Disaster Drills: The Best Preparation
Sep 6th, 2010 | By Mike | Category: Education, Prepping | Print This Article
Preparation for a disaster is not always enough. Only practice makes perfect. If you make the effort to use Mother Nature’s little disasters and test your readiness with dry-runs and rehearsals, you will learn a thousand little things that will make a big difference if you are ever faced with the grizzly bear of a real disaster.
Every school kid has a better chance of survival because of fire drills. The military has survival training, and private enterprise and government agencies practice for the worst with disaster drills. So take a tip from the pros instead of taking your chances.
Many people get hit with a severe thunderstorm that causes a power outage once every year or two. Use that opportunity to make note of everything you wanted and needed in the situation. Better yet, don’t wait for a real outage; turn off the power yourself. Sure, you have some candles, if only the decorative ones in the bathroom and dining room. But with no smokers in the family, do you have matches and some disposable lighters? Put them on your list, and don’t wait until the lights are off to fire up those candles. Try them now to see how long they burn, how much light they give off, and whether there is an accompanying odor. (The last thing you need in an emergency is one of those candles that are designed to produce a great scent rather than give off a long-lasting, usable light.)
Another thing you’ll learn is that you need to keep your refrigerator closed to keep the cold from escaping. You probably don’t realize how often you open that refrigerator door, and even just a few seconds can cost you 5 degrees. Under normal circumstances the refrigerator will only keep cold for about 24 hours, so ration your effort. In an emergency outage situation those efforts might save expensive meats or medicines. Of course, if it looks like the power will be out for more than 24 hours, quickly prioritize ingredients so you can consume or prepare the most valuable or most likely to spoil items. It’s better to eat them now (and eat well) than to try to preserve them and lose them to spoilage.
Think about how great it would be to have a small generator right now, especially if the outage lasts more than a day. Frozen foods will only last so long without power. The sump pump that is keeping your basement from flooding won’t save your basement carpet and furnishings if it isn’t running. Your internet service may still be operating via cable or satellite (since these large firms invest heavily in backup power), but you can’t turn on your computer to communicate with the world. Make a note of every little thing you wish you had. A manual can opener, a small gas stove for cooking, a non-electric coffee pot, instant coffee, a battery-operated radio and lots of batteries, a battery-operated alarm clock, several good flashlights of different sizes, full-size lanterns (one with batteries and one oil-burning), and cell phones for everybody. Make a list of everything you could have used, and get one for the house and one for your getaway kit. Think seriously about investing in a backup generator—especially a solar powered one that is not dependent on dangerous, expensive and smelly diesel.
There is nothing like a major snowfall to cause a run on the supermarkets and hardware stores. People scramble for supplies, provisions, and tools. When it’s time to hunker down to wait out a disaster like this, you need to be prepared. Have a snow blower gassed up and some shovels ready (real snow shovels, not those plastic toys). Keep extra toilet paper on hand, and stock up with canned goods, dry foods, and bottled water. Make sure your furnace has a clean filter and is tuned up before the heating season arrives. Have snow brushes and ice scrapers for your cars. Keep a large bag of rock salt for ice on hand. Firewood, space heaters, kerosene heaters, and blankets should all be handy in case you are snowed in. Minor floods can contaminate drinking water and close roads too, so have a few large jugs of water besides the small ones for drinking. You might need water for washing and bathing too. Always think ahead to the third or fourth day of a disaster. Some things that aren’t vital right away become more important as time goes on, and surviving that fifth day is no less important than the first.
Being prepared at home is important, but you also need to think and practice a disaster drill that requires evacuation. Learn from your dry runs at home what to include in your “get out of Dodge” kit, and have a place to go outside of the city. If you have a cabin or relatives with a farm that is far enough out to escape a deteriorating urban situation, visit there often. Map out all of the alternate routes off the interstate, which will be bumper-to-bumper in the event of a real evacuation (and might be the target for harassment by criminals or law enforcement during a crisis).
If there is no farm available to you, go to campsites outside of the city. Research your options until you’ve found several places that have wells and pumps, serviceable outhouses, even a windmill and a place for a small garden would be good. A few bags of seeds don’t take up much space either.
If you want to survive a disaster comfortably, be more than prepared. Be capable and competent in your ability to execute your plan. Think, plan and practice. Don’t neglect short-term tactics by focusing on long-term strategy. Think home survival and offsite survival; the odds are pretty good you’ll be faced with a crisis away from home or need to evacuate your primary residence.
Other articles in this issue:
- Are We on Our Way to an Economic Calamity? We May not Know until it’s too Late
- A Tomato a Day Keeps You Healthy…and Full!
- On the Road to Sustainable Food Production
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The main theme I keep hearing on this website is a bug-out bag or references to leaving your home and doing your thing in the wilderness. I’ve read many stories about people leaving their home in emergencies or disasters. The primary result of leaving a residence before it may be absolutely necessary is that you become a refugee in short order if you have no reasonable, safe, well-stocked place to go. Otherwise, you should just stick it out in your residence until it’s no longer safe. If you don’t have a place to go to a “bug-out” bag will only be good for about three days. And, then what?
I also read about what weapon is best during a “bug-out” exercise. Believe me, things have to get pretty rough before a weapon becomes necessary. And, in the hands of a novice hunter or defender, you are just asking to get yourself killed. It takes a lot of experience and wisdom to strike out into the wilderness with a gun prepared to hunt to survive, whether it’s against another person, an army, or just to find food. If the enemy happens to be the government, you won’t survive very long with just a gun no matter how much ammo you may have stashed. The government’s army is always going to win. They’re prepared for it and you’re not.
