Real-Life SHTF: Haiti Earthquake

Port-au-Prince is the scene of an honest-t0-God SHTF situation right now. Here are the reports I am reading:

• Haitian PM Jean-Max Bellerive believes 100,000 may be dead. Senator Youri Latortue believes the figure may be closer to 500,000. Both admit they don't know for sure.
• Doctors Without Borders reports that all hospitals in Port-au-Prince are gone. Not damaged. Not without power. Gone.
• The main prison in Port-au-Prince has collapsed and there are reports of escaped inmates.
• The parking lot of the Hotel Villa Creole has been turned into a triage center. The International Red Cross reports that one-third of Haiti's 9 million people - 3 million persons - may require emergency aid.
• The commander of a U.S. Coast Guard cutter is reporting that the port is heavily damaged.
• The Port-au-Prince airport was unable to accept flights in the first hours after the quake because the traffic control tower was not communicating.

I confess that my mind is simply not able to comprehend such devastation. But I think that it is helpful to read these reports, view the photos, watch the news coverage, and imagine yourself there. First, because it helps you to be compassionate for what these poor people are going through - please donate to the relief effort if you can. Second, because it may help you to find areas of your own disaster planning that could use improvement.

As I write this, it's less than 24 hours after the quake, which occurred at 4:53 p.m. local time. I imagine that I am there. I would have been at work. I probably would have been trapped in rubble, and if I escaped, I most likely would have been separated from my emergency kit no matter where I had stored it - in my office (buried in rubble) or in my car (buried under tons of concrete in a pancaked garage). I would be without a cell phone to call home. I would have to try to walk five miles home (to an apartment that likely no longer exists) over rubble, concrete, and broken glass with only the three-inch-heels on my feet and the dirty, torn clothes on my back. I would sleep in the street on whatever soft material I could find, afraid to go into any of the damaged structures around me. I would not have anything to eat until Red Cross arrives, probably two days from now.

Honestly, I don't know how you can plan for this sort of disaster. When buildings are not up to code and everything collapses, there's nowhere you can go and nothing you can stash that will help you except, possibly, for whatever is in your pockets when the building comes down. As much as we all strive to be independent and prepared, sometimes all you can rely on is your faith in God and the charity of others.

My Survivalist New Year's Resolutions

I'm ambivalent about New Year's resolutions. January 1st seems like an arbitrary date to make a change, and if you know you need to improve something, why wait to start? Also, it's a jump-on-the-bandwagon sort of thing, and I'm not much of a "joiner." Nevertheless, I usually end up making at least a few resolutions.

My list this year was delayed due to an incredibly hectic holiday season and vacation over New Year's. So I now offer you my belated list of survivalist New Year's resolutions - how does it compare to yours?

1. Obtain my ham radio license. Cost: $15 to take the exam. Study materials available for free on the internet. Time investment: 10-15 hours for studying and exam taking.
2. Improve my shooting skills by visiting the gun range at least once a month. Cost per month: Approximately $15 for range fees, $50-$100 for ammunition at roughly $1/round. (Ouch!) Time investment: 3 hours a month, including travel time, range time, and gun cleaning time.
3. Lose 15 pounds. That's not even a loss of 2 pounds a month; should be doable. I lost ten pounds in the last half of 2009; this will continue the effort. Cost: $12/month for Weight Watchers enrollment. Time investment: 2 hours a week for meetings and food tracking for a total 8 hours a month.
4. Improve outdoor survival and camping skills. I'm currently enrolled in a how-to-camp class (don't laugh!) and I'm in the process of obtaining gear and suitable clothing. Cost: several hundred dollars for tuition, gas, tent, and sleeping bag. Time investment: one evening class meeting, one three-day camping trip, and four hours a month exploring day hiking trails in and around Houston - 126 hours total.
5. Organize food storage and continue adding to it. Right now everything is just thrown in a spare closet with some old crappy bookshelves. Cost: minimal for organization; $10-$20/month for nonperishable food. Time investment: 15 hours.
6. Improve my Spanish-speaking skills. Cost: Zero. I already own language-learning software. With a trip to Puerto Rico in the planning stages, I'll have plenty of opportunity to try out my ability to communicate with people who (gasp!) don't speak English. Time investment: 2 hours a week plus vacation time, which I won't count, cause, well, it's a vacation.

Total projected cost in 2010: $1,619 ($135 a month, on average). Practice ammunition accounts for an overwhelming majority of this. Total projected time spent: 232 hours (20 hours a month on average).

