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The Bug Out, Lessons Learned from Katrina, Part 2

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So it’s 11:00 AM, we all join hands and we say a short prayer then and head out for the interstate.

So where is it that we are headed for?

All of our relatives that don’t live in South Louisiana are either in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia or Texas. All are too far to run away to for a couple of days until the storm clears so we need somewhere far enough inland that the storm will weaken, but not too far from home so we can return and get back to normal.

The weather is overcast and windy but we haven’t had seen any rain yet as we head toward the interstate. Looks like we were not the only ones to wait until the last minute to leave town. Which direction should we head, East or West seem to be bad choices to me, if the storm shifts one direction or the other we might not be running away from problems but towards them. North makes the most sense, maybe Jackson Mississippi or Memphis, yea, that’s not a bad drive, Jackson is only 2 1/2 hours and Memphis is 6 hours on a bad day. That’s the plan; we’ll take I-12 to I-55 and head North.

As expected the roads are crowded, we we’re not the last ones to leave buy any measure. The city of New Orleans and the entire metro area has actually been under an evacuation suggestion / order for a couple of days. The state police have instituted the region’s evacuation plan for the area and all the interstates are now in contra flow mode, meaning they have been blocking off access ramps and redirected traffic in one direction, outbound on both sides. It’s a strange sight to see traffic on both sides of I-12 heading away from our town, and so we join the exodus.

So much for a 3-hour trip to Jackson, the traffic is heavy on both sides of I-12 and we are moving but only at about 30 miles per hour. Finally we make it to Hammond and make the turn on to I-59. Wow, even heaver traffic, but it actually makes sense because there are limited North bound interstates leaving the area and this is the main one. The I-10 out of the city runs East and West and it looks like many, many others decided, just like we did, North was the preferred choice.

As we make our way along with the multitude it’s surprising the number of cars on the side of the road with mechanical problems. I feel for them but there is not much that we can offer for help since we are at max load and at least a day behind when we should have left town so we keep plodding along with the flow.

The two cats in the pet carrier together obviously don’t appreciate the closeness, but then they never did like each other all that much. Fortunately the dogs seem to have settled down at least for a while any way.

We fire up the cell phone and start calling hotels in Jackson to see if we can reserve a room. Everyone we manage to get to answer has the same response, no vacancies. Even after a call to a major chain that I have Gold Member travel status with, no way, no how. So what’s the next closest, can we reserve something in between Jackson and the Memphis area we ask? Same answer, no way, no how, all our places are booked solid from people fleeing the storm. This plan B is looking worse as time passes.

How about a campground? That might have been an option if I had not have sold the camper that the girls complained was too small a year back. Or if we had room and were able to pack the tents we still had and the camping gear. Right plan C sucks, really who’s going to want to be sitting in a tent during a hurricane or at the least tropical storm winds. We got to come up with a better option.

How about somewhere in Texas, that’s the direction my Dad is headed. We are almost to Jackson Mississippi and a quick check of the map shows we can get on I-20 in Jackson and have a straight route West to the Dallas Fort Worth area. Some quick calculations and it looks like it’s about 500 miles so this is going to be a long trip.

We make a phone call to a co-worker than works for the same company I do at our Dallas branch. He tells us that his wife has some connections in the hotel industry and is sure she can find us a place that will accept the pets for as long as we need to stay. All right, so finally some good news at least we have a destination to head for.

The West bound lanes of I-20 are crowded but not nearly as bad as I-55 North bound was. We drive on a few miles to the West and then stop for gas, walk the dogs and grab something to eat. We met a number of people here that are from New Orleans, doing the same thing we are.

The rest of the trip into Dallas is slow due to the heavy traffic but otherwise uneventful. The sun is beginning to come up just as we pull into the parking lot of the hotel that my co-workers wife found for us. The trip from Covington to Dallas during regular conditions should have taken 8 hours. Instead we’ve been on the road 18 hours. If there is a next time we even think we need to bug out, we will be leaving earlier than this time, I hope…..

