Disasters All Over the Place

The last few days has provided a range of disasters to learn from.

Nuclear Disaster: As usual, I was working last night on some documents with the TV on in the background. I generally have the History Channel, Discovery Channel, or other station on as background noise and once again, a show piqued my interest so not a lot of work got done. The show was on the History Channel and was called 'Day After Disaster' which looked at what would happen if Washington DC became ground zero for a nuclear attack. There was a lot of information about how federal agencies would respond to such a disaster but they did offer some tidbits of information for the civilian population, including:

• Don't look in the direction of the initial blast of light from the bomb, it could blind you.
• During the blast, keep your mouth open to equalize the pressure in your ears so you don't burst your eardrums.
• After the blast, protect your nose and mouth with a cloth so you don't breathe in dust and debris.
• High doses of radiation will kill you, how quickly or slowly depends on the distance you are from ground zero.
• After the blast, get out of the radioactive zone as quickly as possible.
• Keep a wind-up radio in your emergency gear for news and information after the blast. You'll want to know which direction the plume is travelling and go the other way.
• There are 37 primary radio stations that will broadcast information after a disaster.
• If there is one bomb, there may often be a second or third as well.
• Shelter in place in the nearest appropriate building. This means kids will shelter at school and parents will shelter at home or the office. It is not a good idea to go running all over town through highly radioactive areas trying to collect up the family and it is an even worse idea to try to evacuate via car out of a major city when everyone else has the same idea; everyone will be left stranded, sitting in their cars, in the radioactive "hot" area.
• Another good reason to shelter in place as opposed to evacuating is that hundreds of thousands of people evacuating to another area will overwhelm the infrastructure of the location you are evacuating to and you may end up with less resources there than where you were.
• The safest place to shelter is in the basement or center core of a building (preferably concrete and steel building), less optimal is to shelter in your car, and least optimal is out in the open. Even standing flat against a building offers more protection than being out in the open (although if you've ever been to the Hiroshima Peace Museum and saw the outlines of the people burned into the concrete steps where they were sitting when the atomic bomb was dropped in that city you will think twice about that idea).
• Seek shelter immediately so as to limit the amount of fallout you are exposed to.
• Take potassium iodide tablets if you are exposed to radioactive fallout to protect your thyroid.
• NEST (Nuclear Emergency Search Teams) are trained for search and rescue efforts after a nuclear disaster. Nice to know but again, you have to be able to care for yourself because there are hundreds of NEST members yet hundreds of thousands of civilians which would be impacted by a nuclear event in a large city.

Flooding: Two cities that I frequent, Atlanta and Manila, have been under water over the past week or so. Fall (which coincides with hurricane and typhoon season) is the time for flooding, not just in the south and southeast Asia, but anywhere that heavy rains can cause rivers to overflow. Here's some tips:

• Get flood insurance.
• If you live in a flood-prone area, move. Seriously, I have never understood why people who are displaced by flooding every year continue to rebuild in the exact same spot!
• Get a NOAA radio, especially if you live in a disaster-prone area. Many people in both the US and SE Asia were actually caught unaware that massive flooding was possible and actually expected.
• Pay attention to the news and follow evacuation orders.
• Have a flood evacuation plan. People who live in flood-prone areas (this means anyone within range of rivers that can over run their banks, dams that could be breached, coastal areas, et al) need to know what they will do in the event of a flood. What is the quickest way to higher ground? Do you have a boat to evacuate in? Do you have stored food and water to take with you when you evacuate? What will you do with your household goods in the event of a flood? Can they be put on a roof/etc? How will you purify water for drinking and cleaning after the flood (the stuff that comes out of your faucet after a flood won't be fit to drink)?
• If you are poor, you are more likely to be screwed during a flood. It is often people who are poor, sick, and/or elderly that are most devastated by a flood because they have more barriers to evacuating (no car, no money for gas, no place to evacuate to), and have more problems after a flood (may run out of medicine, have limited funding and social support to help them recover/resettle after a flood).
• A flood doesn't care if you are rich or poor. Floods are equal opportunity disasters and if you happen to be in the middle of one, your options are only slightly better if you are rich than if you are poor. A number of people who are wealthy and/or famous were calling for help along with everyone else in Manila when their homes were inundated by flood water.
• How's your business continuity plan? No matter your business, if you are impacted by a flood, you will need to have a plan for continuing to provide products and services to your customers so you will continue to earn money (or provide services to those in need if your business is part of the city's critical infrastructure).

Tsunami: Samoa, like other beautiful islands in the South Pacific, is a great place to vacation. Like all islands and coastal areas, especially if they are located in the "ring of fire" in the Pacific, they are vulnerable to tsunamis which form after an earthquake.

• The bad news? You probably won't feel the earthquake that causes the tsunami. In the Samoa tsunami, the earthquake happened 120 miles away. Often your first warning that the tsunami is coming is the tsunami arriving.
• The good news? Since the Indonesian tsunami nearly five years ago, monitoring for these potential disasters has been stepped up.
• If you are in a tsunami-prone area, pay attention to tsunami warning alerts, know where the evacuation routes are, know what to look for in beach conditions in case the tsunami warning is not made, and if you get caught in one, run to the highest place you can find as quickly as possible.

The bottom line:

• You are responsible for your own safety, every time, all the time.
• You need to know what kind of disasters are likely to impact where you live, work, and vacation, and be educated about how to react to such disasters.
• Make every disaster that happens (preferably by watching from afar) a learning experience for you and your family. What worked for the people caught in the disaster, what didn't work, what are the lessons learned, etc.

Down With the Flu

Last week the spouse was under the weather with a bad cold/flu. By day four I was secretly happy that this would be one of the rare times that the spouse would get sick but the bug would pass me by. By day five the spouse was feeling better but I was getting the first signs of a cold/flu, namely runny nose and sore throat. Bummer. The last few days I have been down with either a bad cold or mild flu (fever, chills, body aches, head ache, coughing...the works). Here's what I learned:

• Stuff to stock up on: kleenex, Thera-Flu, Tylenol, cough drops
• Food: you should always have enough food on hand so you don't need to go to the store to restock for at least a couple of weeks. Canned soup, canned or frozen broth, and other simple to prepare foods are a good choice when you feel so weak that you have to build up the energy to walk to the kitchen.
• Liquids. When I am sick, my main source of hydration and nutrition is liquid stuff--tea (no coffee, soda or milk), soup, broth, Tera Flu (because you have to mix it in a cup of hot water), and water. This serves many purposes. It keeps you from becoming dehydrated which will the affect your kidneys then vital organs, and may require a trip to the hospital to rehydrate via IV bag of fluids. Taking liquids helps to flush the bad stuff out of your system and it also gives your stomach less work to do by having less to digest.
• Your main task when you are sick: sleeping and resting. I think I took eight naps yesterday. There is no way to speed yourself through an illness but I seem to recover faster than the spouse because I basically sleep until I feel better whereas the spouse will take OTC meds to cover up the symptoms and try to continue on as normal.
• Don't spread your germs. Nearly every time I or the spouse is sick, the other will soon follow this is because cold and flu germs spread quickly between people thus the reason not to go to work or even leave your house until you are well again.

