Week Two -Shelter

Quickstart:

Buy a small family-sized tent, a wool blanket for everyone in the family, and store these items in a place where they can be gotten to if the house collapses or is destroyed.

Blog Post:

Shelter protects us from the elements, but in emergency preparedness, shelter must provide protection from so much more.

Now take out your threat analysis list. Read through it. Anybody have hurricanes or tornadoes on their list? How about wind storms? Terrorism? Wildfire? Now, how do you protect yourself from these hazards?

You do research.

One place is FEMA, the United States of America's Federal Emergency Management Agency. It has many resources for learning about the various natural and technical disasters that will confront you. They even have suggestions on how to mitigate (reduce the effects) hazards such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and terrorism.

You are going to learn a lot from the FEMA site, so check them out. They even have a kids page.

But don't stop there because there is more to shelter then what FEMA has on its website.

Let me explain.

Suppose, you have to leave your home, or you are stranded in the wilds. If you are stranded, you might have to improvise a shelter. Do you have a tarp? How about some string? Read M4040's tarp shelter page for some how-to on tarp shelters.

If you don't have these items, you can build a dugout shelter or a debris shelter. Out in winter's cold, you might need to build a snow shelter. Outdoor Action has a "Guide to Snow Shelters." Another article about snow trenches can be found in the links section, also

If you need something more permanent, you could build a log cabin. Mother Earth News has an article about a $100 cabin. Watch out for inflation, the article was written in 1981.

I know, I know. We will never need these shelters because you don't go into the woods, but just in case, read the links. But what happens if you home is damaged.

You will need to keep a few blue tarps on hand to cover any holes in the roof. A few sheets of plywood with some double-headed nails to protect windows. A roll of clear plastic to cover broken windows also helps. Don't forget the hammer, staples, and the staple gun.

The craftsman stapler called the "Easy Fire" seems to be easier than the older model of staplers to use.

Having clear plastic also allows you to form a safe room from a chemical spill or attack. During Gulf War One, the Israelis showed us how to make a safe room for chemical attacks by using the highest room in our homes. The one with no exterior opening such as windows or doors. Don't forget skylights. For most people, this is a hallway bathroom.

If you plan to have a safe room from chemical attack, you can pre-cut the plastic sheeting to cover all of the openings in the room. Doors, windows, and heating vents. You don't have to cover the sink and bathtub faucets in the bathroom. Once you cut the plastic, all you need is duct tape to tape the plastic around the opening, and seal.

If you don't pre-cut the plastic sheeting, you will need scissors. A small supply of towels or rags to help seal under the door will also help to stop or slow down the chemicals from entering your chemical attack safe room.

If you shelter in a bathroom, you could use the water and the toilet during your brief stay. A radio for information and card games, coloring books, or other low-activity games to help keep the children occupied are also important.

If possible, pre-position all of these supplies in the room you will use as a safe room.

Remember those opinions, the CDC has a recommendation for using a master bedroom as your shelter in place for a chemical emergency. If you have some kids and a few pets, it sounds like a good idea. Plus, there is more air to breath.

RAND has a a report on some scenarios that might happen during a biological, chemical and radiological attack. Download the PDF. Save it. Read it. Think about the report then act.

With more countries building nuclear weapons and having the means to launch these weapons, the possibility of a nuclear attack increases. I'm talking about the "big one." The 10 to 100 nuclear weapons coming in from Russia, China, Britain, France, India, Israel, or someone else.

To hear some people talk, you would think you need to buy a $2,000,000 former ICBM site to survive a nuclear war. Nope, you don't even need to buy the $260,000 site.

You do need to get a copy of Nuclear War Survival Skills. The book is available for free as a PDF; additionally, you can view the book online.

Be warned, there is this effect from an exploding atomic bomb called electromagnetic pulse (EMP); it can fry computers and other electronics, so you might need to buy a hardcopy of the book from Amazon.com or the folks in the links.

If you have more money, and you don't want to move; you can buy a shelter. There are two types of nuclear war shelters, a blast shelter and a fallout shelter.

A blast shelter can be a fallout shelter, but a fallout shelter can't be a blast shelter. This has to do with the effects of a nuclear weapon. The fallout will travel farther than the blast. So, if you are in the blast radius, a fallout shelter will not protect you from over-pressurization effects.

If you understood that statement, cool. If you didn't, make sure you read Nuclear War Survival Skills.

There are three shelter builders that I know of, Radius Engineering, Safecastle, and Utah Shelter Systems. Radius produces fiberglass blast shelters. Safecastle builds square/rectangle steel blast shelters. Utah Shelter Systems builds round steel blast shelters. All three will be expensive.

