| A reader has sent this useful list to help prepare for what is coming.
Considering how much damage was done to the midwest from tornadoes
this past week, everyone should have a safe place to go and be ready - for
'anything' and 'everything'. Obvously, with tornadoes, you can't keep
your supplies on the first floor, but basement areas seem to be okay - storm
cellars are always a good idea.
SURVIVAL CATEGORIES
Working Citizen - Concerned with paying rent & utilities, keeping
or getting health insurance, paying taxes, inflation, car repairs, leaky
plumbing, back pains... May work two jobs, does without personal luxuries,
hopes their children will do better than themselves. Emotional, physical
and financial survival is the focus of daily life.
Upwardly Mobile - Concerned about aging, retirement investments, cholesterol
levels, loss of employment, lawsuits, burglaries, bandwidth, clothes dryer
lint fires. Takes vitamins, exercises, eats oatmeal, wears seatbelts, has
smoke & carbon-monoxide detectors, requests medical tests, has numerous
insurance policies, files lawsuits, pampers themselves wherever ,whenever
possible. "Survival" to them means living long enough to take full benefit
of extensive retirement plans and long term care insurance policies.
Medical Crisis - Has very complete medical pack in house and in car. Donates
blood and is active in the Red Cross. Has taken paramedic EMT & CPR courses,
knows vital signs, stockpiles medicines, etc. Concerned with vehicle accidents
and emergencies involving injuries. Focus is on helping family, friends &
community survive medical emergencies.
Safety Preparedness - Learns principles and techniques needed for surviving
worse-case scenarios that can occur anyplace, anywhere. Makes preparations
for such common calamities as building fires, dog attacks, physical
confrontations, lightning strikes, car breakdowns, third-world travel problems,
flash floods, home invasions and even train wrecks. Reads: Survive Safely
Anywhere, Worse-Case Scenario Handbooks
Wilderness Survival - Being able to stay alive for indefinite periods
in life threatening wilderness scenarios. These can include: plane crashes,
shipwrecks, being lost in the woods. Concerns are: thirst, hunger, climate,
terrain, health, stress, fear. Prepares with: knowledge, training & practice.
Kit includes: water purifiers, shelter, fire starters, clothing, food, medical
supplies, navigation & signaling gear. Reads: Nessmuk, Kephart, Angier,
Mears
Personal Assault Survival - Individuals concerned with surviving brief
encounters of violent activity. Focus is on personal protection & it's
legal ramifications, danger awareness, Boyd's cycle (also known as the OODA
cycle - observe, orient, decide & act), martial arts, self defense tactics
and tools (both lethal & less-than-lethal). Reads: Ayoob, Cooper, Jordan,
Applegate, Sanow, Marshall, Taylor, Steele, Sun Tzu
Natural Disaster, Brief - People that live in tornado, hurricane, flood,
wildfire, earthquake or heavy snowfall areas and want to be prepared for
the inevitable. Investment in material for fortifying structures and tools
for rebuilding & constructing temporary shelter, perhaps have a below
ground shelter, food, water, medicine, and supplies, enough to get by until
contact with the rest of the world resumes.
Natural Disaster, Years Long - Concerned about long term weather cycles
of 2-10 years, unusually cold or warm periods, that have happened on and
off for thousands of years. Might stock several tons of food per family member
and have a heavy duty greenhouse with packed in nitrogen non-hybrid seeds.
Natural Disaster, Lifelong - Possible scenarios include: severe global
warming and the coming ice age, the greenhouse-effect-gone-wild, warming/cooling
of gulf steam waters, large meteor strike, shift in earth's axis or reversal
of geo-magnetic fields... Owns maps of previous ice age glacier patterns
and are hopeful they live south of the permafrost line. May have purchased
snowshoes. Reads reports by National Academy of Science and Woods Hole Physical
Oceanography Dept.
General Social/Political Decline, Liberal - Concerned about growing cultural
problems and the slow destruction of the constitution & the bill of rights.
Into anti-crime measures, both passive (alarms) and active (neighborhood
watch). Most often anti-gun, pro-choice, pro-environment, anti- war, against
prayer in school, against death penalty... Supporters of the ACLU, Amnesty
International, Ban Handguns in America, Greenpeace.
General Social/Political Decline, Conservative - Concerned about growing
cultural problems and the slow destruction of the constitution & the
bill of rights. Into anti-crime measures, both passive (alarms) and active
(Rottweilers & guns). Most often pro-gun, anti-abortion, pro-business,
pro- national defense, for prayer in school, pro-death penalty... Supporters
of Attorney General Ashcroft, Rush Limbaugh, NRA, the Alaska "Support Industry"
Alliance.