If I can end 2010 with all these things accomplished, I think it will count as a productive year. How about you? Share your resolutions in the comments!

Real-life SHTF: Burning Vehicle

Milwaukee - a young mother with two young children in the car loses control of her vehicle and hits a tree. The car ends up on its side and bursts into flames.

The mother and one child make it out fairly quickly, but one child remains inside, strapped in by his seat belt, burning alive.

In this video you can hear the brave men, off-duty fire fighters, who rescued this young child calling desperately for a knife to cut the seatbelt. If you don't carry a knife, or a rescue tool (much less an emergency kit, c'mon people!), in your car please consider doing so. Here are a few examples:

ResQme

Boker Cop Tool

KnifeCenter: Rescue Knives

All passengers made it out alive, and the boy, although he suffered severe burns, is expected to make a full recovery. The rescuers did sustain burns in freeing the boy from the car.

Finally, note that the cops don't arrive until the end of the video -- long after the boy, and possibly the mother and other child, would have died.

Today Show: Report on Families Stockpiling Food

Longing for the Good Old Days...

... When Civil Defense was actually taken seriously.

Bayou City History: 1955 H-Bomb Drill Evacuates Downtown

It was Wednesday, June 15, 1955. The time was 5:15 p.m.

Air raid sirens blared throughout downtown. An "attack" on Houston was imminent.

At that moment, residents were directed to stop what they were doing and leave the area.

As the above headlines indicate, the 30-minute Civil Defense drill -- dubbed "Operation Alert" and conducted in various cities across the nation -- tested Houston's response to a nuclear attack. It wasn't a complete surprise to most Houstonians. Residents back then didn't have to wait for a siren to tell them to leave downtown. . . .

For those who want to bring back those days, I really recommend Utah Shelter Systems' website. Not only does it have information on their "All-Hazard Shelters," but there's also great general information on what to expect in the event of an actual nuclear strike, and what to do (if you have a shelter, that is).

Top Five Items to Survive the First Five Minutes

Here's a great article from respected former law-enforcement officer and founder of Modern Combative Systems George Matheis, aka "mercop":

Five to Survive the First Five

Hard Decisions

I've been rather quiet lately -- there's a lot going on here. Specifically, I'm moving to a new apartment in the first week of August. I'm not looking forward to burning a week of vacation moving all my earthly possessions in the sweltering, 100-degree, 100% humidity Texas summer.

Part of preparedness means living within your means, and that sometimes involves making hard decisions. When you are looking at your budget, wondering what you can cut so that you can increase your savings or free up funds to purchase preps with, sometimes the only choice is to look at your "fixed" or "hard" expenses -- the ones that are not easily varied. For me, that meant acknowledging that my apartment, while once affordable for me, is not within my means at present.

The circumstances precipitating the move may be familiar to many of you. Last fall, I experienced a forced job change, and was on an involuntary vacation for two months while I lined up new (and much improved) employment. While the time off work was wonderful, it consumed nearly all my savings -- and when I did find a new job, the pay was 2/3 of my former salary.

Ouch.

Consequently, I opted not to renew my lease and found a less expensive place to live. It's slightly smaller but, I hope, not lacking in most of the amenities that I've grown used to. I should be able to save several hundred dollars a month on rent, and that will free me up to rebuild my savings and eliminate more debt. The move is also providing sufficient motivation for me to finally throw out, donate, or sell all those useless items that have been cluttering my home for years now.

So, as much as I hate the stress and disruption of moving, I hope that it will pay dividends both financially and preparedness-wise. If you find yourself contemplating similar decisions, know that you are not alone.

Object Lesson in Preparedness

This is why everyone should have a go bag:

One Dead After Freight Train Derails Northwest of Chicago

The people living nearby had no idea when they woke up this morning that this would happen.

Hannity Airs Segment on "Urban Survivalists"

This piece is interesting for the fact that it was aired at all. Seems there's a growing movement afoot...

Interesting Items for EDC

Went shopping yesterday and found some really neat preparedness and EDC (every day carry) items that I thought I would share with you.

Envirosax - found at the FranklinCovey store, these polyester bags are strong and roomy enough to hold two plastic bags worth of groceries -- but roll up and button down to roughly the size of a golfball. You can get them in singles or purchase a pack of five with a pouch to hold them all -- the pouch fits comfortably at the bottom of my Tom Bihn Medium Cafe Bag. They are absolutely gorgeous and come in a range of beautiful prints.

