Water is number one on the list, without it you die in as little as 3 days. If you do not have any stored then you’re in a pickle. City water can easily be contaminated; actually it is contaminated according to the EPA but that’s a different story. You should store 1 gallon per person per day according to FEMA. I however do not use a gallon a day unless I am washing stuff or taking a shower. If you have a well and the power is out how will you get that water into the house? Now would be a good time to figure out this question. If you have a shallow well you can buy hand operated well pumps for less then $100. If your well is deep it will cost more. Water can also be stored in 55 gallon drums made for water. You can use plastic but pay attention to the triangle symbol on the bottom of the container. Inside is a number 1 through 7. If it is a #2 HDPE (high density polyethylene), or a #4 LDPE (low density polyethylene), or a #5 PP (polypropylene), your bottle is fine. The type of plastic bottle in which water is sold in is usually a #1, and is only recommended for one time use. Do not refill them.
As you prepare your food storage keep in mind a couple of things. Flooding and rodents. If you have a rodent problem under normal conditions then extreme conditions might increase your problem. Some survival websites say to stock up on beans and rice. Can you imagine eating 30 days of nothing but rice and beans?!? Yes it has a long shelf life and will fill your belly but unless you have done it you have no clue what you’re in for. Every year our church does a Daniel fast where we eat no meats, no sugars, no breads and no preservatives. What that means is a whole lot of rice, beans, fruits and vegetables. Most people are dying to get off the fast after just a week or two into this and they are able to eat fruits and vegetables, something you might not have stored if you only did the rice and beans preparation. Not to mention all that fiber is gonna make for some uncomfortable situations in close quarters. I have a large bag of each stored in a plastic container but its not my only food source.
Freeze dried foods, canned goods and frozen foods are an excellent source of long term storable foods. There are websites that specialize in frozen foods just for this purpose. You can buy an entire years supply if you have the budget and desire. Buy stuff close to what you normally eat but can be stored for long periods of time. Make sure to set up some sort of reminder to rotate your stock. It would be very bad to experience an emergency only to find all your food has expired and gone bad. There are several MRE (meals ready to eat) companies that offer really good products. I personally bought some from APack. They are compact, durable, nutritious, self-heating and shelf-stable. They come with an entrée, cracker, spread, cookie, water flavor packet, raisins, salt and pepper and a towlette. I also have coast guard approved food ration bars. These have a long shelf life, supply more then enough calories and are compact for easy storage/carry. I have no idea how they taste but I hope I never need them; they are a last resort along with some survival tabs I got. Cheese can be frozen and kept long periods; butter can be melted down and put into canning jars giving it a shelf life of 3 years at normal room temps.
Do not rely completely on frozen goods. A 36 hour power outage could ruin everything in your fridge and freezer depending on the time of the year. If you do have a power outage and your food is starting to warm then you will need to cook it. If you don’t it will go bad and will be of no use anyway. Start with the refrigerated goods and keep the door to the freezer shut as much as possible, it will keep the food for a longer time period. If you live in an area that happens to have snow at the time, you can use snow to pack around your foods being mindful of snow melt and things getting wet.
If you garden and have access to a farmers market then I encourage you to purchase a pressure cooker canner. You can bottle meats, vegetables, jams, sauces, etc. yourself saving tons of money and you know the food is nutritious, not full of fillers and cancer causing agents they put in our food today. Our parents and grandparents all use to can their own food. I think its something we as a nation need to bring back.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Emergency preparation 101
Simply put, failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
The reason for this guide is to help relieve some stress people face when it comes to emergency preparedness. They don’t know where to begin, what to do or where to turn. Hopefully this will help. I have studied emergency preparation for a little over a year now. This by no means makes me an expert. Always do your own research and make your own decision as it pertains best to you and your loved ones. This guide should only be viewed as a beginning and not all inclusive. When the real crap hits the fan I do not think any amount of preparation will be sufficient. My personal belief is that if you do not have a solid foundation in Christ you will find it incredibly difficult to deal with the hardships you will face. God is my source for strength, wisdom, revelation, preparation and everything else. Without Him I am nothing.
Every situation will be different that is for sure. One emergency might require you to leave the house, it could be on fire or a hurricane or other natural disaster is imminent. Another might be a power outage, viral outbreak, ice or snow storm. This would require you to spend days, possible weeks inside your home with no ability to go to the grocery store. The preparations you make now will greatly increase your survivability later. Most people think nothing will ever happen so why bother, others think about it but that’s about as far as it goes. Most victims of anyone of these disasters had those exact same thoughts. The fact is, disaster WILL strike at some point in your life, and will you be ready? Some say, well I will just go to so and so’s cause they already prepared. ARE YOU MENTAL?!?! I am pretty sure when they were spending money and taking time to prepare, they didn’t have the time or resources for you too. You will be depleting their resources that they planned to live on themselves. I hope you can live with yourself knowing that you just cut a families emergency ration by a great deal because you were too lazy to prepare yourself.
