Attitude and Strength - Where are You Going to Get Yours?

So much of being ready for disaster and positioned to survive it--whether the crisis is personal or location-specific--is really about what is going on between the ears. Doubtingthomas introduced us to that realization in this blog's previous post, dated August 19.

As he points out, getting through trauma is more than a mental exercise--it's also about being in touch with one's own soul and with its Creator. Faith in a higher purpose and in an ultimate reward is going to always be a grand help in time of trouble. For additional perspective, please also see an earlier post: Spiritual Aspects of Preparing for Catastrophe.

The last thing I want to do is to get sidetracked and turn this blog into a theolog. We will again respectfully recognize that each of us has at least a somewhat unique view and interpretation of our place in creation. Our faith in our ability to grasp some of that higher purpose is what can become the difference between persevering and giving ourselves up to temporary madness or worse.

Preparing Your "House"

Theoutlands, one of our "Refugees" at this blog, kindly offered his view of why being prepared is important. The spiritual side of preparedness is more than about leaning on his faith to get through tough times ... it in fact provides him and his household with a basic rationale and foundation for all their readiness efforts.

Theoutlands: Staying alive to be found is a vital part of preparedness and survival, but there is so much more to it than just that. I consider "preparedness" to be a way of life, centering around the family - be it immediate, extended, or adopted.

The better a family is versed in the "basics" and the more diverse it is in abilities, the better the chances are of surviving any catastrophe.

Why plan for ill times? Personally, I can see no alternative but to plan and prepare. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, those with plans and preparations can continue their lives in relatively normal fashion during a disaster. But there is also another side.

Consider these ancient "wise sayings" ...

In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil,
but a fool devours all that he has.

The prudent see danger and take refuge,
but the simple keep going and suffer for it.

Those of you who have read the Old Testament book of Proverbs may recognize those lines. Part of my belief in "preparedness" stems from my religious faith. This may offend some people, but that's the way it is.

Some organizations, such as the LDS, make preparedness an integral part of church doctrines. I think this is entirely reasonable, because the Bible does talk in many places about "being ready" or "being prepared" for the future.

I've already listed two of them, above - Proverbs 21:20, 22:3, and 27:12 - since the last proverb appears twice. However, those are far from the only places where being prepared is addressed.

Genesis 41 tells the story of Joseph interpreting Pharoh's dreams of a coming seven years of abundance to be followed by seven years of famine so severe that the days of plenty would be forgotten. Joseph's plan for Egypt--given to him by God--was to store one-fifth of the harvests of the next seven years to provide for the country.

Matthew 25 tells the story of ten virgins meeting a bridegroom--five prepared well by taking extra oil for their lamps and five did not. The five who were roaming town, looking for lamp-oil at midnight, missed the arrival of the bridegroom and were left out of the reception.

Well, those are good stories, right? What's it mean to my life today? One last verse for you - 1 Timothy 5:8: If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

So there you have it - if I am aware of dangers that my family may face and do not take steps to provide for them, then I am worse than an unbeliever. So today I take steps to prepare my family because I believe that is my duty.

"Don't prep to outlast the 'troubles,' prep to not notice them."

http://outlands.tripod.com

Emotional Prepping - In the Unlikely Event ...

by doubtingthomas

(JCR - This post is again graciously provided by one of my favorite wisemen, doubtingthomas. See his previous post, "The Sky is Falling, the Sky is Falling." This gentleman is eminently qualified to discuss the topic of this current post ... I specifically asked him if he would provide his perspective on getting oneself mentally and emotionally prepared for war, disaster, or other trauma and/or how to get through such an ordeal. Read on for an insightful view through the eyes of someone who knows of what he speaks.)

How do you prepare yourself spiritually and emotionally for war?

Some would say that it is impossible. In some ways that is true, but not wholly accurate. War is not the only producer of trauma. It can be sexual trauma, getting mugged, living in a high crime area, being in a severe accident where people are killed and/or injured. In wartime, the frequency and severity of these types of events multiplies.

In general it is said that whatever living skills you take into trauma, will affect your ability to deal with it. One thing you can count on, you WILL be impacted by events out of the range of "normal" everyday living (trauma). How much you are affected depends on your ability to deal with it from that point forward.

If you take a quick look at http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/facts/treatment/fs_coping.html, and view their listed coping skills, you can see that you don’t have to wait until it happens to you to prepare. These skills and suggestions are helpful to anyone, but critical to those experiencing trauma.

You might also notice an emphasis on spiritual growth and development. This can take the form you are most comfortable with. The key is to instill in yourself the notion that most of the world is not within your control. Acceptance is the key to this process.

What You CAN Control

Your reactions to events, to a great extent, ARE within your control. However, to get to a place where your reactions are not destructive to yourself or others, you need to be able to process what has happened. This is done by talking about it.

When we experience trauma, the lower part of our brain, close to the instinctual and physical reaction part of our brain, records the sights, sounds, smells, feelings of the events. If we do not find a way to move these out of the lower parts of our brain, the "triggers" of the events (what we saw, heard, smelled, felt) remain locked there. Over time, these triggers throw our brain chemistry out of whack.

We experience anxiety, depression, night sweats, nightmares, flashbacks, panic attacks, fear of groups of people, memory loss. The effects on our personal lives can be tragic. Lost jobs, marriages, homes, family, etc.

We end up with a neurological disorder that can be treated, but not cured. Once we get to that point, you end up like me … I need to take a cocktail of psychotropic meds everyday just to function enough to keep a job. In addition, we tend to get a boatload of stress related illnesses (heart problems, stomach problems, allergy problems, etc).

Most of the above can be avoided. Talking about these events moves them out of our lower brain to our higher functioning brain where we can process what has happened. We come to accept that our reaction to abnormal events was quite normal. If someone claims that the trauma has not affected them, they are still in denial, or worse, severely mentally disabled.

Studies are showing that young adults (17-22), surprisingly, are the most affected by trauma--especially war trauma. At a time when young adults are trying things out, experimenting, figuring out who they are and how to deal with the world, trauma, especially prolonged trauma, disrupts that process. At this point in your life, trauma may leave you developmentally paralyzed in that you have a greater risk of never getting beyond the trauma.

The skills you learn to survive war, at that age, are not very productive in a peaceful, civilian life. If you are stuck in that survival mode, your quality and quantity of life are severely reduced. You are not enjoying life, you are just surviving.

So, as trauma victims, are we doomed? No, definitely not.

We prepare our living skills to be able to deal with whatever may come our way. We accept that if nothing else, we are not God, and most of life is beyond our control. We will be able to see the best as well as the worst of mankind during disasters. We will accept our responsibilities to ourselves and families. We will move on, armed with a set of tools to still see the beauty in this life God has given us.

One of my favorite prayers is:

“God, thank you for all you have given me;
All you haven taken away from me;
And all that you have left me.”

To say those words and mean them, means you have reached a level of acceptance necessary to not just survive trauma, but to really live beyond it.

How Some Were Drawn to Prepare

This is the next article resulting from input solicited from TB2K members. (See "Crisis Preparation Advice from the Experts," the August 16 blog entry here.)

The '64 Earthquake in Alaska Reinforced the Habit

Patb: I have had my mindset of being prepared for many, many years. Starting with when I was a kid living with my parents in a railroad section town 9 miles from a highway and 45 miles from the nearest town during WW2. Couldn't get much gas and tires were impossible. So we made a trip about once a month by train to the nearest town to stock up. Of course war time prepping was a much different story.

