10 Holiday Safety Tips

It will be Thanksgiving in a few days. Everyone thinks about holiday fun--food, friends, and the Black Sunday ads--but they often forget about the dangers of the holiday season. Here's some safety tips:

1. Deep fried turkey. Need I say more? Check out the video here.
2. Back over accidents. Kids are short, cars/trucks/SUVs are tall. Bad combination. With lots of people around, you can lose track of a kid and someone can back over them in only seconds. When there are people around, be sure to walk all the way around your car before getting into it and backing out of the driveway.
3. Driving accidents. There are a bunch of ways to get into a driving accident but the most common around the holidays are because of bad weather (snow, ice, rain) and because of DUIs. Having even one drink at a holiday party can leads to irreparable harm on the roads.
4. Be careful on ladders. Better yet, stay off them all together. Tis the season to hang up holiday lights and decorations but ask any hospital/ambulance company what their largest number of injuries are from and falls will most likely be in the top two or three. I didn't believe this until I saw the data but apparently falls out number other causes of injuries in our state by many thousands.
5. Look for dangers around your home. Right now my home is not dangerous. With only the spouse and I, everything is set just the way we like it. During the holidays, however, when family of all ages come from around the country, I need to re evaluate my home for dangers. Things like firearms, medications, poisons, etc. can be fine with just an older couple in the home but can be deadly if found by inquisitive kids.
6. Be extra alert for thefts, burglaries, and robberies. Sometimes people get desperate during the holidays and take advantage of opportunity (a car that is full of high end presents), see something that catches their eye (like a box from a 50" plasma TV next to your house), or plan an even bigger score (like a bank robbery). Stay aware.
7. Be fire safe. This is also the season for fires. Aside from the turkey inferno above, candles, fireplaces that haven't been cleaned in decades, frayed cords on tree lights, overloaded circuits, and dried out Christmas trees can all cause a fire. Be sure your smoke detectors are in working order.
8. Be carbon monoxide safe. Obviously never use a barbecue grill inside, always use (and vent) your generator correctly, and if you are working on your car in the garage, always have the doors open. Along with the winter holidays come winter-related power outages, the use (and misuse) of generators which cause carbon monoxide deaths each year, and working on cars indoors as opposed to outside due to the weather which requires additional safety measures.
9. Malls and other shopping areas require extra attention during the holidays. Whether you run into a thief who wants to relieve you of your packages or lose a kid in the swarm of shoppers, plan ahead for every contingency.
10. Keep an eye on kids and pets. Little kids and pets can get into all kinds of things (decorations and ornaments, poisonous plants like Poinsettias, dangerous toys) or get too close to the fireplace/turkey fryer/space heater, all of which can lead to injuries or death.

Here's to having a safe holiday!

DPT From a Reader

Reader GM sent in the following tip:

"I recently became interested in self-sufficiency and survival as I believe that TEOTWAWKI is a real possibility. When the SHTF I'ld like my family to be prepared to take care of itself. Through studying on-line, I've found that one of the common themes throughout various sites is the stored food rations that people suggest keeping.

One of the foods my family often eats and uses in a variety of meals is dried seaweed, sometimes called by the Japanese name "nori", sometimes by the korean name "gim" or "kim", sometimes by the English name "laver". Dried seaweed is very lightweight, highly nutritious, and not very expensive. Most people would know it as the wrapping around "california roll" style sushi. My family prefers the Korean style as it has been dried with sesame oil for additional flavor.

It can be used as a seasoning on a variety of foods, made into soup, mixed in with other foods, or eaten by itself. Dried seaweed goes well with fish, rice, and adds a bit of variety to the diet.

Dried seaweed has a high iodine content, good amount of protein, Vitamins A, B, C, and D, carotene, good quantities of trace minerals (calcium and iron in particular) and has a lot of water soluble fiber that helps with cholesterol issues. The weight to nutrition ratio is exceedingly good. Probably the only negative issues are that it has a high salt content which could be problematic in a survival situation and it needs to be kept dry prior to use for spoilage prevention.

While the flavor and texture are not necessarily for everyone, if you like it, people should consider adding a batch of it to their survival pantry, bug-out-bags, etc. It can be easily found in asian markets or on-line by searching for "dried seaweed'. It stores easily, keeps well and should retain its nutritional values a long time."

Thanks GM for the tip. Although I have eaten nori wrapped around sushi, I hadn't considered its many benefits as a survival food. I think I will be adding some of this to my stash of survival food!