That's it. Surviving a cold or flu isn't rocket science, it is basically letting your body fight off the bug by helping it along with rest, liquid, and good basic nutrition (along with some meds to break the fever). Going to the hospital with a cold or flu is unnecessary unless you have very severe symptoms such as severe and prolonged vomiting or diarrhea (if it looks like blood or dark coffee grounds get to the hospital ASAP), difficulty breathing (not because you have a stuffy nose but because your lungs feel like they are working overtime just to get you a little air), or a very high temperature (101 degrees +) that Tylenol or Ibuprofen won't break.

20 60-Second Preparedness Tasks

In less than a half hour, you can complete the following preparedness tasks and know that should a disaster--large or small--happen, you will be a little bit more prepared than you were earlier today:

1. Put an ICE (in case of emergency) number on your cell phone. This makes it easier for paramedics and law enforcement to know who to call if you are unconscious at an accident scene.
2. Check to make sure all of your smoke detectors are working.
3. Put yourself on the Do Not Call list (www.donotcall.gov) so that you/your family/your kids/etc. won't become victims of telemarketers.
4. Check your annual credit report (www.annualcreditreport.com) to make sure no one has hijacked your credit.
5. Sign up for NOAA alerts for your particular state/region at www.nws.noaa.gov/alerts-beta/
6. Make sure all of your computers are password protected.
7. Look in your wallet, if you don't see a $100 bill in there, put one in ASAP for emergencies.
8. Stand up and stretch for 60 seconds--twist your torso, touch your toes, reach for the sky, etc. Do this many times throughout the day.
9. Write down these five numbers to keep by your phone: the number for natural gas emergencies, the number for electric emergencies, the number to report cable outages, the number to report phone outages, and the number for your local nurse hotline.
10. Set a regular date and time to test your emergency communications plan contact system. Take 60 seconds now to email your contact and warn them that you will regularly be testing your system by having your family members call them on, for example, the first Tuesday of each month at 10am.
11. Test your blood pressure (you will probably need to do this at the grocery store or the mall or other location where they have the machines to provide this free service). It takes less than a minute to stick your arm into the sleeve and get a blood pressure reading. While these machines may not be the most accurate, any elevated reading should be cause to consult with your doctor.
12. Run an anti-virus scan on your computer (it takes longer than 60 seconds but only a few seconds to get the process started).
13. Put your seatbelt on. Again, you can't do this sitting at your desk but make wearing a seatbelt a habit, it only takes a few seconds to put it on.
14. Go compliment a family member. It takes less than a minute to point out something good that you appreciate about a person (this improves their self esteem and builds family harmony).
15. Check your fire extinguishers. Make sure they are properly charged and have been checked within the past couple of years.
16. Toss a stuffed pillow on the floor, pretend it is your CPR mannequin, and practice 60 seconds of chest compressions to the beat of "Staying Alive". Doing this for a minute straight is actually more difficult than it looks.
17. Sign up for CDC alerts through their various social media tools (www.cdc.gov/SocailMedia/Tools/).
18. Practice breathing. In through the nose, hold it for a few seconds, out through the mouth. Do this for a minute. Sounds odd but this is a great way to relieve stress on a regular basis, a way to get your composure together while shooting, and a way to immediately diffuse tension in a stressful situation.
19. Plan tomorrow today. Make a list of the things you need to accomplish, the calls you need to make, the errands you need to run, etc. Add a preparedness task to complete on the list as well.
20. Read the Daily Insight article on the CNI website (www.codenameinsight.com). These are usually short, preparedness-related articles that provide useful information on survival-related topics.

Surviving Disaster: Home Invasion

This week's Surviving Disaster episode is about home invasion/kidnapping. Here's what I learned:

• There are 8,000 home invasions daily in North America. Targets are often selected at random.
• The odds of your family become the victim of a kidnapping/home invasion are increasing.

Burglary scenario:

• When you hear unexplained noise in your home, don't ignore it, you need to respond.
• When it comes to your safety, it is always better to over react.
• Call 911 first if you are going to confront an intruder. Use your home phone if possible so the address will show up on the dispatcher's screen.
• Wrap a pillow or jacket around your arm for a shield and bring something to attack the intruder with.
• If using a bat, you can jab with it but its hard to swing at someone with it in confined spaces.
• If more than one person is at home you need to confront the intruder as a team.
• Usually an intruder is a burglar, give him some money and he will probably go away. Try not to force the burglar into a more desperate situation.
• If the burglar grabs you and holds a knife to your throat; push the knife and elbow above your head and drop down giving the police a clear shot (the cops should be at your door by now because you called them earlier).

Planned Invasion scenario:

• If the phone line is cut and you hear a loud crash you are probably facing an intruder who has been stalking you.
• If you can escape, don't confront the intruders. If you can't run because there are people watching the outside, stay inside.
• With multiple armed intruders, cut off the power at the fuse box to distract them. Call 911 via cell if possible. If the cell is jammed you won't be able to call.
• Usually entry is made by the armed intruders in a way to shock and scare the home owners.
• Set up a defensive perimeter in the room. Try to have two people grab one intruder holding the gun away from the group and pressing on the carotid artery in a choke hold until the intruder passes out.
• With multiple armed intruders you may be overwhelmed and taken hostage.
• Experienced kidnappers will use brutal force and shock to gain control of the situation. In this situation, be passive and non-threatening, act weaker than you are.
• The basic planned kidnapping scenario is: stalking, entry, control, event, kill hostages, escape.
• In the control phase you will be held hostage until the kidnappers get what they came for. At this stage gather intel...names, plans, what do they want, etc.
• They may use the women and children they are holding to control the men. They may also separate people as a form of control.
• Zip ties are usually used to handcuff the victims. Put palms together, palms down, and flex your chest to keep the zip ties loose enough to escape from later.
• Try to figure out why you are being held hostage (ie: senior bank officials, or other high value targets are often what the intruders want (called human keys) as they can be used to access to banks or other targets).
• Usually high value targets are stalked for weeks to determine their habits and schedules (in other words, always pay attention to your surroundings, vary your routine, and watch for people who are watching you).
• Plan your escape. Ask to use the bathroom if possible, and find something to cut your way out of the zip ties.
• Loosen zip ties by using a shim to bypass the teeth on the zip ties. Once this works, tighten up the zip ties and hide the nail/razor/etc when you go back to the group.
• Plan: use car remote for diversion with panic button, take off zip ties, barricade yourself in the room you are in, then escape through the window. The floor will creak less if you walk by the wall. Even if your family is still held hostage if you must escape and call the police.
• Use a PLF--parachute landing fall (keep legs together, don't land straight down, arc like a banana, roll out of landing covering head) when jumping from the second floor.
• Don't let your guard down, a well organized crew may have counter surveillance outside.
• If your escape attempt fails, they will make an attempt to reassert their control usually through violence. Note, if they kill a hostage and they take off their masks, it is a good bet they don't plan to leave any witnesses.
• You must always keep your emotions in check and continue to plan your escape.
• The human key will be taken from the group while the other captives will be left at the house.
• Watch the kidnappers to see how they are communicating (ie: text messages every 15 minutes). Note that if a message is missed this may signal that the operation is complete or aborted. This may also be a signal for the kidnappers holding the people at the home to kill the hostages and cover their tracks.
• If you are the human key and you are tied up and put in the trunk in order to transport you to a second location, try to get free using sharp edges, the jack, or other item to cut yourself free from the duct tape.
• Rip out the wires attached to the brakes and tail lights to signal police.
• Most newer cars also have a car latch release (older car trunk latches can be released manually), when the car slows or stops, get out and run for help.
• If you are being pursued on foot, get rid of highly visible clothing (white, red), and run unpredictably to make yourself a difficult target to be shot at. Put time, distance, and a natural barrier between you at your pursuer. Run to a crowded area.
• If you are the human key and are being driven at gun point to another location and you are driving, drift towards other drivers or blow through a stop sign to attract attention.
• If the police stop your car, hand the officer the wrong an ATM card when asked for your license, act like you ave been drinking so the officer will ask you to step out of the car, you can then quickly tell the officer what happened.
• You may have to make a decision--either stall so the text message can be sent or alert the police in which case the message won't be sent and your friends may be killed.
• Back at the house, if the text message isn't received, the captive group will need to ambush and escape because they may have no other options.
• Make a friction saw with your shoe laces--looped over both boots and around the duct tape on your hands then pedal your feet back and forth to generate friction to cut through your bindings.
• Make an L shaped ambush, one will distract the person while the other attacks. Look for something that one person can use to distract the kidnapper (a fire extinguisher for example) and something that the person who will attack can use to hammer away at the kidnapper's head and eyes (a sharp shoe for example). You will need to incapacitate the kidnapper in order to make your escape.