An alternative is to build your own shelter. There are many plans on the internet. The website from Rad Shelters For You has a round up of the various nuclear war shelters.

A mini blast/fallout shelter can be manufactured locally if you are on a tight budget, and you want to prepare for a nuclear war. As you can see the topic of shelters is a long and varied one. You need to think about what you are going to do and practice those techniques you have decided to use.

So study the links, and I'll ...

See you next week!

Links:

FEMA - Hazards Index:

http://www.fema.gov/hazard/index.shtm

FEMA - For Kids:

http://www.fema.gov/kids

Equipped To Survive - Tarp Shelters - An Introduction

http://www.equipped.org/tarp-shelters.htm

M4040's - Tarp Shelter

http://www.m4040.com/Survival/Skills/Shelter/TarpShelter.htm

M4040's - Survival Shelter Building Skills

http://www.m4040.com/Survival/Skills/Shelter/Shelter.htm

Wild Wood Survival - Debris Hut

http://wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/shelter/debrishut/dn2006/index.html

E-How - How to Build a Debris Hut: http://www.ehow.com/how_12578_build-debris-hut.html

Outdoor Action - Guide to Snow Shelters

http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/winter/wintshel.shtml

Survival Topics - Snow Trench Shelter

http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/snow-trench-shelter/

Build Your Own Log Cabin

http://www.outlands.tripod.com/farm/logcabin.htm

Stormloader - Plainsman's Cabin

http://www.stormloader.com/plainsman/PlainsmansCabin.html

Mother Earth News - $100 Cabin:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/green-homes/1981-05-01/a-100-log-cabin.aspx

CDC - Chemical Emergencies

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/planning/shelteringfacts.pdf

RAND - Report MR1731

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1731/

Former Missile bases for sale

http://www.missilebases.com/

Nuclear War Survival Skills - Free PDF: http://www.nukepills.com/docs/nuclear_war_survival_skills.pdf

Nuclear War Survival Skills - To Read Online http://www.oism.org/nwss

Nuclear War Survival Skills - To Buy: http://www.oism.org/nwss/s73p908.htm

Radius Engineering International

http://www.bomb-shelter.net/

Safe Castle

http://www.safecastle.com/

Utah Shelter Systems

http://www.disastershelters.net/

Rad Shelters For You

http://www.radshelters4u.com/index3.htm

Rad Shelter For You - Mini Blast/Fallout Shelter http://www.radshelters4u.com/mini-blast-shelter.htm

Friday - Thinking

It's Friday!

The end of the workweek and another original post about what's going on in the world/my life.

Write Stuff Down

My wife and I were seating in a restaurant last weekend, and all of a sudden, I had an idea for a Friday post. I told myself to remember the thought. I even told myself to write it down on a napkin.

I didn't, and I forgot it.

So, instead of writing about my forgotten idea, I am going to write about Da Vinci's notebook.

Leonardo Da Vinci was a Renaissance Man in the true meaning of the name. During his life time, he was a scientist, an engineer, a mathematician, an artist, a musician, a writer, and ... In his sixty years of life, it seems like he did it all.

And we know this because of his notebooks.

In his notebooks, Leonardo Da Vinci kept track of his ideas. He would write/draw his ideas and observations.

Fast forward a few hundred years, half a world away, and to an article (that I can't find) about keeping track of your ideas.

Now, some folks are going to ask "Is this the same as a Survival Bible?"

No, it isn't. A survival bible has facts, procedures, and other information on how to survive a disaster. A Da Vinci Notebook is used to record your ideas and research for later use.

Here's an example from my notebook, if it was neatly typed ; )

Supply of Food (Freeze-Dried Vegetables)

- Mountain House Brand -

Per Day - Per Person

* 4 to 5 servings (two pouches)

Per Week - Per Person

* 28 to 35 servings (one can)

Per Month - Per Person

* 124 to 155 servings (one case)

Per 1/2 a Year

* 744 to 930 servings (six cases)

Per Year

* 1,460 to 1,825 servings (12 cases)

I also use my notebook to design things like shelving, chicken coops, and barns; record information I find at the library; copy recipes from cooking magazines; and many other ideas.

Links:

Wikipedia - Leonardo da Vinci

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci

Wikipedia - Leonardo da Vinci - Journals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci#Journals

Note: In one of the articles, I read for this post; they mention that Leonardo's notebooks also had such things as grocery lists and a list of people who owed him money.