10 Ways You Can Help Others Survive All Kinds of Situations

Tis the season to think about others. What with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the generally jovial atmosphere of giving these last couple months of the year, here are a number of ways you can help others survive all kinds of situations:

1. Give something that literally saves a life: blood, plasma, bone marrow, a kidney, and any other vital organs that you don't need (ie: become an organ and tissue donor).
2. Give your time to those who most need it. Investing your time and effort to help others, whether you are helping someone learn to read or watching a passel of kids for a single mother while she looks for a job, often provides the payback of creating a better community. Having a better community to live in is a good thing--it makes for better survival rates for all.
3. Teach others. I am fairly certain that I wouldn't be the person I am today without all of the things I learned from important people in my life (ie: how to survive in the wilderness, how to use logic to solve problems, how to speak a handful of languages, etc). It's a good bet that if you teach someone something, that knowledge will go on to help them later in life.
4. Give good gifts. To me, "good" gifts are practical gifts. A sweater is nice, a box of ammo is nicer. I also like to give car emergency kits, sporting goods that get kids outside and active, experiences that help people improve their skills (everything from an auto repair class for the daughters to cooking class for the sons). Maybe that is why I am not often in charge of gift giving....
5. Pay attention to what is going on with others and help if/when needed. While I am busy enough with my own life and disdain drama of all kinds, if I know someone is going through a difficult situation and I can help by providing something concrete such as a job lead, a referral to services, a positive word, etc, I will do it without hesitation.
6. Invite others to learn from/with you. I am a fan of Dave Ramsey because his basic program is to get a group of people to go through a class (FPU) together which allows them to support each other while they all aim for the same goal of getting out of debt. And it works. Mastermind groups are similar as are study groups at college and sports teams. Basically everyone is working towards the same goal, supporting each other, and teaching each other as they go.
7. Lobby for training opportunities in your community. The more people who have access to CPR, HAM radio, CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), weather watcher, firearms safety, and other disaster prep training opportunities, the better.
8. Prepare leaders. Whether within your family or your office, leadership training is important. You may be the head honcho on a normal day, but when TSHTF, and if, by some chance, you become incapacitated, you will need a leader other than yourself to take over. Who might that be? How might you help others prepare to take on leadership roles if necessary? Everyone needs training, everyone needs to know the chain of command, and everyone needs to know what to do in a disaster in case they are the last one standing and need to take control of a situation.
9. Volunteer. There are plenty of people out there who wouldn't be alive today without the efforts of volunteer EMTs at rural ambulance agencies. Volunteers at the food bank help people survive during hard times, volunteer search and rescue personnel pull people off mountains with surprising regularity, and volunteer coaches help develop skills that will prove useful for immediate needs and vital for the future development of the coach-ees.
10. Practice. You never know when you will get to save a life. Be sure you have training, and have on-going practice, in a wide range of skills including CPR, first aid, lifeguard swimming, shooting. foraging, fire building, sea survival, mountain survival, etc.

Power Outage

Last night, the power went out. This was the first outage of the season and a good reminder to be prepared for a power outage as this is one of the most common types of "disasters" to affect people. Here's how to be prepared for a power outage in order of importance:

1. Have flashlights and extra batteries. There should be a flashlight in each room or your house and a flashlight for each member of your household. When it comes to having NO power and NO light, sharing one flashlight among family members is virtually impossible--each person has certain tasks to do which require light so make sure each person has a flashlight. Since both the spouse and I know where the flashlights are, it was no problem to move around the family room, in the dark, to find the flashlight. Then we used the light from the flashlight to move throughout the house so that each of us could get own own flashlights (we keep our personal flashlights under each of our side of the bed). I don't much care for candles but will use them as a last resort since they are much more likely to cause a fire than a flashlight.
2. Keep your house clean. Fortunately our home is always clean and orderly. In the pitch black (the power went off in the evening after the sun had gone down) you don't want to break your neck from tripping over things as you search for your flashlight.
3. Have a phone. You will need either a charged cell phone or a land line phone which plugs into the phone jack (not the kind that requires power such as cordless phones that have a message recorder attached to it). In the event that you need to call the power company to alert them to the outage or you need to call 911 for help, phones of the cordless variety or the VoIP variety, will not work without power.
4. Heat is nice to have. During a power outage, many people lose their source of heat (ie: electric heaters, forced air systems, etc). Depending on how cold it is outside is how critical having heat in your home will be. If possible, have dry wood for the fireplace or wood stove on hand for these occasions. If you don't have a way to burn wood for heat, pile everyone in the same room with a lot of blankets, and close the door to keep body heat in the room. For longer term outages during very cold weather, break out the portable kerosene heater if you have one. If you have no other source of heat, you may want to seek shelter in a hotel, with friends or family, or at a community shelter set up for this purpose.
5. Got news? For longer term power outages, you will probably want a source of news and information. Since the outage occurred later in the evening last night, we just went to bed a bit earlier than usual. If this had been a day long or multi-day event, we would have wanted more information about the outage. For these instances, consider keeping a battery-powered or wind-up radio on hand. You can also get news if you can connect through the internet through your cell phone, and those new, portable, digital TVs look promising as well.
6. Got entertainment? Ditto the above statement. If the power goes out in the evening, you can always just go to bed early and catch up on your sleep. If it is an all day or multi-day event, you may want to have some non-powered sources of entertainment on hand. It's amazing how much we have come to count on powered things for work/entertainment/information/connecting with others. When the power goes out, so does your TVs, VCRs, DVD players, computers, FaceBook page access, internet, home phone...basically the things that make up 95% of your social life/entertainment options. I like having a nice collection of books on hand for these occasions. We also keep board games and cards on hand to keep everyone entertained during such events. Note that going outside for a walk during the wind storm that knocked your power out is not a good way to entertain yourself. With trees and power lines falling, it is a good way to end up injured or worse!
7. Food may be an issue. Depending on how long the power has been out, eventually food will become an issue. There really is no need to break out the grill/other portable cooking device for a day-long power outage. People survive daily on sandwiches so it shouldn't be a problem to whip up something quick and easy to eat. For multi-day power outages, you will want to devise a plan for your refrigerated and frozen food so it won't go bad. Longer term cooking can be accomplished (outside!!) on a gas grill or barbecue. On a side note, even though your water system will usually work during a power outage (unless you have a deep well with a motor), you always want to have bottled water on hand. This is even more important if you can't access your well water during a power outage.
8. Gas appliances are nice to have. I've lived in all electric houses, and houses with gas appliances and during a power outage, gas rocks. Even if we don't have power, we have hot water and the ability to cook on a gas-powered stove.
9. Do you need a generator? When my son moved to a very rural location, we gave him our generator. He has small kids to take care of and a much higher likelihood of losing power on a regular basis. Where we live, since it is relatively close to the city, we are never without power for more than a few days at the most so we haven't felt the need to replace the generator. Having a generator for power outages depends on each individual situation. If you have someone at home who is on a ventilator, for example, and they would die without electricity, having a generator should be at the top of this list. If you live where power is restored rather quickly when it goes out, you may want to invest your money for survival preps elsewhere. If you do choose to have a generator, be sure it is #1 hooked up correctly so you don't electrocute yourself or someone else, #2 vented correctly so you don't pass out or die from carbon monoxide fumes, and #3 have plenty of fuel on hand to keep the thing going.

Poll Results and a New Poll

Our last poll asked "How's the flu in your area?"
Your answers:

• 7 people (18%) said there was none yet.
• 14 people (36%) said it was about the same as a regular flu season.
• 14 people (36%) said more people than expected have got the flu so far this year.
• 3 people (7%) said it's a pandemic and everyone around here is catching it.

The poll is more than two weeks old (sorry for the late update!) so things may have changed by now. In our area, the flu is making the rounds and it seems like nearly everyone has come down with some type of bug. Unless you are hospitalized, however, you can not get tested to confirm that is actually is the H1N1 flu.

On the one hand, this virus has been a fairly mild event with some deaths but not the overwhelming number of deaths that are often associated with a pandemic. On the other hand, because the death rate has been fairly low for what is a global pandemic, people may take future announcements of a pandemic less seriously than they should.

Be sure to take our new poll....>>>>

Surviving Disaster: Pandemic

Last Tuesday's episode of Surviving Disaster focused on two related disasters, a nerve gas attack and a pandemic outbreak. You can catch this episode on the Surviving Disaster website, and I highly recommend that you actually watch the show instead of just reading my notes as there is so much covered that I'm sure I did not get all of the small details. Here's the high points of the episode:

Chemical Attack

• The US government says that a biological/chemical attack in the US is highly likely within the next four years. Something along the lines of the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995 is what they see as a very likely possibility.


• Schools, football stadiums, amusement parks, and other places where a large number of people gather are likely targets for such an attack.