When I got older, living somewhere else (in a town), prepping was a way of life, especially during the wintertime as we were prone to blizzards that could keep you pinned down for days on end. I'd advise people just starting out to consider the various weather extremes they could expect in their locations. That could lead to lists for various scenarios--yes, I am a list maker. Prepping for extreme weather is one of the ways to ease people into a prepping way of life.

If you camp and have the basic equipment to do so, you are already in the game. We used our camp stove, for example, to prepare meals and melt snow for water after the '64 quake in Anchorage.

My preps also came in handy about 25 years ago when my husband (may he rest in peace) was in a snowmachine accident and couldn't work for over a year. I did have a job, but wasn't bringing in much. Having something put back really helped us. I had three growing boys at the time. You never know what may come. If you have preps and don't need them, you can always use them. But, if you need them and don't have them, you could be in a world of hurt.

A Fast Evacuation Due to A Hazardous Spill

Pam811811: What got my butt into gear was a train wreck. Because of my husband's job, I we had just moved to a town where I didn't know anybody. We lived two miles outside of the small town and there was a train wreck there. The police came through our small subdivision and evacuated us within minutes. I had to leave my house with 3 small children, 2 large dogs, and a kitten. My husband was stuck at work and was not allowed to drive into the evacuation zone. At that time, we also only had one cell phone and my husband always took it to work because I stayed home with the kids.

I didn't even have an adequate diaper bag packed!! I literally had nothing but my kids and animals. I spent four hours at a park with no money and no baby formula. (Hey, I did have diapers though!) When I was finally able to go home, I stayed up until 3am packing small backpacks for everyone. These were my original "bug-out bags" (BOBs). They really weren't much. A few snacks, some water, money, clothes, just enough for a few hours or a day.

Then, I spent some time online and found out about real emergency BOBs and somewhere I found a link to a Y2K site. Boy then, I got an eye opener! Tons of information. Anyway, those of us who weren't really raised as preppers, sometimes need a personal event to knock us into gear. Well, that and GUILT! Boy did I feel like a failure when my daugher screamed at the top of her lungs when I had to give her lukewarm water out of a drinking fountain at the park. Plus she had to drink it out of a plain cup that I found under a seat in the van because I didn't have a bottle.

Surviving Severe Weather Leaves Its Mark

Idelphic: Growing up, we had a small garden and canned a bit; we also had a freezer. I always had an interest in storms. I loved to sit out on the porch and watch the rain come pounding down and to watch the lightning. After getting my Ham license, I took some SkyWarn training, and even did a bit of stormchasing. One way or the other, when you have an understanding of just how much nature's wrath can change the world around us, you realize you ought to try to do something to prepare for the worst.

But until actually going through some really tough storms, I was not actively preparing. Having lived through several hurricanes, and super storms ... I know what it means to be prepared. And to stay informed. A hurricane came through Virginia a few years ago, and took out the power at my place of employment, and it was out for 3 days ... but I missed a day since I didn't keep in touch as I should have.

With the chance of starting a new family, I've made several changes in my plan. I'm in the process of building my house, and I opted to have the area under my front porch converted into a storm room. This area, normally just filled in with dirt and trash, will be a shelter. I will add a protected storage area, and am also researching options on what I can do to create a document storage area for my family history and computer data files. I'm looking at something that will withstand fire and water. Possible other options are to increase the "safe haven" area but expanding the basement farther below what is currently built. But this will not be done until after the keys have been passed to me.

Life's Lessons Included Being Shot in the Head

Bookworm1711: I learned to prepare when I lived in a large inner city. I was the apartment manager for a short while. I saw first-hand the need for personal security. I put double-cylinder jimmyproof deadbolt locks on all doors of my apartment, interior and exterior. I put extra long wood screws to anchor the door hinges and strike plates into the wall studs rather than just the door frame. I put locks on all windows. I reinforced closet doors the same way, and put 3/4" plywood on the interior of the entrance door and even the closet doors. I installed one-inch deadbolt locks on the closet doors. Thirty-five years later when the apartment building, long abandoned, was demolished, my closet doors were still unbreached!

I moved out into the country in 1975, where I thought the crime rate would be low. My farmhouse was broken into twice in the first few months I lived here. I then repeated the security preparations in the country that I had used in the city. Also, as I remodeled the house, I tried to "super-insulate" it. That pays off now with heating bills one-half to one-third those of similar size, even newer homes.

The first winter I lived in the country our power went out for nearly two weeks because of an ice storm. I have since made preparations to survive such emergencies with no problems. We keep enough food on hand as a normal procedure to last a month or more to avoid frequent trips to the grocery store, except for fresh milk which we buy more often. We just stock the normal things we eat. My wife watches for the sale items, and we stock up on those. We have a relatively local food outlet that encourages buying food by the case at very good prices. Buying food there saves money, and makes long term storage preparation easy. My wife dates the cans as we buy them, and always uses the oldest stock first.

We took the threat of Y2K very seriously, and are now glad we prepared as well as we did. Even before Y2K I was shot in the back of the head by an unknown assailant wielding a 9mm handgun. I was knocked to the ground in the muddy back parking lot of the high school where I taught. I was off work for nearly five years. We are glad we had prepped as well as we did, as it helped to survive the loss of income for that long. The person who shot me was never caught, even though a couple of teachers arrived on the scene as the crime was concluding and followed the assailant's vehicle. The assailant escaped, abandoning the vehicle, which turned out to be stolen, so there was no clue to who the assailant was. Interestingly, one of my best students had warned me three weeks before the event that I "was going to be killed." The student told me he hoped I could get a different job quick at another school. The student was not joking, but I took it with a grain of salt.

While off of teaching I spent the (unpaid!) time preparing a major Bible reference book which has sold well over 40,000 copies in its printed book form. It has been distributed far more widely (perhaps 180,000 copies a year) in its software format. In those difficult times I was encouraged by Psalm 34:4-- "I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." We learned to live very frugally, I may assure you. We did not accrue any debt.

When the power goes off we have no water, since we have an electric well. We have since installed an old-fashioned high-quality hand-pump like farms and rural public parks used to have. We have also stored filtered water in emptied half-gallon clear plastic Hawaian Punch bottles or jugs for drinking needs. Since our kitchen is all-electric, the problem of how to cook when the power is out has presented a problem. We have recently purchased kerosene lanterns that are designed to heat food on top, and can safely be used indoors. For outdoors, we have a Volcano Stove that works just fine. Had a full turkey yesterday cooked in the Dutch oven on top of the Volcano Stove, which uses charcoal bricquets for fuel. We decided to "test" our preps to see if it could really be done. Saved a bit on the electric bill by not using the electric oven. The rest of the meal--potatoes and vegetables, etc., cooked at the same time on the Volcano Stove. The meal came out perfectly and sure tasted good.

An Ice Storm Can Teach ... or Not

Ruckmanite: Back in '98, we got slammed with an ice storm that hit Sunday night, and by early Monday morning, there was no power and 8" of ice-encrusted snow, with more coming. I made it to Home Depot and bought the second-to-last 5KW generator, a few plugs, and a gas can. They were out of power and running on backup. Thank God the phone lines and Visa was still working. I ran to gas up the genset and extra can, and my big van for backup fuel. Power lines were arcing across the street, the wind howling--I barely was able to get the gas and took two hours to get home on a 15-minute trip. Power lines and poles were down everywhere.