Again, another good show full of useful tips. While each situation will be different, the more information you can gather (ie: by watching this show, reading, and practicing) the more likely you will be to have the skills and information to survive such a scenario.

7 "Un American" Financial Moves That Will Improve Your Bottom Line

In the course of our daily activities, there is the 'American' way of doing things (which aren't termed that way, since these are just the things that we as Americans are apt to do) and there are things that you can do that could be negatively termed "Un American" (ie: such as when someone does something and an onlooker will say "jeez...that's just un America"). Here's some typically un American things that you can do that will improve your bottom line both financially and psychologically...

1. Get rid of all of your credit cards. Cancel them and cut them up as Dave Ramsey recommends. You can still survive nicely with your ATM/Debit card and you will never again have to pay over limit fees, late fees, or interest.
2. Insist that your kids get a college education. It's the American way to just let your kids do whatever they want to do. If you have ever seen a Japanese mother make their kid's education their sole goal in life or seen an Indian father lay down the law daily about getting an education, you will see why we as Americans are losing the education race. If you don't believe me, check out the neurosurgery team/cardiovascular surgery team at your nearest large hospital. It's a good bet that more than half of the names on the list will be foreign. That doesn't bode well for Americans when we can't even staff our own hospitals.
3. Have one car per family. Yes cars are American status symbols and for many adults it would be unthinkable if they didn't have their own personal vehicle but the reality of the situation is that we spend lots of our income supporting this method of conveyance (plus gas, plus insurance, plus upkeep, plus decorations like fuzzy dice for the mirror...) when it may not be absolutely necessary. With a little flexibility and tweaking of our schedules we could get rid of the extraneous cars and save/invest the proceeds.
4. Have one parent who stays home with the kids. This system has worked for millenia because, well, it works. When you calculate how much extra money you spend to have two parents working, many people find that one of the parents often ends up making less than minimum wage what with the extra spent on meals out because mom is too tired to cook or the cost of the gardener because dad doesn't want to spend his few free hours working in the yard. Besides being able to more efficiently use the family income, having a full time parent on duty is beneficial for the kids and the community as well.
5. Don't keep up with the Joneses. I know a handful of families that would be considered "weird". They don't have TVs, they don't wear the latest clothes or have the newest tech gadgets, they shop at thrift stores, they cook all of their own (very healthy) food at home, and a few even home school their kids. While they may be considered odd by American standards, all of them are amazing families. Polite, interesting, respectful kids with well read, well educated parents...basically families that work, play and travel together who don't care what the Jonese are doing because the Jonese are broke, stressed, and dysfunctional.
6. Save money. Only a year or so ago, American savings rates were in the negative (meaning that many people were over extended on credit cards and didn't have a penny of savings to their names). This trend is starting to turn around a bit what with tightening credit markets and debt repayment starting to take center stage, but Americans still don't save anywhere near what people in many other industrialized countries do. If you have savings, good for you, if you don't, start today socking away a little money from each check to cover yourself in case of disaster.
7. Think for yourself. Americans have been thoroughly and utterly brainwashed by the media. Our kids watch a million and one advertisements during their childhood and we wonder why they won't eat anything but McDonalds and will only wear certain brands. Adults are pretty much the same. Just because a particular food is shown on a commercial or featured on an end cap at the store doesn't mean it is good for you. Often times you shouldn't even eat these items because they are basically a high calories serving of chemicals. Yuck. Ditto for every other item that the manufacturers spend big bucks to make you want to buy--your cat doesn't give a rip about what kind of cat litter you use, your car can have its oil changed anywhere and you will get the same basic outcome, and your house/laundry will smell fine no matter if you use simple things like baking soda and lemon juice or spring for pricey detergents and cleaners.

Of course Americans have plenty of traits that have made our country successful--hard work, innovative and creative approaches in many areas of commerce and industry, a desire for the best no matter what that may be--but we need to change some of the areas mentioned above if we want to be truly competitive with ourselves and the world. I can imagine many of our ancestors spinning in their graves over what people these days do as a matter of course which totally flies in the face of common sense and reality.

Survival Lessons from the News

I came across many news stories today that practically jumped off the page as a warning to others. Among them:

• Escaped Killer on Run in Washington State. Whoever had the bright idea to take a PSYCHOTIC KILLER to the fair for a day of fun needs to be fired. At the minimum. Lesson learned: even at the family friendly fair, a psychotic killer can be wandering around unrestrained and unsupervised thus becoming a threat to the public. Lessons learned: you must always be on your guard, even when the purpose of your activities is to have fun. You never know what kind of people you will be around when you are out in public so you need to be both wary and aware in order to keep yourself and your family safe.
• Alleged Terror Plot Suspect Arrested. I don't know if this guy is a terrorist or not. Hopefully not but if he is, good going FBI. Anyway, this story caught my eye over the past couple of days because the guy kept going in for interviews with the FBI...for three days. Why he didn't refuse to meet with them and get a lawyer is beyond me. Lessons learned: even if you are innocent, your own words can bury you legally. If you are a suspect in any case, it is always a good idea to refuse to answer questions without a lawyer present.
• Annie Le Murder. This girl was in a secure building and had even written an article on safety for the school's newspaper and she still ended up murdered. Lessons learned: workplace safety threats should not be overlooked. Even if you work in a secure facility and only come in contact with people you know, that still doesn't mean you are 100% safe. Always take personal safety seriously.
• Debt Collector Harassment Contributed to Man's Death. Stress is a major contributor to many of the top ten health problems that Americans face. To have major life stressors such as health problems, financial problems, marriage problems, etc. exacerbated by harassing phone calls makes it even worse. Lessons learned: get out of debt, stay out of debt, and never become the victim of creditors again. Ever.
• Plan to Ban Guns in Places Where Kids Go. The Mayor in this article is trying to ban guns in places around the city where kids may go. Fortunately he has run up against the law and it looks like this plan won't fly. Thank God. Lessons learned: if you don't stand up for your gun rights against people who are continually trying to chip away at them, you may wake up one day and you won't have any.