Lessons learned:
1. Have several options on places to go in different directions that take you away from the event.
2. If you have any advanced warning that there is going to be a localized event, like a hurricane or other severe weather, make hotel reservations in three different cities, in different directions that are outside of the predicted area of impact. That way if you do have to leave and you don’t have friends or family that you can go and stay with, you have options of several different places to go in different directions. When you decide which direction / city is the best, cancel the other reservations.
3. When it’s time to leave, leave early rather than later.
4. While already mentioned, printed maps are good to have. No batteries to die on you like a GPS or cell phone.
5. Everyone that has a cell phone should have a 12-volt car charger for their make of phone to bring along. As inexpensive as they are it’s not a bad idea to buy and leave one in each car you have. My wife’s I phone’s charger is different than my Motorola Droid’s so we need two different chargers.
6. Pet’s can present an entire new set of problems when traveling. Some hotel chains make accommodations for them but most do not. It pays to shop around.
7. Again, we were lucky. Gasoline and food were readily available on our route. If it was a more wide spread event we could have been in major trouble.

Commonality in Prepping for Disaster Events, Part 7

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Trade currency is the topic for today’s post and we are also going to touch on barter networks. I think many of you are like me and are preparing for the possibility of some tough economic times and for number different reasons. Besides the social and political turmoil going on in our country, there is the state of the world’s economy to consider, terrorist threats, social unrest, major storms, earthquakes, pandemics, and the possibilities to be discussed just go on and on. On top of all those issues I think whatever happens with America’s economic system or the economic system around the world we are looking at the definite possibility and an almost a certainty of seeing higher taxes on everything that touches us in our modern world.

Until there is total and complete economic collapse of the United States financial system cash is going to be king. As we discussed in the previous topic debt is not a good thing to have, unless you are a bank, Credit Card Company or a lending agencies since they are the only ones that make any money on the deal. Having some cash on hand is just smart, and in my humble opinion keep as much as you can possibly safely. Whether it is $100 or $10,000 depends on you and your budget as well as your level of concern. If the power is off, the credit card readers will not work. The bank’s ATM will not work and you will not be able to buy gas at the gas station or pay for your groceries at the store that is unless you have some cash to pay for what you need when you need it.

There’s a lot of talk both on the television and the Internet about investing in silver and gold or other precious metals. I’m not a financial advisor by any means but in my opinion it all depends on your situation, and what you can afford. Having some amount of silver and maybe a little bit of gold is probably not a bad idea to have on hand. Of course if you listen to Dave Ramsey he’s vehemently oppose to investing in gold and silver. The key word is investing. In his world, he does not believe they are true investments and he could be right. Small denominations of gold have a high value and are easy to transport and you have to move to another location on short notice and were limited in what you could carry. Whether they are in the form of coins or jewelry, their small size to high value ratio makes gold very valuable. But that’s only if someone’s willing to pay that value for it when you need to cash them in for food for fuel or another item. Silver on the other hand is fairly heavy but it is more commonly available as coinage, jewelry and even silverware. Again deciding on its value at the time of the exchange is going to be the tricky part.

In our case I began collecting coins in 1976 as a hobby, I just wish that I had embrace the hobby more than I did. Back then older coins were easier to find that they are today and cost substantially less. The pre-1964 coinage is higher in silver content, and was still in circulation in some respects. At coin shows they were available for fair prices but now those pre-1964 coins unless they are in excellent condition and graded and slabed, their prices are greatly influenced by the melt value of the silver that they contain.

Before you go out and buy any silver or gold, do your research, find the best prices and stay within a budget. How much is enough is not for me to say that is something you and your family need to decide on.

I have done some Internet research on barter networks that have been forming around the country and I think within your local area just makes sense to find or form one of your own. By using a somewhat structured barter network, many goods and services can be traded or swapped for equal values.

Barter in its truest form is the exchange of goods and or services between people or small businesses without using any money. A fair and agree on value is placed on a product or item or service and they are basically swapped. Barter has been around for centuries and people have traded both goods and services without the interference of government. Let’s say I’ve have a garden and I’ve got a bushel basket full of tomatoes in you have chickens. There’s no reason why I can’t trade you tomatoes for eggs, we only need to establish between the two of us what’s a fair trade, is it one for one or two tomatoes for 4 eggs. That’s an arrangement to be made between the two of us.