Pocket.doc and Life.doc from Buttoned Up - the Pocket.doc from Buttoned up is the size of a tiny notebook, but unfolds like an accordion. Inside are forms for your emergency plan, emergency contacts, and medical information forms for each member of your family (up to four). It's a great item to include in your purse or EDC kit.

It's too big to EDC, but the maker of the Pocket.doc also makes the Life.doc Organizer, which is a large three-ring binder with sections to record and organize all of your important information -- legal, medical, financial, home, and caregiver info for elderly parents. Best of all for us anal-retentive types, it comes with a CD so that you can type your information into your PC and then feed the forms through your printer. Each divider tab has a pocket for storing loose sheets of paper, notes, business cards, and the like. This is a perfect item for a disaster kit or bug-out bag and I would go so far as to suggest that every family needs one of these. Available from FranklinCovey, Amazon, and any number of online stores.

Ironkey USB Drive - this USB drive is made to government specifications. It's rugged enough to carry on a keychain and sports an encryption algorithm that ensures that no one will be able to access the files on it without knowing the password. Some people EDC a flash drive like this one that holds files containing scanned copies of all their important documents -- birth certificate, passport, credit cards, insurance, ID, etc. I wish I liked the idea better, but realistically I think the applications for emergency use may be limited. If you truly need to show someone a copy of these items in an emergency, they probably are not going to have a laptop just sitting around ready for you to plug in the USB drive and pull up your information. Not to mention, in the event of an EMP attack, this thing and the things it plugs into won't be working no way, no how. The truth is, paper is an amazing technology that still hasn't been surpassed by all of our electronic wizardry.

It is a very cool toy, though. EDC it if you want, just don't rely on it in an emergency.

Melbourne Mayor Advises Residents, Visitors to Carry Go Bag

My God, a governmental official is actually encouraging personal responsibility!!!

Melbourne residents are being urged to have a bag of essential items - including a torch, soup and tissues - prepared in case of evacuation.

Releasing a new CBD emergency plan today, Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said carrying a Go Bag made sense for workers and visitors to the city.

The new plan, to be sent out to the CBD's 20,000 residents and available on the City of Melbourne's website, includes mass evacuation to sites such as Etihad Stadium, the MCG and Exhibition Building in times of emergency.

Emergencies could range from earthquakes and terrorist attacks to floods or the heatwave experienced in Melbourne earlier this year.

Cr Doyle said he had a Go Bag already packed. "My first priority is to make sure people in the city are safe and they are prepared for any emergency or natural disaster," he said.

Items people should consider putting in their Go Bag include a small radio, torch, soup, basic first aid, any personal medicine, bottle of water, muesli bar, pack of batteries, jellybeans and tissues, the council said.

Makes sense. I imagine Australians have a preparedness mindset from birth. They live in a country whose natural climate and wildlife are inimical to humans.

Anatomy of a Bug Out Bag

So you want to build a bug out bag. No simple pre-assembled, commercially-available kits will do for you. (And for the record, I recommend building your own. You'll have complete freedom of choice for every item in the bag, ensuring its quality, usefulness, and most importantly, that you know it's even there in the first place.)

How to proceed?

Choosing the pack
You can use an old school or camping backpack, or buy a new one. I originally co-opted my old law school backpack, a Jansport, for this new duty. (I've since acquired more than it can hold, and upgraded to a 5.11 Tactical 72 RUSH pack.) I emptied it, put it through the washer with a tiny bit of soap, and hung it to dry in the shower overnight. The next day, it was ready to use.

If you are buying a bag new instead of using one on hand, take some care in selecting it. I would not recommend a duffel bag because of the uneven weight distribution. You need to be able to carry this pack hands-free for long distances if necessary. It needs to fit well -- if you are a small person, buy a mammoth-sized pack at your own peril. Also consider internal organization, such as pockets and dividers, and external organization, such as MOLLE and PALS attachment points that are available on tactical bags. Ask yourself if you want the bag to have a pouch for a hydration bladder like a CamelBak.

My pack presently weighs in at a doable 19 pounds. (I’m such a girl.) The general guideline for the amount of weight that you should carry in your pack for a multiday trip is up to 25 percent of your body weight. Obviously this varies with your size, weight, and physical condition. If you are older, have back problems, are not in good health, or for other reasons cannot carry a heavy pack, I would recommend that you look at assembling a smaller, lighter bag using a “lumbar pack” available from many outdoor equipment retailers. This is basically a larger, more rugged fanny pack. The obvious trade-off for the lighter size is that you will have to carry only the barest essentials, so choose your gear wisely. Regardless of the size and weight of your pack I recommend that you train with it -- try walking a mile in it and see how you hold up.

