Prepper Reality Check -- A Preparedness Guide for the Real-World

 

How complacent we become when we sit secure, hedged round by laws and protections a government may provide! How soon we forget that but for these governments and laws there would be naught but savagery, brutality, and starvation!

 

For our age-old enemies await us always, just beyond our thin walls. Hunger, thirst, and cold lie waiting there, and forever among us are those who would loot, rape and maim rather than behave as civilized men.

 

If we sit secure this hour, this day, it is because the thin walls of the law stand between us and evil. A jolt of the earth, a revolution, and invasion or even a violent upset in our own government can reduce all to chaos, leaving civilized men naked and exposed.
 
-- Louis L'Amour, Fair Blows the Wind.

 

For years the government has recommended that citizens be prepared for disasters, and that they take steps to mitigate the effects of those disasters when and if they should occur. One example of this is the Ready Campaign (https://www.ready.gov/), which launched in 2003, and recommends that people do four key things:

1. stay informed about the different types of emergencies that could occur and their appropriate responses
2. make a family emergency plan and
3. build an emergency supply kit, and
4. get involved in your community by taking action to prepare for emergencies. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Center for Preparedness and Response (CPR) (https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/index.htm) is focused on preparing for public health emergencies. The CDC states that “a public health emergency is an event that can cause harm to a person’s health or to the health of a community. These events can happen at any time, anywhere and include

• Outbreaks, such as COVID-19, Zika, and flu
• Accidental releases of industrial chemicals that can harm people’s lungs, skin, and overall health
• Intentional acts with biological, chemical, radiological, or nuclear agents
• Natural disasters, such as tornadoes, floods, wildfires, and hurricanes.”

The CDC/CPR program ‘Prepare Your Health’ encourages personal health preparedness for public health emergencies with practical advice on how to get ready and build resilience. Prepare Your Health is organized into three categories: Take Action, Plan Ahead, and Create Community."

Non-Government organizations, such as the Red Cross, encourage individual and family preparedness, saying “Be Red Cross Ready, Get A Kit, Make A Plan, Be Informed”. Faith-based groups, such as the Salvation Army, also promote individual and family preparedness, recommending that everyone: create an emergency plan, prepare an emergency kit, and learn lifesaving skills.  

The idea of personal and family preparedness is nothing new. Both government and private organizations have, for many years, encouraged citizens to be ready to care for themselves, their loved ones, and their communities in the aftermath of a disaster. The survivalist movement, which began in the 1970s, focused on government and/or socio-economic collapse; and this movement was likely carried forward from the nuclear war survival and civil defense movements of the 1950s and 1960s. All of this focused on being prepared for a major disaster or cataclysmic event that would leave individuals, families, and whole communities without the infrastructure and supplies that most rely on to lead their normal, routine, daily lives.

Getting Started

If you have done little to nothing to prepare for emergencies and disasters so far, a good place to start is the Ready.Gov web-site. Even if you have done some things already, Ready.Gov can help you make a more structured disaster preparedness plan. Using the references from the web-site (and other references that you develop in your planning) identify what real-world disaster are most likely to affect your community and region. Ready.Gov provides hazard information sheets for "Active Shooter, Avalanche, Cyberattack, Earthquake, Extreme Heat, Financial Emergency, Flood, Hurricane, Landslide, Novel Pandemic, Nuclear Explosion, Power Outage, Thunderstorm, Lightning, and Hail, Tornado, Tsunami, Volcano, Wildfire, Winter Storm". Which of these hazards are most likely in your area? Are there hazards that are unique to your area that are not listed here?

Contact your county Department of Emergency Management and your state’s military department (National Guard Bureau) and request copies of their current threat assessments and hazard mitigation plans. In many cases these documents will be available on-line, but if not, they can be requested in accordance with your state’s public records laws.

Getting Trained

Emergency and disaster preparedness training is very likely available in your community, or in a near-by community, at little or no cost.