Cold War "Survivalists" - Fear homeland invasion by nation's enemies,
whether foreign or domestic. This was a group of substantial size before
the fall of the Soviet Union. True-believers currently suspect the U.N. of
one-world domination plans and fear black helicopters, government intervention
& taxation. The majority of these people have relocated to other groups.
Favorite movies: Red Dawn, Mad Max trilogy.
Nuclear War - These folks know all primary, secondary & tertiary targets,
downwind fallout patterns and chose to live in locales they deem to be safest
in the event of all out nuclear war. They've built fallout shelters and have
the necessary food, water, tools and skills to see them though. Other groups
also prepare for nuclear war as an exercise, in that if you are prepared
for nuclear war, you are prepared for all other scenarios. Reads: Tappan,
Kearny, Clayton.
Bio-Chem - Concerned with the spread of fatal diseases and terrorist use
of biological agents & nerve gases. Examples: E.Coli 0157, botulism,
dengue, Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease, SARS, rabies, hantavirus, anthrax, plague,
cholera, HIV, ebola, marburg, lassa, saron, VX ... Might own NBC (nuclear,
biological & chemical) full-face respirators, polyethylene coveralls,
PVC boots, Nitrile gloves, plastic sheeting and duct tape. Reads: CDC reports,
Haz-Mat manuals, Preston's "Hot Zone"
Knowledge-Enabled Mass Destruction (KMD) - Concerned with unintended
consequences of genetic manipulation, nano-technology, transgenic crops,
psychological engineering, genome hybridized cloning, artificial intelligence,
biotechnology, engineered organisms, self-replicating molecular robotic
assemblers ("gray goo problem")... Techno-luddites fear human extinction.
At the other end are the bioethicists who believe policies and self regulation
will avert disaster. Reads: Kurzweil, Kaczynski, Moravec, Dyson
Over-Population - Soaring increase in world's uncontrolled human growth
impacts available freshwater, food, health-care, environment, economics,
consumerism, spread of diseases and just about every other facet of life.
projections indicate that world population of 6.2 billion may again
double in fifty years. Followers range from those who've foregone children
& have had voluntary sterilization to those who've embrace large families
and only then sound the alarm, like Al Gore, David Packard (H-P founder)
and Sripati Chandrasekhar (India's birth control advocate). Supports: Family
planning, birth control and voluntary sterilization.
Monetary Disaster - Reads lots of Ayn Rand and believe the Federal Reserve
system is evil. Newsletters suggest hard assets of gold & silver bullion/coin
and similar precious-metal oriented investments. They are preparing for paper
money to become worthless, thus have a good burglar alarm system and enough
food/ supplies to last a couple of months, or perhaps even a year, until
a new monetary system (formal or informal) is re-established.
Biblical Revelations - The Savior is going to return very soon, the final
battle with the devil will occur in their lifetime, the rapture is eminent.
Very wide range of beliefs and attitudes in this group. Pacifist to armed
camp, no food stockpiles (leave that to God) to decades of food storage,
etc. The ability to put trust in faith, above all else, is essential to members
of this group. Usually follow one very charismatic leader's interpretations
of the bible.
Post-9/11 Reactionaries - Are convinced that government should have unlimited
powers to do everything and anything to stop all potential terrorist threats.
They want greater protection through increased governmental controls over
citizens and foreigners alike, both within the country's borders and elsewhere.
Willing to preemptively strike the enemy. Willing to surrender civil liberties
and human rights in order to feel safe and secure. Believers rarely take
any personal action, relying instead on the government to make changes.
NOTE:
Plain Talk about Food &
Water
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A survival food
supply with drinking water are the most vital necessities in the event
of an emergency. Try to imagine what it would be like to live for a
week without food or water. Could a situation of that magnitude really
take place? Well, what about the Northridge earthquake in 1994, or
Hurricane Andrew, or September 11, 2001? All of these situations posed
a serious threat to food and water supplies by severing normal supply
lines.
You may ask, “where
do I start?” Take an inventory of all food items you have on hand.
With a marker, date your canned food such as fruits and vegetables,
and pastas so that you can use the oldest ones first. This is the
start to assembling a complete survival food storage program. Forecast
the needs of your household based on what your family eats and begin
adding them to your pantry.
Discover our
survival food supply kits with enough food supply for your family (go
to
Food & Preparedness Store):
- 72 Hour
survival food supplies for 3 persons.
- Security
Unit survival food supplies for 2 persons for a year.
Water and
ways to purify it is the most important piece to the survival puzzle.
Most people cannot go more than a couple of days without drinking
water. Not only do you need water for drinking, but for bathing,
cleaning, and cooking. It is vital to have water storage available.
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