Back at home, the house was down to 50 degrees, the wife was nervous, and I was rewiring the furnace and well to take a direct male plug into an extension cord (both were 110V). One hour later, the furnace was running, the well was on, and the fridge was operating.

There were four people in our small town of 150 or so that had generators. None knew how to hotwire a well. Word spread fast that I had water, and about a half-dozen neighbors came to the door with jugs for water. With only five gallons of gas, and that going quick, it became a swap meet. I would supply them with water if they could help out with gas, and would have given them water as long as the fuel held out. The neighbors were happy to help.

A few giant floaters in the commode got everyone's attention, emphasizing how important water was. I ran the genset as needed, once every hour or so for about a half-hour. In that time we would run the furnace like gangbusters, prime up the well, and fill extra jugs. To keep the power adequate, it was run the furnace a while, then disconnect that plug and run the well a while, then the furnace ... you get it. Without a transfer switch, you play switch the plugs a lot.

Lessons learned:

1. I figured I could get gas out of my '97 Ford van via siphon. Wrong, as there was some kind of blocker tube in the fuel filler pipe and that didn't work.

2. People are stupid. With an ice storm, below-freezing temps, and plenty of coolers and garbage cans available, people left their homes for shelters and let all the food in their freezers ruin/thaw, instead of packing it in the plentiful ice and snow available.

3. Electric ovens don't make it as back-up heat when the power is out, and newer gas ovens, with electronic igniters, won't work either. In some models, no power = no gas, even to the burners.

4. A camp stove with fuel is a tremendous comfort and blessing to have. My neighbor was about to lose her mind for lack of coffee. I made a very good friend even better with a couple of hot breakfasts and plenty of java.

5. It takes an incredible amount of snow to melt enough water to get a good flush going (from the neighbors).

6. With backup heat and water, you can withstand five days without power with only minor inconveniences.

The scary thing is how the whole town was virtually unprepared. Very few have basic electrical knowledge of how to jury-rig things to get by. Even fewer had only 1 gallon of bottled water around. Food? Forget it. They couldn't even handle a week without going to the grocery store for bread and milk/eggs.

They haven't learned anything since. In '99, I got a wood stove, have learned more, and camp extensively. You can make an excellent oven out of a wooden or even a cardboard box lined with foil or steel sheeting, and use charcoal for cooking. I made lasagna for 18 Boy Scouts and leaders in one of those things with garlic bread and they were amazed.

Get it, learn it, before you have to use it.

Crisis Preparation Advice from the Experts

I recently solicited input from the wise and grizzled crisis preppers at the well-known TB2K discussion forum (timebomb2000.com). OK, so some of them aren't quite gray yet, but these folks, young or old, do take their readiness seriously.

This is the first of at least two blog articles coming out of the comments we collected. Thank you to each of these folks for providing their insights (and for allowing me some editorial leeway here) ...

Preparing for Crises Need Not Break the Bank

RC: You don't need to buy a bunch of expensive "survival" gear. Start with keeping enough food and water on hand to keep your family self-sufficient if normal supplies are cut off for any reason. You can do this by buying the foods your family normally eats which can keep for long periods of time. So if your family normally eats cereal, buy more cereal when it's on sale. If you normally eat oatmeal, buy lots of oatmeal when it's on sale.

If you want to be more methodical, plan out a few menus using just these foods, and figure out how much you would need for each meal (i.e., for breakfast, you would need one cup of oatmeal, one can of fruit, or whatever). Then, add up the quantities of each item. If you planned two days worth of meals, then multiply it by 7 and you'll know how much you need for two weeks. Multiply it by 15 and you'll know what you need for a month. This way, you will know approximately how many days supply you have on hand.

Tanstaafl: I tell people to start with the gear they'd need to camp out for a week--backpack, boots, sleeping bag, cooking kit, tent, water container and water filter, etc., combined with the standard stuff the Red Cross suggests everyone have. After that, you start getting into specific scenarios which require more specialized preps.

Or Spend What You're Comfortable With

Jmurman: My real start in crisis preparedness arose out of concerns about hurricanes and major snowstorms here in the Mid-Atlantic. I bought a generator and extra gas cans along with the proper cords. Next I began to set aside foods, batteries, and medicines. I started with small goals, like what would it take to be sufficient for 3 days. That grew to a week and then a month. It really is a nice feeling to have supplies on hand to be able to get through tough times, although I am in no way finished.

Jerry: To start out, I would suggest getting a month of food together with provisions for water. My first purchases were 50 pounds of pinto beans, 30 pounds of basmati rice, and a camping water filter with silver iodide. It was all less than $100.00 and provided more than a month of survival-grade food and water. As I progressed, I started filling in other needs and buying protein in cans while on sale. The chunky soups in 20 oz cans have basic nutrition (and flavor!) to boost the rice and beans, and when bought on sale can be quite reasonable. My thought has always been that in a pinch, one of those cans would be a meal for a day. Be conscious of calories contained in each can you buy ... vegetable soup with 100 calories is not a good value when compared to Campbell's New England clam chowder at 460 calories per can.

Consider that there are different levels of system and services failure that are possible in our modern world. Prepare with an eye toward different sustainability periods. Stocking supplies for one month is far easier than for 3 months, which is easier than 6, 9 or 12 months, etc. Eventually you might stop thinking temporary or stop-gap preparedness and start talking lifestyle and location changes to where natural resources become assets.

As one starts preparing for longer periods, more potential needs become apparent and should be included as one can afford ... things such as a multiband battery powered radio, medical supplies, a solar panel and deep cycle battery, a small inverter, freeze dried/dehydrated food, treats, ammunition, firearms, non-powder powered projectiles like crossbow and arrows, BB or pellet rifle, wrist mounted sling shot with steel balls, fishing gear, garden seeds, books on survival skills, the list goes on and on and can be intimidating and overwhelming. But one step at a time will do it. Good luck, think before you step, and make conscious decisions.

The Important Thing is to Get Started

Laurelayn: When someone is just beginning to think of getting prepared and is short on resources, a good place to suggest as a starting point is to think of things they use on a regular basis: non-perishible items like canned soups and sauces, ketchup, dry goods like pastas and rice. And whenever they go grocery shopping, just pick up one or two extra, especially if there is a good sale on them, and stash them away.

Pastas, beans, and rice should be put in a good freezer type ziplock to keep bugs out and will keep for quite a while in a dark cool place. This way many people can justify it in their own minds as a good way to just have daily things on hand and save time and money in the process. I have found it a good way to get some of my friends and family to at least have a little extra something on hand. In one case a friend liked the convenience so much she has developed quite an inventory. I don't emphasize it as "prepping" so much as just being a smart shopper.

Renegade: People should realize that "prepping" is not some wacko survivalist thing. When you pay your car insurance, you're prepping with money in case of a wreck. Same thing for home insurance. Basic sustenance is more important than a vehicle. Do what you and your family are comfortable with. There are needs ... and there are wants. If you give up a want now and then and put those resources into needs (preps), you'll be "insured" for the bad times.

Still to come ... how some folks became involved in crisis preparedness.