To expand on this bartering idea let’s say you have a valuable trade or skill, you have training or knowledge in a subject that not everybody has. Let’s take a hunter for example, he or she may know where the best places to hunt are, what their quarries movements or habits are and they have the tools to harvest that game animal. Or maybe they know how to hunt but they do not know how to process and preserve the meat. That brings us to other skill sets needed like the butcher, the cook, and the person who knows how to preserve the meat perhaps by smoking, salting, or other methods of preservation. Do you know how to preserve food by canning and do you have the tools and equipment to do it? Barter may be the answer if you do not have all the skills and due to the economic situation money may be tight.

With that I’ll leave you today and would encourage you to examine your personal situation and sets your own goals on any of the common and basic preparation that your family need to make to cover the commonality of most if not all disasters that could occur. Take the time to think about and discuss what knowledge, skills and supplies you’re lacking. Set some realistic goals that could be achieved over the next week to six months that you can accomplish to be more prepared than you are. Remember keep it in budget and do not to go into debt.

Patrick

Commonality in Prepping for Disaster Events, Part 6

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This is the list from earlier post outlining some thoughts.

The basic human needs for survival / preparedness and to have relative comfort are:

  1. Knowledge, knowing what to do with the things you have.
  2. Water that’s clean and drinkable
  3. Shelter, could be your home, a tent, or proper clothing for your area.
  4. Food, canned goods, freezer stocked up, garden growing, dehydrated or freeze dried.
  5. Energy, be it heat to cook your food or warm your shelter or electricity for lights & radios.
  6. Security / Self Defense
  7. Low or No Debt
  8. Trade Currency, i.e. cash (or Barter items), to acquire the things you need from others.

Today we’ll talk about number 7 on the list and that’s the advantage of low and ultimately no debt. If you’re a follower of some of the investment gurus out there like Dave Ramsey or others, you know their teachings concentrate on staying out of debt. What’s the old saying, the debtor is slave to the lender. It is true that until that debt is paid back, some portion of your earnings has to be allocated repaying the debt or the phone calls are going to start and ultimately the loss of some possession. At the very least if it was money borrowed from a friend or family member, then there is always going to be the hurt feelings and strains on the relationship.

Let’s go back to the earlier scenario we talked about in previous post, what if you lost your job or your spouse lost their job. For most people that’s a serious personal disaster. But if you had no debt, no credit card debt, no home mortgage or no car loans to pay, how serious would a job loss in the short term be for you? On the other hand a big house mortgage payment, two new cars in the driveway, several credit cards with sizeable balances owed, add on some student loan debt, and you have the average American family debt load.

I’m sure there are other well known advisors on personal finance other than Dave Ramsey but he’s the one I’m most familiar with and his teachings make a lot of sense. He preaches living within your means, living off a budget, and staying out of debt. From the standpoint of being a prepper I can see distinct advantages to this type of lifestyle. For example if I have decided I want to start storing food so I have 30 to 60 to 90 days in my house, if I use his budget guidelines, I can lay a plan to make my purchases over time and achieve my goal. If I’ve decided I need a generator or solar panels then I create a line in my budget spreadsheet to save the money for that purchase. I save the money and pay cash, no purchases with credit. Some of Ramsey’s resources are free on the Internet others you need spend a little and attend the classes, or you can purchase one of his books or DVD’s. (Check your local library). I use one of his budget forms in an Excel spreadsheet that we modified the categories for the additional things we found important to budget for.

Not only does being out of debt benefit you and your family if there are no major disasters in your lifetime, it’s one of the commonalities for events. If nothing major happens, wouldn’t you be better off debt free and able to purchase the things you need and want as you can afford them and improve your preparedness. The advantage to being out of debt should things really get bad is you would be able to keep the things that you own, no worries of repossession if you didn’t have an income for whatever reason to keep up the payments. If the Poop hits the fan on a higher level you’d be better prepared to deal with expenses as they come up.

