Ready, Willing and Able: Part II

What Kind of Emergencies Are We Preparing For?

In Part I of this series on being prepared for the storms of nature and humanity that may require us to take care of ourselves and our families for days or weeks at a time, we looked at the idea of “Survival Kits” and where those should be kept so that we’re never far from them if ever we need them.

On a scale of likely types of emergencies or disasters homesteaders (and the rest of society) might face, it’s best to be prepared for the ones that would present the most significant survival challenges when planning on what to put into our survival kits. That way the lesser emergencies will seem positively trivial in comparison, and the whole family will become ‘expert’ at getting through tough times. Some examples on that scale -

• Short term local utility outages. Usually resolved within hours or a couple of days, sometimes these last weeks if storm damage to the infrastructure is severe.
• Major earthquake. These can cause extended utility (including water) outages and make it very difficult to evacuate due to road and bridge damage or earth/rock slides.
• House fire that destroys all or part of the home and contents. Definitely a “disaster,” and the one thing you’ll wish most to have saved on your way out are the family photo albums. I know this because it happened to me!
• Getting stranded in your car in a remote location. Both heat and cold can be deadly in these situations. Be prepared!
• Widespread, extended power outage. Major regional storms or a serious breakdown of the grid infrastructure could cause the power to go out for weeks or months.
• Flu pandemic. We’ve heard quite a bit about this one as Bird Flu starts crossing from fowl to humans. In this situation you’ll want to keep your family isolated so long as they’re not themselves sick with flu.
• Larger neighborhood or forest fires. These can be fast-moving and take out large swaths of property.

Some considerations on things to keep in your evacuation bag or do ahead of time just to ensure survival of things you might not be able to save if you must leave home quickly include those family photo albums I mentioned. It’s a terrible feeling to lose your family’s entire history - baby pictures, family portraits, candid snapshots of junior’s 4th birthday party, your wedding album. Such precious items can seldom be replaced. The well-prepared homesteader will have the albums in an easily accessible spot where they can be quickly grabbed and tossed into the car trunk as you’re leaving. Some people keep negatives in their safe deposit box at the bank, or in a fireproof safe in the home.

If you have a safe deposit box, do keep copies of all your important paperwork in it. Birth certificates, wills, deeds and mortgage paperwork, marriage license, vehicle titles and insurance policies. Now that home computers have become fairly indispensable for household recordkeeping and such, make backups regularly of your necessary files and put those in the safe too.

What Needs to Be In the Survival Kits?

There are some things that you’ll want to have with you at all times no matter where you go, to be on your keychain or wallet, or taking up space in your everyday purse or fanny pack. Among these will be your photo ID (usually driver’s license), your cell phone, an LED flashlight, Swiss Army knife and some sort of tweezer thing. You should also carry a basic magnetic compass, a few band-aids and a little tube of antibiotic cream. I also carry a coach’s whistle (good as an alarm system and not too big to put in the purse), a little zip lock bag with matches, a travel-size bottle of aspirin and a few bubble-pack tablets of Benedryl.

I’ve also purchased a few of those little plastic packs of rain ponchos and mylar “space blankets” and have divvied these up between the car kit and purse. My purse doubles as a back pack, so it goes with me on all hikes through the National Forest that borders our homestead.

In the car (which for us is actually a pickup truck) we keep a cell phone charger that plugs into a lighter socket and has replaceable phone jacks that fit a variety of cell phones - since we can’t seem to ever get cells for all of us at one time that all use the same jacks! Got it for not much at Radio Shack. In the glove compartment we keep twine, a roll of duct tape, a little sewing kit with small scissors, and the basic first aid kit along with a couple of space blankets still in their tiny folded and packed state and those cheap folded plastic ponchos with hoods - dayglow orange - in a zip lock bag. In the truck bed there’s a 2-gallon plastic jug of water bunjee’d in a front corner along with a couple of quarts of extra oil and a little socket wrench and tool kit in a metal box.

There are bill caps behind the seats, along with a couple of sweaters and some leather gloves plus towels and rags. A box beneath the passenger seat holds some flares and a good sized crank flashlight/radio. These things are totally cool, and never need batteries! My husband always carries his “Man-Tool” multi-purpose tool he got for Christmas and would never be without. It’s got a saw, a nice file and pretty much any other tool you can think of built right in, and fits in his pocket.

What I need to add are a metal camp-kit, some candles and sterno, and some basic survival food. Granola bars, Ramen noodles, high vitamin dried drink mix and such. There’s a deck of cards and 5 dice in my purse, so if we’re stuck we won’t get too bored. Now, I realize that what I’ve described isn’t exactly a “kit” all packed into a single container put somewhere specific in the truck. But that’s sort of the story of my life… stuff here, stuff there, all of it’s somewhere.