Reading the newspaper each day should be a lesson in scenario-based survival planning. When you read these articles, think: what happened? what was the negative outcome? how could the outcome have been prevented? what steps will I take in my own life to avoid becoming a victim of such an incident?

Poll Results and a New Poll

Our last poll asked "which is your favorite outdoor/survival show on TV?"
Here's your answers:

• 50% (24 people) said Survivorman
• 16% (8 people) said The Colony
• 10% (5 people) said anything on the Outdoor Channel
• 8% (4 people) said Man vs Wild
• 8% (4 people) said Mythbusters
• 4% (2 people) said Alone in the Wilderness
• 2% (1 person) said Survivor, the reality series

Note that this poll was put out before the new series Surviving Disaster began which is my new favorite survival show on TV. What all of these shows have in common, that all of us can use, is the wide range of tips and trick for surviving a wide variety of situations. Even Survivor may offer the random tidbit of information for dealing with others in social situations.

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

Surviving Disaster: Hurricane

The Surviving Disaster show has caught my attention. This is one show that I make a point of watching each week, mostly because it is long on details and short on personal drama which I more or less detest in "reality" type shows. Here's what I learned about surviving a hurricane from tonight's show:

• Even if you don't live in a hurricane-prone area it is possible that you will vacation in such a spot so it's good to know how to survive a hurricane.
• If your area is under mandatory evacuation, get out. Don't try to stay and tough it out.
• Within many miles of the coast, you will be in storm surge area. The storm surge (a giant wall of water) always hits before the hurricane makes land fall.
• Take your BOB, rope, change of shoes, rain gear, food, water, flashlights, etc.
• Hopefully you will be evacuating in a four wheel drive vehicle.
• Most people die in hurricanes from drowning, often during the storm surge.
• Evacuation means get as far away from the coast as possible and to higher ground.
• Remember not to drive too fast when evacuating, the water on the roads can cause hydroplaning...let off the gas but don't stomp on the brakes or you will spin out.
• Beware of other crazy drivers who are also trying to evacuate. Panicked people can cause problems during the evacuations.
• Police and other first responders may not be on duty as they may be taking care of their families therefore there could be disorder and chaos.
• Listen to the radio to get updates on the direction the storm is traveling.
• If the roads are too jammed to use to evacuate, go off road.
• To go off road, gear down and speed up a bit. Remember, stopping takes a lot longer and you can't make tight turns.
• If the car ends up out of commission, you will need to evacuate on foot.
• Run to higher ground and find shelter before the storm surge hits.
• If you must cross a river to get to higher ground, use a zip line swift water crossing technique. Send the best swimmer across with the line to the other side and secure the line to a stump, etc. The line will be horizontal but heading downstream so the current can help carry you across. Use a truckers hitch knot to tighten up the line, you want it as tight as possible so it doesn't dunk you in the middle of the river. Put your belt over the line and double wrap it around your hands to zip down the line, face down stream during the crossing and keep your feet up.
• If someone falls in the river don't go in after them. You can use a branch or rope to try to get the person to shore.
• Once the hurricane makes landfall, seek shelter to avoid water and lethal debris.
• Move from cover to cover (ie: tree to tree) when looking for shelter. Hold your bag over your head to protect it from flying things. Keep low when you are running. Crawl on elbows and knees if you are in high winds and have no cover.
• If you are cut by flying debris and it hits an artery, keep direct pressure on and right above the wound. To stop the bleeding, use towels, t shirts, or gauze tightly over the wound. Knot a strip of fabric tightly around the cloth covering the wound. You can also put direct pressure on the artery that is feeding the wound. As a last resort, use a tourniquet above the wound. Don't take off the tourniquet until a doctor can take care of it (blood clots formed by the would could be allowed back into the artery causing stroke or heart attack).
• If you need to break into a shelter such as a locked home, use a hatchet like device to break the lock and a breaker bar to pry it open. You may also need to kick it open using a donkey kick with the back of your heel. Once inside, use the hatchet head under the door to keep the door closed.
• Stay away from windows that aren't boarded up.
• When the eye gets over you it will become calm. Use this time to fortify your position. Shut off the electricity and the gas. Put plywood or shutters over the exterior windows.
• The best place to be during a hurricane is a small room in the center of the house, at the lowest level of the house, that doesn't have windows. Barricade the door.
• Once the eye has passed, you will be hit with the eyewall--heavy wind, rains, and flooding.
• If the room you are in begins flooding, get to the highest level of the house, usually the attic (do this only as a last resort).
• In hurricanes, most people die from drowning, either from the storm surge during the hurricane or flooding afterwards.
• Use what you can (an ax is best but other items will work) to break through the roof where there is a weak spot (ie: where the plywood comes together at a seam, where there is water coming in, or where you see daylight). Watch out for nails when you come through the roof so you won't get injured.
• Just as many people die after a hurricane as during a hurricane.
• Watch out for displaced animals (dogs, alligators, snakes, etc).
• Your best bet is to stay on the roof, and out of flood waters.
• If you do jump in the water and an alligator gets you, grab the alligator's arm and twist as hard as you can so it will release its bite and you can swim away from it.
• To treat an alligator bite, dress the wound lightly, you don't want to pack the bacteria from the alligator's mouth in the wound.
• You need 1 gallon of buoyancy to float 8 pounds of weight. Pick up things that are floating to make a raft (doors, etc). Empty storage bins make good floats. Suitcases will work too. Use electrical cord stripped from the attic to tie things together to make the raft.
• The wider the raft is, the less likely it is to tip over.
• Get everyone on the raft and paddle through the water following any routes that you know (ie: follow the streets instead of going over trees).
• Your best bet is to get to a casualty collection point at a hospital, school, or other Red Cross shelter.

Overall, again a good show. Full of useful tips and other things I wouldn't have thought of (twist an alligators arm? I didn't even think of them as having arms!).

Too Broke to Prep--Things You Can Do Without

Our last post covered how to acquire the preparedness items you need, even if you were too broke to prep properly (properly prep?). Some ideas didn't require money and some required work and/or a small cash outlay on your part. Today we will talk about the things you DON'T need if you are scraping financial bottom and still want to get prepared for a disaster.