Private Matters, Personal Choices

Preparing for potential crisis in one's future is seemingly an unusual approach today. However, it may not be as "odd" as you would think.

In fact, the dearth of available data in the mainstream or even of hearsay anecdotal evidence in your own circles may be as much about privacy concerns as about people choosing to ignore future risks.

Before we talk about those privacy concerns, I'll just touch on a couple of things that would seem to hint positively at how many folks there are out there who really may be genuine but "closet" crisis preppers ...

One: since 9/11/01, the federal government and FEMA have been involved in increased efforts to help citizens realize the wisdom in being personally prepared for disaster--at least to the tune of having on hand three days worth of food and water and a few other essentials. (See the FEMA Guide to Citizen Preparedness, "Are You Ready?") It's not just bureaucractic prepositioning that's going on. How long do you go between hearing or reading about a proclamation by some official that an imminent crisis is not a matter of "if" but "when?" If you stay current, then it has become almost a monthly reminder that we had all better sit up and take notice ... and get busy. In fact, it might have been the latest such warning that has spurred you to consider how best you can start your own preparedness plan. So you ought to believe others too are coming around.

Two: In July of this year, New York City released poll results that indicated more than half of New Yorkers had, to that point, taken actions to prepare for an emergency (see the news release.) More poll results ... 16% report having a bag of supplies, or a "Go Bag," with copies of important documents, contact numbers, cash, bottled water and snack foods, a flashlight, a portable radio, prescriptions, and a first aid kit to take with them in an emergency. Another 39% say they have some of these items packed and ready to go.

There are certainly many other points of reference that could be raised in defense of the notion that several of your neighbors may be silently preparing for darker days. But the main thrust of this blog post is less about how many are doing it and more about why the ones who are, may be going about things so quietly.

Watch Out for the Quiet Ones

You could reasonably conclude, I think, that most folks who understand the need for crisis planning are at least somewhat cautious and frequently use common sense to their day-to-day advantage. Such unsubstantiated generalization is not normally of much value but I do believe cautiousness is really at the core of what we are talking about here. If there was such a thing, an individual's "cautiousness quotient" would probably be a good measure of how likely it would be that person would accept crisis preparedness as a part of their approach to life.

Allowing for that assumption, I will point out that there are two primary reasons your cautious neighbors may be more ready for disaster than you would think they are.

1. There is a certain undeserved stigma in the public mind (as defined by mainstream media) assigned to people who actually take substantive steps to mitigate future risk in their lives. You know ... "they're paranoid kooks," or worse--maybe even racist "skinhead survivalists." (See previous blog posts "Preparing Does Not Make You a Doomer" and "Undeserved Malice" in the July archive.) Obviously, given the popular misconceptions out there, cautious folks will largely try to maintain a public profile of "normalcy" for reasons that should be apparent to most of us. Certainly, if YOU choose to start putting aside some resources for a rainy day, you may very well decide that it's something you will do quietly ... perhaps to avoid potential dings to your reputation, or maybe because you just don't think it's even worth bringing up in conversation with most other people ... no big deal. Or maybe it's just about prudent home security. Any which way you choose, that's OK.
2. The truly thoughtful and serious crisis preppers could realize that their prepared resources could quicky become coveted resources by others in truly bad scenarios. Thus, there are many out there who jealously guard their preparedness activities from others to avoid uncomfortable or even dangerous situations should they ever truly become needed. That is not to say that all of these folks would choose not to share with others in need ... in fact, I believe many are reserving their right to choose how to do the sharing and how best to manage those resources wisely in times of trouble.

Is it possible someone in your family or some people in your neighborhood are ready for disasters or are systematically working toward that goal? You might very well be surprised.

Be assured, the preparedness marketplace is vibrant and healthy today. Those countless customers are growing in number ... and that is really only a small percentage of the greater number of people who don't need the specialty items to get themselves squared away.

So, don't for a second think that you and I are as odd as some of the media types would have us believe.

Comments, Questions, Dialog

I'm heading off for a family reunion and will be offline for at least parts of this week, starting in a couple of days. There are several good articles in the works that will be posted beginning next week.

In the meantime, I'd like to try a little dialog experiment here where readers and Refugees can talk. Not sure if the "Comments" mechanism format is best suited for this, but if you can't do bold experiments in a new blog, then where CAN you get creative?

So please feel free to jump in, click on the "Comments" icon below and have your say or ask a question. And if you have an answer for a question that's been asked, please chime in. If this meets with any success, maybe we can keep this as an ongoing feature on the blog.

Note: If you clicked on a link to this individual blog post somewhere, then you are able to see the comments that have been posted to this article.

If you linked to the overall Refuge blog where you can see several of the most recent articles, then to view the comments/dialog, you'll need to click on "x comments" to see them.

Got Nukes? Be Ready to Stay Put

There are a lot of good reasons to get involved in crisis preparedness. The bottom line is, bad things happen. It's good to know that if they happen to you, you're going to be positioned to get through it.

We've started talking about whether you ought to consider your options in preparing for the possibility of local high-dose radiation exposure. (See "Dealing with the 'N' Word.") My assumption is that you agree it's a good idea. After all, there are several potential broad scenarios out there that could to varying degrees come to impact people, wherever they live in the U.S. We're talking nuclear-fission acts of war, terroristic dirty bomb attacks, nuclear power plant accidents, and nuclear-material transportation accidents.

We hope never to have to experience any of these occurrences, but it IS possible that one day, you could find yourself directly impacted by a nuclear crisis in the U.S. And be advised, even if you're not in the middle of it or downwind, the domino effect throughout the country will still be kicking the legs out from under your previously uninterrupted "good life." But that opens up some issues for another blog post at a later date.

Basic Options

There are a lot of things you'll need to quickly consider should some version of the nuclear genie suddenly appear on the American landscape.

First, you will hopefully be able to give pause to thank God that you had the foresight to prepare to whatever extent you did beforehand ... because there will be little or no time to take significant remedial steps after that "balloon goes up."

Next and the main focus of this post today--you'll need to judge whether you will indeed be exposed to the immediate danger of fallout, given the proximity and location of the event and prevailing winds and weather conditions. There will be little time for hesitation for many people. It will likely be crucial to decide your course of action quickly--to try to escape to a safer area with good shelter or to stay where you are and make the most of the shelter resources at your disposal.

In a singular, limited nuclear event, whether nearby or far away, the ideal choice might appear to be to "get out of Dodge." Perhaps that is so, but do also realize that if you think you ought to bug-out, chances are, everybody else will be thinking the same thing. If you're in a metropolitan area, that portends major gridlock and perhaps subsequent panic, and thus exposure to some serious other risks in addition to radiation ... on the road and far away from familiar surroundings, protective shelter, necessary resources, and personally supportive social networks.

Stay Put

I've been chewing on these types of issues for about 30 years, since I was designated my military unit's NBC (nuclear/biological/chemical) specialist, in charge of making sure we were equipped to survive the harshest wartime environments. Today, there are certainly better qualified experts out there who can provide all the required level of detail as you become more interested and informed. But for your immediate purposes, it is quite enough to be aware of some basic principles that can mean the difference between survival and a long, miserable death if you act foolishly.

Adequate shielding placed between you and the source of any radiation that is present in your vicinity is paramount to your continuing good health. For most of us in a fallout situation, that means an inside room with as much mass as possible surrounding it and over it. Distance from the radiation is also a pertinent factor.

