by Mrs. Alaska, Survival Blog:
Throughout the country, kind people volunteer their time and talents to help others harmed by natural or personal disasters.
However, we can only help others if we are first prepared to take care of ourselves and our families.
The following are real situations that have happened to us, or people that we or our friends and relatives know. What would you do in this or an analogous situation where you live? Perhaps these questions could prompt useful and interesting discussions among family or other groups.
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In ice-fog conditions, your car goes off the road and down into a ditch where people cannot see you. You are injured. What do you have within reach to call or attract attention for help, keep warm, and care for your injuries?
Considerations: Cell service is spotty in large swaths of rural America, and often depends on line of sight to cell towers. Take note of locations in your vicinity where cell service is unavailable. Do you have any other means of communication in your car, such as whistles, flares, or ham radio? Radio?
On a winter morning, you and your family members are away from home. Some are at work, school, supermarket, a doctor’s appointment, etc. The power goes out in a broad region, including the buildings that each of you occupies at that moment. What do you have on hand (in your purse, backpack, desk, or locker) that will help you get home or to your family’s predetermined rally site (if you have chosen one). How will you keep warm where you are or where you are going? How can you communicate with your loved ones to ensure that all are safe? How far will you need to travel? Do you have apparel appropriate for the season’s conditions?
Considerations: Without electricity, your cell phones, elevators, electric keyed doors, ATMs, cash registers, traffic lights, heat, and water will not work. If you work in a high-rise building, can you get to the stairs and leave the building safely? Do you know in advance if your car can get through the exit gate of the parking lot? Do you have ham radio to reach others in your family?
You awaken at home one winter morning to discover that the power went out during the night. Your home is getting cool. What can you do to preserve or produce food, water, and warmth? Do you know how long your refrigerated and frozen food last if you do — or do not — open the appliance? (Often, the website can tell you… in advance) What food do you have on hand that can be cooked or prepared without electricity? How much water do you have that does not require an electric pump?
Considerations: If your municipal or well water requires an electric pump, it will cease to run. Do you have a hand pump for your well and have you attached it, primed it, used it? (Mine takes about 100 pumps to prime and get a few gallons from a 62-foot well. It is tiring!) Do you have jugs of stored water? How old and tasty is the water? If you have a generator, how many watts can it power? Given the gas you have on hand, how many hours can it run? If you can power only a few appliances, what are your priorities and how much power do they need? Note: for many appliances, the run rate wattage is much lower than the necessary START UP wattage. So check this out. (A great source of information is www.generatorist.com.)
Will your gas grill or stove ignite without electricity? How many bags of briquettes do you have for a non-gas grill? If exterior temperatures are below 45, you can store refrigerated food outside. If it is below freezing, outdoor shelves can function as a freezer.
Your region is devastated by a natural disaster that physically isolates you from resources you need (perhaps roads are impassable because of a tornado, hurricane, flooding, landslides, earthquake or extreme snow storm). You cannot get to the pharmacy, supermarket, or hospital. However, your home is intact. With the supplies you have on hand, how long can you wait for access, how can you help or support nearby emergency service personnel, or how can you create your own access to resources you need?
Considerations: How many meals and how many gallons of water can your current supplies provide for how many people? Do you have mechanical can openers and sharpeners etc or only electric ones? What are your greatest vulnerabilities? How do you handle neighbors and others who seek you out because your home is intact, for shelter and food?