• An expensive cell phone plan. While I feel that having a cell phone is a necessity for most people, paying $100 for an iPhone plan isn't. A basic phone that allows you to make phone calls only is fine. A pre-paid plan is great so you won't have any recurring monthly bills. Turning off your phone if you are inclined to talk so much that you run through a pre-paid $100 card worth of minutes in a week and only returning important messages is a even better.
• A car. There's a number of ways to look at this item. If your family has four cars and two drivers, it is not inconceivable to cut down to one car for your household. It will save you lots of money in car payments/insurance payments/maintenance costs/etc. If you are homeless, a car may end up being your shelter which is a good thing, the only drawback I see with this is that people who are homeless often can't afford insurance, license renewal, and upkeep which can lead to tickets and fines which can lead to court appearances, which is not good. If you need a car for shelter but you don't have a license or insurance, find a safe place to park it so you will have a place to sleep but take the bus or your bike so you won't end up tangled in the legal system.
• Pets. Again, there is no one right answer for this situation. Some homeless people would never consider parting with their pet no matter what but on the other hand, if you have a spouse, four kids, and are barely hanging on to your home, the care, feeding, and medical expenses that can accrue for a pet would be better off (IMHO) being spent on your human family. Ditto for nuisance pets. A guy I knew lived in a pretty bad neighborhood and kept two pit bull dogs more for protection than anything else. Because he was often gone and his dogs were expert at breaking out of their fence, he racked up quite a huge amount of debt in tickets not to mention potential lawsuits for having dangerous dogs that he couldn't control. Not good. I hate to suggest looking at the family pet with a cost/benefit analysis but sometimes that's what you need to do.
• Internet. Most cities and towns have sources of free internet. On occasion you can also catch an unprotected signal in residential neighborhoods and some apartment buildings. While it is nice to have 24/7 internet, if you are barely getting by, this is an unnecessary luxury. Ditto for cable (free TV is limited but covers the basics).
• Top of the line gear. Much as the hardcore preppers, mountaineers, and gear heads love to rave about top of the line gear (tents, backpacks, generators, firearms, etc), except for very specific instances (ie: summitting Everest), the very best gear is nice to have but not absolutely necessary. A 20 degree Coleman sleeping bag will work just as well as a 20 degree Marmot sleeping bag even though it won't have all of the bells and whistles and super lightweightness. In other words, it is better to spend $200 getting all four family members adequate sleeping bags than spending $400 for one sleeping bag.
• Firearms. Again, this is debatable. I am all for a person having enough fire power to protect themselves and their family, however there are times when having a firearm could bring more risk than it is worth. Ex felons probably shouldn't own a firearm; if you are just barely getting by, the risk of fines, court appearances, and more time is probably not worth it. If you have an extremely dysfunctional family (alcohol, domestic violence, and/or mental health issues) again, putting a firearm in the middle of the mess will cause more problems than it's worth. Another idea is to keep a few firearms and sell off your arsenal if necessary. You can't eat a handgun but the family does need to eat so sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
• Advanced prep gear if you don't even have the basics. It's nice to have a generator, it's nice to have a bug out cabin, it's nice to have a BOV with all of the goodies. The problem with these items is that they require ongoing funds for upkeep and if for some reason these funds dry up, you will loose these items. On the other hand, education is an investment that no one can take away from you. Basic things like a first aid kit and a battery powered radio are low cost, hi usability items that won't break you when you buy them and won't hurt you too much if you loose them. Once you get the basics covered AND pull yourself out of your financial abyss, then you can start adding to your preparedness gear stash.
• Other things that can be substituted. Yes it is nice to have MREs and Mountain House stocked but they are more expensive than hitting up the canned good loss leaders at the local store. You may not be able to do without socks (good to have in a bug out situation), but you don't need the $20 per pair socks. A tent is great if you end up sleeping outside but if you are flat broke, some 6 mil plastic and paracord will suffice.

The bottom line is that you can do without most things. People can live their entire lives in a third world country with only a handful of items to call their own so I know it can be done. The problem is that we (me included) have become quite spoiled and often times quite unimaginative and think that we can't possibly survive without all of the gear that we see advertised at the local survival store. While all of the comforts of modern living (or modern bugging out) are nice, mostly they aren't absolutely necessary. You will survive a disaster in spite of not having these things. Put your limited funds and resources towards developing the education, skills, and ingenuity that will allow you to function in a post-disaster scenario and shed all of the other things that most people think they can't live without until your financial situation stabilizes.

Too Broke to Prep?

I know a few people who would like to get prepared but they simply don't have the money to do it. Especially in this economy when job loss, stock loss, and an uncertain financial future makes people want to hang on to what money they have even tighter, it can be hard to do all of the things that getting prepared for a disaster entails. It's true that stockpiling things and buying a whole bunch of nifty gadgets (and cool firearms) takes money, however there are quite a few ways that you can get prepared on the cheap (or even on the free!). Here's how:

• Use the internet. Check Freecycle and Craigslist to find items you need.
• Check what things are available in your community. Fire departments often provide free CPR classes and free smoke detectors. The Health Department may provide free vaccines. Our local energy utility company provides a number of useful items ranging from free fluorescent light bulbs on occasion to big discounts on new appliances, and free water saver shower heads. Our local Department of Emergency Management and Red Cross offer free first aid and community preparedness classes and give out some pretty good freebies (safety whistles, hand sanitizer, etc) as well.
• Barter for the things you need. Many people are afraid to ask for the things they want but the worst that can happen is the person says "no". If you need gas cans and the old guy next door has a few that he never uses anymore, ask if you can mow his lawn in trade for them. One of my favorite things to barter for is reloaded ammunition from friends who do this as a hobby. Ammo is expensive these days!
• Shop the Dollar Store. Lots of stuff in the dollar stores is crap but if you don't have a flashlight and can't afford a MagLite, a $1 flashlight is better than nothing.
• Use coupons and loss leader sales. You need to stock up on extra food for your emergency stockpile but it can get expensive. If you use coupons and shop the sales, however, you can get some pretty good bargains to add to your stockpile. Last week, for example, a local grocery store had a sale on peanut butter. I picked up the coupon from their flier which is in a stack right next to the door and I got my 10 jars of peanut butter for $10. That's a whole lot of protein for only 10 bucks. If you can't even afford this, go in with five people and you could each get two jars of peanut butter for $2.
• Use community resources if necessary. I am certainly not a fan of welfare programs but for hard working people who have hit hard times, I say take advantage of every program you can. Some programs I know of provide $10 per month cell phone programs for emergencies. Food banks can provide food for you and your family and you can also tuck a couple of cans away for emergencies.
• Make do. While you may want the ultra high-tech three-season tent to add to your emergency gear, you may only be able to afford a huge roll of 6 mil plastic at Walmart. Some sort of shelter is better than no sort of shelter so take a look around at the items you do have or can afford which can be substituted for the more expensive items you want. Of course you can always upgrade your stuff as finances allow.
• Keep a list of the preparedness gear you want and need. Sometimes just writing things down will jog your brain to seek out the things you need whereas at other times you would have passed the things right by. Keeping a list also keeps you from buying two or three of an items because you are more organized.
• Shop where the bargain shoppers shop. Thrift stores, garage sales, Walmart...there are probably quite a few places in your community that you can get the things you need without going to REI or Cabellas, and giving all of your hard earned cash to the cashier. Of course these places can have good sales but if you don't look at other cheaper options you may end up broke before you emergency gear list is fulfilled.
• Do the free things that you can do to get prepared. The most important thing you can do to be prepared for any type of disaster is take care of your health. Go to bed earlier, walk more, do some calisthenics, de stress...all of these things don't cost a penny so there is no excuse not to do them. Create a fire escape plan, a communications plan, and an emergency lock down plan...these are all free things as well.

Fortunately, most preppers are pretty creative people. When you get right down to it, the things you need for a disaster usually don't have a brand name and a huge price tag. The idea is to know what things you need to prepare for a disaster then look for creative--and hopefully free--ways to accomplish the things on your list.