Your best bet is underground.

Approximately three feet of earth or sand between you in your shelter and any outside surface where fallout particles can accumulate is probably going to ensure your optimal chances for a natural death well into the future ... that is, if you keep that protective mass between yourself and the radiation long enough for the radioactivity to naturally decay to an acceptable level before you leave your shelter (two weeks is a standard, general sheltering-in estimate for planning purposes, but you would want to have the capability to accurately take radiation readings if at all possible). If that earthen mass is not already present, you will want to be able to quickly create as much mass as you can using whatever other material is available to act as a protective barrier. (Helpful hint: sandbags are of tremendous use in fallout protection.)

There are some great how-to resources out there for you if you opt to build yourself a fallout shelter. There are even "expedient" shelter plans out there published during the Cold War for civil defense purposes, but those tactics are really for folks who have no other choice but to react rather than to anticipate.

But I digress ...

Back to the most critical decision you may ever have to make ... should you stay or should you go? If you are well-prepared at home or even adequately situated at work or wherever else you spend a lot of time, you ought to be able to plan to stay-put in many such events--at least until the initial shock and panic in the populace runs its course, or the radiation levels themselves prove to be a small factor in your decision to move elsewhere.

I happen to strongly believe that most nuclear events would have the least adverse effect on those who choose to stay-put rather than for those who try to evacuate, if they have even just an adequate amount of knowledge and some minimal resources available to them to deal with their needs. Quite simply, to try get somewhere else is going to make you very vulnerable and exposed to a wide range of dangers, because among other things, you probably do not have an armored vehicle to travel in, and if you do, it probably is not engineered to shield you from high levels of radiation.

Adequate Radiation Preps

Some of the same basic crisis preparations apply here as for other potential disasters. The main differences are that you need that shielding shelter mass, and you want to aim for having on hand a minimum of two weeks worth of life-sustaining supplies--food; water; light and energy sources; medical supplies; and depending on your shelter conditions, air circulation and filtration.

These are the basics. I aim here to simply get you thinking about "what if." And if you want to actually become better positioned to survive and recover from a local radiological event, then spend some time researching, planning, and preparing.

More to come on some of the serious man-made threats to your peace and security.

I would be remiss if I failed to point out that Safecastle LLC offers some of the most robust and reliable prefabricated fallout and storm shelters available in the world. They are built to your specifications and special needs and they are delivered and installed most anywhere in the lower 48. The experience and expertise our builder puts into your shelter is rooted in more than 400 shelters in the last 10 years that have been delivered to customers ranging from corporations and government agencies such as FEMA to households such as yours. Best of all, the price is amazingly affordable.

This store offering is an example of a unit that can normally be yours to use within a matter of two-three months. Contact me for more info or with questions--I'm here to help. See also the Safecastle shelter site.

Dealing with the "N" Word

Those of you who have followed our recent posts are fully aware that we (me and the rest of the rascally Refugees) want to impress upon others the importance of approaching crisis preparedness in a calm and measured way. Doing so, without overtly trying to alarm the townsfolk that the sky is falling, helps you maintain your sparkling credit rating among local merchants and keeps you near the top of the favorite aunt or uncle list and invited to all of the most prestigious extended-family gatherings and group feeds.

That said (many times over these past few weeks), let's politely broach the topic of certain scary scenarios that can too easily become all-consuming personal infernos that keep you up till dawn vacuum-sealing giant plastic buckets of rice and beans.

Today, we'll just start on the first such adrenaline source ...

The "N" Word

Nuclear. There, I said it.

Mankind has been "on the brink" of nuclear annihilation for 60 years now. Scientists who get together to discuss "big bangs" and such when they're between government research grants, have had us holding our collective breath at "minutes before midnight" on the Doomsday Clock for decades now.

Nightmares of death by instant mass vaporization or slow downwind radiation poisoning have been part of growing up for generations. Then, just when it was getting to be the stuff of "so what? It'll never happen," for many folks, the rules change. Now it's not just superpowers, superpower has-beens, and superpower wanna-bes that conceal-carry fission-bomb weapons of self-defense, but criminal gangs and terror feudalists are said to be wielding or bidding for "respect" as well.

Of course, there's also the "flipside" of the nuclear coin that can look an awful lot like the "heads" side if you look at it just a bit askance. The mostly beneficial nuclear power plants across the globe that are firing the growth of the global economy, do also have the potential to rain radioactive fear down upon dependent and trusting customers if somehow things go very wrong.

Classic Debate Helps Determine Your Approach

So should you consider the potential for nuclear radiation in your neighborhood someday as you build your framework for personal peace of mind?

Well, you probably have to decide where you stand in the ongoing debate out there about whether nuclear war is survivable (or might the matter really be about whether it OUGHT to be survivable?). There's a lot of emotion on both sides of that argument, and it would be worth looking into for yourself, if you haven't already.

For me, I concluded long ago that there would be many, many folks out there, in the event of any single nuclear detonation or series of detonations that would be very much in need of immediate attention and protection. Without a viable national civil defense program anymore, the U.S. people are very vulnerable in this area. Should we at least have a shot at surviving such an attack? I think so.

Moreover, the danger of nuclear radiation imposing itself upon your outlook is not limited to the fallout from a nuclear weapons burst. A nuclear powerplant accident upwind could possibly result in critical conditions most anywhere in the country today. And sadly, now we have to also acknowledge the potential for small dirty bombs to become a reality and bonafide risk factor.

It comes down to this: if you are undertaking preparedness to counter reasonable risks out there to you and your loved ones, and you covet the peace of mind that comes with reaching a certain level of readiness, then you're probably not going to want to ignore this big hole in your defenses for very long.

More on this next time.

Watch & PERIODICALLY Assess Your Situation

Editorial whine: Don't you hate it when you spend a couple of hours of your hectic workday polishing your latest blog masterpiece only to have it dissolve when you hit the "publish" button? This will have to be the condensed version of the original ...

So you've decided to methodically ease some crisis-preparation activity into your already quite demanding, perfectly normal lifestyle ... you've come to understand that uncertainty is part of the daily calculus of life and you recognize a substantive opportunity to exert a somewhat greater amount of control over your tomorrows.

Congratulations. That's a nice red-letter milestone. Remember, taking it all step by step, working within your available time and budgetary contraints, is obviously the ideal approach. It's pretty much a no-lose proposition when you commit to preparing materially, emotionally, and spiritually for darker days. In the end, you're aiming toward a greater personal position of strength.

Stay engaged and you'll one day approach a level of comfort and satisfaction in your "material and emotional insurance" building that will make it all worthwhile, even if you never actually have to rely on your preparations to recover from personal, local, or even more far-reaching disaster. In fact, the preferred outcome is simply the "peace of mind" it gives that nothing else can really equal.

Plan B

If you never have to confront a sudden turn in events that require immediate, near-term crisis planning and preparation, you should be thankful. However, at some point, many do face a sudden need to crank up the intensity when there is an obvious threat bearing down on them. Think hurricane; or perhaps an impending job loss; or a dangerous, spreading contagion in the population ... you can fill in the blank here and come up with your own potential scenario that might cause you to suddenly shift into higher gear with your prepping.

If you can make needed adjustments on the fly, then you've been on the right path all along. The key is to maintain the calm, systematic approach and you'll get 'er done.

