When All Hell Breaks Loose (101 page)

Mouse and Rattraps

A simple and effective way to put fresh, nutritious meat on the barbie during the most austere conditions. They also work great for eliminating critters that are raiding your food stash.

Backpacks, Daypacks, and Fanny Packs

Being able to move lifesaving gear from place to place might come in handy. Packs allow you to resupply your stock and gather useful improvised items or products on the move without tying up your hands.

Household Chlorine Bleach

How many times have I mentioned this stuff? According to the "find" feature on this computer, more than thirty times, and I'm not done writing. Chlorine bleach will disinfect everything from your dishes and drinking water to your doo-doo and your dead. Buy a gallon today and rotate it every year whether you use it or not.

How to Assess Remaining Daylight and
"Tell Time" with Your Fingers

There are circumstances when knowing how much natural light you have left in the day can go from a welcome convenience to a matter of life or death. Although this method is accurate in telling human-created time down to within five minutes if you know the exact time of the sunset for the day, its primary purpose is telling you how many hours of sunlight you have remaining to find shelter, travel without the aid of artificial lighting, or accomplish the dozens of tasks so critical to your family's comfort and survival when no other lighting options exist. I have students use this method on almost every outdoor trekking course to accurately assess when they should stop walking and focus their attention on finding and creating a safe base camp for the evening without the use of artificial lighting.

This method is used for an average adult with an outstretched hand(s). Each finger equals fifteen minutes worth of daylight or time, so four fingers equals one hour.

1
Stretch your arm out in front of you toward the sun. Bend your wrist so that your palm is facing you and your hand is horizontal with your thumb on top. The bottom of the sun should rest on top of your index (pointer) finger.

2
Put your other outstretched hand below the first.

3
Now move your upper hand under the second and continue "walking" your hands down toward an imaginary horizon line, counting the hands as you go. (If you're doing this on the ocean or in a Kansas cornfield, there won't be much to imagine about the horizon line.)

The accompanying illustration shows four hours (sixteen fingers) worth of daylight left. Be sure to keep your arms straight as you slowly walk both hands down toward the horizon. It's easy to get sloppy with this method by using only one hand or by putting your hand too close to your face because your elbows are bent. This method can also be used with the moon or to see how much sunlight has already passed in the late morning or early afternoon.

Before, during, or after any disaster, you are trying to save your body and those whom you love, not material possessions. Although a potential agonizing mental and emotional decision, you may be forced to leave your home to stay alive or your home may be destroyed in a catastrophe.

A portable "bug-out pack" or disaster kit contains within it a distillation of the most important gear your family will need during its emergency. This pack should be fully loaded and ready to go before it's needed so you can grab it at a moment's notice in case of an evacuation. Some gear can be divvied up among family members so that all of the eggs are not in one basket. However, each family member should always carry basic needs within their individual pack, such as potable water and adequate clothing for the weather.

There is no one-size-fits-all bug-out pack so modify the contents according to your family's needs.

Compiling a bug-out kit first, before outfitting your home, will force you to pare survival necessities down to a manageable level. The motives and gear within your kit can then be simply expanded upon for your home.

The contents of your bug-out pack should be highly adaptable and meet a wide variety of conditions regarding the user and the environment in which the kit will operate.

As the variables are almost limitless as to what could happen during a crisis, keep gear and survival plans simple by adhering to basic core concepts for supporting life.

How
you pack your gear is important. Think ahead about what high-use items you'll need from your pack and keep them easily accessible. Mark gear with brightly colored tape for greater visibility and use smaller stuff sacks to make gear easier to identify and locate.

At minimum, have on hand important identifying documents such as a driver's license and passport.

Duplicate bug-out packs can also be kept in your vehicle(s) and at the office.

Don't let overpreparation for an emergency consume your life. Once you have your bases covered, rotate certain items every six months to a year, pay attention, and relax and enjoy life.

Running to the hills to live off the land is usually a bad idea and could hasten your death.

There are several multiuse items that will allow you to create more with less, such as methods to light a fire, cutting edges, rope, five-gallon buckets, and plastic sheeting to name a few. Make sure your household has basic items that allow you to improvise and adapt from your environment what you'll need to stay alive.