Emergency Preparedness

I’m not referring to the wise idea of having layers of clothing in cold weather. Instead, I’m talking about having access to multiple emergency kits of varying size and degrees of complexity. I feel it is important to have options in an emergency, and backups for your backups. While each emergency kit should cover the basic essentials as best as possible, the kits should also augment each other.

Your first line of defense, so to speak, would be what you have in your pockets. In a future blog post, I’ll show you how to put together an exceedingly small survival kit that will fit in a shirt pocket. For now, you can Google “Altoids tin survival kit” and see something along those lines. At the minimum, try to always have a way to light a fire (cheap butane lighter if nothing else), a decent blade (pocketknife or multi-tool), and clothing that is season appropriate. If you have those things with you at all times, you’re a step ahead of many people already.

The next layer is a bug out bag (BOB). Again, we’ll delve more fully into this topic later. In essence, a bug out bag is a stash of supplies, easily transportable, that provides you with enough food and equipment to get you from Point A to Point B, on foot or otherwise. This emergency kit should be kept close at hand. If at all possible, keep one kit at work and one in your vehicle. This way, should you be forced to evacuate your workplace and are unable to get to where you’ve stashed your BOB, you still have the one in your vehicle to use if needed.

At home, you should have a separate evacuation kit. Similar to the BOB, this kit will also include important documents, possibly treasured photos, and a few other critical odds and ends. This will supplement what you already have in your BOB in your vehicle should you need to evacuate your home in an emergency.

Finally, you have the home emergency kit. This isn’t necessarily a box or bag of emergency specific items. Rather, your extensive and long-term emergency supplies might be kept throughout your home. In a pinch, your BOB and your home evacuation kit will augment what you have on hand at home.

The whole idea is to have backups for your backups. Any one kit should be enough to see you to safety but when they are combined, the sum is greater than the parts.

This is an ongoing feature of this blog. Every Wednesday, I’ll present to you a different scenario. You take the information given and run with it. Give some thought as to what you’d do and how you’d go about it. I understand there will be scenarios that just wouldn’t apply to you personally for whatever reason. Feel free to change it around a bit to suit your own situation. Please share your thoughts in the comments.

It is 5:00AM and there’s pounding at your front door. Looking through the window, you see a squad car in the driveway. The Sheriff’s Deputy at your door tells you there has been a train derailment in the area and you need to evacuate immediately. He says you have ten minutes to grab whatever you need and be out the door. He’s not telling you what was on that train, only that there is immediate danger and it might be a fair amount of time before it is safe. The road to the north is the only route available to take when you leave, all other roads are blocked until further notice.

What do you grab? Can you grab all that in less than ten minutes? Where do you go? How do you get there?

If you’ve not done so recently, consider doing a “dry run” for a home evacuation. You might be surprised how long it really takes to get your stuff and head out the door.

Greetings and welcome to our new blog.  Here, we shall be discussing anything and everything related to survival and emergency preparedness.  I am your host and blogger, Jim Cobb.

I thought for my first post here, I might take the opportunity to tell you a bit about myself.  I’ve been studying this sort of thing for well over twenty years.  I grew up in the upper Midwest, where we experienced a wide range of weather extremes every year.  I can recall being perhaps five or six years old and hearing a tornado warning on TV.  I grabbed what I felt were emergency essentials and headed to the basement.  Being all of five years old, those supplies consisted of my teddy bear, blanket, a few random canned goods, and a flashlight.  I continued to go through this same routine every time I heard a weather warning.  It drove my folks crazy but by God I was going to save us all!  Or at least that’s how it played out in my head.

As I got older, I discovered post-apocalyptic fiction.  The first book in this genre I read was Empty World by John Christopher.  The book is about a young teenage boy in the UK who survives a global pandemic.  The whole premise just grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.  As a young boy myself, I could easily imagine the fun I could have without parents or teachers, rules or regulations, and no need to pay for anything I wanted!  That one book began a lifelong infatuation with post-apocalyptic stories.

It wasn’t too much later that I came upon Life After Doomsday by Dr. Bruce Clayton in a bookstore.  I saved my allowance for a few weeks, then went back and bought it.  I was probably the only kid in sixth grade who knew about the dangers of fallout, the importance of stockpiling food, and what weapons were best for a home armory.  Yes, I was kind of a weird child.

Today, I’m married to a very talented, intelligent, beautiful woman who shares my concerns about being prepared for the unknown.  We’re accompanied on our journey by our three adolescent weapons of mass destruction.  Despite all the studying and practicing I’ve done, I’m still learning.  I don’t have all the answers.  No one does.  But, I’m hoping to share some of what I’ve learned with y’all through this blog.  Further, I’m hoping you might share your own knowledge and perspective with me via the comments here.

While I have a fairly lengthy laundry list of topics to discuss here in the near future, I’ll always welcome your questions and input.  If there is anything you’d like to see covered in this blog, please don’t hesitate to comment below or shoot me an email.