As a side bar, do not neglect adequate insurance coverage for you home, automobile, health and life, they are investments that should be studied and made wisely. A bad localized storm that knocks a tree down on your house could be a major financial set back or an irritation and inconvenience depending on if you had adequate insurance coverage or not. Insurance can enable you to keep what you have if something goes wrong and not end up in huge debt because you didn’t invest the time and money.

Commonality in Prepping for Disaster Events – Part 5

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Today’s topic is covering security and self the defense. Two very broad topics that will need more in depth discussion, but for our purposes this will be a thought provoking piece.

So we’ve got our food, water, shelter and energy supplies being addressed but what if there is a relatively large-scale event and your local law enforcement’s ability to come when you call 911 is not there. It really does happen sometimes and you should have the ability to protect your self your family and your property in case help is not on the way immediately.

Whether you’re a homeowner or apartment dweller, good quality locks and deadbolts on your doors is your first line of defense. Quality locks and or blocks for your windows are the next things to look at upgrading. It’s true, locks keep honest people out and criminals will break in if they want to bad enough. Good locks will slow them down, especially if they are kept locked. A couple of years ago there was a television show that documented how criminals would select and break in to people’s homes. On several of the episodes they were able to enter the house through an unlocked window or unlocked back door, didn’t have to actually break in at all, so lock those locks. Even while your home they should be locked.

Home Security Systems can range from simple to sophisticated and in many cases will be determined by your budget. The higher end system can be monitored by an outside agency for a monthly or annual fee. The better alarm systems can even include smoke detection for fire as well as carbon monoxide detection. Adequate exterior lighting should be looked at so that you can see who’s at the front door or back door and can be equipped with motion sensors. More sophisticated security systems now offer closed-circuit camera that you can monitor over the Internet.

If you have a yard, a good quality fence to keep things in as well as out. On larger pieces of property there are numerous barrier plants that could be considered depending on your climate zone. Plants like Thorny Pyracantha, Hawthorn, Holly or the simple Black Berry bush planted on your property line or fencerows would deter people and or animals from crossing easily.

A dog in many cases is a good investment not only for companionship but security as well. If you can afford the cost of up keep, vet and immunizations, and have time to spend doing some basic training, a dog can bring years of pleasure. Their sense of hearing and smell does not need electricity to alert you if someone’s creeping around outside. Big dogs can offer some personal protection if properly trained and the right breed but smaller breeds of dogs can hold their own as well.

If you have never owned a dog, the decision is a big one, almost like the decision to purchase a gun. With ownership of either comes responsibility to invest time in research, training and selection before spending any money on either. If you do decide to get a dog, I encourage you to check with your local rescue groups and animal shelters first before spending the money on a pure breed show dog.

From a personal standpoint your physical fitness is an important consideration should you need to defend yourself from an attacker at some time. Many people choose to study one of the styles of martial arts. Martial arts classes are an excellent way to improve your physical condition to get into shape so I encourage you to check with friends may have taken classes in the past or look for recommendations on who are the better instructors in your area and get out and take a class. Just simple walking a mile or so every couple of days will improve your stamina and conditioning. There other sports that will get you into shape like hiking, backpacking, swimming, canoeing, snow skiing and bicycling to name some of my favorites.

Now let’s talk about weapons for self-defense. Before we get into the specifics of which weapon is better for what, you need to seek training from qualified instructors. I don’t know about your area or town but in mine there are at least a three reputable gun stores and gun ranges within 20 miles of my home. These are the people you need to seek out for information, instruction and price comparisons.

There are non lethal alternatives such as pepper spray and stun type weapons that are legal in most places in these United States for anyone to own and have in their home for self-defense. As always the disclaimer, check your local laws before purchasing. But really baseball bats and golf clubs are not good ideas for self defense except as a last resort, you need a little bit more but some distance between you and an intruder.