Whether it's a back-up plan you follow in the face of danger or you have to come up with a whole new, more urgent plan of action, you'll still be way ahead in the game since you already know the rule set from your previous experience in thinking through and preparing for unkind scenarios.

Ready Position

That brings us to the main point of this post. There are major keys to staying ahead of the game, whatever the playing field. That is, pay attention and be in the ready position ... watch and be ready for things that most others probably are not even thinking about.

Don't get paranoid about your world. But do keep an eye on the forest and know where all the trees are as well.

Say what? OK--just a few examples and suggestions:

• keep an eye to the sky (and to the local weather station) if there's ANY chance of severe weather in your location. It's easy to do today and it's the smart thing to do to plan your activities after consulting your local forecast if it makes any sense at all where you live.

• assess your employment and income situation from time to time. Don't get blindsided with a layoff notice if you can help it and have at least an idea of what you would do if it does happen. If signs start to point toward a loss of your livelihood, take the initiative to counter that outcome. Set aside some extra necessities, reallocate your available resources to be able to make needed lifestyle adjustments, and stay positive about your future prospects. Then get out there and turn it into the best thing that ever happened to you.

• stay on good, heart-to-heart speaking terms with those most dear to you. People are surprised every day with very bad news from their loved ones that they should have seen coming long before, when they still had the chance to make a difference. Emotional recovery is a tough nut ... preventive maintenance is the best prep work you can do in the personal arena.

• crime and terror make the world the bloody place that it is today. You can't live in fear but you can bolster your self confidence and minimize your profile as a likely target in any number of ways. But whatever else you do, pay attention to your surroundings wherever you may be. Again, no paranoia--just use common sense ... when applied in regular doses, it can go a long way.

• the really big picture ... don't zero-in on any of the myriad of threats out there in the world at large. You don't need to be an expert in any of the fields of doom--there are plenty of folks out there who can do most of the specialized worrying for you. Just keep periodic tabs on what the general risks are in your own situation and make needed adjustments. Then carry on with your life.

Watch, listen, pay attention. Be ready for reasonable possibilities. If you've anticipated downturns before they happen, you're halfway home to surmounting them.

Spiritual Aspects of Preparing for Catastrophe

Some have said to me, in all seriousness, that planning and preparing for catastrophe is not something they would do because of their faith that God would provide for them in their hour of need. And if He didn't, then it would obviously be His will that they should suffer.

Faith in God is a wonderful and uplifting thing--indeed, I believe it is the fulcrum for all else that happens in this worldly plain. But I have to also believe that folks who espouse total reliance upon divine providence simply have not given the matter enough thought and are rather lazily and mistakenly using such an explanation as justification for personal "blind spots" that cause their failure to practice prudence in their approach to the future.

Now, I'm not about to play theologian here, nor will I quote scripture on the matter, out of respect for those here who do not hold the same spiritual outlook that I do.

So I will simply ask a question here ... if you are someone who feels that preparing for potentially difficult times is God's concern, and that He will provide for you as the need arises, then why do you do anything at all for yourself such as earn an income and budget it for anticipated monthly demands? What exactly is the difference between working to survive when things are easy and pleasant, building and maintaining a comfortable life ... and approaching life differently if things have the potential to get tougher on you?

Is it not the personally responsible thing to also work toward enabling your survival tomorrow in case of disaster, increasing your chance of making a fairly comfortable recovery if you had the means beforehand to have made preparations?

Would you really want to have to test your God, and your faith in Him, to literally deliver you out of the depths of any and all misfortunes that befall you?

I have to believe that it's not only common sense to try to anticipate reasonable possibilities in our future, but a responsibility ... and that whenever possible, we should take reasonable mitigating actions in that regard as well.

All Faiths

There are some faiths that practice physical preparedness as a basic tenet of their belief structures. There are others that embrace it peripherally. It seems most religions or denominations choose not to directly address the matter, focusing instead on encouraging their believers to prepare themselves spiritually for their futures.

Whatever your belief system, I doubt your cleric or advisor would tell you NOT to be prudent and wise in your worldly living. Worldly and spiritual realms are inextricably connected on this plain of existence. In fact, whether you embrace your spiritual side or you disbelieve, a very key focus for all of us is about managing all manner of risks in our development as beings who dwell in the here and now. But if we put any value on our future, we must consciously look in that direction.

Tying it all together--physical, mental, spiritual--can actually help simplify your life. I have to believe that one could express a reasonable, generalized philosophy, acceptable in most circles, in this way: "Living responsibly is about preparing for the future and strengthening your full being against risk and danger."

Preparing spiritually without any concerns for the physical would seem to be a dangerous and vulnerable approach to your tomorrows.

So too is storing up physical essentials and treasures without proper attention to spiritual and moral matters.

The ideal, full-bodied approach to the future is to think about all aspects of who you are and honestly assess what your weaknesses could be in light of unpleasant occurences--in the physical or upon your spiritual and mental well-being. Then gradually work to minimize your vulnerabilities. In so doing, you can't help but maximize your chances of coming out a winner on the other side.

Worst-Case Planning

Thanks to Lars for submitting this!

I'm Thinking About the Doorbell, When You Gonna' Ring It? When You Gonna' Ring It?

Is patience near the bottom of your inventory of virtues today? Is anxiety a frequent bed-partner? Do you have a love-hate relationship with the bad-news bears of the news media?

Today, it's a real trick to be able to stay informed in the world while maintaining a steady, comfortable course in your approach to life. I suppose that's why, as long as the world continues to turn like a hand-cranked eggbeater in a bowl of crunchy peanut butter, there are always going to be the popular gurus of postivity, counselors to the stars, head doctors for the lost.

Whatever your choice for sources of news and entertainment (isn't the distinction between the two practically nil today?), unless you've grown some pretty thick callouses around your soul, you're going to sometimes get bummed about humanity's present state and our prospects for the future.

Your Mental Stability

So on the one hand, let's say that the latest news has got you down. Is that necessarily a bad thing?

In my quest to become the latest revered guru of gaga, I'd like to assure you that what you are feeling is a good thing. For one, it indicates that you have not allowed your innocent inner child to be totally embedded in emotional scar tissue. If you are angered by the latest outrage emblazoned across the mainpage of Drudge, then you are not yet lost. Congratulations!

Now some more good news ... fact is, you can use that energy boiling through you.

Or would it perhaps be a measure of fear you are dealing with--angst for the possibility of imminent doom for tomorrow or next week, or next year? No less useful, that emotion be, if put to practical task.

Frustration, anger, fear, hopelessness ...

The marvelous thing is, if properly utilized and applied, the emotional energy stirred up by the negative polarities bouncing haphazardly across our reality can ultimately be converted into good vibrations.

I'm OK You're OK

Write this down. I'm about to share the secret to dispelling all that discontent in your life.

Really. It works for me and I know that it works for many others as well. And it doesn't involve paying stratospheric hourly rates for eggheaded theoretical advice or seeking a better perspective through pharmaceuticals.

The solution is simple. Start putting aside a little extra money, storing some extra food, and judiciously purchasing practical products that you know would help you get through times that could get as dark as your deepest fears. Some of us call it "prepping." It's wise, it's common sense, and now you know--it's therapeutic too.

Yep, take it a step at a time, getting into a prudent rythym with your new self-treatment. As you systematically build your strategic reserves, and tool up for potential catastrophe, you'll come to realize that there isn't anything better out there for your peace of mind.

