Hurricane Helene And The Value of Cash
The prepper conventional wisdom is that you should get out of cash and put your money in precious metals and crypto. Let’s talk about why that’s not the best strategy.
We’re getting a lesson this weekend in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. One Twitter user summed up the situation south of Asheville, NC last night like this:
“The few places open tonight in the communities south of Asheville near Brevard NC are keeping the community moving forward tonight. However long lines at the couple of gas stations (cash only) and a number of people clumped on hills for weak cell service. Grocery stores are closed. The Waffle House and McDonald’s around Brevard are open. Might take quite a while for this area to get back to normal.”
Note that part about “cash only.” When grids are impacted, it doesn’t mean they call come back online simultaneously. Just because your gas station and local Waffle House can provide goods and services doesn’t mean they can take your American Express.
This idea that our currency may one day become worthless and thus should not be part of your preparedness plans isn’t supported by history. Invariably, one of you will email me to say “yeah, but, Weimar Republic and Venezuela and <whatever you’ve read online> proves that cash is useless in a monetary crisis.”
No, it doesn’t. The preparedness community needs to do a better job of understanding the role of cash in a crisis.
RTWT