In the opinion of many “Experts” the ideal weapon for home defense is a shotgun. A visit to your local gun shop or range can help educate you in the selection and style and gauge that fits you best. The nice thing about shotgun is it can be used for hunting so it really dual-purpose tool we covered hunting very briefly in another post but with a shotgun in most parts of the country you can hunt small game like birds, squirrels and rabbits with one type of shotgun shell and larger game like deer with buckshot.

A handgun or pistol is probably another consideration for home protection. They come in all sizes shapes calibers and manufacturers and before you select one spend some time at several gun shops and do the research. Try out several different styles, calibers and manufacturer’s if possible at a local range before you make your decision. Training is an absolute necessity and should be sought very early in the process on how to handle, clean and safely operate the handgun.

As far as other weapons for self-defense to mention baseball bats, batons, knifes, swords, numb chucks, crossbow, bows and arrows tomahawks, axes, slings, chainsaws sticks and rocks……should we go on….but they’re really not practical for self-defense although that could be used if necessary.

Commonality in Prepping for Disaster Events Part 4

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Today will be talking about alternative energy resources that are available and some of the various options I have found. We will take a look at plans for lighting, cooking your food, in wintertime heating your home and if you’re really industrious you might even include producing the energy component required for your vehicle.

Starting with backup power, let’s recall a common scenario, when was last time the lights went out at your house and you lost power for a short time. Did you have to fumble around in the dark looking for flashlights or candles? An easy project is to build a blackout kit that consists of a box or container of some kind that you keep handy in a closet or cabinet with some flashlights, spare batteries, candles, matches and maybe even oil lamps. If the power goes out for a short time, you can easily get to your emergency lighting. Keep this kit in one place that everyone knows about and it will be handy to pass out to your family members in case of a storm or something else causing a power outage. Adding some glow sticks might be for your kit too since they don’t need batteries. They typically have a shelf life so they need to be checked and rotated on a regular basis. They are good especially if you have small kids, not only for their safe lighting ability but their entertainment value as well. One other sidebar about having a blackout kit is if you have a reluctant spouse this might be a simple way to get them started down the road for preparations and show him or her the value of having taking the time to do some basic preps.

As far as backup power solutions there are solar panels, batteries with inverters, generator sets, both small enough to power a few things or big enough to run your whole house. Even more options are available like wind and water power if you have those resources on your property. You should consider if you chose to invest in these, even if there were no major disaster, would there be a long-term benefit to my family to have some type of backup power supply. Your individual situation and budget will be major determining factors in deciding how much to invest on a particular backup system. Heck, you might even want to become energy independent, go off the grid and not rely on the power companies and their monthly bill.

One other thing to keep in mind as far as backup power systems go, the old saying from the military is “Two is One and One is None” is something to consider. If one of the major components breaks and you only have one, you have none, so have a backup.

Is your home or bug out location all electric? If so how you plan to cook your food in your electric stove or oven has no power? Do you have propane or natural gas? If these power sources were not available what your plan B? Many of us have a propane barbecue pit and some extra bottles propane, if that’s you then you could be set for a short while.

But you not only need some sort of heat energy for food preparation, you may need it to boil your water to make it safe to drink. There are single burner and multi-burner camping stoves available from retailers in most cities as well as the Internet that range in price from a few dollars to $100.00 or more. That could be plan B for heating food water but they still require fuel of some kind. Plan C could be cooking over a wood fire and there are numerous different ways to that.

How about fuel for your car, motorcycle or generator? There is a wealth of information available online and in books on producing alcohol that can be used to power your gas burning equipment. Making alcohol requires a source of heat and a mixture of something containing sugar that can be fermented. That might not be a bad project to start investigating now while the information is available.

How cold does it get where you live? Do you have a fireplace or other heat source that could be used if the power’s out and there is no more propane or natural gas? Wood has been used for heating and cooking for centuries. The house we live in now was built with a big brick fireplace and we installed a Buck Stove Insert shortly after moving in. It is much more efficient than the standard fireplace as it captures a lot the heat that would have just gone up the chimney.  The steel mass radiates heat into the room and a small internal fan circulates heat as well. Kerosene heaters are also highly efficient so if you go this route make sure you have spare wicks and ample supply of kerosene to get you through the winter.