If any situation arises that causes you to be in the wild providing for your family and defending yourself and family, you better have more than a bug-out bag and a couple of guns. Organize is the watchword. If you don’t have a network you will not survive…period.
Yes, things may get really rough for the patriots in this nation. But, remember, it’s still our nation. Make sure your network includes some experienced, former military men and women that have been trained to survive, connive, surprise, and thrive.
Things you can count on if this country starts to fall apart due to a disaster, terrorist attack, or government takeover: cool heads will prevail and survive, and there’s no place like home. If you live in an urban environment in a building you don’t own and control, you better be looking for somewhere close by that you can hunker down until the “all clear” horn is sounded. More people around means more people that will be after what you’ve stashed to survive. It doesn’t matter how many emergency disaster drills you’ve practiced, when the real world comes tumbling down, you better have more than a drill exercise to depend on.
If you’re a family, you better plan where to meet up and be sure there is a plan B if that won’t work. If you’re a single person, include in your plan to meet with other like-minded people to survive together. The lone wolf is a special kind of a person. Normal people won’t last being alone.
I could go on and on but you get the picture. Unless your residence is completely destroyed, it’s still better than being on the street or in the wilderness without the resources you need. Maybe it’s even better destroyed than any other option! Not many scavengers will search through a destroyed building for food or clothing…or guns. A place that looks abandoned my just be the key to survival.
I am beginning to train, my “refugee” community on how to do it. I am getting some interesting feedback from folks who resent the “Control” being excercised, over them that is. They don’t seem to mind running the show when it is their turn, but have some trouble giving “orders” it is like they are concerned how everyone “feels” about the orders. And group consensus is important so that they feel confident in their decisions(!?!) and therefore not attributable to them. I guess being “at fault” or “to blame” is really a bad thing in our society.
Leading and following go hand in hand. If you wont play the game and be both a good leader and a good follower when required you will not make it. For that reason we are alternating leadership daily because it settles some of the questions about who is in charge and ordering whom around. You all will be to blame and responsible. That is how we military folks live ever single day.
Thinking for a group is hard and exhaustive, simple movements are not so simple when trying to move a group who either doesn’ t know what they are doing or resents anyones authority over them.
Practice won’t make perfect bu I guarantee that if you have a plan and can execute it you will be head and shoulders above those without one. One last consideration, about charity and the American attitude of helping those less fortunate. What good is there in helping someone who did no preparation, no planning, no assistance? If they are not getting it by now they may be too dense to get it later, and troublesome or quarrelling argumentative people are going to be something you can do without I guarantee!
Think about the length of time you would want to be tied to some people, because if the world falls apart, so will a lot of people. Do not reveal your preparations to others until you are sure of their committment, and that could take several months of them being serious and seriously engaged.
Choose wisely, it could be your last choice……
Listen to this man. He knows what he’s talking about. If you depend upon surviving in the woods, you had better know what you’re doing, otherwise you’ll just do a lot of suffering and give your weapons and supplies to whoever happens to kill you.The wild parts of this country are going to be full of unskilled, unprepared people just like you and they are not going to think twice about doing you in for your weapons and supplies. The veneer of civilization is thin people and it disappears quickly on an empty stomach. The wilderness is a last resort for anyone that has any sense at all.
This is all true. However, it’s important that each family or individual have multiple plans in place, and implement as dry runs now. A storm is not the time to find out what doesn’t work, or who will be the problem child.
I agree 100 percent that you should stay in place, I know there will be exceptions based upon circumstances, but unless driven away you stand a better chance of survival in place. The wilderness would eat most people in short order.
Again, being prepared means that you have a plan that has been discussed with your family or group, not just food, water, guns and ammo. If in doubt, re-read Daddog….
For years, my husband was paid once a month. Instead of budgeting for weekly trips to the grocercy store, we stocked up once a month, and filled in the pershisables when needed. Having those “reserves” of food, etc. got us through periods of unemployment, a blizzard, power outages, etc.
Even though the pay schedule changed, and the kids are grown, we still maintain the habit of keeping “reserves” to last 6-12 months. In the last couple of years, we expanded that to include water and other emergency supplies. I felt really confident we could handle anything.
In the last 2 months, we had significant storms in our area that caused wide-spread power outages from 6-7 hours at a time. The last one uncovered a “few flaws” in our disaster preparedness plans.
For starters, the weather was cold and wet this time around. The double garage door is wood, and I couldn’t lift it, so I was stuck at home by myself (my husband was at work) To make matters worse, we had no water because of a water main break.
No heat, no water, no car … no problem … we planned for this right?
Somehow all my planning didn’t take into account what would happen if my husband wasn’t at home.
First off … I couldn’t start the portable generator. We have a fireplace, but over the over the summer we got careless and left the wood pile uncovered when we had a tree cut down … the wood was soaked. I had the propane tanks, but I couldn’t find where my husband put the propane heaters.
I had enough gallon sized jugs of water to handle the situation, but decided to check on those 55 gallon drums of water we had stored in the basement, but I couldn’t reach them easily … a real problem if the situation had gone longer than a few days, and my husband had been unable to get home.
So the following weekend, we put in more shelving, and I made sure everything was moved so I could get to everything in case my husband wasn’t at home.
Lesson learned … just because we have the stuff we need, doesn’t mean its available for use!
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