To the Editor:

Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes is to be commended for advocating the stockpiling of food and other necessities against the day when these might become unavailable. [“Hughes Urges Residents To Prepare for Emergencies,” Town Topics, Aug. 31, page 6]. I hope all who can will respond to his message and set up emergency supplies of their own.

The goal of stockpiling a three-day supply can be attained by nearly everyone. But it is only a token amount of preparation. There are many threats that would cause greater shortages for longer durations.

The British people have been told that they are only nine meals away from chaos. The German government has recently advised its citizens to have a ten-day supply of food and water(!) on hand for emergencies. Our Mormons require each family to stockpile a year’s food, in preparation for the next year that the crops fail. When they formulated this rule, no Federal or State government was able to provide emergency supplies. On a large scale, there still isn’t any government that can (remember Katrina?).

Now a local government official has implicitly admitted as much, and by doing so now has also implied that the likelihood of an emergency has increased, and the time for action has arrived. We need to fully understand that we are individually responsible for our own survival in a large-scale emergency and that we should be personally prepared for it.

Ronald Nielsen

Humbert Street