I think the first important thing for emergency preparedness is to be able to evacuate your house within 60 seconds taking with you those things of most importance. The reason I say 60 seconds is because if you awake at 2:00 AM to a smoke alarm the house is already burning. By the time the alarm goes off, you hear it and get out of bed you have already lost precious time. Most fire victims die from smoke inhalation, not fire. Many lose their lives trying to rescue the family cat hiding under the sofa or perhaps trying to gather some important item. That’s a question you should ask yourself right now, it’s 2:00 AM, your fire alarm goes off, what do you grab and how do you get out? Do you have children? What if the fire is on the other side of your bedroom door and you can’t open it? These are all things you should consider now rather then at 2 in the morning with a siren blaring in your ears and smoke in your face.
I have a backpack that sits on the side of my bed. Backpacks are making a comeback and you see many people carrying them even if only to hold an MP3 player, a pen and some bubble gum. You might want to put a change of clothes in your pack (if you sleep naked you might not have the time to dress inside the house), a couple bottles of water, copies of important papers, photos of anything of value, copies of receipts, a few days worth of any medication you need, etc. Photos and receipts are highly valuable. Don’t believe me? Try telling your insurance company that you owned anything of value when your house is standing in a pile of ash or you have been robbed. Hurricane Katrina was not the only nightmare to the survivors. Many had a difficult time even proving they had a house, let alone valuable stuff inside. Take photos of your cars, copies of titles, registration, etc. I hold all this info on a USB external hard drive that is encrypted. Encryption is not difficult; it just takes a little searching on how to do it which is free thanks to the WWW. Have this pack ready to go at all times. You might even want to keep it with you when you leave the house. What if the house catches fire while you’re out? I keep my USB hard drive in my trunk and update it twice a month. It is a backup of all my data, not just important home stuff. Because I have prepared, I could restore my wife’s business within a couple hours after a complete disaster plus provide all information to the insurance company. I have other items in the backpack such as first aid kit, emergency candles, glow sticks, water bottles, food rations, 550 para-cord, a knife, snake kit, emergency blanket, lighters, fire starters, water purifier, etc. I could survive a very long time on what I carry in my pack alone. It has gotten a bit heavy and I need to re-evaluate what is in it but at least I have what I feel is important.
I think the next step is to be prepared to leave your house within 12 hours and the next would be 72 hours. These would apply to natural disaster that you see coming such as hurricanes, or other storms. This preparation includes the previous 60 seconds but includes such things as preparing your vehicle, keeping it maintained; having a spare gas can with fuel and some Stabil (keeps the fuel from going bad). I plan to use my truck in this type of emergency and always keep the tank full. My other vehicles I try to always fill their tanks when they get to half. Remember how hard it was to get gas after Katrina? Better to have some in a spare can and at least a half tank in the event of an emergency. Keep a small 72 hour kit in your car. Many catastrophes can happen when you’re not at home. Be prepared.
So far I have covered leaving your house. What happens if you are not able to leave? This year we watched the swine flu shut down Mexico. They quarantined many cities. How much food do you have in your house? Can you stay home for a week without needing anything from the grocery store? Many experts recommend 3 days worth of food. I think most homes could claim this but let’s be realistic. Agricultural experts are saying that America imports most of its food. Many of the locations we get food from have been in drought. Our own government has made arrangements with the Canadian military to help in the event of a food shortage leading to riots in the streets. When people get hungry they get ugly, especially Americans who have always been able to run to a fast food restaurant and fill their belly. Grocery stores only carry about 3 days worth of food, which is assuming people aren’t looting and going insane. If you have ever grown a garden, you know it takes about 2-3 months to go from seed to plant to vegetable. My suggestion is you have at least 3 months worth of food stored. It might be a good idea to learn to cook something from scratch too. Boxed goods contain very little nutrition. I suggest learning to can your own food. Remember grandma’s bottled meat and veggies? That is a cheap way to keep food from going bad for a long time. Frozen is OK but you lose it all if the power is out for any extended amount of time. Freeze dried is a good idea but I think canning your own food helps you to become more self sufficient and less dependent. Grow a garden!
Power is something else to consider. I have a well that runs on a pump so if there is a power outage I won’t have water other then what I have stored. To resolve this issue I have built a solar panel and acquired a handful of heavy duty deep cycle batteries. My solar panel produces 200 watts. If I were to buy one it would have cost me on average of $700. I built mine for $250. Buy solar cells on EBay and then do some Google searching on how to make your own solar panel. My batteries are 120 amp hour gel filled. These batteries sell for about $400 each. I got mine for free. Seems some companies replace theirs every 3 years no matter what. An inverter will be needed as well. These can vary greatly in price depending on what you plan to run with them. The American mentality is MORE. But with solar you really have to think about reality, what is really needed? Do you have to power a light in every room? I doubt it. Do you have to take a 20 gallon shower? No, you don’t. Try turning the water off once your wet, lather then turn it on to rinse. You should be able to shower in 1 gallon of water. Stop being wasteful! You will survive much longer.