Links to sites for supplies and information covered.

Black Out Kits:

http://www.ready.gov/blackouts

DIY Blackout Kit

 

Solar Power Links:

http://www.wholesalesolar.com/gridtie.html

https://www.seia.org/state-solar-policy/louisiana-solar

https://www.energystar.gov/about/federal_tax_credits

DIY Solar kits

 

Make Your own Fuel:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Own-Gasoline

Here is my favorite, Steve Harris. He’s been interviewed on The Survival Podcast several times and he’s a hoot….

http://www.imakemygas.com/

 

Heating & Cooking Options:

http://www.buckstove.com

http://www.coleman.com/Products/2000/stoves

I’m sure Walmart and other online retailers have similar products at competitive prices so shop around but please only use Amazon to check prices. In many cases you can purchase direct from the manufacture’s own website, sometime at a better price since Amazon charges a 15% commission on most sales.

#Anybodybutamazon, #Amazonsucks, #Amazonisatheif.

Commonality in Prepping for Disaster Events – Part 3

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As a quick recap from part 1 & 2 where we discussed the commonality of making preparations based on this threat matrix.

Individual – Localized – Large Scale – National Scale – Global

In part one we looked at the scales of events and how each might affect us as individuals.

In part two we started to look at the specifics we need to work on for our individual preparations depending or our location.

So back to the question where is the commonality? No matter what the level of the event, be it something as simple as a job loss, a localized disaster or major global event items number 2 through 6 that we talked about in the prior post are constant needs.

As a beginning prepper we start at the beginning, that highest probability thing most likely to happen to us individuals, a job loss.

In this scenario we need water that is clean and drinkable, we need food, we need shelter, and we need energy and we need security. If it only takes you a month to find a new job you really only need to have a month’s worth of food on hand and money the bank to pay your bills for the next month. For a short-term power outage perhaps from a storm or transformer failure, if you have a small generator to keep your freezer and refrigerator a few lights running you probably only need enough gasoline to run a generator for a couple of days. If your local water supply becomes contaminated but your local water company is working to correct the problem you only need to have perhaps weeks worth of stored water on hand and a small filter system is a backup. Basically as you move up the scale and the size of the event or disaster you increase the number of days you can operate autonomously from outside support and utility companies.

In many “Prepper” discussion groups and circles one of the topics that gets the most attention is guns and ammunition. Don’t get me wrong on this, they are both high on the list of things needed and we will cover them later. In my opinion top of the list should really be food. After all, most of us eat three meals a day and stop and ask yourself, when was the last time you were in a gunfight? For the majority of us the answer is never, for others in the line of duty, way too often. So if for whatever reason the grocery stores run out and the restaurants are closed, what will you do when it’s time to eat?

It has been reported in a number of places that the average household in America has less than 1 week of food in their home at any given time. I have not been unable to verify any research or credible report that it is a fact, but don’t find it too had to believe.

Let’s step back to our earlier, most likely personal disaster scenario where, you or your spouse has lost your job. If you had 30 days of food stored in your home, would that help with your cash flow until you were able to find another job? What about 60 days, or 6 month’s worth stored? If you don’t have at least a month’s worth stored right now, there are many ways to build your food storage over time and within a budget. Copy canning is one way, stocking up on sale items is another. It is not a good idea to buy a years supply of canned goods all at one time.  For one thing it’s expensive and the second is canned foods have an expiration date. (That’s another topic for another post later on). By purchasing your storage food over time, you can buy a newer expiration dated food and put them into a rotation behind your older cans.

The most important things to keep in mind as you begin and maintain your stored food, is you MUST store what you eat, AND eat what you store. If you don’t already have a grocery list that has what your family commonly eats now, start one. Goggle copy canning and it will give you a basic way to build up your food storage over time. Just because Spam is on sale, but no one in your household will eat it, don’t buy it. Same goes for macaroni & cheese, canned spinach, Captain Crunch or any other thing that you’re family won’t eat.

