Emergency Preparedness

I’m posting this early as I fly out for the 2011 Survival & Preparedness Conference Friday and won’t return home until late Monday.

This is Memorial Day weekend. A time of fun, parades, cookouts, and family gatherings for the most part. However, this also brings the absolute most important assignment I will ever give you in this blog.

Sometime this weekend, I want you to find a veteran, look them square in the eye, shake their hand, and thank them for their service to this country. I don’t care what branch they served with, when they served, or for how long. Every veteran deserves our undying gratitude for their service.

To all the veterans reading this blog, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your sacrifice to keep our country free.

A friend of mine who works as an EMT and has also been a firefighter in the past asked me to bring up this topic. In the event you need to call 911, seconds count. Please make sure your house number is clearly marked in a location easy to see from the street. Time and again, these emergency crews expend crucial ticks of the clock trying to determine which house it is where they are needed.

If possible during an emergency, send someone outside to the end of the driveway to flag down the rescue squad, police, and/or fire crews.

With that said though, let’s say you’re home alone and suffer an injury. You are able to get to the phone and dial 911 but are unable to carry on a conversation with the dispatcher. Standard protocol is to send out a police officer to investigate 911 hang ups or 911 calls where the caller isn’t responding to the dispatcher. The 911 system is set up such that they can automatically trace the call to your address. But, don’t make them have to hunt for your house. Display your house number on your mailbox at the minimum, preferably also on or near your front door. Use reflective numbers and letters so it is easy to read at night.

Let me preface this blog entry by asking everyone to say a prayer for the folks in and around Joplin, MO. I’ve seen several photos of the devastation there and my heart goes out to all of those folks affected there.

We had just a bit of storm damage here as well.

My wife and I actually watched this tree as it came down. It is an old box elder tree, the last of what was originally five trunks growing together. Here’s a close up of the damage it did to the neighbor’s fence. For perspective, that fence is six feet tall.

Luckily, the tree missed our house by about fifteen feet. The other good news is the neighbor is going to let us keep most of the wood once we get it all cut up. Unfortunately, box elder is kind of crap wood for burning but hey, it is free, right?

Now, thankfully this fell in our backyard and thus it isn’t a huge issue in terms of needing to remove the tree immediately. But, what if a tree were to come down across your driveway? Would you have equipment on hand to be able to remove it? Or at least clear enough of it away to be able to get a car out?

It is important to have on hand wood cutting equipment like chainsaws, bow saws, and loppers. Being able to “attack” this tree quickly means we can get it done and move on, rather than waiting for a tree removal service. After a storm like this, those businesses are going to be rather busy and it could be a while before they make it to you. Better to have the means to take care of it yourself if at all possible.

As I may have mentioned a time or two in previous posts here, I’m something of a bibliophile. Truth be told, I have way more books that I probably need. But, I’m comforted in the fact that the knowledge contained within these volumes will serve me well if/when the world does go all topsy-turvy.

If you haven’t done so already, I highly recommend all preppers build up a survival library. No one can possibly have all knowledge they may ever need just in their head. Odds are pretty good the Internet won’t be available for consultation either.

The survival library should contain reference materials on:
–Gardening
–Canning and preserving
–Firearms maintenance
–Animal husbandry
–First aid
–Trapping, hunting, fishing
–Tracking
–Wild game preparation
–Wild edibles
–Home repair (carpentry, plumbing, electrical)
–Small engine repair
–Alternative energy systems
–Sewing and clothing repair

…and probably about a dozen other topics I’m forgetting right now.

In addition, I also suggest you have on hand books and materials to facilitate the education of children — math, science, history, and language arts at the minimum.

If you are even remotely religious, make sure you add in the appropriate texts and other materials for study.

Don’t forget the fun stuff too like novels and anthologies. Personally, if I never bought another book I’d probably have enough reading material to last me several years.

Now, where can you find all this stuff cheaply? Used bookstores, library sales, thrift stores, rummage sales, Freecycle, Craigslist, and Amazon.com all immediately come to mind. What I often do is toss a particular title on my Amazon wish list as a reminder to look for it when I’m out haunting the used bookstores and such. While I’m on Amazon, I also make a point of checking out other recommended books it gives me based on the one I’m currently viewing. I’ve found some really great books that way.

Ultimate Guide to Wilderness Living by John and Geri McPherson

The McPhersons are well known as experts in bushcraft and wilderness survival. Their approach is very natural, often using absolutely no man-made tools. They’ve learned by doing, spending years perfecting their skills. In this book, they share this knowledge with the reader in an entertaining and engaging style.

From getting a fire going with a drill to making tools from bones and stones, they lead the reader through the process step-by-step. The writing style is relatively informal, which really works here. As you read the book, you feel as though John and Geri are at your side, guiding you along the way. They readily admit mistakes they’ve made over the years and share them with you in hopes of keeping history from repeating itself.

One of the many areas where this book shines is the instructions on making food gathering tools, like the venerable bow and arrow. This section alone is worth the price of admission, in my estimation. John and Geri go into exquisite detail on this somewhat complicated process. Various traps and snares are given equal attention, which is very helpful. Many similar books give just a passing glance at traps, usually accompanied by a single line drawing of each trap, if the reader is lucky.

This book is heavily illustrated throughout, with both photos and drawings. This leads me to the only drawback of the book, in my opinion. Some of the photos, being black and white, aren’t as clear as I’d have liked. The details get lost in the grayness with some of the photos. However, this is not insurmountable as many of those same photos are accompanied by detailed line drawings to help the reader understand what is being illustrated.

All in all, if you have even a passing interest in learning woodcraft, this would be THE book I’d recommend.