The conventional wisdom for a pack such as this is that it needs to supply all your needs for three days. For example, if an earthquake strikes, or there is a chemical spill near your home, this is a bag that you would grab from your closet or the trunk of your car in ten seconds while evacuating your home that would have everything you needed to get by for three days -- after which time presumably you will have been allowed to return home, or will have found refuge at a local shelter or with family and friends who are still in their homes. For myself, I carry more than this, as I anticipate that it will take at least a week if I have to hike home to my family should the major urban center where I live become uninhabitable.

Security concerns
As will quickly become apparent from perusing the list below, your pack will be a treasure trove of very valuable items, some expensive, and some inexpensive but still very sensitive. Your personal identification, any firearms, and the emergency cash are all items that any thief would be glad to have. You will have to make a personal choice about how and when to keep your bag with you. If you keep it in the trunk of your car, you will have it with or near you at nearly all times, which ensures that you will have it whenever the need arises. The trade off is that a thief who steals your car will also have the bag now and you will not only face the inconvenience of a stolen car but also identity theft.

Packing your bag
The list below looks extremely long, but in fact, most of these items are in my bag. Many of them take up very little space especially when compared to their utility or the degree of comfort they will offer in the event of an emergency.

Some simple guidelines will help you to pack your bag in an efficient manner. Try to keep the center of gravity close to your back, and not too high in the pack unless you are not going to encounter any steep or rough terrain. Frequently-accessed items, as long as they are not too large, go in outer pockets. For more detailed information on loading your pack depending upon your sex or the type of terrain, I suggest you consult The Backpacker's Field Manual by Rick Curtis.

Most items need to be sealed in plastic bags or Aloksaks to ensure they are kept dry in inclement weather; use your common sense as to what will not need to be waterproofed. Aside from the waterproofing issue, the plastic bags are useful for grouping categories of items together for organization and ease of access and for tight and efficient use of space, both inside the plastic bag and out of it.

Building in redundancy
For very critical items such as water, fire, and light, I recommend including redundant sources. This is so that if one tool breaks, you have a backup or alternate ready to go. The truly hard-core preparedness types use the acronym "PACE," which means Primary-Alternate-Contingency-Emergency, or having in mind four different ways to accomplish a task at all times. You may also see the phrase "three is two, two is one, one is none." Same idea.

Read the manual
If you carry any technically advanced or potentially hazardous items such as a camp stove, personal protection device, Leatherman tool, or any item whose operation and use is not intuitive for a five-year-old, make sure that you learn to operate the item immediately upon purchase and BEFORE putting it in your bag. An emergency is not the time to try and figure out how to use the thing.

Judgment calls
There are several items on this list that will require you to exercise your own independent moral judgment. The two major areas are, first, the issue of self-protection, where you will have to decide what type of weapon to carry and, second, for women, whether to carry a dose of Plan B to prevent pregnancy in the case of sexual assault. If you choose to do so, you should know that Plan B is available without a prescription at your local pharmacy, although you may need to ask the pharmacist for it. It is not a good idea to attempt to purchase it at the last minute because the local pharmacist may choose to exercise their right of conscience in refusing to dispense the drug, and you will have to find another source that will sell it to you.

If you choose to carry a firearm, please ensure that you obey all local and federal laws while doing so and are sufficiently trained and rehearsed in the safe and accurate operation of the gun. I do NOT recommend deciding not to carry any protection at all. You need to be able to defend yourself. How you do that is up to you.

THE LIST

This list is not exhaustive. Use your own sense when constructing your bag.

Food
Emergency rations and ready-to-eat food items, 3 days
Optional: Camp stove or Jetboil personal cooking system, with fuel canister (will provide approximately 90 minutes of cooking time); for families, consider a Helios cooking system.
Optional: Fuel for campstove
Optional: long-term storage multivitamins, such as SuperSpectrim
Optional: Lifetabs or other survival/energy tabs

Water
Emergency water packs, 3 days, plus extra if you have pets (see below)
Katadyn Ex-Stream XR personal water filter
Micropur water purification tablets

Shelter
Emergency tube tent or tarp
Rain poncho
Emergency blanket

Clothing
Tennis shoes or hiking boots
Socks, 3 pair
Underwear, 3 pair
crushable hat with brim, such as a boonie hat
bandanna
Optional: one pair of jeans or other comfortable pants; one cotton t-shirt

Lighting
LED headlamp, batteries stored separately
Small flashlight, batteries stored separately
Light sticks, 3

