Tornado sirens and AU Alerts indicate a time to take action, but a group in Opelika is urging people not to wait until it's too late to prepare for emergency situations.
"The reason our store exists is to help the general public prepare in the event of any weather-related emergency or some sort of systemic problem with electricity," said Steve Saia. "There is a great need for us to be prepared."
Saia and his business partner David James own Eastwood Solutions, a company that sells emergency and survival products at USA Town Center in Opelika.
The store features items like wool blankets, solar lanterns and water purifiers--all items Saia said people should have on hand in case of an emergency.
"You're drilling down to the basic survival things," Saia said.
Eastwood Solutions also features preparedness classes most Thursdays at 6 p.m.
"We take questions from the people that show up and we share information," Saia said. "We are a learning organization. We want to teach people."
James, who is also the headmaster at Eastwood Christian School in Opelika, said personal experience with bad situations is what drove them to start the business and the classes.
"It's cold, dark, you're hungry and you're miserable," James said. "I've done it. I don't like it. I think you ought to be prepared for anything."
Saia said they're not talking about the end of the world, but rather just being prepared for any potential emergency.
"There's going to be two groups of people that survive any emergency event," Saia said. "You're going to have the folks that have made an effort to prepare ... They will be somewhat comfortable ... But the other group that has made no effort to prepare at all will be most miserably, assuredly uncomfortable."
T Speir, emergency response team volunteer with Lee County Emergency Management Agency, said that's what her family found out in the wake of Hurricane Gilbert.
"We had no water; we had nothing that we could cook with," Speir said. "It was rather an adventure. You never realize how foolish it is not to plan for an emergency when you have an opportunity."
Saia said loss of electricity is often what drives the need to prepare.
"When the electricity goes out--whether it's from a tornado or just straight-line winds--when you lose electricity, if you think about it, you're going to rapidly lose everything else," Saia said.
Saia suggests making sure to prepare to cover basic needs like shelter and clean food and water. Eastwood Solutions sells products that address each need, like water purifiers.
"If you boil impure water, you're going to have cooked microbes and cysts and pathogens," Saia said.
Although boiling will kill such organisms, rendering them harmless, it won't remove them from water.
"Add a little salt and spices and you've got yourself a pathogen soup," Saia said. "But with the filters they're gone."
Speir said she keeps bottled water, a portable gas stove and dehydrated food on hand.
"When I go to the grocery store, I buy two of whatever I need," Speir said. "I buy one and put it up ... I'm an emergency planner. If something's going to happen, I'd like to have some toothpaste, thank you very much."
The March 1 preparedness class featured an in-ground tornado shelter. March 8 will center on addressing the four basic survival issues.
"Once you give up your ability to prepare, you will perish," James said, adding that the current state of the economy is troubling to him.
"As gas goes up, food goes up, (the) ability to prepare goes down ... If you don't prepare today, you won't have the funds to prepare tomorrow."
Speir also said the struggling economy necessitates preparation--retaining the means to help yourself when the government can't.
"If you fail to plan then that's exactly what you will get," Speir said. "You will get failure."
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