How to Prepare for “Energy Lockdowns”

By the author of How to Prep When You’re Broke and Bloom Where You’re Planted course

Yesterday, I wrote about energy lockdowns that are beginning in other parts of the world. I promised another article on the topic that would provide some ideas about how to handle it if it does happen. For what it’s worth, I often write about things that I sincerely hope do not happen, like terror attacks, and this topic is the same.

What to do before any announcement occurs

I’m basing a lot of this on the response to the Covid lockdowns, because they weren’t that long ago. Everyone remembers how bare the shelves got (and how fast it happened). This article is filled with photos from around the country.

That event is fresh in everyone’s mind, so the things Americans ran out of first will likely be the ones they make a run on at stores now.

• Toilet paper (good grief, remember that?)
• Yeast (everyone became a home baker – get yours in bulk, now)
• Hair color (when salons closed, some ladies regretted not stocking up on color to match their roots)
• Bleach
• Rice (every size bag was just GONE)
• Vitamin C (this was probably pandemic-specific)
• Canned tuna

If you have the ability to double up on some of your favorite things on your next trip to the store, you may want to just in case there’s another run on groceries and household products.

It probably goes without saying that you should look over your food supply and fill any gaps as soon as you can.

Don’t forget “work from home” supplies

Make sure you have a way to work from home, should the need arise.

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Computers capable of Zoom meetings were essential the last time around, as both school and work went online. If yours needs a little tune-up, consider getting it done ahead of any work-from-home declarations.

On the bright side, that would mean you would only need to make your upper half presentable and could wear those flamingo jammies you’ve got on the bottom.

Money, money, money.

Also, remember how the lockdowns affected you financially. If you worked retail or in hospitality, you were probably hit very hard. It sounds crazy to talk about saving money in the same article where I’m talking about spending money on preps, but here we are in Crazy Town.

Save what you can and cut expenses where you can. If things go sideways you’ll be glad you have a cushion to help you through it financially.

How this lockdown might be very different

First, for those who say that President Trump would never do that, let me take you back to “two weeks to flatten the curve.” While it’s true that some folks on the left took locking down and masking up as their personal missions, President Trump was in office for the entire lockdown last time, not Biden. Check your history if you don’t believe me.

He is popular with more people this time around (or maybe more people are willing to admit it) but at the same time he is even more unpopular with a noisy faction that dislikes him. While most of the anti-mask, non-fearful folks were on the right previously, I think that there would be a much more blatant rebellion against restrictions if a lockdown were to occur again. I base this solely on the number of folks who loudly decried ICE operations and fought with agents in the streets of America.

It’s pretty difficult to argue that President Trump began this war and did so without the consent of Congress. Many Americans from both sides of the political aisle are strongly opposed to it. If he then starts piling restrictions on folks here at home, I believe compliance would be a real issue.

In fact, I think one of the only ways to make it hurt not to comply is to make it outrageously expensive to rebel. The price of gas is way up due to the kerfuffles in the Strait of Hormuz, but this rise is artificial. It began well before a drop of fuel trapped in the Middle East was needed. If the price of gas were to skyrocket even further, it would behoove people who have to drive to work and to take the kids to school to do these things from home purely for budgetary reasons.

Of course, there could also be legal ramifications – we’ve already seen federal agents in our cities conducting operations. Who’s to say all those employees might not be called into duty to monitor compliance to whatever rules are put in place for an “energy lockdown?”

Let’s hope this discussion is all for naught.

Hopefully, we’re putting the cart before the horse here, and nothing more will happen. But most of the time, when war has occurred, there have been costs at home. Some of them we can look back on nostalgically, like victory gardens. “Rations” sound terrible but our preps would help us through a situation like that. Other costs were much too high for anyone to pay, like the loss of loved ones fighting in the war.

The President has promised this war will be a very short event, but he also called for a five-day pause, which he proposed for fruitful talks. At the end of the five days, it’s clear he expects the Strait of Hormuz to be open for business again. Tehran rebuts the claim that the talks are that productive (or even happened), and the only ones pausing seem to be Americans. (source) Israel and Iran are going back and forth with attacks, and no pause seems to be in play there.

I only bring up the previous factors to point out that we could be in for the long haul. I want to write positive, actionable articles that really help you, and I felt that not covering this topic would be a disservice. I really hope this conflict comes to a close quickly and that there is no need for us to revisit the dark days of 2020.

I’m curious what you think. Do you expect to see lockdowns here in the US? Do you think the war in Iran will be over in short order? Do you think Americans will be compliant about any lockdowns that occur? What are you stocking up on (or would you advise a loved one to stock up on), just in case?

Let’s discuss it all in the comments section.

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