|
Run-Time Errors - Survival Stockpile, One Week Duration
[Recent Entries][Archive][Friends][User Info]
|
02:52 am
[Link] |
Survival Stockpile, One Week Duration
So, kids, here's your homework assignment. Here is what you will put in your bunker cupboard over the course of this very week to give yourself (and your family, if you have one [and want to keep it]) a one week survival duration.
NOTE: In contrast to the instructions of many "survivalists", and frankly to several government guidelines, I am including pets in this. Your pets are members of your family, and their survival will be extremely important to your family's mental and emotional health both during, and especially after, a disaster. Plan ahead and make it happen.
1. Water, 7 gallons per adult household member, 5 gallons per child under 12, 5 gallons per dog, 4 gallons per cat.
Water needs for active humans are four quarts (1 gallon) per person, per day. You do not ration water below this level unless you have absolutely no choice. Don't think you'll drink this much? How about with E. Coli poisoning, or diarrhea? Don't be an optimist, they don't make it out. Water should be in impact-resistant containers, not the cheap gallon jugs from the grocery store. To check a container's reliability, fill it, seal it, and kick it down a staircase. If it leaks, find something else. Containers should be opaque to slow algae and bacteria growth if you wind up having to store them in sunlight (your house is suddenly minus a roof, for example).
A lot of towns have "water stores" that purify water on-site and sell very heavy-duty five-gallon containers, with tough, screw-on lids you can trade for tap-tops. These are rugged enough to strap to the roof of your car. You can have such shops "ozonate" your water to reduce bacteria growth; it's safe and cheap, but it doesn't last forever. In all cases water should be changed out at least every six months. Full containers should be kept in cool, dark, dry places. Do not put more than half your water supply into containers larger than five gallons! Your water supply is the last place you want a single point of failure.
If you have a deep-freeze or second freezer, and you live in a warm climate, you can consider storing some of your water supply as ice. This is not to keep your perishables fresh-- this is to provide you with ice to deal with swelling from injuries, fevers, heatstroke, and other medical uses. If you do this, freeze the water in separate gallon jugs, so you can thaw it out as you need it, rather than all at once. Ice has the advantage of floating, due to its lower density, so if the house floods, you can bring your water out easily.
Don't substitute water filtration or purification materials for actual water on hand, and never try to use a home water filter to deal with potentially contaminated water. Certain pollutants can react with the rubber and plastic parts of water filters to form some very nasty chemicals, and besides, very few water filters effectively deal with viruses and bacteria. Finally, water purification tablets are never a first choice. They are only effective against certain agents, and the water they yield may not be safe for children, infants, or pets.
2. Meals, ready-to-eat, non-perishable, 800-calorie, 21 per household member; 10 days of formula per infant; 10 cans of pet food per pet.
An active adult-- and "active" in this context means somebody trying to throw timber, sandbags, or furniture around to deal with disaster effects, or carry a wounded family member, or for that matter clamber around with a broken leg-- consumes about 1800 (women) to 2400 (men) calories per day.
There are any number of ways to store food to meet these requirements, but quite frankly, it's hard to beat real military MRE rations (or at least high-end knock-offs). These things used to seem expensive, but prices haven't gone up as fast as inflation has, and they're pretty reasonable now, generally $6-$8 per meal. You can usually get a slight price break buying a case, which is definitely the way to get them, but make sure you know what you are buying-- DON'T buy a case of all one kind of meal. This is not just because you will get sick of it; some MRE menus are more susceptable to heat, etc., than others, and some are easier to get down on an upset stomach than others. MREs are also fully-sealed, and include a bunch of generally-useful stuff like toilet paper, instant drink mix, utensils, and a very compact, water-activated heater that can get warm enough to cook an MRE in cold weather. (DO NOT drink the water left over in an MRE heater. Also, be aware that MRE heaters generate hydrogen gas; this generally doesn't matter, but if you use a lot of them rapidly in a confined space, it could be an issue.)
The downsides, generally, are the space required and the amount of trash produced. Each component of the meal is individually sealed. This is, generally, a good thing; spoilage (if any; rare, for the intended shelf-life) is compartmented; things you might not be hungry enough to eat right now stay good for later, etc. However, this adds up to a lot of packaging, all of which makes the MRE take up more room, and all of which is more crap to throw out or shove out of the way.
Formula for infants should be in a separate container for each day, for each infant. Ask your doctor specifically about how to safely store formula for an emergency kit; they get this question a lot more often than you would think. Pets should have 10 days of canned food that you are already certain, from experience, they will eat.
If there is any chance of insect or rodent contamination-- and be pessimistic about this, this is for your safety, not me being judgemental about where you live or how your keep your house-- you need to pack all this into metal boxes of some sort that seal. In fact, surplus ammo containers or other boxes that have watertight seals are a really good idea, because you can grab your food in a hurry if you need to leave the house, and the contents may survive flooding.