WikiHow - How to Keep a Notebook

http://www.wikihow.com/Keep-a-Notebook

About.com - What is a serving of fruits or vegetables?

http://nutrition.about.com/od/fruitsandvegetables/f/servingfruit.htm

Build It Solar.com - The Integral Passive Solar Water Heater Book

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/ISPWH/IPSWH.pdf

Another Note: The original example for my notebook, I was going to write about one of my current ideas, designing a passive solar hot water heater for our home. It didn't work, so I did the food servings, instead.

Forth Half - Thinking

Welcome,

This is the forth half of the post on thinking. You will find links to other bloggers and websites about the subject for this week.

Blogs:

Stealth Survival - Survival Basics: The Disaster Book

http://stealthsurvival.blogspot.com/2009/09/survival-basics-disaster-book.html

Websites:

McAlvany Intelligence Advisor - Disaster Preparedness: Principles of Self Sufficiency

http://www.miatoday.com/articles/disasterpPrep.asp

Third Half - Thinking

Welcome,

This is the third half of the post on thinking.

PACE

I had never heard of it before, until I read a book by Gerry Schumacher (To Be a US Army Green Beret).

PACE is an acronym to help organize your thinking on your preparations.

Primary - What is the first way that you are going to solve a problem.

Alternate - What is the second way that you are going to solve the same problem

Contingency - The third way

Emergency - The very last way before you have to improvise a solution to your problem.

Let us look at an example.

Your problem, opening cans of food.

Primary - an electric can opener

Alternate - a manual can opener

Contingency - another manual can opener

Emergency - a P-51 can opener

Yes, I know an electric can open won't work in a power outage. That is why you have three other methods of opening canned food. It could be worse; you could have lost electricity and broken the manual can opener. Don't worry though, you still have the other manual can opener and the P-51. All of these methods have to fail before you start stressing about how to improvise a method to safely open your canned food.

The OODA Loop

I have heard of this decision-making process before. It helps you to focus on your problems/situations

Observe - make Observations about a problem

Orient - Orient yourself to the problem. What do you see as the problem/What information do you have about the problem

Decide - Decide what you are going to do about the problem

Act - Act on you decision

Then you go through the loop again until the problem is solved. There is an article at Wikipedia that explains the OODA Loop

I can use the OODA Loop to explain how this blog has evolved.

My problem/situation; I know I can't go it alone. I don't have time or money to be a doctor/nurse, welder/pipe fitter, farmer/rancher, and pull security 24/7/365.

Observe - no money, lack skills, people to join with, friends/family are starting to see the various situations happening and want to prepare. I am a doomer and a gloomer, this turns people off. Folks don't want to go over the basics, I think are necessary, in their survival-type blogs.

Orient - People don't have time because of 9 to 5 jobs to learn the basics of surviving a long-term emergency

Decide - I'll write a one entry per week for 16 weeks preparedness blog so people can take the time they need to learn about preparedness

Act - write the blog and get family/friends to read it.

Now I look at the results. I am unsatisfied, so ...

Observe - I have a lot of knowledge. The one entry per week for 16 weeks blog isn't working, for me. Low readership. Not enough people "taking the course"

Orient - I need to provide more information. Not advertising with others

Decide - I will ask some of the survival-type blogs for a plug, and I'll write more

Act - E-mail Ryan at Total Survivalist Libertarian Rantfest and James Dakin at Bison Survival Blog. Write an additional post for the week.

Again, I look at the results. I'm not satisfied, so I...

And the process continues until an acceptable outcome occurs. The OODA Loop can also be used in a tactical situation. I think this is the original idea behind the OODA Loop's development. It may help you to defeat your opponent, so read about the OODA Loop at the link.

Links:

Wikipedia - OODA Loop

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_Loop

Second Half - Thinking

Welcome,

This is the second half of the post about thinking. You will find videos/podcasts, instructions, and other information about the subject for this week.

Videos/Podcasts:

Survival Podcast - What if Nothing Goes Wrong

http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/what-if-nothing-goes-wrong

Survival Podcast - Watch Out for Combined Threats

http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/watch-out-for-combined-threats

Instructions:

Getting Informed

FEMA has a book called "Are You Ready? It is a free book. You can download it for free or order a copy. FEMA even will send you multiple copies, for free, to give to your friends and family. Just call the FEMA publications warehouse at 1.800.480.2520 to order your copy/copies.

So, why did I tell you that?

Because the book has a section on identifiny possible hazards you and your family might need to prepare for.

Links:

FEMA - Are you Ready?

http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/index.shtm

FEMA - Are You Ready? Getting Informed

http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/getting_informed.shtm

Other Information:

Remember last post when I wrote about people that have been getting prepared for a long time may not have the right answer. I am right, and I am wrong.