Hygiene
Wet wipes
Small toothbrush and toothpaste
Two large trash bags, to dispose of waste
Comb or brush
Mini rolls of toilet paper
Small microfiber towel, like Packtowl

Safety - choose at least one
Firearm with appropriate JHP (jacketed hollow point) ammunition, concealment holster, extra magazines, and small cleaning kit
Knife, fixed blade or folder with locking blade
Pepper (OC) spray
Taser C2

Utility
Survival Kit - I recommend the Doug Ritter version from Adventure Medical Kits.
Leatherman tool or utility knife (look for a blade at least 2 1/2 inches long)
100’ 550-lb paracord
Work gloves
Small waterproof notebook, such as Rite in the Rain, and pen or pencil
Detailed map of your local area
Detailed map of the route from your home to any “bug out” location, such as family in another city; with primary and alternate routes highlighted in different colors
$100 in cash, small bills only, plus roll of coins if desired
Photocopies of your ID, birth certificate, social security card, health insurance card
List of phone numbers and addresses of family, relatives, and friends (do not rely on your cell phone to provide this information; it may be dead or you may not have it with you)
Passport (or photocopy thereof)

Fire - choose two or three methods of firestarting
Lighter
Firesteel
Waterproof matches
Kindling, such as Wetfire, cotton balls soaked in vaseline, or small bag of cotton-fiber dryer lint

Medical
First aid kit sufficient to deal with both "boo boos" and "trauma"
Supply of any critical prescription medications -- pack extra in case you are gone longer than three days
N95 or N100 respirator masks, 3 (one per day) (for dust and smoke)
Nitrile gloves
Sunscreen
Lip balm w/SPF
Insect repellent towelettes
Optional: emergency surgical kit, CPR kit

Pets (per pet)
Food, 3 days’ worth, sealed in vacuum bags if possible
Water (see above)
Collapsible plastic food and water bowls
Copies of their most recent rabies shot and city license, if required
One dose of Advantage or other flea and worm preventative
Leash
Small toys

Situation-specific
Nukalert personal radiation meter
Potassium iodide or potassium iodate tablets (thyroid radiation blocker) (for nuclear incidents)
N95 or N100 respirator masks, 3 (one per day) (for pandemics)
NBC-rated gas mask (for nuclear, chemical, biological attacks)

For ladies
Feminine hygiene products
Optional: Plan B, one dose, in case of sexual assault

Miscellaneous
Travel-size Bible, Torah, Qu’ran, etc.
Pack of playing cards

Hey, if it works for the squirrels...

This company sells kits to help you bury a cache of items to save them from confiscation, or to be planted intermittently along the route to your bug out location:

Preparedness Equipment

And they even give you instructions on how to make your own here, if you are so inclined.

Two foods you won't want to face the apocalypse without

.... can you guess what they are?

Coffee.

And butter.

No food storage program would be complete without them. ;)

Free Books Available for Download

Some very valuable resources, free of charge -- be sure to print them out. They will do you no good sitting encoded as a string of ones and zeroes on your hard drive when the power goes out.

It's worthwhile to take your printed materials to Kinko's and have them bound. I usually ask for wire/spiral binding, with a clear vinyl cover and a black vinyl backing. It looks great and costs just a few dollars.

• Where There Is No Doctor
• Where There Is No Dentist
• Where Women Have No Doctor
• A Book for Midwives

Get the full list of available titles here.

More Online Resources and Bug Out Bag Retailers

Sometimes, you think you've tapped out all the available information about a topic, and then you hit a new breakthrough that opens up a whole new wealth of information. Last week's discovery was the post over at Ferfal's Surviving in Argentina blog about the EDC Forums (EDC = every day carry), a group of people who pay a great deal of attention to what particular items they carry with them every single day, and how they carry them.

As if that community wasn't awesome enough, it yielded a harvest of great new sites carrying preparedness gear:

General:

Survival Resources - nice online emergency gear store.

First Aid:

Rescue Essentials - great first-aid items, with "modules" specialized for different purposes -- foot care, bandaging, wound care, airway management, trauma, pandemic, immobilizing, wound prep, etc.

Red Flare Kits - more great first-aid kits and general survival gear.

Minimus.com - carries individually-packaged single doses of medications and other items.

Bags and Backpacks:

County Comm - reasonably priced "tactical" (or is that, "tacti-cool"?) nylon bags, featuring MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) attachments to endlessly customize your bag, and lots of internal compartments to organize your emergency gear. Don't miss the EOD Utility Bag, Bail Out Bag, and Diplomat Pocket Organizer.