Best news of all ... there IS a final destination in your journey to self-help. At some point, you're going to wake up and say, I've done all I can do. I am prepared for whatever the world will hurl at me. And I feel good.

I can honestly say, I am there now. I am as prepared as I can afford to be and care to be. I've reached my line of demarcation marking the high ground between the lands of Despair and Overkill. The journey is worth it because the resulting peace of mind allows me to watch the news and read the papers without feeling personally threatened.

The Deal with the Blog Headline?

I happened to hear a new song by the artists known as The White Stripes. I can't say that i keep up with contemporary music, as there just isn't much out there to suit my tastes today. However, this song got into my brain and has stayed there. If you've heard it, you probably know what I mean.

As the song was cycling through my consciousness early today, it dawned on me that the song could be a metaphor for how some folks feel about their world--and the sense of disappointment and cynicism they seem to embrace as if that is all they have.

We all face some basic choices as to how we deal with things in a world of uncertainty and bad news. Many out there quite simply deny to themselves that anything bad will ever deter them personally from their pursuit of happiness ... or that as a society, things could suddenly take a turn for the worse. Yet there are also a great many who take what may be a more cerebral road and acknowledge the risk of setbacks and danger every new day presents.

There are of course gradients between the extremes, but in the end, most of us who at least recognize risk in the big picture must choose either to become devoured by the anxiety or to constructively, positively prepare in order to combat the uncertainty.

I clearly receommend preparing positively to become strong and comfortable. The alternative is to keep nervously thinking about the doorbell ... when they gonna ring it, when they gonna ring it?

The Sky is Falling, the Sky is Falling!

by doubtingthomas

No, the sky is not falling. However it is foolish to dismiss the idea that there are no serious threats to us individually or collectively.

One of the hardest things to do is to walk that broad boulevard between hopelessness and denial when it comes to preparedness. Avoiding the extremes and setting a mid course, unless of course you are in an extreme situation, should be the rule of thumb.

I have a somewhat unique, although not singular position of being able to see what the main stream media, internet, and government agencies have to say about the threats we face today. Over time, I have developed an "inner filter" to sift through the information, dis-information, and pure fantasy. With those filters on, I decide what to take seriously and what not to.

We live in a "just-in-time" society that has an inherent weakness. If there is a disruption in the infrastructure, few can meet their schedules and hence, our needs. We expect the stores to be always open, restaurants continuously serving, cash machines limitlessly dispensing, gas stations faithfully pumping. However, the ugly, but real fact is that with a disruption by natural or man-made disasters, they can’t, and in fact, don’t.

As a society we have become more urban and dependent on others for our daily needs. Most of us have lost that self-sufficiency that was the hallmark of all things American. This is not necessarily bad, but it does put us at a disadvantage.

What to Do, What to Do?

Several years ago, most of us would not have imagined that parts of this country could be under attack by planes, snipers, and biologicals. No one could have imagined seeing the twin towers on fire with people choosing to jump to their deaths, or the Pentagon in flames. However, all of that has happened and it is four short years later.

We all find our ways to cope with such information. On the extremes, some folks surrender to the feelings of helplessness and do nothing as they believe nothing can be done. They are victims of several myths including the notion that certain events are not survivable.

Little do they realize that the US has exploded close to 100 nuclear bombs above ground on the continental United States and we and our parents survived!

Others like to maintain a convenient case of amnesia and pretend like nothing really bad is going to happen. Sometimes this coping mechanism is cloaked by hyper politicization themes and conspiracy theories (oh, they are just trying to stoke up the people to limit our freedoms!) The end result is, again, to do nothing.

There is a middle road. Disasters happen all the time, throughout the world and throughout history. The most measured response to such an event of God’s or man’s making, is to be able to be self-sufficient for a period of time. The question becomes how prepared for how long?

In the event of a local, regional, or national disaster, you will be wanting things that everyone else wants, only everyone will need it NOW, at the same time. Remember the last hurricane or snow storm? Picture that on a larger scale. Also throw in the possible infrastructure problems. The just-in-time economy needs time to react or recover. THAT is the amount of time you need to plan for some self-sufficiency.

You must have on hand now, what you will need when necessary. Once the disaster happens, it will be too late.

From my point of view, a reasonable minimum time period to be self sufficient is two weeks. It takes about that amount of time for authorities to get food, water, and help to an area in any quantity, and distributed to those who are in need. In that time frame, the authorities could determine if an area is not habitable, and you may need to evacuate. However, a large-scale evacuation in a short period of time, for an imminent or current disaster, is just not realistic for most urban areas. You need to be able to shelter in place without outside support.

I drew these conclusions by seeing first hand what the real response times are for authorities at all levels. It is kind of like having a service contract on a computer. Your service contract may specify a 4-hour response time, however, that does not mean it will be fixed in four hours. What it means is that someone will be there in four hours. This is a huge difference.

So where do you start? You start with what you have and add to it as you are able. You build up that two-week supply of food and water. With a two-week goal, this can be the food you already buy and eat. You simply rotate your stocks to keep it fresh.

You need to be prepared to go without running water and power for that two weeks also. The most cheap and easiest way to adapt to no electricity, is to reduce your need for it. That means you are looking at no refrigeration, or an alternative form (natural gas or propane refrigerator, yes they still make those!).

You also need to look at alternative ways to heat at least a part of your home.

For wate--jugs of spring water, or one or more 55 gallon drums with an inexpensive preservative added (can even be Clorox).

Keep On Keepin' On

I live in an area rich in high-value targets so I have built an underground shelter, since I have no basement. I still live my life as usual except I now have a "hobby" of self-sufficiency.

I am experimenting with kerosene cooking, grinding flour, distilling water, etc. Old-time and third world appliances are much, much cheaper than the electronic type.

The goal is to stop worrying, stop denying, and start preparing. You owe it to yourself and your family.

A Modest Start to Crisis Preparedness

I trust that most people today who are prepared to some extent for emergencies don't consider it to be a big deal.

Perhaps they grew up with the mindset and just never felt comfortable without a certain amount of food "put up" in the pantry and the root cellar. Or they are simply the type who developed the personal "need" to save their money (in the bank or in their mattress) as well as to "invest" some of it in practical goods that they know can come in handy should anything untoward happen.

Regardless, it's certain there are a good many folks out there who are prepared to weather a downturn in fortune for at least a short amount of time.

However, though I don't have any numbers to confirm it, I'm sure there are far MORE people out there who do NOT have any means of getting through a week or more of societal system failure. As one of the former--the ones who will HAVE more than HAVE NOT--you will need to give some thought to what that might mean for you ... but again, that is the topic for more than one future post.

Rudimentary Preps

Many of us come to "preparedness" as a result of a gradual or sudden recognition of the real risks out there. For others, it is the result of having personally experienced disaster recovery
on some scale.

Either way, those of us who have not lived our entire lives being prepared have to start somewhere. At the beginning you want to keep it fairly simple and not get bogged down in details or become overwhelmed with the possibilities.