Link Round Up: Random Info Edition

Time to clean out the favorites list again. Here's some interesting links to check out:

• 42 Ways to Radically Simplify Your Financial Life
• Girls Guide to Homelessness
• How to be a Hobo
• Taking Care of a Sick Person in Your Home (a la H1N1)
• My Medication Tracker
• How to Back Up All Your Stuff for Free

Disaster Preps for Business

Here's a quick list of the things you need to consider in order to ensure the continuity of your business, whether it is impacted by an earthquake, hurricane, pandemic flu outbreak, or other disaster:

1. Does your business have a disaster plan? Will it work for moderate short term disasters such as a flood or earthquake as well as a longer term pan flu outbreaks? Make sure it does.
2. What are your core business activities? What is it that your business must do in order to survive. How will you provide these core services after a disaster?
3. Determine how your business will function without essential services such as power, water, and sanitation. Identify back-up solutions to these services so that your business can continue to function.
4. Cross train your employees. If only one employee in your organization can do payroll and that person ends up with the pandemic flu, in a coma in the hospital, or worse, dead, then nobody gets paid. That's not good for business. Make sure your staff can cover two or three positions instead of just their own.
5. Determine what your operations requirements are and devise back-up solutions for these. How will you continue to receive inventory after a disaster? What items must your business have in order to continue to function (such as food for a restaurant, roofing materials if you are a roofer, etc)?
6. Devise alternate work sites. If your office building is damaged in a hurricane, where will you and your staff work. If your sporting goods store is destroyed by fire, where can you temporarily move your business to until your own place is rebuilt? Do you provide a service that your employees could do from home?
7. Develop processes that could be done online or via phone. Can meetings be held via Skype? Can payroll be done online? Can your counseling services be provided to clients over the phone if needed?
8. Are your employees informed? Do they know the fire escape plan? How to reach you after a disaster? What their critical functions are during a disaster? How to protect themselves from the flu?
9. Have your employee policies been revised recently. What kind of sick leave and family leave policies does your business have? What are contingency plans for employees who will be out with a long term illness or injury? Would your employees come to work with the flu or TB or Hepatitis because they need the money more than they feel the need to protect the public and their co-workers? What are your policies in regards to this?
10. Do you have a media plan? How will you inform the public that you are still open for business? How will you handle the media blitz brought on by a photogenic disaster that levels your business?

Basic Kid Prep Gear

One of my earliest memories is of the preparedness gear my granddad gave me. They lived in an old farm house, in a rural area, with a big old wood stove that provided heat and a place to cook. Granddad thought that it was important that everyone in the house was prepared so all of us grandkids were issued sleeping bags, a flashlight, a transistor radio, and a pocket knife which we kept with us at all times. When the power went out, which it often did, each person had a flashlight at the ready. When we couldn't get to sleep (this was before there were TVs in every bedroom) we had a radio to keep us company. Sleeping bags were used throughout the year either on our beds for added warmth, for the many camping trips we took throughout the summer, or anytime we felt like a change of scenery and camped outside in the back yard. Also, kids having pocket knives by their seventh or eight year was a normal thing back then. Later additions included a backpack and a hunting rifle.
So what kind of gear should your kids have on hand? Here's some ideas:

• A sleeping bag is still a useful item even if it is only used for camping in the living room.
• A day pack with basic overnight supplies is a good idea. This can be their mini "Go Bag" in case the family needs to evacuate at a moment's notice.
• A flashlight kept under their bed is a good idea, even if your area isn't prone to power outages.
• A cell phone has become a lifeline, even for kids. It appears that kids carrying cell phones are getting younger by the year but it is up to each parent to determine at what point giving a kid a cell phone is appropriate.
• You could give a kid a transistor radio but they would wonder what it was. A better option may be an iPod or MP3 player that also has the ability to pick up FM radio so that they can be entertained with their own music but also have a way to access emergency radio broadcasts (although texting and Twittering via their cell phone may take care of this just as well).
• I still believe in giving kids pocket knives and firearms. Each parent will need to make such a decision based on their own beliefs, the maturity of their kids, and their ability to supervise their kids. Years ago it was common for kids to carry pocket knives to school, apparently this is cause for expulsion these days but kids can still be taught how to be responsible with a pocket knife and how (and when) to use it properly. Ditto with firearms. Obviously, in today's climate, I wouldn't suggest giving either of these items to kids who have a single mom who works all the time as kids need constant supervision with any type of dangerous weapon. There are a number of other issues these days that could also have an impact on whether or not to provide these items to kids including kids with mental health or suicidal issues, kids prone to gang or bullying problems, kids with discipline problems or drug issues, etc.

Surviving Disaster: Surviving a Building Fire

I like the show Surviving Disaster. Today's episode is about surviving a fire. Here's what I learned:

• Each year over 15,000 7+ story buildings catch fire causing death and injury.
• Treat every fire alarm like it's the real deal.
• Listen to designated building fire marshals who provide guidance during an evacuation.
• Use a cell phone to call 911, don't assume someone else has already called.
• Get your running shoes on if you have them (especially women who usually wear heels).
• Use an evacuation stairwell not glass and carpet stairs or elevators; these are reinforced and have a pressurized fan system.
• Close fire doors as you go through them.
• Don't create panic. Calmly exit via the evacuation stairs but don't run.
• Head down the stairs but if you hear an explosion below you or see fire, head up the stairs.
• Move as a unit through the crowd.
• Touch doors to see if they are hot, if so, keep climbing, If not, go in.
• If one stairwell is unusable, find the second evacuation stairwell. Look for the evacuation plan near the stairwell or elevator. Use your cell phone to take a picture of the floor plan to help you navigate through the building.
• Smoke kills. Get away from smoke as quickly as possible.
• Gather supplies: water, supplies to signal rescuers, stuff to help mark route (sharpie pens, post it notes), flashlights, and put the supplies in bags.
• Take off metal stuff (belt buckles, jewelry) that can burn you if they get hot.
• Use ties to cover your mouth and nose, cover up with clothing as much as possible.
• Organize your evacuation group--point man (look for problems), navigator (lead the group), communicator (text or call someone on the outside to tell them where you are), rear security (stick a post it direction of travel)
• Touch doors with the back of your hand to see if it is safe to go through (the back of the hand is more sensitive and you don't want to burn your palm--you will need your hands to carry stuff. Slowly open door to see if it is safe. Close the door behind you.
• If sprinkler heads are not working, try to activate them.
• Stop at the bathroom. Soak your clothes and hair with water. Get ties and cloth wet to cover nose and mouth. Fill up water bottles.
• Break through a wall to escape smoke and flame if necessary. Break through the wall with a chair or other heavy item (make sure you do this between the studs). Continue breaking through walls per your floor map that you took the picture of on your cell phone to get to your desired location.
• ~~This is where my cable cut out for about five minutes...right as they were breaking through the walls until the guy got burned in the flash over~~ I'll need to watch this part on Spike TV (www.spike.com) online which will air the full episode.
• If someone is burned check their airway, cut the fabric away from the wound, pour water on the wound to cool it off, put gauze between fingers and toes so they don't fuse together, then cover the wound with gauze.
• Leave the person behind while the group goes to escape the fire and seek help. Text the person's position to outside help.
• Use fire extinguishers to clear the way as you move through the fire along your route.
• If you can't exit through the stairwell, get to a window. Smash through the window in order to get to a lower level where you can be rescued.
• Make a rope with Ethernet cable (blue, red, and grey not black which is electrical cable) usually found under the floor). Twist six strands together which will hold 600 pounds. Knot the ends.
• Anchor the Ethernet cable rope to a desk. Anchor the desk in a doorway. Improvise a harness "Swiss seat" with twisted printer cables.
• Signal rescuers from your window. Tie a flashlight to a rope and spin the rope to make a large signal.
• Use the blotter from the desk as a chafe guard so the rope won't get frayed going over the window then lower the first person out the window. Other team members can do a one leg wrap of the rope to descend. There is a third "German" technique to rappel without a harness.
• To jump into a rescue airbag, jump into a sitting position and land this way in the bag.
• Tell someone you are out of the building such as the on scene commander so they won't go in looking for you.