Maxpedition - the great granddaddy of all tactical nylon (with prices to match), this company makes rugged, well-nigh indestructible survival packs in all shapes and sizes, some of which include concealed-carry compartments. I particularly like the FR-1 Pouch for first aid kits, Neatfreak Organizer, EDC Pocket Organizer, Multi-Purpose Bag and Tactical Attache series (small ("last resort"), medium ("operator"), and large ("aggressor"), see picture at right).

Spec Ops - more tactical nylon. I've got my eye on the Pack Rat Organizer (see picture at left).

Mil Spec Monkey - has some very nice tactical gear like the Stealth Utility/Admin Pouch, but I really love it for its morale patches. Time to dress up that bug out bag! (Not Safe for Work; some of the patches contain adult language/content.)

Bags for Professionals, Urbanites, and Girly-Girls:

Tom Bihn - great selection of preppy, colorful messenger bags and laptop bags that don't scream "Survivalist!" See especially the Cafe Bags (see picture at below left) (small, medium, and large) and the Imago laptop bag. The Cafe Bags don't have as much internal organization as the "tactical" bags, but you could customize them to suit your needs, or you could simply stick one of the pocket organizers or smaller pouches from Maxpedition, County Comm, or Spec Ops into the bag. The Imago, on the other hand, has plenty of pockets and dividers to spare.



Waterfield - the Cargo, Cozmo, and Sling Bags are definitely worth a look. Waterfield also carries a great selection of small "gear pouches" for your sensitive electronics, like iPods and digital cameras.

Some of these bags are expensive, so it's worth checking out eBay to see if there are any deals (there frequently are).

Cultural Survival

And once I had recognized the taste of the crumb of madeleine soaked in her decoction of lime-flowers which my aunt used to give me . . . immediately the old grey house upon the street, where her room was, rose up like the scenery of a theatre to attach itself to the little pavilion, opening on to the garden, which had been built out behind it for my parents . . . and with the house the town, from morning to night and in all weathers, the Square where I was sent before luncheon, the streets along which I used to run errands, the country roads we took when it was fine. And just as the Japanese amuse themselves by filling a porcelain bowl with water and steeping in it little crumbs of paper which until then are without character or form, but, the moment they become wet, stretch themselves and bend, take on colour and distinctive shape, become flowers or houses or people, permanent and recognisable, so in that moment all the flowers in our garden and in M. Swann's park, and the water-lilies on the Vivonne and the good folk of the village and their little dwellings and the parish church and the whole of Combray and of its surroundings, taking their proper shapes and growing solid, sprang into being, town and gardens alike, all from my cup of tea.

- Marcel Proust (1871-1922), Remembrance of Things Past

After a Long Emergency, when the economy has begun to rise from the ashes of self-immolation, when there is some semblance of normalcy and people are no longer focused on obsessive thoughts of where their next meal will come from, your family will look around and wonder,

"How did Mom make pot roast?"

"Do you remember Grandma's pecan pie? Man, I wish I had a piece of that."

"I thought I remembered how to make this, but it just isn't turning out."

This is cultural survival, and if you really believe your family has a chance of surviving a crisis, it is important. Do not impoverish your children's future by allowing them to inherit a world in which they physically survive, but the memories and shared experiences that they have known and loved perish, never to be recovered.

In my Texan, barbecue-loving, deep-fat-frying family, only two generations removed from the farm that my grandfather grew up on, food is love made visible, a ritual that we re-enact every year as we come to the table to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. There are the black-eyed peas that my mother cooks every New Year's Day to bring us luck, served steaming over a golden slab of sweet cornbread to sop up the bacon-flavored broth. There is the rose-colored Christmas ham, encrusted in its sugary glaze, studded with fragrant cloves and bejeweled with translucent pineapple rings the color of sunshine and ruby-red maraschino cherries. And there is the pot roast, a humble piece of garlic-studded beef served with potatoes, onions and carrots roasted alongside, dressed with ivory ribbons of thick cream gravy flecked with pepper.

And there are the recipes that haven't survived. Two of my grandmother's recipes are gone, probably forever: her divinity, a temperamental meringue-like dessert made of egg whites and sugar that melted like a cloud on your tongue, and her corn souffle, kernels cut fresh from the cob, mixed with whole milk, obscene amounts of butter and somehow roasted in the oven until the middle was tender and the edges - my favorite - were brown and chewy.