There is more and more talk of a coming collapse of this country. I have heard it from too many sources both secular and prophetic. I have seen our new government try to spend our way out of debt, fire up the printing presses and pump out money like its candy. We will reap what we sow. You can not create money out of thin air! I see the collapse of the dollar bill coming very soon. It will take us 34,000 years to repay just what Obama has spent in the first 6 months! What will you do when they devalue the dollar bill over night? It could drop as much as 50%. There is talk of a bank holiday; nothing you have in the bank will be accessible for up to a week. Your debit card will be useless so you might want some cash on hand.
I have removed most of my money from the bank. My interest rate had dropped from 5.05% to below 1% and I figured the bankers had made enough money off of us tax payers anyway. I then bought some silver, the poor man’s gold. The Constitution of the United States says that gold and silver are to be the only source of money. Why? Pretty simple really, it can not be destroyed, it can not be made, there is only so much available. I recommend owning some, in your hand, not on a computer screen. Gold owned in ETF’s is of no more value then the money in your bank account. Its digital and can be erased with the stroke of a key. Gold is not a huge money maker in the sense of investment but it is pretty stable and it does excellent when the dollar is doing poorly. In 2000 gold was selling for about $280 an oz. Today it is selling for about $940 an oz. and expected to climb as high as $5K. Silver is currently trading around $14 an oz and expected to go as high as $100.
The reason for this guide is to help relieve some stress people face when it comes to emergency preparedness. They don’t know where to begin, what to do or where to turn. Hopefully this will help. I have studied emergency preparation for a little over a year now. This by no means makes me an expert. Always do your own research and make your own decision as it pertains best to you and your loved ones. This guide should only be viewed as a beginning and not all inclusive. When the real crap hits the fan I do not think any amount of preparation will be sufficient. My personal belief is that if you do not have a solid foundation in Christ you will find it incredibly difficult to deal with the hardships you will face. God is my source for strength, wisdom, revelation, preparation and everything else. Without Him I am nothing.
Every situation will be different that is for sure. One emergency might require you to leave the house, it could be on fire or a hurricane or other natural disaster is imminent. Another might be a power outage, viral outbreak, ice or snow storm. This would require you to spend days, possible weeks inside your home with no ability to go to the grocery store. The preparations you make now will greatly increase your survivability later. Most people think nothing will ever happen so why bother, others think about it but that’s about as far as it goes. Most victims of anyone of these disasters had those exact same thoughts. The fact is, disaster WILL strike at some point in your life, and will you be ready? Some say, well I will just go to so and so’s cause they already prepared. ARE YOU MENTAL?!?! I am pretty sure when they were spending money and taking time to prepare, they didn’t have the time or resources for you too. You will be depleting their resources that they planned to live on themselves. I hope you can live with yourself knowing that you just cut a families emergency ration by a great deal because you were too lazy to prepare yourself.
I think the first important thing for emergency preparedness is to be able to evacuate your house within 60 seconds taking with you those things of most importance. The reason I say 60 seconds is because if you awake at 2:00 AM to a smoke alarm the house is already burning. By the time the alarm goes off, you hear it and get out of bed you have already lost precious time. Most fire victims die from smoke inhalation, not fire. Many lose their lives trying to rescue the family cat hiding under the sofa or perhaps trying to gather some important item. That’s a question you should ask yourself right now, it’s 2:00 AM, your fire alarm goes off, what do you grab and how do you get out? Do you have children? What if the fire is on the other side of your bedroom door and you can’t open it? These are all things you should consider now rather then at 2 in the morning with a siren blaring in your ears and smoke in your face.
I have a backpack that sits on the side of my bed. Backpacks are making a comeback and you see many people carrying them even if only to hold an MP3 player, a pen and some bubble gum. You might want to put a change of clothes in your pack (if you sleep naked you might not have the time to dress inside the house), a couple bottles of water, copies of important papers, photos of anything of value, copies of receipts, a few days worth of any medication you need, etc. Photos and receipts are highly valuable. Don’t believe me? Try telling your insurance company that you owned anything of value when your house is standing in a pile of ash or you have been robbed. Hurricane Katrina was not the only nightmare to the survivors. Many had a difficult time even proving they had a house, let alone valuable stuff inside. Take photos of your cars, copies of titles, registration, etc. I hold all this info on a USB external hard drive that is encrypted. Encryption is not difficult; it just takes a little searching on how to do it which is free thanks to the WWW. Have this pack ready to go at all times. You might even want to keep it with you when you leave the house. What if the house catches fire while you’re out? I keep my USB hard drive in my trunk and update it twice a month. It is a backup of all my data, not just important home stuff. Because I have prepared, I could restore my wife’s business within a couple hours after a complete disaster plus provide all information to the insurance company. I have other items in the backpack such as first aid kit, emergency candles, glow sticks, water bottles, food rations, 550 para-cord, a knife, snake kit, emergency blanket, lighters, fire starters, water purifier, etc. I could survive a very long time on what I carry in my pack alone. It has gotten a bit heavy and I need to re-evaluate what is in it but at least I have what I feel is important.
