miles up the street, so we could easily walk there if needed.
We are also well-stocked on non-prescription medicines including:
- Ibuprofen
- Tylenol
- Allergy medicine
- Sudafed
- Cough drops
- Emergen-C packets
- Vitamins
- Probiotics
Paper Products
Because we buy our paper products in bulk, we have a 4-6 week (or longer) supply of paper products and all types of soap and detergent. We didn’t buy more than our typical supply.
Now that I know that toilet paper is being hoarded around the country, I wish I’d picked up one more package. We will have to use it sparingly and hope there is more in stock when we need it.
Unlikely Scenarios that We are Prepared For
It’s unlikely that we would need to leave Boston at a moment’s notice. If we found out that we needed to for some reason, we could quickly pack up and drive to family or friends in Pennsylvania, New York, or Michigan.
At this point, I assume that our water supply and electricity will not be interrupted, but I can’t know for sure. If essential functions shut down and people are unable to work, it’s possible that they could. If this is the case, we have water stored that we could use in the near-term. We would also be able to purify it ourselves in the longer-term.
If we lost power for some reason, I’m sure we’d be a bit bored. We would have light from candles or flashlights, so we could continue to play board games or read. We also would be able to continue to cook using our gas stove, grill, or camping stove.
It’s Okay to Panic and, Then, Prepare
It’s okay to have feelings of fear and panic. If possible, figure out what you can do to help yourself calm down. You want to be able to think rationally about what you should do in this situation.
Ways to Calm Your Panic
You could meditate, stretch, do yoga, take a walk outside (keeping your distance from others), or do some other sort of vigorous exercise if that’s your thing.
You could talk to a friend about your concerns. If you are already being treated for mental health, you could reach out to your therapist. Mine has been willing to do phone sessions, so I don’t need to go see her in-person.
It’s important not to put our heads on the sand, but we also don’t need to be connected to the news 24/7. Figure out the right balance that allows you to stay informed but not become overwhelmed.
Recommended Actions to Take Now to Prepare for a Disaster (if You Haven’t Already)
You won’t be able to create your full disaster preparedness plan overnight. So, I recommend putting the most important aspects of your disaster preparedness plan in place first.
Focus your first efforts on things that would allow you to practice social distancing. Work from home if you can. Cancel non-essential travel. If you haven’t yet, start preparing by stocking up a 4-6 week supply of food, paper products, and medicine.
Our economy is likely to be hit hard by this event. If possible, I’d recommend tightening your budget (after you stock up). We don’t yet know the full impact this event will have on our economy, but it won’t be good. It’s possible that we could see many people lose their jobs or a portion of their income. Because of this, I’d recommend lowering your expenses if possible in preparation if this is a risk for you.
If you don’t have a robust emergency fund, it could also be worth shifting money that would go to investments into your emergency fund.
Even without a lot of time, there are still many things you can do to prepare. Once this is all over, you can turn your efforts to prepare for other types of disasters in the future.
What have you been doing to prepare for the Coronavirus or other disasters?
I think it comes down to the actions that go with panic. There have been rum ours of people going to the hospital fearing they have the virus from touching a box mailed from China, with no symptoms! That’s bad panic and could be worse then the virus (think food riots for example). Clogging hospital workers from getting to the cases most needed.
Then their is the personal panic. No one cares about whether you internally panic and they want you to prepare.
True. Actions that people take out of panic without figuring out the logical right next steps are a problem. Feeling the feelings though – will only lead us to prepare better.
That’s a pretty actionable and action-packed post, Jessica! Well done. I hope this will help your readership to be as best prepared as possible.
To answer your question, it is particularly an unusual time to be nomadic lie us because there are a ton of unknowns at the moment. What we do know is that it’s not a good time to be traveling right now and we must practice social distancing (as you mentioned). We have been scrambling this week canceling flights, Airbnb, and plans in order to settle into one spot for the foreseeable future. This week has been a big period of reflection to see more clearly what the important things are in life and what we most value.
We are planning on leaving Bali sooner than initially planned (probably as soon as tomorrow actually). What prompted this decision was the fact that the virus has reached Indonesia but government officials have done nothing yet to warn the population about the basic set of precautions they should follow (social distance, washing your hands…). IMHO it is a matter of days/weeks before things will get really complicated here. With a medical infrastructure that isn’t ready to support this pandemic and potential shortage in food (if things get out of hands for an extended period of time), we don’t think it is worth taking the risk to stay here until the end of our booking. Especially as countries are reducing flights and changing who they let in. Since we have a few destinations we can fly to, we are looking to pick a place where we can stay for an extended period of time and that have been handling COVID19 very well. We shortlisted two places: Taiwan and Singapore. If we can get there, we should have enough time to see how the situation evolves back home and plan to come back accordingly. Our parents are doing well so far, so there is no emergency for us to get back. Worst-case scenario we are still confident that we can book a flight back to California since we both have an American passport.