Dried rice, beans, pasta, wheat, and corn are inexpensive, high in calorie count and will last almost indefinitely when packed and stored correctly. They are the basic staples most of us are storing but it is going to be some pretty boring meals within a couple of days if that is all you have. Having a good variety of canned vegetables, canned meats and fruits will help you create some variety in your meals and avoid food boredom. Another thing to keep in mind for food storage is does anyone in your family have specific food allergies that should be avoided. And as a final storage thought, do not forget the dried spices.

The advantages to having your own garden can be easy to list. How about knowing what you are eating has not been bombarded with chemicals and pesticides or the varieties that you chose to grow are not GMO’s. A little exercise and time in the sunshine and fresh air is good for most people as well. Depending how much area you can devote to a garden, and how much time you have to manage it, you may be able to substantially cut your food bill at the grocery store. A fair amount of fresh vegetables and root crops like potatoes and carrots can even be grown in containers if you don’t have the yard space for a full blown garden. Even small trees will produce in containers. My wife has two dwarf Meyer’s lemon trees in large pots that give us dozens of fresh fruit every year. Although they have to be moved inside during the winter months here, (we’re in middle Tennessee), but with them in a container it’s a fairly easy project with a two wheeled hand dolly.

Fishing and hunting equipment along with the experience, training and skills are another means to put food on your family’s table. Both are great hobbies and a day in the woods or on one of your local waterways beats sitting in front of the TV any day of the week.

Links for topics we covered in this post

Water Storage & Filtration:

http://www.surewatertanks.com/

http://aquamira.com/

http://www.survival.com/

Food Storage Calculator:

http://www.thefoodguys.com/foodcalc.html

http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm

Gardening:

http://www.garden.org/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Home-Gardening/

https://www.lsuagcenter.com/

Commonality in Prepping for Disaster Events Part 2

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We left off last time discussing the likely hood of each scenario in the Threat Probability Matrix.

Individual – Localized – Large Scale – National Scale – Global

So where exactly does commonality come into play with these various levels of threats and disasters? Let’s take a look at what we all us humans need to survive and to have relative comfort in our day-to-day lives. Afterwards we will try to explain how the commonalities between these factor into our preparedness plans.

The basic human needs for survival / preparedness and to have relative comfort are:

  1. Knowledge, knowing what to do with the things you have.
  2. Water that’s clean and drinkable
  3. Shelter, could be your home, a tent, or proper clothing for your area.
  4. Food, canned goods, freezer stocked up, garden growing, dehydrated or freeze dried.
  5. Energy, be it heat to cook your food or warm your shelter or electricity for lights & radios.
  6. Security / Self Defense
  7. Low or No Debt
  8. Trade Currency, i.e. cash (or Barter items), to acquire the things you need from others.

Knowledge is something that takes time to acquire just like skills and abilities, they will need to be taught and learned. Hopefully you will spend your entire life learning new things and skills.

For instance, how to hammer a nail is a basic skill, but the knowledge is what size hammer and what size nail should you use for a specific job. If you are lucky enough to have parents, relatives or friends that can teach you things like cooking, gardening, carpentry, appliance repair, hunting, fishing, the list goes on, you should take full advantage of what they can offer.

Today, as I write this, there are skilled instructors all around us that specialize in areas that we can learn from and be able to gain the knowledge and tools we may lack. Some instruction is free for the asking, other may have a small cost and others may cost several hundred dollars. There are also books, DVD’s and the Internet for research and you should have a library card if you live close to a public library where knowledge is stored the old fashion way.  Once a disaster happens, those resources might not be available so time’s a wasting, start getting the knowledge while you still can.

For modern preppers, as we are sometimes referred to, there are some basic things you need to know that are common to all levels of the threat matrix. If you already have a plan A for numbers 2 through 6 in case the current systems fail and have a back up plan B if there is a problem with A, you are in pretty good shape. If you don’t, then those are the first basic skills you need to somehow invest the time attending a class, reading and learning.