• Often times these are suicide attacks where a person takes a canister of nerve gas into a crowded area and opens the container. You can't see or smell most nerve gas agents and a droplet of the poison can kill a person in minutes.


• A nerve agent affects any part of your body that relies on muscle control such as the heart and lungs. With your nerves paralyzed, your heart and lungs will stop working.


• In the scenario, the people on the subway noticed a problem when people on the subway car in front of them began keeling over.


• When the subway stops (in this scenario the nerve gas killed the conductor and the subway stopped), pull the emergency release lever to open the doors and escape.


• Walk in the direction that the train was traveling even though the infected car is in front of you. With the gas, there is a good chance that the nerve gas has left a trail of the vaporized agent behind the train so you don't want to be walking through this.


• Hold your breath as you walk along the escape route out of the subway tunnel and pass by the car where the gas was released.


• Take off your outer layer of clothing, this will remove about 90% of the toxins that you have been exposed to. Remember not to pull your shirt over your head or this will get the toxin into your mouth, nose, and eyes. Leave your bags and anything else you were carrying behind as well.


• Look for an exit sign or a blue light so that you can escape from the tunnel. Both the subway stopping and the alarm from opening the exit door will alert the central subway office that there is a problem. They will also be able to monitor the tunnels which have video surveillance equipment.


• Get outside into the air as quickly as possible as this will diffuse much the toxins that are on you.


• Tell someone to call 911 and also tell them to alert responders that there was a nerve gas attack and where specifically the incident occurred. You don't want responders walking into this type of deadly situation without warning.


• While waiting for help, take all of your clothes off and wash down with soap and water. In this scenario, the people went into a nearby laundromat and washed off with soap and water. Repeat this process.


• Wait for medical help to arrive. They will probably put you through a similar decon process. A professional decon process includes stage #1--clothes drop, stage #2--wash down with soap and detergent, stage #3--monitoring for residual symptoms.

Virus Attack (Pandemic flu)

• One person could be infected with a deadly virus and spread it to others, eventually causing hundreds of thousands to die. This person is called Patient 0 in a global pandemic.


• In this scenario, a person on the subway is infected with a pandemic flu virus. He is unaware he has the virus as it takes a few days for symptoms to show up but you can be contagious even before you have symptoms.


• The virus is spread from person to person. The man infects four people on the subway, they each infect four people; you can see how the virus can spread exponentially.


• During a pandemic, the government will tell people to shelter in their homes. Schools, public events, and other places where people gather will be shut down. National Guard and law enforcement will do what is termed "aggressive control of contacts" by patrolling the streets and ensuring that people are not out and about.


• The group in the scenario were now in survival mode. Their first task was to go to the stores and stock up on food and supplies. Everyone else was doing this too so food and supplies quickly ran out. Stores often have enough stock for only a day or two as they rely on just-in-time delivery of goods.


• When you go out to stock up, realize that people will be in a panic, supplies will quickly disappear, and this also puts you in contact with many people which could expose you to the virus.


• Viruses spread by touch transmission (the virus can last for 24 to 48 hours on items such as paper, cloth, etc), droplets from infected people that are discharged when they talk, cough, or sneeze, and by air dried droplets which float in the air.


• In this situation, it is important to wash your hands often and try not to touch too many things (in the scenario they wiped down the grocery cart handle with bleach before using it).


• The average man needs 1800 calories a day. A three month supply of food can be achieved by buying 20 pounds of rice (carbs), three gallons of canola oil (fats), and 100 6-ounce cans of tuna fish (protein). Also at the store you want to grab whatever other food you can (flour-based items and oatmeal are good), flashlights and batteries, duct tape, sheet plastic, garbage bags, and rain ponchos.


• Don't talk to people when you are out as this can expose you to the virus.


• In the hardware section, pick up N95 masks. These masks block 95% of particles and can be used when caring for the sick or going out in public.


• When people are in a panic, they will try to take what you have. The group was confronted in the store parking lot by two men who wanted their food. Each of the four took a side of the asset (their cart of food) to defend, while one pushed the cart. The others used empty carts to keep six feet between them and the looters. It was noted that these probably were not hardened criminals and if you resist and fight back, they will go away and look for easier targets.


• Note that you could be sheltered at your home for three months or until a vaccine for the virus is developed.


• Before you bring anything into the house (food, supplies, etc) leave it outside, in the back yard, in the sunlight for a couple of hours. The sunlight will kill any virus on the items.