That's it. Good show. Even though it doesn't cover every conceivable situation, it is excellent general information.

Illegal Immigrants and Survival Stories

In my work I run across quite a few illegal immigrants. This post is not for or against illegal immigrants or a treatise on our schizophrenic immigration system, but like all situations I encounter, I look for the education that each situation can provide me. What I have learned time and time again from this particular group is about survival. Here's some things I have learned:

• They travel great distances coming to the US, often for free. A common way to travel from say, Guatemala or Honduras is to hop the freight trains that go through Mexico and to the US. (Survival lesson: hitchhiking, walking, riding a bike, and hopping trains may be free ways to travel post disaster)
• Their "survival supplies" that they carry with them for trips of indeterminate duration usually consist of the clothes on their back, maybe a little money, maybe a little food, maybe a knife or the like, and maybe a bottle for water. It amazes me that they can actually survive on such few things when my BOB is stuffed with things I may need to survive a disaster situation. (Survival lesson: ingenuity, creativity, and making do may be more important than having a shitload of survival gear)
• They build a social network and provide information by word of mouth. Kind of like the drug dealers and gun runners I have come across, information isn't posted on the net about safe houses, routes that are better than others, good coyotes versus bad, etc. Instead they form loose friendships for protection/travel partners, stronger ties with people who can help them, and provide information quicker across their network than Ma Bell. (Survival lesson: have you developed/could you develop a network to help you in a time of need?)
• They keep a low profile. Between the thugs and the cops, and anyone else who sees easy pickins with defenseless people traveling through their "turf", keeping a low profile can sometimes save their life--or at least keep them from getting robbed. (Survival lesson: keep a low profile in order to stay out of trouble)
• They do travel long distances on foot, usually across a hot desert. I'm not sure I could accomplish such a physical feat but thousands of illegal immigrants do this each month. (Survival lesson: being in good physical shape can not be underestimated as far as survival situations go)
• They will risk everything, often their lives, for a better future. This fuels a particular kind of determination that people who have a fairly easy life don't often develop. (Survival lesson: determination to survive is paramount)
• They need to take care of their own. Although many come to the US by themselves, should they become injured they will be left behind in the desert to die. It is safer to travel with others who are dedicated to your protection and safety like brothers or cousins. (Survival lesson: having a survival team is a good idea--there's safety in numbers)
• They need to be clever and stealthy in order to avoid Border Patrol. (Survival lesson: could you evade and if necessary escape from people who wanted to capture you?)
• They settle into the US, often for years, living in an "underground" sort of way. They use cash not banks and if they need a loan it is a cash loan from friends or relatives, not a bank. They develop tangible job skills that can be "sold" to employers with a minimum of fuss such as landscaping, house keeping, construction, etc. They live many to an apartment in order to reduce expenses. They use information to their advantage such as what states issue driver's licenses with minimum ID requirements, which medical insurance plans cover them if they have an emergency (some states have insurance plans that specifically cover aliens--legal and illegal). (Survival lesson: can you be flexible enough to adapt to changeable situations?)

Those are just a few of the things I have learned from this group of people. And like I said, the point here isn't illegal immigrants--hateful comments will be deleted because the purpose here is not a immigration debate but rather to learn from people who are different than you. The more knowledge you have, the better. In every situations that you encounter, consider, what survival lessons can you learn that will help you in a SHTF situation. Question people to learn more. I always ask questions of people--soldiers returning from battle, homeless people, paramedics, fed types--basically anyone who has a story to tell that can provide useful survival information.

Power Outage

The power was out for a few hours yesterday due to a wind storm. This is a sure sign that fall is here and a good reminder to get ready for outages of longer duration which are likely to occur in the fall and winter. Here's some things to consider (which I wrote out via pen and paper because like I said, there was no power to blog about it!):

• No TV. When the power goes out, your first inclination is to turn on the TV to see what is going on. However without power, you have no TV. I do have a small battery operated TV which we use for just these types of outages however it is an older TV and will not receive a signal now that TV broadcasting has switched to digital. On my "to buy" list is a small battery-operated TV which picks up digitally broadcast television signals.
• No internet. When the power is out, there is no internet either. I can access the internet on my cell phone but it isn't like I would surf the web this way.
• No computer. Actually all of my computers these days are laptops so I can still use the computer (sans internet) however if you have kids that are ALWAYS on the computer, losing power then running out of batteries on your laptop may be an issue.
• No phone. Since my phone service runs through the internet, I had no phone available when the power went out either. I used my cell phone to call and report the outage (always keep your cell phone charged up). Of course if you have a land line telephone (the wired phone type, not the wireless phone) you should still be able to plug it into the wall and get a phone signal even without electricity.
• No news. Being an affirmed news junkie, it is spookily quiet when the power goes out. I do have a battery operated radio in our stores of emergency supplies but was too lazy to dig it out for what I thought would be a short-duration outage. Note to self, get a small, battery operated radio and keep it in the house.
• No chores. Saturday is usually chore day when laundry, vacuuming, cleaning the car, and other house work gets done. Without power, these chores didn't get done.
• No fridge or freezer. Actually the food kept just fine, but I had to remind myself to not open the doors and peruse the contents of the fridge looking for a snack so that the cold air would stay inside. This wasn't a problem today but for a long-term outage, food preservation options would need to be kept in mind (and/or breaking out all of the coolers and finding ice then transferring the contents of the fridge to them.
• No cooking. No stove, oven, microwave, blender for my morning smoothie, or toaster. An excellent reason to make sure your stored emergency food doesn't need to be baked, cooked, or microwaved. We do have a gas grill that would have sufficed for cooking but again, this was a short term outage.
• No iron, electric razor, or hair dryer. Funny how you use these things automatically each morning when getting ready for work but never really think about what you would do without them. Fortunately, it wasn't a work day today.
• The hard-wired smoke detectors switched over to battery power then chirped every so often to let me know this. Note, make sure there are fresh batteries in the smoke detectors even if the units are hardwired into the house's electrical system.
• No treadmill. Since it wasn't a week day, this was a non-issue but I generally rely on my treadmill for a hour's worth of exercise each morning. Obviously I could have went outside for a walk, which I actually considered, but rule number one during a windstorm is to stay inside--downed power lines and falling trees are not something to risk by going outside.
• No lights. Actually since the outage happened early in the day and it was sunny outside, this was a non-issue but if it would have happened in the evening, we would have been eating dinner by candlelight. Also, we would not have had working outside safety lights/motion detectors, and each of us would have been carrying around flashlight).
• No heat. Actually this was a non-issue too because the weather, other than being windy, was warm, however if the outage would have happened in the dead of winter, our gas furnace would not have worked because it requires power for the fans. Note to self, get some firewood stored up for winter for use in the fireplace. Also check to make sure that our back-up kerosene heater is in good working order and has plenty of fuel.
• Hot water. Because we have a gas hot water system, showers were still possible. If we would have had an electric hot water system, this would have been an issue during a longer outage.

