emergency preparedness

Fundamentals of Preparedness

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Fundamentals of Preparedness
By Brett A. Fernau

Be Prepared! That is the Boy Scout motto. But what do those words mean to you? Does being prepared mean that you have set aside supplies of water, food, bandages, fuel, tools, weapons and ammunition in case you are faced with a disaster where you would need those things to survive? Does it mean that you have acquired a library of books on how to stay warm, administer first aid, camp out, cook, tie knots, make campfires, harvest wild game, forage for food, plant a garden and other survival subjects? If you answered “Yes,” then you are partially correct.

Being prepared is not entirely about what you have, though the things you have will certainly help you. Being prepared is more about what you know and what you can do with that knowledge, than it is about what you have. Yes, it is a very good idea to have a reference library of books that contain information on how to survive when the city water and electricity are shut off. And, yes, it is good to have had the foresight to set aside supplies of water and food to get you through those chaotic days that will follow a disaster. Even more important, though, will be knowing what is in those books and having the ability to apply that knowledge.

I talk a lot about fundamentals. “Fundamental” is another word which we need to define. Fundamentals are those basic rules and concepts upon which any body of knowledge is based. In any subject you can think of, there are a simple set of basic concepts which you need to know in order be become an expert in that subject. You have to know the rules to play the game; and you first have to master the basic skills to become an expert player. Preparedness is a very broad subject comprised of a large number of more specific subjects. If you learn the fundamentals of each element of preparedness and practice the required skills to become expert at each one, you will eventually acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to survive in almost any situation. As an expert in survival, you will be able to use whatever materials you find around you to help you handle that situation. As an expert in survival, you will be able to deal with a disaster calmly and competently. You will be able to direct and instruct those around you so that they can help themselves and other victims. Instead of having the people around you panic because they don’t know what to do, you can give them tasks that they can do and, thus, control and mitigate the effects of the disaster. Instead of being a problem, people who are doing something are helping to solve the problem. If you are able to control the disaster scene by setting people to tasks that help those around them, you, yourself, will have a much better chance of surviving; and you will have enhanced the chances for survival of everyone on the scene.

Knowing the fundamentals of such survival skills as first aid, search and rescue, camping, cooking, map and compass navigation, radio communications, and other subjects lets you innovate and create solutions on the scene using whatever materials and resources you have available to you. When you know the fundamentals of how things work, you can more easily evaluate problems and solve them.

One of the fundamental skills you should develop is the ability to look. “Oh, come on,” you say. “I know how to do that.” Do you really? Unless you know something of the world around you, some fundamentals of how things work, you may be looking at something that has the potential of being quite dangerous to you and not be aware of the hazard inherent in that thing. If you look at something and assume that it is the same as every other thing that is similar to it, you are not looking at it at all. Instead you are looking at what you believe is there and not what is actually there. You need to develop an ability to look and see what is actually there in front of you. Without that ability, you will miss critical factors that will give you information that may be vital to handing a situation you are in. You can train yourself to do this and you should.

Try this exercise: Have a look at some object in your environment. Okay. Now, look at that object again and find something about it that you didn’t see the first time. Okay, look at it again and find something else about it that you hadn’t seen before. Repeat the last step until you are fairly sure you sure you’ve seen everything there is to see about that object. Now, find another object and do the whole exercise on that one. Did you learn anything? Were you able to see things you hadn’t previously noticed? If you were, you are doing it right. Practice looking.

You can do similar exercises with your other senses. You can increase your awareness of the world around you. By doing so, you enhance your ability to survive in any situation. If you see what is actually there in front of you, instead of assuming that what you are looking at is the same as some other similar thing, you will be able to correctly assess the situation you are in and act in a way that improves your chances of survival. Complacency is your enemy. Awareness is your friend.

There are fundamentals in all areas of expertise. If you know that fire requires air, fuel and heat to burn, you can more easily figure out how to get your campfire going. If you also know that the finer your fuel is cut up the more surface area there will be for your heat and air to work with and the easier it will be to get your fire going. Many things will burn if you reduce them to the smallest of particles. 0000 grade steel wool will burn nice and hot if you strike a spark into a nest of it. Know the fundamentals and you can keep yourself warm, cook a meal, purify water and smoke meat over the fire you just made.

Know the fundamentals of each of the survival skills and you will be able to improvise with what you have on hand. There won’t be time to look-up in the first-aid manual how to control bleeding or handle a restricted airway when your co-worker has a severed artery and her life’s blood is rapidly pumping out onto the floor; or your dinner partner is choking and can’t breathe from something stuck in his throat. If you know that a technique called “direct pressure” will slow or stop most bleeding, then you can spring into action and save a life. If you know the Heimlich maneuver, you can clear your partner’s airway and get him breathing again. There are fundamental skills and techniques for first-aid.

If you know the fundamentals of how search and rescue operations work you can save lives that would otherwise be lost while you wondered what to do next. Fundamentals give you the confidence to forge ahead in an emergency and bring calm and order to the chaos. Knowing why things need to be done and how and in what sequence to do them puts you in charge of the situation.