I am right because they aren't a single parent with two school-aged kids, live in Los Angeles, or stationed overseas with the military. In other words, they are not in your situation. But I am also wrong. These people have made mistakes, common mistakes, that you can avoid.

One of these mistakes is thinking guns are the answer. If you plan to take food from your neighbor, you are going to die.

I can say this with a reasonable amount of accuracy.

Do you know why? There is one gun for every man, women, and child in these United States of America. With 27 million adult Americans being veterans (trust me, they all know how to shoot. Some of them even know how to make War), you don't have a chance.

Still don't believe me.

Research about the Wild West. Everybody carried a gun, including preachers.

Don't forget posses.

Let government break down and people will step in. You screw with the neighbors; the other neighbors will step in, and they have guns. So should you.

Another mistake is thinking you can go this alone. You can't. There are too many skills and not enough life-time. That is the reason for waving to the neighbors. They may not prepare as much as you will, but you can tell them about the money you saved gardening this year. Then help them when they ask to borrow the tiller and learn about food storage.

Take the teenagers shooting and their moms and dads, too. Get them interested in guns and have your spouse talk to them about how better protected he/she feels with having a loaded gun in the house and the self defense course he/she just completed, so she/he can use it, too.

If you go hunting, take them along. Before you go, get the neighbors to buy some basic camping equipment. If not hunting then semi-primitive camping.

Suggest everybody, during Halloween, sit on the front porches to give out treats and watch over the neighborhood. If it works, then suggest having a neighborhood watch every other Friday night, next summer?

Don't preach, don't make jokes about it, use the soft sell.

And buy extra food for the neighbors, just in case.

Another common mistake, even made by the federal government, is the idea of "Surging." No, I am not talking about Iraq. I am talking about the concept of waiting to just before the emergency happens to do something about it.

We see this every time there is a winter storm, hurricane approaching or other "disaster." People rush to the grocery store to buy milk, eggs, and bread. Usually within 6 hours the store shelves are stripped bare of bread, eggs, and milk. It's called the "French Toast Phenomenon" by some preppers.

Surging doesn't work, except for the first few folks. Truthfully ask yourself, "Where am I, in line, during these past surges for basic supply?"

If you answered front, middle, or even the back, surging doesn't work for you. I say this because what happens when someone not in line wants the stuff someone in line has? If you're in line, how is your family being protected?

What do you do if there are no supplies for you? Some more things to think about, so I'll ...

See you next week!

Week One - Thinking

Quick Start:

Turn off your tv and other electronic devices then go for a walk, for at least 30 minutes, 5 days a week, in and around your neighborhood.

No, you don't have to wave to your neighbors, yet, but if they wave, wave back.

Blog Post:

In emergency preparedness, there is a rule. The rule is called the "3 to 5 Rule of Dying." It goes something like this:

You will Die

within

3 to 5 seconds without Thinking

3 to 5 minutes without Breathing

3 to 5 hours without Shelter

3 to 5 days without Water

3 to 5 weeks without Food

Note:

"Thinking" is the first item on the list. It is the most important.

Don't believe me; browse through the Darwin Awards.

Some people have already survived/died in certain situations. Take Steve Irwin, an injury that was survivable killed him because he made the wrong choice. Others, such as Lise Bohannon, made decisions that saved their lives, and we can learn from all of these choices.

Now, there are many, many people expressing their opinions on how to prepare to survive. James M. Dakins, James W. Rawles, Ragnar Benson, Kurt Saxon, and Andrew Zarowny are just a few. They all have their opinions.

Because they have been getting ready longer then you, doesn't mean they are right. This includes me. You have to decide what is going to work for you.

With that said let us get started.

The first thing you want to do is to make a threat analysis. The "Threat Analysis FAQ" helps you focus on the situations that you are going to prepare for; it will also lead you through the process of discovering and documenting the threats to your continued survival.

Basically, you write down all the bad stuff that could happen to you.

To do this, you take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. Next, write down every bad thing that could happen to you and your family on the left side. Some things you might write, in no particular order, are a house fire, laid-off, car accident, flood, nuclear war, hurricane, tornado, home invasion, windstorm, violent revolution, earthquake, sewer back-up, fired, sectarian violence... .

Don't get discouraged. Keep listing.

Once you're finished, on the right side of the line, you want to prioritize them, from greatest threat to the least likely to happen to you and your family. That's it for this week.

Before you go, let me tell you a story.

There was a young man and he wanted to go and seek his fortune. He asked his father what he should do.

The father said, "Son, every morning walk in the direction of the rising sun. At noon, eat your lunch and rest for an hour. Then get up and walk in the direction of the setting sun."