I think the next step is to be prepared to leave your house within 12 hours and the next would be 72 hours. These would apply to natural disaster that you see coming such as hurricanes, or other storms. This preparation includes the previous 60 seconds but includes such things as preparing your vehicle, keeping it maintained; having a spare gas can with fuel and some Stabil (keeps the fuel from going bad). I plan to use my truck in this type of emergency and always keep the tank full. My other vehicles I try to always fill their tanks when they get to half. Remember how hard it was to get gas after Katrina? Better to have some in a spare can and at least a half tank in the event of an emergency. Keep a small 72 hour kit in your car. Many catastrophes can happen when you’re not at home. Be prepared.
So far I have covered leaving your house. What happens if you are not able to leave? This year we watched the swine flu shut down Mexico. They quarantined many cities. How much food do you have in your house? Can you stay home for a week without needing anything from the grocery store? Many experts recommend 3 days worth of food. I think most homes could claim this but let’s be realistic. Agricultural experts are saying that America imports most of its food. Many of the locations we get food from have been in drought. Our own government has made arrangements with the Canadian military to help in the event of a food shortage leading to riots in the streets. When people get hungry they get ugly, especially Americans who have always been able to run to a fast food restaurant and fill their belly. Grocery stores only carry about 3 days worth of food, which is assuming people aren’t looting and going insane. If you have ever grown a garden, you know it takes about 2-3 months to go from seed to plant to vegetable. My suggestion is you have at least 3 months worth of food stored. It might be a good idea to learn to cook something from scratch too. Boxed goods contain very little nutrition. I suggest learning to can your own food. Remember grandma’s bottled meat and veggies? That is a cheap way to keep food from going bad for a long time. Frozen is OK but you lose it all if the power is out for any extended amount of time. Freeze dried is a good idea but I think canning your own food helps you to become more self sufficient and less dependent. Grow a garden!
Power is something else to consider. I have a well that runs on a pump so if there is a power outage I won’t have water other then what I have stored. To resolve this issue I have built a solar panel and acquired a handful of heavy duty deep cycle batteries. My solar panel produces 200 watts. If I were to buy one it would have cost me on average of $700. I built mine for $250. Buy solar cells on EBay and then do some Google searching on how to make your own solar panel. My batteries are 120 amp hour gel filled. These batteries sell for about $400 each. I got mine for free. Seems some companies replace theirs every 3 years no matter what. An inverter will be needed as well. These can vary greatly in price depending on what you plan to run with them. The American mentality is MORE. But with solar you really have to think about reality, what is really needed? Do you have to power a light in every room? I doubt it. Do you have to take a 20 gallon shower? No, you don’t. Try turning the water off once your wet, lather then turn it on to rinse. You should be able to shower in 1 gallon of water. Stop being wasteful! You will survive much longer.
There is more and more talk of a coming collapse of this country. I have heard it from too many sources both secular and prophetic. I have seen our new government try to spend our way out of debt, fire up the printing presses and pump out money like its candy. We will reap what we sow. You can not create money out of thin air! I see the collapse of the dollar bill coming very soon. It will take us 34,000 years to repay just what Obama has spent in the first 6 months! What will you do when they devalue the dollar bill over night? It could drop as much as 50%. There is talk of a bank holiday; nothing you have in the bank will be accessible for up to a week. Your debit card will be useless so you might want some cash on hand.
I have removed most of my money from the bank. My interest rate had dropped from 5.05% to below 1% and I figured the bankers had made enough money off of us tax payers anyway. I then bought some silver, the poor man’s gold. The Constitution of the United States says that gold and silver are to be the only source of money. Why? Pretty simple really, it can not be destroyed, it can not be made, there is only so much available. I recommend owning some, in your hand, not on a computer screen. Gold owned in ETF’s is of no more value then the money in your bank account. Its digital and can be erased with the stroke of a key. Gold is not a huge money maker in the sense of investment but it is pretty stable and it does excellent when the dollar is doing poorly. In 2000 gold was selling for about $280 an oz. Today it is selling for about $940 an oz. and expected to climb as high as $5K. Silver is currently trading around $14 an oz and expected to go as high as $100.
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