|
-Reader Submitted Article
Baby Step to Survival
It's one o'clock in the morning. BAM! It happens, the worse scenario
you can imagined wakes you and your family. Yours and all the local
lights are out. A never before heard silence suddenly engulfs you,
as the traffic and other ambient sounds disappear. You feel that
you have to get out of the house and fast! Chances are you do not
even realize what happened yet.
You quickly grab that fancy bug-out bag and, and, now what? Where
are you going? The shock of the moment won't let you think right.
You are still standing there trying to get your thoughts organized
and the emergency situation is growing worse by the second it seems.
Your getting panicky and scared as would most people. Now what are
you going to do? You need to leave, but where are you going to go?
Our first impulse is to run to safety, but where is that? Perhaps
you have children who are staring up at your face waiting for you
to say something, to go someplace, to do something! You have in
your hand that carefully thought out bag of survival stuffs, but
what are you going to do with it right now?
Perhaps an earth quake has torn much of your and the immediate
homes or office buildings apart and you survived. Perhaps a sudden
flash flood has befallen you and the water is rising measured
not in inches but in feet. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps; The list
of possible disasters is quite long for most of us. We hopefully
thought about making a three day emergency bug-out bag, but what
if disaster befell when you are at work? What about your family?
What about when you take a little trip to the park or grocery store
and can't get back home? What do you do? Where do you go?
You are now one of the perhaps hundreds of thousands of people
now affected. The majority of Americans live in cities. It's hard
for me to imagine you using that emergency fishing kit you so thought
out and stored in your bug-out bag in a city culvert. What about
that big knife Rambo ran around with and you just had to buy? Do
you anticipate whacking away at telephone poles? Hmm. Perhaps it
is time to re-think your items in the bag. Maybe a few Granola bars
are more desirable and weigh less than that dinosaur-killing knife.
The idea of getting into those pretty mountains off in the distant
and living off the land like our fore-fathers sounds great. What
about all the thousands of others who have the same idea?
Ok, probably its best to stay close to home and go to one of the
temporary emergency shelters with your family; but for now, your
back to standing in the room at one o'clock in the morning, no lights
and crazy silence about you, dazed and unable to think. What are
you going to do? Where are you going?
The concept of a bug-out bag was conceived to allow you and your
family to get to an emergency shelter and have the basics to live
for three days until an "official emergency organization"
can get on the scene, set-up shop, and start doing their part to
help you through the crazy aftermath of the disaster. Sounds logical;
however, ask the millions of folks who survived Hurricane Katrina
and their opinion of Federal Emergency Management Association and
their abilities to setup and start doing for people. Things did
not go so "logically" and the pre-conceived idea of three
days waiting for relief did not materialize in many cases. Having
that grab-n-go bag today is an even more important item to have.
So getting back to standing there in the living room with that
buzzing mind, how about opening that survival bag or its outside
pocket, pulling out your little red note book and reading what you
wrote when previously clear minded and calm concerning what to do?
"In case X happens, grab bag and drive or walk to the emergency
shelter located at Crazy Socks Elementary School. To get there,
go down Foot Loose Road to the Stop-N-Rob store and turn right.
If Foot Loose is blocked, use Flea Avenue." "If Crazy
Socks School is damaged or closed, go to the church located at___"
…
You are probably getting my concept. You do not have to write down
every possible disaster before it happens, but think of what you
'probably can do' with all the details of when, where, how, whom,
etc. Then list alternatives for each of the shelter locations, routes
to take, etc. Write them down in a small notebook and, along with
a flashlight, and toss it into your bag on top of everything else
or in a side-pocket where it is very easily located.
Believe me, from my experiences I can say most people immediately
after a disaster strikes are like shell-shocked soldiers for a time
and can not think clearly. Many will walk in circles striving to
comprehend what has just happened to them. Then what they should
do or where they should go. They may have the finest equipped survival
bag in their hands, but it is secondary to having thought out
a plan of action before the disaster strikes to know how, where
and when to use those items and most of all having access to that
information. Trying to remember what to do when a disaster first
strikes is guaranteed to be impossible. Reading simple instructions
you have already researched and thought out, that is readily available
and easy to get to will get you taking that first baby step in doing,
in going. A small baby step which leads to your survival.
-Jerry B Blaine
|
Customer
Service - All orders are shipped within 2-3 business days. Your
UPS tracking number will be emailed to you once your order ships so
you can track your order on its way to you. Shipping is calculated
based on shipping location and weight. Please provide a physical address
and not a PO Box since UPS can not deliver to a PO Box.