The next morning, his mother and father hugged him and bid him farewell. He did as his father had advised, walking all morning and stopping for lunch, even resting under a shady tree. After his rest, the son got up and followed the setting sun, arriving home just in time for dinner.

A little surprised, he was welcomed home by his family.

At the dinner table, he asked his father why he had given him such bad advice.

His dad replied, "Not everyone will give you good advice."

So work on your Threat Analysis, and I'll ...

See you next week!

Links:

Darwin Awards

http://www.darwinawards.com/

Wikipedia - Steve Irwin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Irwin

*scroll down the page to "Death"

Nova Online - Escape! Survivor Stories

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/escape/survivors.html

Threat Analysis FAQ

http://www.geocities.com/tominelpaso/assess_faq.txt

FEMA - Learn About the Types of Disasters

http://www.fema.gov/hazard/types.shtm

Friday - Daylight Savings Time

It's Friday!

The end of the workweek and another original post about what's going on in the world/my life.

Rain Gear

Originally this post was going to be about rain gear. I was going to start out talking about how Illinois almost had a record monthly rainfall of over 9 inches of rain. Then I would talk about some of the ways to protect yourself from the rain.

I figured, I would start with some expedient ways such as using plastic garbage bags (I like the large contractor bags. They are thicker.) then talk about more permanent items such as ponchos, nylon rain suits, and Gortex rain suits.

I was going to write about ponchos being a good way to keep your upper body dry, but warn you about how ponchos will blow around in high winds. I would also include how ponchos can be used as a shelter, litter for a injured person, or as a rain catcher.

I was going to talk about how nylon rain suits, a jacket and pants, were better but limited when compared to a poncho.

Finally, I planned to write about how wonderful Gortex and the other breathable rain suits were great during wet weather, for a price.

That was the plan until I started reading about preventing hypothermia and realized it is getting cold, again.

Links:

E-How - How to Make a Trash Bag Poncho

http://www.ehow.com/how_2258927_make-trash-bag-poncho.html

Instructables - Garbage Bag Rain Coat

http://www.instructables.com/id/GarbageBag-RainCoat/

How Toons - Trash Bag Rain Coat

http://www.howtoons.com/?page_id=117

Paddling.net - Ponchos Cover Your Keister

http://www.paddling.net/sameboat/archives/sameboat335.html

Practical Survivor - Poncho and Tarp Shelters

http://practicalsurvivor.com/node/28

Forestry Suppliers - Nylon Rain Jacket and Pants

http://www.forestry-suppliers.com/product_pages/View_Catalog_Page.asp?mi=2532#

Washington State Department of Health - How to Prevent Hypothermia

http://www.doh.wa.gov/phepr/generalfactsheets/hypothermia.htm

Outdoor Action - Guide to Hypothermia And Cold Weather Injuries

http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/safety/hypocold.shtml

Daylight Saving Time

Sunday marks the end of Daylight Savings Time, in the United States, and every year our local firefighters remind us to replace the batteries in our smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

I would like to remind you to replace those batteries, too because fire (and unemployment) are more likely to happen to us then a nuclear war or zombie apocalypse.

Note: If your smoke detector is over 10 years old, you need to replace it, now.

Simple Dollar and Survivalism

As some of you know, I like "The Simple Dollar" by Trent Hamm. He has great practical advice about money and Life.

Recently, he answered some questions about getting prepared for emergencies, and I totally disagreed with what he said (well, some it was good and some of the comments were great.)

Please read his response and the reader's comments then come back.

Your back, cool.

My Disagreement

First, getting prepared is not an investment. You are not going to make money, to add to your portfolio, by buying extra food, blankets, or guns.

Secondly, if you think you need to store freeze-dried food then store freeze-dried food (Remember: "Store What You Eat, Eat What You Store")

Lastly, (I still haven't figured this one out) grow lights

My Agreement

I agree with Mr. Hamm about how being prepared offers peace of mind during difficult times.

Ok, enough of this.

Did you read each of the comments? (Remember: Watch those opinions.)

To me, you should read the comments because they portray a wide range of preparations folks are/aren't making. There are also some pretty good examples of the mind set people have about being prepared.

Links:

The Simple Dollar - Some Thoughts on Ultra-Preparedness

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/10/29/some-thoughts-on-ultra-preparedness/

Emergency Essentials - Eat What You Store, Store What You Eat

http://beprepared.com/article.asp?ai=50&name=Eat%20What%20You%20Store,%20Store%20What%20You%20Eat&bhcd2=1256962770

Please Accept My Apologizes

I can't make the links links until I go to the local library, so you will have to copy and paste the links into a new browser window to follow the links.

P.S.

If you like Michael Jackson, you will enjoy the movie.