I suspect most families' shared experience revolves around food. Even Jesus made a point of holding a Last Supper, now symbolically re-enacted weekly by millions of followers around the world who break bread together.

While you have the chance, please make a list of all the dishes that your family has made countless times over the years -- the ones you grew up with, the ones that you ask for every time you go home. Ask the resident Food Priest of your family to help you write down the recipes for these dishes, and then make them yourself. Trust me, you will think the recipe is clear until you are half-way into it, the pot is boiling on the stove, and suddenly you are grabbing the phone to speed-dial your mother to ask her why the gravy isn't thickening. You will understand exactly what you don't know, you can analyze why it didn't quite taste like mom's, and you will have the chance to hone your skills so that you can get it right -- now, and after the Long Emergency.

Knowledge survives best when written down and widely disseminated. Once you have your catalog of recipes, you can publish them and provide copies to every member of your family so that no matter what, the family culture will survive, despite time, distance, and separation.

A final thought from Marcel Proust:

"I think that life would suddenly seem wonderful to us if we were threatened to die as you say. Just think of how many projects, travels, love affairs, studies, it - our life - hides from us, made invisible by our laziness which, certain of a future, delays them incessantly.

But let all this threaten to become impossible for ever, how beautiful it would become again! Ah! If only the cataclysm doesn’t happen this time, we won’t miss visiting the new galleries of the Louvre, throwing ourselves at the feet of Miss X, making a trip to India.

The cataclysm doesn’t happen, we don’t do any of it, because we find ourselves back in the heart of normal life, where negligence deadens desire. And yet we shouldn’t have needed the cataclysm to love life today. It would have been enough to think that we are humans, and that death may come this evening.”

SHTF Fiction Review: "One Second After" by William Forstchen

Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.

- Jessamyn West

The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and tens of thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world.

- Thomas Robert Malthus, "An essay on the principle of population"

One second after an unknown enemy detonates an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) weapon high above the United States, civilization grinds to a halt. Cars drift to a stop on the highway, permanently stalled, their onboard computer systems fried. Cell phones are dead. The power goes out, taking with it climate control and refrigeration. Tractor trailers are abandoned on the highways of America, their shipments of food and medical supplies ransacked inside a day. Nearly every plane in flight across America spontaneously crashes, setting off fires that can't be put out because the fire trucks are inoperable. Hospital patients in the middle of surgery die as their ventilators and monitoring equipment power down. And because there is no communication with the outside world -- no television, email, or phone service -- no one knows what has happened or why.

The hero of this tale is John Matherson, retired Army Colonel and small-town history professor. John's knowledge of history gives him a unique and rare ability to place these catastrophic events in context, and to show the people of his town (and the reader) that America, heretofore the most privileged of nations, is not immune from experiencing the sort of grim Malthusian realities that have confronted other nations in times of crisis.

The story that unfolds details the heartbreaking choices that people are forced to make when there is no food, no medicine, no transportation, and no one has the skills to scratch a living from the earth. I give Mr. Forstchen a good deal of credit for not sanitizing the situation or allowing his characters to skirt painful issues. When your children are starving, should you shoot your beloved family pet and eat it? If there isn't enough food to go around, do you feed everyone equally and face total extinction within months, or do you allow the weak and useless to starve so that the strong and capable may survive? In answering these questions, the citizens of Black Mountain, North Carolina attempt not only to survive but to maintain their sense of decency, moral compass, and shared identity as Americans when circumstances dictate that it is every man for himself.

There's no question that factually, the book is meticulously researched and entirely plausible. A Congressional committee has been issuing reports on the threat to America from an EMP attack since 2001. As a work of fiction, "One Second After" is tightly plotted and engages the reader in the protagonists' struggle to survive. There are a few unfortunate moments when the dialogue between characters feels stilted; they make observations to each other that in reality most people would keep to themselves. John and his love interest, Makala, also tend to show a level of psychological insight and self-awareness that I believe few people possess. On the whole, however, the book is eminently readable. I can only hope it finds a broad audience.

This book may encourage those who read it to renew their conviction to prepare. But aside from spurring its audience on to greater levels of preparedness, I hope it will also prompt people to contact their Congressional representatives in the (perhaps vain) hope that in the midst of all the wasteful, ridiculous spending that is taking place today, some money can be allotted to mitigate the potential damages of such an attack.

"One Second After" is available for purchase from Amazon.com (hardcover edition - Kindle edition) and Barnes & Noble.

