It’s a precarious time for those of us who live in the US. DOGE is gutting the federal government and taking over reliable software systems with hack jobs meant to give them full data access. This past week’s tariffs create an extraordinary level of economic uncertainty, where it’s difficult to find a modern comparison where it was an intentional act. In addition, political firings and the same DOGE attacks are impacting NSA, CISA, and US Cyber Command, at a time where foreign government-backed groups are known to be hacking into our infrastructure. The vulnerabilities are deep.
So with that in mind, I put together a set of disaster preparedness recommendations focused on these current areas of disruption. Being more prepared can free us from the urge to constantly track every detail in the news. Make a plan, and stick with it.
Supply chain
Why I’m concerned: as we saw only a few years ago, even a minor disruption in the global supply chain can take months to sort out. It’s a system that’s built for predictability. This past week’s tariff announcements throw a grenade in that. There’s likely more to come as other countries retaliate. The US may also cause further impacts with policies like port fees that could lead to shipping companies consolidating their stops down to the largest ports. It’s difficult to know in the short term exactly which things will go out of stock, or have a massive price hike, or take way longer to manufacture, so here’s some general guidelines.
Buy two, use one
As I said in the post about grocery habits, one of the easiest ways to stock up on things you regularly buy is to pick up an extra, and buy more when the first one is finished. You can do this with peanut butter, canned chickpeas, cat litter, or menstrual pads. Even an extra week’s supply will help smooth out gaps at the store.
Shorten the chain
You can also reduce the impacts of supply chain problems by picking things that don’t have as far to travel, or require fewer steps to get there. This might be picking apples (grown in Washington state) instead of bananas (which still make their way to the US on a modern banana boat.) If you enjoy research rabbit holes, this could be an interesting one to look into for non-food items.
Research local options
In the near term, buying things secondhand can help. Look around for thrift shops that tend to have a good supply of housewares. Used hardware stores exist too, and a locally-owned hardware shop is always a good resource. You also may have something like a local Fix-It Fair that can help you with thrifted items that need a bit of work.
For food — farmer’s market season is coming up, and we have at least one year-round market in Portland so maybe you do too!
Learn to repair
You can find tutorials online to fix just about anything, including mending clothing. Pick something that sounds interesting to try, and you could be a fix-it helper for other people in your community.
Internet
Why I’m concerned: the internet may be decentralized in a broad sense, but there are many concentrated points of failure like authentication systems and cloud providers. There is an ongoing effort by hacker groups sponsored by the Chinese government to seek vulnerabilities in every part of our technical infrastructure. Russia has been primarily focused on Ukraine and former Soviet Bloc countries in recent years, but they’re active in the US too. Since taking office, Trump and Elon Musk have disbanded the committee looking into Salt Typhoon activities, laid off a significant part of the staff at CISA, and fired the director of the NSA for flimsy political reasons. US companies depend on these resources to help identify threats and notify them of major vulnerabilities that need to be patched. Things are in a precarious state.
Communication
We depend on the internet for email, messaging, and phone services. Have a backup plan for what your household will do if you can’t contact each other. Will everyone meet up back at home, or another place? Have paper copies of important addresses and phone numbers. I recommend writing down the power and other utility companies’ info too.
Information
I wrote an earlier post about why radio is an essential tool for disaster communication and news. Go read that. Be aware that misinformation spreads fast. Stay focused on what you know for certain.
Get a paper map of the area. If you live near a coast, get a paper copy of the tide tables. Think about how to keep a copy of any other essential reference material you use regularly.
Work and school
Internet access is key for those of us who work from home, and many students. Ask your school or employer what their plan is if there’s an outage. The answer might be nothing, but at least you’ll know what to expect.
Social activities and entertainment
One of the stressful things about a longer outage can be finding yourself cut off from the ways that you like to relax and have fun. Especially if you have kids who won’t understand why they can’t watch their favorite videos, figure out what your options are for offline entertainment. The social part is harder when many of our interactions are spread out online, around the world. I don’t have an immediate suggestion about how to approach that issue, but if you do then please send me a note.
Power grid
Why I’m concerned: the hacker groups mentioned above don’t just go after internet infrastructure, they’ve also been found infiltrating the power grid. It would not be the first time something like this happened — there’s a well-known Russian hack of the Ukrainian grid that shut off power for several hours. A GAO report from 2022 notes significant steps that need to be taken — the US is in no position to make progress on this under the current administration.
The US power grid is actually a network between the US, Canada, and Mexico, which makes it vulnerable to trade war problems. In addition, natural disasters can exacerbate the problem of deferred maintenance and underinvestment in infrastructure, as people living in Puerto Rico know.
Do this first
The supply chain issues discussed above are going to hit things like batteries and solar panels hard. Everything from components to raw materials are sourced from China.
At a minimum, I recommend having a couple of small battery packs that you can use to recharge your phone. If you can afford it, a number of companies have “solar generator” systems that include a large battery and solar panels. For people who use a CPAP or other medical devices, you’ll have to check the power consumption requirements to make sure it has enough to get through the night. A regular generator can be useful too, but you’ll have to source fuel and there are safety and noise restrictions to deal with.
I’ve been recommending this upcoming power backup system from Biolite but it won’t be available until fall at the earliest, and tariffs will be certain to have an impact. Still, I think it’s a good option if it’s in your budget.
Rather than look for a battery option for my fridge, I’ve decided to go the old-school route with a hard-sided cooler and a stack of ice packs that stay in the freezer. For me, that will buy enough time to eat the perishables, and afterward the cooler can be used for cooking. I also have a couple of camp stoves and a propane grill.
Financial system
Why I’m concerned: have you looked at the stock market lately? It’s a rotten time for anyone dependent on their 401k funds. But also, financial systems are another key hacking target at all levels.
Cash on hand
Hard-core prepper types love to go on about cash transactions and converting to gold, but really you just need enough to buy gas and diapers, or fill your meds. This is one of those things where it’s important to remember that any big enough crisis will affect everyone. Do you want to be the guy with a trunk full of gold, or someone who can get by this week and has a decent relationship with their neighbors?
Start a budget
It will be easier to figure out how much cash you need to get through a couple days of “surprise! banking site outages!” if you have some way of tracking expenses. I like YNAB (referral link) and they have a bunch of resources to help you get started.
Barter
The last thing I hope you’ll start thinking about is non-cash options. If you know how to mend clothes or sharpen knives, you might have a neighbor or friend who would trade for something you need doing. If you can do even a bit of gardening, see if you can catch a neighbor out working on theirs and ask if they want to swap produce. This is one of the ways that we can build resilience, during these times of chaos and beyond.
I hope that’s enough to get you started, and if you have ideas or questions please let me know. Take care.