Consider what could go wrong with your water supply. We have lived in places where the city water supply became contaminated from floodwaters and chemical spills. (Greater New Orleans area, they get their drinking water from the Mississippi River). Having some sort of a way to filter, boil or chemically treat water to make it safe for drinking is a must have. With out clean water you will die and if you drink contaminated water you might only get sick or you might die. If you are on a well and you lose power, do you have back up power source or a hand pump? There are a number of ways to clean water, do you know one or more if you had to make your water safe to drink? How about keeping some amount of stored water on hand for a short-term interruption. There are containers from clean 1 liter soda bottles to 5 gallon jugs to hundreds of gallon tanks available from lots of different suppliers and sources.

Regarding your shelter and wherever it is you live now, a house, apartment or bug out cabin in the deep woods, we can address that next. If your primary plan is to shelter in place, there are a number of things you can have on hand to maintain the structure. If there is a bad storm and it damages your roof or knocks out a window what would you do? Having a couple of a blue tarps, several rolls of heavy mil plastic, some duct tape and a staple gun with a good supply of staples gives you the basics to make some temporary repairs after the weather clears. In hurricane prone areas we’ve all probably seen on the TV people boarding up windows with plywood to protect them from breakage. In flood prone areas, sand bags might be what you need to have a supply of. If your house has a basement and a pump to keep water out like some parts of the country do, back up electric power is needed. In areas where tornados are common, either a reinforced safe room or a storm shelter maybe worth investing in.

Commonality in Prepping for Disaster Events Part 1

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So you’ve come to the realization that the world and the times we live in are getting a little scary and that you want to be more prepared for the unexpected, to be more self-reliant. Maybe you decided to put away some extra food, maybe a few extra boxes of ammo for your rifle or plant that vegetable garden. You’ve become a “Prepper” but do you have a clear idea of what you are prepping for? If you are concerned about the unrest in the world or the direction our country is heading in, or you live in an area that is likely to be impacted by natural disasters like hurricanes or floods. Making some preparation makes good sense but it can be overwhelming to think and list all of the possibilities that are out there. How can we break it down into manageable chunks to improve your preparations and lower your stress level?

Then there is the question of does preparing for “Events” that may or may not happen make sense both financially and for your time investment. The other big thing to consider as well is that all the things we do to prepare for threats should have real value and benefits and improves your life even if nothing major ever goes wrong.

Let’s take a look at a Threat Probability Matrix that was published recently by Jack Spirko. It attempts to analyze and help us predict the likelihood of what could happen to any of us at some point in the future. He’s broken it down into 5 basic categories.

Individual – Localized – Large Scale – National Scale – Global

Making a list of events and scenarios for each of these categories can get long, complex and difficult to compile and will vary by your location, but let’s just look at a few examples.

An Individual event would be something like the loss of your job or your spouse’s job or a fire in your home, or one of your family members has a major illness. Effects are primarily going to be on you and your family.

A Localized or Regional Disaster would be a thing like a tornado, flooding, an earthquake or a train wreck with a hazardous chemical spill. You may or may not be directly affected but will feel some impact to local services like short-term electricity interruption or your local hospitals capacity challenged if many people are injured and other local services curtailed for a short time.

Moving into Large-scale events would be a major Hurricane like Katrina or more recently hurricane Sandy that effected several states for a longer period of time. Goods and services are not available like food, fuel, and medical attention for days, into weeks and in some places months.

National scale disaster is something along the line of a Nuclear strike to multiple US cities or an EMP event whether it be from solar activity or an attack. This one is hard to imagine but help might not be available in some places for months to years.

On a Global scale you have pandemics, financial markets collapsing, World War breaking out or an asteroid impact on Earth.

So what is the likely hood of each of these scenarios affecting you and your family and are there preparations can we make that would be applicable to all but “The End Of The World Event”?

 

What is more likely in the next few weeks, loose your job or there is a global Pandemic? Where then do we start to begin thinking about how can I possibility prepare of all of the above?

 

We will begin cover each of these in more detail in the next posts.

 

 

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