In the Beginning There Was Man . . . and So the Potential for Disasters Began

Now that you’ve finally got enough toilet paper, and before you start hoarding again, it’s time to ask yourself a few fundamental questions about your personal preparedness.

Amber Walbeck
8 min readSep 11, 2020
Toilet paper rolls fall like rain from a blue sky
Nader-T — stock.adobe.com

Disasters have plagued humans since the beginning of time. Recent events have only heightened the awareness of our lack of personal preparedness, evident when thousands of unprepared souls ran to local stores to grab, fight, or hoard all the toilet paper in sight. Children, who’d just recently used their parents’ supply to decorate their neighbor’s trees, are longing for the days when the staple’s new place of reverence in the bathroom is over and they can resume their mischievous antics.

The recent abrupt and humbling stop to our daily lives — due to a microscopic virus — was felt around the world. It started for me in Tokyo when I was en route to Yokohama Stadium for a site audit. Looking out the window of my taxi, I saw a Diamond Princess cruise ship and thought, “Funny, I’ve never seen a cruise ship docked there before.” I didn’t realize until the evening news that the ship and everyone on it were quarantined. What an incredible and iconic memory to the beginning of what would soon become known as the…

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Amber Walbeck

A non-prepper curiously flirting with disasters. Host of Plan My Disaster Podcast - A Non-Prepper’s Guide. #planmydisaster #planmydisasterpodcast