Which Way to Go by SurvivorMom

Which Way to Go by SurvivorMom

As a single mom, and veteran of a few natural and one man made disaster I have contemplated what was done well and what I could do better. As a survivor of 4 hurricanes, an international kidnapping, and the armed forces, as well as a hell of a single mom there are several things to keep in mind in the WSHTF scenarios. Since we cannot predict what will cause the STHTF you have to be prepared for any contingency. I have built my bug out bags, know how to build a fire without matches, (and even know how to build a few things not necessarily kosher in the legal sense), water purification, acquired and distributed resources like ponchos (hurricanes) and survival blankets, food, shelters, blah blah, blah. Yes, I have completed the basic I knew it was going to happen preparation for both my son and me. I do not have a large house and I live in the Sunshine State so there is no such thing as burying foodstuffs in the ground. Our water table and ground temps are too high for this kind of storage, besides we have bugs and reptiles that subscribe to crooks r us magazine and can break into anything. I am still working on a resolution to this shortcoming.

A new issue I had not thought of has come up recently; my son will be traveling on a bus around the country for the summer performing with Drum Corps. I realized I will have to pack him a small survival kit to go in the bottom of his bus bag (very limited space on a bus) and I realized for the first time that he may not be near me should the SHTF. So we are working on a set of maps with phone numbers and compass bearings for the areas he will be traveling in. The phone numbers are for people in the general area that I have some sort of relationship with, the compass bearings will help him find his way to them. I
decided that should the SHTF roads may or may not be passable but lakes, rivers, and mountains should likely still be at least recognizable. We set it up with a main page with a list of areas he is going to – phone numbers (in case the phones work) addresses and compass bearings. Then a set of google earth maps for the general areas he will be in and ultimately the rally points we will both try to move toward should we be separated at the time the SHTF. I know it seems simple but sometimes we forget that rally points and compass directions may be the difference in survival when separated.