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Economic Survival in a Natural Disaster |
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Page 5 of 5 Protecting Yourself Economically Unfortunately, the things that you can do to protect yourself in the event of a pandemic are limited. But that doesn’t mean that there is nothing that you can do. Both the federal government and the various state governments are working on plans to deal with a pandemic. All of these plans have some things in common. They include quarantining those infected, restrictions on travel, school closures and advising people to work from home. The US Government is advising consumers through its pandemic flu website to prepare to be on their own for up to 13 weeks. This means that you need not only food but other supplies including any prescription or over the counter drugs that you take. And consumers should be prepared to face shortages of certain goods. Once again, in a bird flu outbreak, cash will probably be king. While the government does not anticipate long term outages of things like phone service and power, short term disruptions may occur. As with other disasters you will want to have enough cash on hand to make emergency purchases. The truth is that there is very little that the government will be able to do if the bird flu arrives in the United States within the next couple of years. One thing that you can do to protect your family is updating your life insurance policy if you have one, and updating or establishing a Will. It is unknown weather H5N1 will ever be able to be transmitted from one person to another, or if it will be the next great pandemic. But the government is concerned enough about it to have committed $342 million in the past week alone to fight the spread of the disease. The states are spending millions more. We would probably all be wise to keep these things in mind and plan accordingly. by Jim Malmberg Note: When posting a comment, please sign-in first if you want a response. If you are not registered, click here. Registration is easy and free. When posting a comment, please sign-in first if you want a response. If you are not registered, click Only registered users can write comments.
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