However you do it, ensure everyone has 1800-2400 calories of well-balanced food per day, and that it will keep without refrigeration for at least six months. Replace or rotate out most foods every six months or sooner. Replace or rotate out MREs every 12 months. Always discard any MRE component pouch that appears bloated or swollen. If you're going to have anything in cans, ensure there are two high-quality can openers packed with the cans, not just somewhere in the kitchen.
TIPS: Peanut butter is sometimes called "cork" in emergency food kits. You can probably guess why. Having foods that ensure solid stool bulk will significantly improve hygiene, sanitation, and the Total Latrine Experience. Tobasco and similar hot sauces, meanwhile may make it easier to choke down marginal rations; consider stocking some.
Food stored in your car, if any, will go bad faster due to the wider temperature range. Halve shelf-lives of products stored in vehicles or very hot storage units.
3. Medical supplies and utilities, per household.
a. Sterile bandages, gauze, tape, shears.
Think "severe road rash through broken glass", and buy supplies adequate for dealing with such an injury. Why? Because that's about what you'll have if your house manages to fall in on you, or if you are hit by falling or windblown debris of any serious magnitude. You need enough to be able to change the dressings a few times. Get a good assortment of pads and bandages, a few large rolls of gauze, and a few rolls of tape, and a pair of EMT shears (available all over the place). The shears will be important if you have to deal with an injury faster than you can get clothes off "normally", if you have a burn severe enough that part of someone's wardrobe is fused to their skin or hair, or just if you need to cut the gauze cleanly.
b. Burn cream, antibiotic ointment, hydrogen peroxide, sunblock, chapstick.
The sunblock should be enough to handle being stuck outside in line all day while waiting to fill out god knows what government forms you get, or while trying to deal with disaster-related repairs or salvaging. Burn cream needs to be applied rapidly after getting burned; do not attempt to apply burn cream to a third degree (full thickness) burn without medical direction, however. Antibiotic ointments include such things as Bactine, Betadine solution, etc. The chapstick may seem like a silly thing, but it's not. Chapped lips crack, exposing blood and tissue to potential pathogens, but even worse, people with chapped lips are bad about drinking enough water, which is really bad.
A bottle or two of hydrogen peroxide is important because this is what you are going to dump on somebody immediately if they manage to get contaminated by sewage or something equally nasty. (You are then going to proceed to clean them up, and then apply more peroxide.) NOTE: If you are a hairstylist, you have access to high-concentration hydrogen peroxide. Be aware that this can be diluted to make a lot of reasonable disinfectant in an emergency, but make sure that's all that's in it!
c. Ipecac syrup.
You don't want to use this unless you have to-- throwing up is pretty hard on your body. However, if you realize that you, or someone in the family, has eaten or drunk something that was a really bad idea, you're going to want to have this on hand pretty quick. This goes triple for families with kids. (In fact, if you have kids, this is something you should always have on hand-- poison control centers may direct you to use it if your kids ever drink something dangerous.) This is something tiny, compact, and cheap-- just buy it and pack it.
d. Powdered ginger or strong ginger tea.
Bet you weren't expecting that one! This is the opposite of the ipecac, and it's probably more important for more situations. Ginger is excellent for settling your stomach, and it also works wonders for motion sickness. No joke. Again, this is tiny, compact, and cheap, and if you need it, you'll be REALLY glad you have it. If somebody has a hard time choking down a tuna mac MRE (and may I suggest avoiding that particular menu, in my humble opinion), a little ginger may do the trick.
e. 50-100 feet of strong (1/2" or 3/4") rope.
Before you think I'm sending you over a cliff, or towing the fridge, the main use of this is to be able to make a stretcher. This is done by laying the rope out in loops, like this (pardon the ASCII art): /\/\/\/\/\, then knotting each of the loops so you can pass a pole through the loop. By passing a pole through the loops on each side, you have created a rope stretcher that you can carry somebody with, without having to store an actual stretcher somewhere. (If you need poles, try your closet-- that large rod your hangers are on probably pops out, and might be pretty sturdy.)
f. Toilet paper, trash bags, facial tissue, waterless hand sanitizer.
The reason for stocking facial tissue separately is so that you don't run out of toilet paper when somebody turns out, on top of everything else, to have a cold. The reason for the trash bags is obvious-- sanitation. Running out of toilet paper is a grim proposition if you have no running water, so don't. Waterless hand sanitizer is a wonderful, and potentially very important, thing; buy a bottle.
g. Duct tape and clear plastic sheeting.
Duct tape is great stuff, but it's really great stuff when you suddenly have to use two fireplace pokers to splint somebody's broken leg. The plastic sheeting is to deal with broken windows, as well as to make certain kinds of one-way seal dressings for sucking chest wounds and other such pleasantries.
h. Flashlights, radio, batteries, maps, compass, paper, pencils, pens.