Everyone in the family has taken - and passed - the basic Red Cross first aid and CPR training course, but the first aid kit has that information in a little booklet too. I also keep a field guide to edible plants in the glove compartment and several similar type books in the house. Did you know that you can eat kudzu? It’s officially an “invasive species” in my region, but it’s also a high-protein legume that can be eaten raw like salad greens or steamed for side greens. Jerusalem artichokes and ground nuts grow wild in much of the country as well, and these can add some potato-like chewable substance to a little pot of greens.

Some experts insist you should carry at least a couple of hundred dollars in bills and coins in a little cash box, but I’m pretty sure those experts aren’t as cash-strapped as my family is. It would be nice, but if we’re caught out in the wilderness in a broken down vehicle, I’d be surprised to find a grocery store, restaurant, motel or ATM anywhere close by anyway.

Insect repellant is a must for most of the year in the southern Appalachian region where we live. We use whatever’s on sale at home (and I have a net shirt-hood combo thing I wear in the garden because those bugs will bite no matter how much repellant you wear). In my pack-purse I keep a little container of straight DEET repellant. Only need a tiny bit of that and you’re bug-free for hours. Yes, it will eventually cause cancer (if you live long enough), but given the diseases you can get from bugs (Lyme and West Nile and Encephalitis are big around here), I figure the trade-off is reasonable. Kind of like chlorine, which also causes cancer ’someday’. Carrying chlorine water purification tablets as well as some patches of filter cloth in your first aid kits is a good idea - the diseases you can get from contaminated water are nasty too!

I mentioned in my last post that you should double up on prescription medicines in the most you can get at one time from the pharmacy, then divvy those up between your home and car kits. I keep medicines I take frequently (aspirin for headaches or other aches, Benedryl because I have allergies) in my purse, replenish regularly because I find I need them whenever I’m away from home.

You’ll also want some toiletries in your kits or vehicle or somewhere within reach in an emergency. Motel-size soaps, shampoos, lotions and tissues are great for this. I have a friend who travels for work as a nursing home inspector, she always takes her own toiletries but collects the freebies from where she stays. Twice a year she gifts me with a shoebox full of stuff, and I always carry a full set in my purse. The box full is right there in the bathroom for anyone to raid any time, so I haven’t bothered to put these toiletries anywhere but the evac bag.

An extra toothbrush or two or three is a good idea, along with travel size tube or two of toothpaste. In a pinch you can use baking soda, which I keep in a zip lock in the first aid kit because baking soda paste is the best treatment I’ve found for insect stings.

In the household kit (or cabinet) you’ll of course want the duct tape, tie wire and plastic sheeting Homeland Security told us will protect us from the terrorists (and we all laughed about). At least 50 feet of good nylon rope is a good idea along with those water purification tablets and filters, and a manual can opener. People tend to forget that last one, though we use a manual Swingline opener on a daily basis at this homestead. Having some canned goods on the shelf in the basement or root cellar won’t help you if you can’t open them.

Another thing most people don’t think of is a regular plug-in land line telephone. When the electricity’s out your cordless phone won’t work even if your land line is just fine. I keep one in a drawer of the treadle sewing machine that normally holds our cordless unit. When the electricity goes out I just plug it in and can call to report the outage.

Some experts advise a battery powered lantern, but the batteries don’t have a long shelf life and seldom get replaced if you don’t use the darned thing regularly. We like oil lamps, in which we burn kerosene instead of expensive scented lamp oil. I keep extra wicks in a drawer in the shed where the lamps and kerosene are stored, as they burn rather quickly if the lamps are your only light for days or weeks. The light is lovely, the lamps are pretty, and kerosene in a proper container doesn’t go bad.

I have also been collecting those nifty solar powered yard lights when they’re on sale. These can go anywhere, give some nice white light, and emit no heat at all. Keeping a roll of aluminum foil near your survival supplies is also a good idea. You can make good light reflectors out of it that will magnify the output, and of course there’s a million other things you can do with foil that you can’t do with anything else. A roll of kitchen-sized garbage bags too, these can be used for lots of things if you put your mind to it. Your homestead tool kit(s) will also be handy, and don’t forget that you need a basic tool kit in your vehicle at all times too!

In part III of this series we’ll look carefully at survival food choices for your home, vehicle and evacuation kits. There are specialty foods made just for the purpose, but who really wants to eat something processed not to go bad in your lifetime? There are choices from the supermarket or discount outlet that will serve fine, and only need to be replaced on a yearly or semi-yearly basis (rotate ‘em out).

And do check out sarahnity’s Frugal Fridays diaries over at DKos for great information. Her post Disaster Looms is particularly useful, a collection of expert advice and sensible extras that could well save your and your family’s lives one of these days!

Links:

Disaster Looms

USAToday: Survival planning starts at home

Survival Unlimited: Supplies

Emergency Essentials

CPR Savers: Emergency Kits

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