Obviously none of these problems are insurmountable. The Amish have got along quite well for centuries without electricity, but when it is something that you take for granted as always being available, it can be kind of disconcerting when it isn't available.

I noticed that the generator at the neighbor's house up the road went on almost immediately. They run some type of adult care home which seems to require that their residents have electricity 24/7. No one else in the neighborhood turned on their generators, probably figuring that it would be a short outage, however this is a good reminder to 1) consider getting a generator now, before winter begins and there is a run at the hardware store for these items, 2) be sure that you have plenty of safely stored fuel for your generator, and 3) you know how to safely use your generator.

H1N1 Update

I'm up to my elbows in H1N1 (pandemic influenza ie Swine flu) planning. Here's some things to consider:

• Nobody knows how this virus will shake out. It could be a mild flu season with the usual number of flu deaths or it could be a world-wide pandemic that kills millions.
• To date I haven't heard anything definitive about the H1N1 vaccine trials. Some have said there were no concerning side affects so production is going ahead, others have said the trials show that the vaccine may not work.
• A nice side affect if you had the flu recently (I was in Mexico a year ago and had the "can't get out of bed for a week, did you get the license of the truck that ran me over" flu) you may have some immunity to the seasonal and H1N1 flu.
• You may want to stock up on masks, tissue, tylenol, flu meds, etc. When the pan flu happened in our area this past spring, even hospitals were scouring stores for masks because suppliers were running out of them due to public panic and demand. The same thing will happen again if there is a major outbreak.
• Sign up for the CDC alerts. At least you will get up to date alerts about the flu emailed to you on a regular basis so you don't have to seek out the information.
• I also sign up for our state specific alerts (from public health and emergency management) so that I will have an idea of what is happening locally.
• If you or your associates have access to secure medical messaging (the CDC, military, and other health and research agencies have internal messaging systems to provide secure information on many topics including H1N1 to those who have the clearance to receive such messages) then you will be able to receive the latest info on what is happening in the upper echelons of flu research, planning, and preparedness.
• Do some simple things to protect yourself--wash your hands, cover your cough, and stay home when you are sick. Usually when you are planning for a disaster you want to take MAJOR action. Washing your hands sounds so mundane and boring however to stop the spread of viruses which are passed via person to person contact, it makes sense.
• Do the basic preps you would take to get ready for any disaster: have an emergency fund, be able to work from home if necessary, be able to conduct business such as banking online, have stored food and water (the more the batter), etc.
• Some technical details: the vaccine should be out in late October. It is thought to be a two-shot process but further research shows that only one vaccination may work. The priority list currently is children (6 months to 24 years old), pregnant women, first responders, and some with compromised immune systems.

More info will be posted as it develops...

Surviving Disaster

Like usual, I have the TV on in the background while I am working and a show called "Surviving Disaster" just came on Spike TV. The show teaches you how to survive a variety of disasters. Today's show is on surviving a plane hijacking. Here's what I learned:

• pay attention at the airport for suspicious people (note they don't necessarily look like Arabs).
• check out your surroundings as you enter the plane.
• stay sober and alert when you fly.
• a crucial time for a hijacking is when the pilot is being handed his meal and the cockpit door is open.
• don't seem threatening to the hijackers (ie: making eye contact, talking to them, etc).
• you need to take action. Since 9/11 it has become clear that hijackers will probably crash the plane and kill everyone so taking the hijackers down is the course of action.
• hijackers may have a "sleeper" embedded with the passengers who will jump in to protect the hijackers when a lone individual tries to attack them.
• first priority, find out what their intentions are.
• coordinate an attack with people in your immediate area (in a not obvious way).
• communicate with simple hand gestures instead of vocally.
• gather items that can be used as a weapon (hot coffee, a pen or keys, laptop, etc).
• establish a diversion (ie: an alarm from your cell phone set from a few minutes later tossed forward from where you are sitting).
• work as a team to take down the hijackers.
• stay low and use the seats to block your from the attackers line of sight.
• attack using 150% effort, go for the throat.
• a "war cry" is an effective way to start the attack.
• make a shield out of a jacket or seat cushion to block blows from the hijacker's weapons.
• utilize prisoner handling techniques to constrain the hijackers that you have taken down.
• keep 100% control over the prisoners. Restrain them with belts, ties, etc. then hog tie them. Gag them, cover their eyes, and make them totally unable to communicate with their comrades.
• use cell phones to alert people to what is happening (media, Air Force, etc).
• you need to get control of the plane from the hijacker in the cockpit.
• if you ram the cockpit door with a very heavy cart you may be able to break into the cockpit.
• make a plan to get into the cockpit then take immediate control of the hijacker and assign one of your team to take control of the plane and pull it out of the dive that the hijacker probably put it into when he realized you were attempting to break into the cockpit.
• comment from the spouse about mid show: isn't this showing hijackers both how to ram their way into the cockpit and what to look for in a response from the passengers?
• after the hijacker is incapacitated take control of the plane.
• put on the headset and dial in 121.5 which is the emergency radio frequency to use to contact air traffic control and other pilots.
• establish that you are not a terrorist and provide information about your flight and the situation. Follow all directions from the controllers/fighters that have been scrambled to shoot down your plane so that they will know you are the good guys and not the terrorists.
• engage the autopilot.
• if the pilots are still alive try to revive them to help land the plane.
• use combat medical skills to care for the injured pilots.
• research how to treat a sucking chest wound (too much detail to explain here).
• focus and listen to everything you are being told by the pilot that ground control has found to help guide you to land the plane.
• have the flight attendants prepare the passengers for a crash landing.
• secure anything and everything that could injure people during a crash (baggage, laptops, etc).
• some airports have the technology to automatically land large aircraft but most don't.
• immediately get all passengers off of the aircraft after an emergency landing.

Summary: This show rocks. Two thumbs up. I could tolerate about one and a half shows of the Colony because most "survivor reality" shows make me want to gag due to the overacting of the participants in furious bids for more airtime. This is a very good "how to" show which skips all of the theatrics and gives point by point information about how to survive dangerous situations. Of course it can't cover every contingency but even an hour's worth of specific information about what could happen is quite valuable. I will definitely make it a priority to watch this show in the future which airs at 10pm on Tuesdays on Spike TV.

A Daily Tweet for September

Since September is National Preparedness Month, we've decided to send out a tweet each day with a preparedness tip. If you don't follow us on Twitter, click here and sign up. Of course we will continue to post more expanded articles here on the blog, and daily articles for you to read on the website.