You Are Not Alone: Kansas City paper reports on preparedness trend

These articles were posted on WorldNet Daily:

Stockpilers prepare for perilous future: ammo, canned goods, vegetable seeds all flying off shelves
The Kansas City Star reports on the growing number of people who are preparing for the worst -- whatever that may be.

1,000 lbs. of potentially explosive fertilizer stolen from Huntsville, Alabama store

Newt Gingrich accuses Obama of endangering Israel
And he would be right.

From Fox News:

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs: Gravely concerned about Pakistan nukes

Signs that Iran's ayatollah dissatisfied with Ahmedinejad as summer elections approach
We can only hope.

Preparedness Focus: Pandemics

Given today's news item on the possible human-to-human spread of swine flu in two California children, I thought it would be good to discuss how to prepare for a pandemic.

If a pandemic occurs, you should expect it to hit quickly due to the universality and speed of modern travel. Quarantines will be likely; expect major services and utilities to be unavailable as the people who staff those facilities fall ill or become subject to quarantine themselves. Schools will be shut down. Food and supplies will be unavailable either due to quarantine or, more likely, because of massive runs on supplies. Anyone seeking to prepare for a pandemic should attain self-sufficiency capabilities for a minimum of 6-8 weeks up to three months. While the length of time a pandemic takes to run its course may be a year or two, the action is compressed into 2 or 3 periods lasting two or three months each.

Consequently, you can break down pandemic preparedness into several key areas:

1. Food and Water. The government recommends a two-week supply of food and water. I consider this to be completely insufficient. As stated above, you should prepare for 2-3 months. Even if the grocery stores have supplies, if everyone around you is a potential incubator for a deadly virus, do you really want to go to the grocery store?

Three months' food storage is very doable, but that much water takes up a lot of space and is very heavy. Assuming that your home maintains water pressure but the water is of questionable drinkability, I would recommend purchasing a water filter such as the ones made by Katadyn. You can use the Home Emergency Water System (HEWS) to store water in your bathtub while there's still water pressure and the sanitation facilities are operating. Lehman's also has a gravity filter that might work well.

In addition to food and water, you'll need a means to prepare it. Since the power may be out, be prepared to use a solar cooker, gas grill, JetBoil personal cooking system (or Helios system for families), or other camp stove. You will need plenty of fuel.

Any regular reader of this blog knows that I harp on food and water storage ad nauseam. The good news is, food and water will see you through nearly any type of emergency, not just a pandemic.

2. Hygiene and Sanitation. You can acquire N-95 particulate masks from Amazon.com for a reasonable price. Each family member will need a new one each day for maximum protection. Hand sanitizer and nitrile gloves will also be needed.

You may want a portable toilet with plenty of liner bags, and plenty of toilet paper. You will want heavy duty large trash bags with rubber bands or strong plastic ties to store your waste as trash removal services will probably not be running, as well as a large plastic waste barrel.

3. First Aid and Medical. You will need to store prescription medicines as well as aspirin, ibuprofen, and other flu-related items. Focus on fever reducers, anti-nausea medications, anti-diarrhea medicines, and cough medicines. A simple first-aid kit could also be useful.

A multi-vitamin is critical for maintaining your health. There are vitamins available that can be stored for up to ten years without losing their potency.

I would store powdered gatorade or another electrolyte restorer such as CeraLyte to help with dehydration from diarrhea.

4. Entertainment. Since you will not be reporting to work unless you are critical personnel, be prepared for boredom. Have books on hand, jigsaw puzzles, board games, playing cards, books of crossword puzzles, crayons and coloring books, paper, knitting, or anything creative that does not require electricity and will keep your mind off the complete disintegration of society occurring outside your door. Also, you will want gas lamps or other light sources (candles and flashlights are not really sufficient) so that you can entertain yourself after dark.

5. Personal Protection. Imagine the family next door, who hasn't prepared, has a sick eight-year old daughter. She's in severe respiratory distress. The hospitals are overwhelmed and closed to new patients. The neighbors know you're still healthy and suspect you have food, water, and medicines. What do you think those parents are going to do, or how they are going to behave, in an attempt to save their daughter's life? Enough said.

6. Other items. Since emergency services will probably not be available, have a fire extinguisher on hand; take a First Aid course; and make sure you have plenty of batteries for your emergency radio. Telephone services will probably still be available, but you will want to use a simple phone that jacks directly into the wall - not a cordless or digital phone. Finally, keep cash on hand to avoid having to run to the bank, or in the event that ATMs are not working or are out of cash.

Further reading:

The Bird Flu Manual

Pandemicflu.gov (US Health & Human Services)