On the positive side, a lot of things are going to change after this pandemic is over for good. For instance, a lot of people are going to realize that we can be more productive without having to go to an office. We are going to see that we can slash our CO2 emission more quickly that we thought (look at what happened in China). Or that was really matter in a time of crisis is really to do what matters to us (like spending time close to our loved one and spending only of what is truly essential).
I am hoping that you, Cory and your family will be fine through this. Keep writing your amazing content. This crisis is actually the perfect opportunity for bloggers as people will likely be spending more time on the Internet while staying at home.
Last but not least, here are some key resources you might find useful about COVID19:
(1) Why everyone should take this pandemic seriously: https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca (This was actually written before COVID19 was declared a pandemic)
(2) Great insights into COVID19 and how it is a much bigger deal than people might think: https://peterattiamd.com/peterhotez/
Hi Mr. NN,
Thanks for sharing this. I wish you the best of luck and will be following your journey. Hopefully, you can get to Singapore or Taiwan. A lot of things will definitely change. We will see what happens.
Thanks also for the resources.
Jess
Preparation will help with the panic. Our disaster plan was woefully inadequate because we moved last year. Our pantry is small and we didn’t stock up much.
Luckily, I saw this coming and prepared 2 weeks ago. I got extra food supplies to last a few weeks and some paper products. We didn’t buy a huge amount, just a little extra padding to ride through the bumpy bits. A recession is coming so get ready for that too.
Everyone needs to do their part to help flatten the curve. Don’t go on as usual. Practice social distancing and let’s get this coronavirus under control.
Good luck and stay safe!
Hi Joe,
Thanks for the comment. I’m glad that you were able to prepare a couple of weeks ago.
I hope you and your family continue to stay safe and healthy,
Jessica
There’s definitely a point at which fear can be helpful and productive, and past that a destructive emotion. I think a “healthy amount of fear” is a good thing, like you’ve noted, but panic is advised against in almost every scenario (evacuations, drowning, and other scenarios come to mind, where the first tip is ALWAYS don’t panic).
I’m impressed by your preparedness here. Unfortunately, with a move near in our future we’ve been living with less and have been reluctant to stock-up because anything we don’t use will likely need to be tossed when we move. It’s always good to have a plan in mind though.
Thanks for the comment, Mechanic.
I’d love for us to replace “panic” with “selfish irrationality” – when people say “Don’t Panic.” Don’t act in ways that are selfishly irrational. 🙂
I wish you the best during this time!
Jessica
I can panic AND prepare – multitask!! 😉
How are you storing your water? Our water stores are totally inadequate so I’m doing some research into containers for that purpose but I also can’t use something like the waterbricks because the capacity (which would be a good thing) is also a problem for me in terms of practical use. I’m more prone to injury during stressful periods, and I’m already medically a mess, so filling, lifting, and rotating a lot of 3.5 gallon cubes isn’t doable. Maybe two would be for the longer term storage but no more than that.
We’re ok for food and we are holding around a 45-90 day supply of medications but I still have a long way to go to make sure all the details are squared away.
Hey – For water, we have 15 gallons worth of water bottles from Costco (not great for plastic use, but it is what it is). Then we have a 7- gallon refillable container. That’s what we have on the water storage side. Then we have a water purifier that we use when backpacking that we could use if needed.
Thanks for the comment, and I wish you the best,
Jessica
Wow. You are REALLY well prepared. Us, not so much. I think I will take your advice and prepare a go-bag, and start stockpiling some water. But, I will do this quietly. If my kids (both teenagers) saw me preparing a go-bag and water, they would probably panic. And by panic I do not mean “useful fear,” as you point out, but I mean just actual, emotional panic.
Hi Suzanne,
Yes, that’s a really good point. It’s important to shelter kids from these feelings where possible. If I were a parent, I’d likely also do these things quietly if we were in a situation where we might need to use them. Maybe once we are back to a steady-state, you could talk with them about why you have prepared things like this, just in case.
Thanks,
Jess
I knew you were a camper! We are back country campers and a lot of our normal gear (dehydrated food, water purifier, lack of toilet paper) is quickly becoming our bug-out gear. I am glad that you discuss the importance of negative emotions because denying them seems to lead to bigger mental health issues. I like to acknowledge my anxiety of this uncertain time and then use it to fuel future planning and preparedness.
Either way we will be changed moving forward. Let’s hope the change is for the better. Cheers!
Hi Cortney,
Thanks for the comment. Yes, camping gear is definitely a great crossover for disaster prep gear. I hope we don’t have to use it.
I wish you the best during this time,
Jessica