Disasters happen. They don’t always happen to someone else. The next one could happen right where you are. Prepare yourself to be among those who are helping to solve the problem by acquiring the knowledge and practicing the skills you will need to survive and help others do the same. In a major disaster, the usual sources of help, your first responders, the police and fire departments, are going to be very, very busy. Maybe too busy to come and help you. You need to be prepared to handle things on your own and to instruct those around you on how to help. If you possess the fundamental knowledge and have practiced your skills, you will be prepared. If you don’t, you will be just another victim.

Emergency Preparedess for Beginners – Part 6 – Bugging In: Cooking and Warmth

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Emergency Preparedness for Beginners
By Brett A. Fernau

Part 6 – Bugging in: Cooking and Warmth

So far we’ve talked about surviving the initial incident, getting home, stocking-up on food and water and disposing of your waste. Another basic element you will want to consider is some way to warm up your food, boil water and, possibly, if it is cold outside, keep yourself warm as well.

There are a number of things you might want to think about before you light a fire in your back yard, or even fire up your grill to warm up your supper. The first thing to think about is security. Are you the only one on your block with a stock of food and water? If so, it might be wise to keep a very low profile until you know how long you will need to stretch your supplies to insure your own and your family’s survival. If you start cooking in your back yard, some of those people downwind from your fire are very likely to come to visit you and ask you to share with them what you have. If you have sufficient stocks to do that, fine, have a party. However, if you think the emergency is going to last a while, you might not want to advertise the fact that you have something that others may not possess. This will be a difficult decision to make, but it may well come down to you and your family or group surviving, or you and all your neighbors quickly consuming all you have set aside and then slowly starving together. There may also be the possibility of roving bands of hungry, desperate and armed people seeking to take what you have and leave you with nothing. Think about the nature of the disaster you are facing, the amount of time it will take for normal functions to be restored, when the stores will be restocked, what the nature of your neighborhood is, and, then, based on those factors, decide whether cooking your food is a wise choice. You might be safer eating cold food in an inside room with no lights showing to the outside.

Another thing to think about is ventilation. Anything you burn will have some effect upon the air around the fire. If you cook indoors, depending upon what method of cooking you use and what fuel you are burning, you will have to deal with either CO2 or CO; that is carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide. Either one will kill you in a subtle, odorless, colorless, gentle, falling asleep kind of way. You’ll fall asleep, but you’ll never wake up. Be very, very conscious of getting fresh air into any area where you are burning fuels to cook or keep warm.

One other consideration about cooking isn’t about cooking at all, but about cleaning up after you cook. If you have limited water supplies and don’t know how long you may need to rely on those supplies, you will have to find a way to clean up your cooking gear without using your precious drinking water. In this case, it might be better if you ate your food cold and saved your water.

On the positive side, warm food is a great morale builder. It gives comfort and a sense of safety and security to what will be a stressful time. It warms not just the body, but the spirit. So, if it is safe to warm up your food, by all means do so.

If you think that you might need to cook during the time when public power, water and gas supplies are shut off, you will need to have planned ahead and acquired devices and fuel that will enable you to do so. If you already have a gas barbeque grill you can get a few more propane bottles and keep them filled and ready in the basement or the garage. You can buy a camp stove that burns Coleman fuel and keep a couple of extra cans of fuel stashed away. You should store any sort of flammable liquids or gases in a safe place, so that when disaster strikes you don’t compound your problem with a fire caused by your own supplies burning your house down. You can buy or build a “rocket” stove which burns small twigs in a very efficient manner, if you have a source of twigs for fuel. You can use your charcoal grill, too, if you have stocked up on a few bags of charcoal. There are also available a variety of propane fueled cooking devices made for the camping and RV market. They’re easy to find and not too expensive, just check your local sporting goods store, or any number of online resources.

In the colder months, keeping yourself warm inside your house will be difficult unless you already have a fireplace or a woodstove and a supply of fuel. As I mentioned earlier in this article, you will need to be very careful about doing any burning of fuels inside the house where there is inadequate ventilation. If the lack of oxygen doesn’t kill you, setting the house on fire might. Be careful. You’d be better off getting a sleeping bag or, perhaps two, one for the summer temperatures and one for the winter temperatures, than to try to heat your whole house anyway. We’re talking disaster here. You’re going to have to get used to living with a little discomfort until things get back to normal.

If you are a city dweller, and most people are these days, you will discover that it gets very, very dark at night when all the power is off. When it gets dark, plan on getting into your sleeping bag and going to sleep if you can. You will want to conserve your flashlight batteries for the time when you really need that light. If there is any sort of civil unrest around you, you would probably be wise not to show any lights at night so as not to attract any unwanted attention to yourself.

It might be a good idea to invest in a solar powered battery charger and then standardize the battery size in your radio, flashlights and other battery-powered devices so that they can all be charged by your solar charger.

Depending upon where you live, figure out what you will need to help you survive when you are off the gird and on your own. Think it through and make a list of what you will require: solar panels, a wind turbine, propane, gasoline, charcoal, a camping stove, a charcoal or gas grill, kitchen tools, firewood, etc. Start acquiring these things as you can afford them. Learn to use them. Practice your skills. Talk to your neighbors. Make sure your neighbors are just a prepared as you are. You will survive better as a group than as an individual. A group can share resources, skills, labor, and security duties and get all the jobs done much more efficiently that an individual. We’ll talk a bit more about that in the next article.