This stuff should all be self-explanitory, but highlight on your map things like National Guard armories, hospitals, civic centers, and other places that would become significant in an emergency. Also highlight your evacuation route. The flashlights should be heavy-duty, waterproof ones; however, at least one should float. They should all be D-cell ones, and you should buy decent batteries for them, not cheap ones. Leave the batteries OUT of all but one of the flashlights, but packed alongside them. You don't want corrosion to wreck your lights while they're packed. The radio is any AM/FM thing you'll be able to get government and media reports on; this radio should be small but should not require headphones if you can avoid them.
i. Shovel or folding shovel; backpacks; canteens or waterpacks; collars, leashes, carriers, and muzzles.
As long as you have to store all this stuff, consider storing some of it in backpacks, so that you can bolt with a few days' supplies already ready to go. Likewise, have some canteens or waterpacks (Camelbacks, Nalgene packs, etc.) so that you can carry easily accessable water while you go. The shovel is in case you have to, well, improvise for plumbing, shall we say. The collars and leashes are for keeping track of pets (including cats), the carriers are for when you give up on leashing the cat, and the muzzles are to keep the National Guard from shooting the dogs when they freak out at seeing soldiers running through the streets and lunge for them.
j. Critical medications.
This is the most important thing in this section. If you need asthma inhalers, insulin, epinephrine injectors (if you're allergic to bees), headache medicine, or anything like that, you need to have a separate supply with your kit. Be wary of expiration dates, and rotate your drugs through your supply! Doctors will almost always give you extra meds if you explain they are for an emergency kit. Be absolutely sure you understand the shelf life and temperature limits of everything you rely on.
k. Critical documentation; $200-$1000
This is the second most important thing in this section. You want individually-sealed waterproof bags with passports for everybody, and photocopies of birth certificates, drivers' licenses, and social security cards wouldn't hurt. Additionally, you want $200-$1000 in cash-- your budget will determine this-- in various denominations, in case you need to buy something when you get out of the area... or sooner.
GENERAL: Use containers that will survive your most likely disasters.
For a hurricane area, this means watertight containers that are safe against flooding, and either definitely will, or definitely won't, float, depending on what's appropriate for each item. If you live in an earthquake area or tornado alley, this means containers that can have the house crash on them and still stand a chance of surviving. If you do this right-- and it's not that hard to do this right-- then your entire house can flood, or collapse, or otherwise become uninhabitable, and you will still have resources on-site to survive for a week. That's pretty damn safe.
Obviously, all this stuff should go somewhere that you can get at it easily from inside the house, without having to go outside, but if there's a serious chance of the house collapsing, and you don't have a reinforced cellar or shelter of some kind, store it near an exterior wall that is unlikely to experience the highest heat in a fire or the highest loads in a collapse. Know how far in this spot is from the edge of your yard or street, so you know where to start excavating for your supplies, if it should come to that.
The recovery option mostly applies to earthquake and tornado areas, since badly flooded areas are likely to be too much of a health hazard to return for gear. For floods, floatable containers that can quickly be evacuated from the house may make more sense. Tough, well-sealing coolers that are designed to float anyway may work for you; do some research.
Conclusions
Oh, does that seem like a lot to keep on hand?
A lot to buy?
A lot to transport?
A lot to check the expiration dates on, and replace or rotate out every six months or so?
Well, I'm sure FEMA would agree with you-- but it's still your job, not theirs. Folks, that's just for one person. Think about ten thousand. Think about a hundred thousand. Maybe now you have a better understanding of the scope of what we expected our government agencies to do at the drop of a hat. They're not going to get it right, no matter how hard they try, because it's just too big of a job to do quickly. This is why it's so critical that you take steps to ensure that your first supply line is YOU. Do any of you really think that the response to a major disaster in a city the size of San Francisco or Los Angeles would turn out better than New Orleans? Think about the amount of fuel needed to move all that. What if we had a critical gas shortage at the same time? Sure, there's the strategic petroleum reserve-- but that fuel has to be transported out first, too.
There's a lot more I could add, but this is enough for now-- this already took a few more hours than I really had to put into it. I hope you find it helpful.
Cheers,
Breakpoint
Current Music: 808 State - Lift
|
|
| | Nice, man. Thanks for that. I just posted the link to Fandango. I have a few additions/ideas... Including some basic shade/shelter materials and FRS radios with several prioritized back-up channels taped/etched to the back of each. Maybe we should throw together a small wiki or something? Hmmmmm, a survival wiki. That almost sounds like something I could do with my website to make it actually useful. Nice idea. Thanks! between your advice and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) rustymaggot's, the redhead and I have quite a shopping list for this weekend . . . |
|