• Wash your hands often with soap, including under the nails and between the fingers, for about 30 seconds. Don't touch your eyes, nose, or mouth as this is the easiest way to introduce the virus into your system.


• Once inside, don't go out again or talk to anyone as this could cause you to become infected. In the scenario, one guy was talking to the neighbor outside so he needed to be quarantined in a sick room for up to six days to see if he had any symptoms of being ill. He will not be able to leave this room and infect others in the house until it is determined if he has or does not have the virus; this will take up to six days.


• To make a sick room/negative pressure isolation room, put a fan in the window pointing out. Cover doors and windows with plastic and duct tape. For the door to the room that people must come in and out of, hang plastic in layers which will help contain the virus.


• A couple of days later the guy was coughing, had a fever, and body aches. One person who was least likely to get sick (she did not have any chronic medical conditions and had had a flu shot which offers some immunity) was the only one assigned to care for him.


• She only went into the room to give the ill person water and food and offer ibuprofen to control pain. Each time she went into the room, she needed to wear long pants, a long sleeved shirt, shoes, a shower cap, a plastic poncho, a mask, and gloves to protect herself.


• In six weeks, three million people could die from the pandemic; after ten weeks, there could be 10 million dead.


• Only six companies in the world can make the vaccine and it can take from four to six months to develop, test, and produce a vaccine.


• Soon the guy in the isolation room died. Morgues, ice rinks, and refrigerated storage will be used to store the dead. Since the people did not want to risk infecting themselves by leaving their home, they wrapped the body in plastic and buried him six feet deep in the back yard as far away from the house as possible.


• Eventually the power went out, there was no garbage service, and all other service began to stop as more and more people who perform these services as their regular job became ill. At this point in the video I particularly like the "looters will be shot" and "neighborhood is patrolled" signs spray painted around the neighborhood.


• After three months the group needed more food. Since grocery stores were long ago emptied, they took information from the phone book of locations of restaurants and food distribution warehouses to check for food.


• Before they left to search for food, they made pepper spray from cayenne pepper mixed with rubbing alcohol and put in a small spray bottle.


• One person guarded the house while the rest of the team went in search of food.


• They used a long bar to pry the padlock off a warehouse door. To show you are not looting, it was suggested you leave a note with the items you took and contact information so you can settle up later.


• Leaving the warehouse the group was attacked by a dog. One guy ran (note, don't run from a dog, you won't outrun it) and was attacked by the dog. He wrapped a sweater around his arm to protect himself and sprayed the dog with the pepper spray.


• At this point there will not be any police force to protect you and there will be a lot of looting and violence by hungry, desperate people.


• If you are home, looters will assume you have supplies and may use deadly force to take it from you.


• The group reinforced their position from the outside in.


• Outside, wrap glasses in a shirt and smash them. Use the broken glass to put along all outside window ledges so that if someone tries to break in at night, they will cut themselves and probably make noise.


• In the house, cover the windows with black plastic so people can't see inside. Put heavy bookcases in front of the windows with plates on the case. If people try to break in, you will hear the plates falling (this will be your 'perimeter alarm').


• Reinforce the doors with wood (like a small door) wedged between the door and the stairs. This will make it hard to break down but easy for you to remove if you need to leave.


• Fill bags, pillow cases, and other things with dirt from the yard to improvise bullet-proofing. Stack the filled bags about midway down the staircase to make a bunker. This will be your defensive position if people try to come into your house. Stack the bags about four feet high and as thick as possible.


• The group was cooking dinner and heard some plates break which alerted them that people were trying to get into their house. They all got into their bunker where firearms had been stored. The looters were shooting at them and they listened to how many shots had been fired. After about 15 rounds had been fired, you can assume that the looters will need to stop and reload. This is your opportunity to shoot back. An armed, aggressive response will deter most looters.


• The pandemic flu will go in a wave. At the crest of the wave, the most people will be sick then the number of cases will decline as people recover from the flu and thus develop an immunity to it and as vaccines become available.

Again, as I always say, this is an excellent way to learn some survival skills from the comfort of your own home. Watch the video then plan accordingly for your own survival needs should this kind of situation ever happen to you.

Website Update

Just a quick note... The CNI site (www.codenameinsight.com) was recently updated to improve the link structure. This means that many of the link paths have been changed so if you can't find the link you need (ie: to the Huge Link Directory) simply go to the CNI site and relink to it. Sorry for the confusion. Hopefully this will be the last major change to the site in the foreseeable future.