Some basic, realistic worst-case parameters that can help you get started with your logistical contingency planning:

• Consider a developing chance of the structure of your home itself becoming seriously at risk for damage or destruction. Severe weather, flooding, wildfire are some of the likeliest threats. Occasionally these forces crop up with no warning. With or without warning, what would you do to protect yourself and your loved ones?
• Imagine a disaster where the normal food-supply chain infrastructure is broken. It doesn't take more than one or two bad links to make the whole chain worthless. Is it possible? How about a widespread drought, a national truckers strike, a far-reaching terror attack on the food supplies, an oil crisis that causes transportation industries to take a big hit, or a pandemic that causes havoc throughout society? The average grocery store has a two-day supply of food on its shelves--and that assessment does not account for panicking shoppers. Yes, the just-in-time supply chain is very vulnerable.
• A good water supply is critical to survival, yet we all tend to take it for granted. What if your water was suddenly to become undrinkable or your city water was to stop flowing? How long would you and your family be able to cope? Realistic? Ask anyone who was in Cleveland a couple of years ago when the big blackout throughout the region shut down the water-pumping stations there.
• Think of any kind of event where the power goes out on a wide scale, perhaps preventing the utilities from getting everybody back up in a reasonable time ... some folks having to go without for an extended period. Can it happen today? Think major ice storm, serious flooding, catastrophic earthquake, or a big hurricane impact. Yes, it's possible. What would that mean for your ability to store and cook food, to provide for special health care needs, to heat or cool your home in times of temperature extremes? In fact, what would it mean to have to deal with the security implications in a long-term blackout?

A lot of potential scenarios there, but a few major common-thread considerations for basic planning:

1. Shelter
2. Food
3. Water
4. Power
5. Security

The first three in this list are primary needs for survival in most situations. So we'll start there.

A Simple Plan

First, determine how long you want to be able to sustain your household in a worst-case scenario. Then approach each of these survive-and-thrive factors accordingly ...

Water:

First, make sure you have the means to withstand a water supply crisis. If you have city water, but also have a well, you are in far better shape than most. But remember, unless you have a handpump, you'll need to power your electric well pump somehow.

Storing pure water is almost a necessity for everyone else. You need to have a bare minimum of two gallons per person per day set aside. More realistic in your planning would be to store 10 gallons or more to sustain each person per day to allow for drinking, bathing, washing, cleaning, and cooking. If you have four people in your household and you want to be able to ride out a period of one week, the prudent math says you should store 280 gallons of water in containers that are designed specifically for water storage in a dark, cool area to minimize the growth of bacteria over the time it is in storage.

Of course, storing water requires a lot of available storage space, and not all of us have that. But even if you do have storage space and even if you do have a well, ensuring there is a means to filter and/or purify water is also wise and is perhaps the ONE common neccessity everyone should plan for. There are a multitude of excellent water filters and water purification tablet treatments out there on the market, made specifically for crisis preparedness and the backpacking/camping crowd. But even just having some household bleach on hand and providing for a means to boil water will potentially be a life saver.

Food:

There's a wide range of approaches to prudent food storage. If you choose to simply stockpile normal groceries to allow for your family's ability to ride out a crisis, be sure to continuously rotate your food into a normal usage cycle as the nutritional shelf life of all store-bought groceries is surprisingly short.

Some folks grow and can or dry their own food ... and if done well, it's an excellent way to provide for lean times. And on a longer-term sustainability basis, it's THE way to go.

Ultimately, food storage is a science unto itself, and if you want to seriously consider all the ins and outs of various approaches, plan to spend some time investigating your options. For those who have more money than the time and desire to take another food storage route, perhaps the best low-maintenance way to go is to purchase bulk freeze-dried or other similar food-storage packages.

There are many choices and price ranges out there, as well as taste and nutrition-quality factors to consider, but once the buying decision is made, you can rest assured that you have a food supply with an extended shelf life of anywhere from 5 to 30 years, a range that dwarfs the period of time your other approaches will provide you with.

Shelter:

Are you comfortable with your present storm-shelter arrangements? If you have a full basement, you're probably in good shape for most kinds of severe weather risks in most of the country.

In parts of the U.S., flooding or earthquakes are of bigger concern than windstorms, so those regions are more focused on structural integrity and perhaps the structure's foundation elevation and methodology. I would invite input here from those more attuned to these special concerns than I am ... so please check back for more info on these risks if you need to.

Of course, in some cases, where warnings are given, the prudent thing to do is to evacuate to a safe area, as in the event of a coming major hurricane. The obvious need here is to have a well-defined evacuation plan with a destination and transportable supplies that allow you to sustain your family for the anticipated period of time.

Another consideration in the shelter category arises out of the concern for relative security in a world gone mad with crime, terrorism, and the historically proven risk of acts of war. We might even toss in another possibility to account for: industrial and transportational accidents that can severely test your ability to survive in the event of toxic chemicals or a release of radioactivity upwind from your location.

There are many ways to address each of these shelter-related risks (and many more), but the place to start is in a careful assessment of your own unique situation--to include your geological and meteorological risks given your location, your position in relation to prevailing wind patterns and major industrialization and transportation patterns, as well as your local crime trends. You will also want to determine where your comfort zone is in terms of viewing the geopolitical scene going forward.

For many, not all of these factors register, and that is fine. Fifty percent of the benefit of preparedness is the peace of mind it brings. So as long as you are comfortable in your own planning, you are halfway to your goal.

Again, there are a myriad of ways to build security of various types into your home. No doubt, future posts will address some of these. But I would be remiss if I failed to close this post with the opinionated pitch here that there IS a way to adequately address most of the risk factors here in one bold, but not inexpensive step. That is, to commit yourself to providing for your family's well-being with a well-engineered shelter.

Determined do-it-yourselfers sometimes take on the task of building a storm or fallout shelter or a saferoom into their home. More often today, busy people will purchase such shelters or saferooms from qualified builders. Either way, when done well, it is the ultimate step you can take to provide for your household's safety.

Stay tuned.

What a Deal - BECOME A REFUGEE!

Become an officially sanctioned Refugee. A Refugee from what, you ask? Let's call it becoming a Refugee from post-disaster FEMA dependency.

What does it take to be a Refugee?

1. You've already met the first requirement ... you're here at the Refuge blog. You obviously have an interest in being ready for potential calamities.
2. Almost as easy, you need to post a comment to one or more of the Refuge blog posts (click on the "x comments" link at the end of each post).
3. After posting a comment, email me at jcrefuge@safecastle.net with your email address and username, mentioning you want to be a Refugee.

Note that email addresses are not shared with anyone outside our Safecastle LLC organization and will never be used for purposes other than those described below.

Refugees are subject to administrative approval to prevent unproductive intrusions. Refugees must adhere to commonly expected standards of behavior and decency and may be removed from Refugee rolls at the sole discretion of Refuge blog administration.

What comes with being a Refugee?

1. As a Refugee, you are welcome to submit suitable content for possible publishing at the Refuge blog under your username or real name (contributing is an option, but readers can be Refugees too). Content is subject to editorial input, after which your final approval will be needed before posting. It is recommended that you contact me, JC Refuge, before drafting your article to ensure it meets with the site's current focus.
2. All Refugees' user names will be listed on the site unless exclusion is specifically requested.
3. Refugees will periodically be emailed special discount offers for purchases from the Refuge crisis-preparedness store. The current offer available to Refugees is an across-the-board 5% discount on any items in the store (shipping is not discounted), with the exception of the steel shelters and saferooms. The offer is valid until further notice. (You must mention the Refugee Discount at the time of placing the order.)