First Aid and CPR – Everyone should be trained in first aid and CPR. Classes are available from the Red Cross, as well as from fire departments, ambulance services, local hospitals, and other community service organizations. You can begin today by taking the free, on-line course 'You Are The Help Until Help Arrives'.(https://community.fema.gov/until-help-arrives)

Map Your Neighborhood is a program designed to build and strengthen disaster readiness among neighbors. In the wake of a disaster first responders are typically overwhelmed. Neighborhoods may be on their own for some time before help arrives. Map Your Neighborhood allows neighbors to plan how they can help one another by identifying who has valuable skills as well as who is vulnerable and may need extra help.

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. You can find CERT training information on the FEMA web-site (https://community.fema.gov/PreparednessCommunity/s/cert-find-a-program) or by contacting your county emergency management agency.

Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) provides communications support to official agencies during times of emergency, as well as providing support to community events, such as parades, fairs, and races. Having your amateur radio (Ham) operator’s license and being able to maintain radio communication in the aftermath of a disaster is a very useful preparedness skill. You can find information about earning your amateur radio license on the ARRL web-site (http://www.arrl.org/getting-licensed) or from your local Ham Radio club.

Build A Kit

Ready.Gov says “After an emergency, you may need to survive on your own for several days. Being prepared means having your own food, water and other supplies to last for several days. A disaster supplies kit is a collection of basic items your household may need in the event of an emergency.”

Your disaster preparedness kit should actually be three (or more) kits with slightly different focuses. First are your stay-at-home preparedness supplies. Second is your evacuation kit (sometimes called a bug-out-bag), and third is your get home kit – items carried with you (often in your vehicle) that assist you in making it back home if some disaster strikes while you are at work, school, traveling, or otherwise away from home.

Stay-At-Home Preparedness Supplies – In the aftermath of a disaster it is almost always better to stay in your home than to evacuate to some other location. Assuming, of course, that your home is not in the direct path of approaching danger (i.e. flood or wildfire), and has survived the destructive effects of the disaster and is still safe to live in. You could be stranded in your home by a storm that makes roads impassable, by a public health emergency that requires people to quarantine in their homes, by civil unrest that makes travel unsafe. If you couldn’t leave your home for a couple of days, or a couple of weeks, your stay-at-home supplies are intended to support you during this time.

Bug-Out-Bag – Some types of disasters may force you to evacuate your home. An approaching flood or wildfire, or a chemical spill on a near-by highway that releases a toxic cloud of gas, may all make it unsafe to remain in your home. You may have some advance warning (such as with an approaching wildfire), or very little warning (as with a toxic chemical spill) of the need to evacuate. Your bug-out-bag contains those things that you will need to get out of the immediate danger area and take care of yourself for around three days.  Why three days? In almost every case you will be able to walk out of a disaster area within several hours, or perhaps a day or two. Once you have reached a safe area (which may be a motel room a town or two away from the disaster area) you will be able to rest, re-supply, and make plans to return to your home and begin repairs, or to arrange for more permanent accommodations in another area until the effects of the disaster have abated. The idea with a bug-out-bag is to keep it light enough so that you can carry it for several hours while walking, yet still have it contain the items necessary for you to take care of yourself for about three days.

Get Home Kit – There is a good chance that if a disaster occurs with little or no advance warning you will not be at home. If you were away from home when a disaster occurred, making roads impassable and shutting down much of the community’s infrastructure, how would you make it back home? Your get home kit is designed to aid you in getting back home under adverse conditions.

Storing Canned Foods

According to the US Department of Agriculture, “Most shelf-stable foods are safe indefinitely. In fact, canned goods will last for years, as long as the can itself is in good condition (no rust, dents, or swelling). Packaged foods (cereal, pasta, cookies) will be safe past the 'best by' date, although they may eventually become stale or develop an off flavor.” (Gravely, 2017)

“Store commercially canned foods and other shelf stable products in a cool, dry place. Never put them above the stove, under the sink, in a damp garage or basement, or any place exposed to high or low temperature extremes. High acid foods such as tomatoes and other fruit will keep their best quality up to 18 months; low acid foods such as meat and vegetables, 2 to 5 years. If cans are in good condition (no dents, swelling, or rust) and have been stored in a cool, clean, dry place they are safe indefinitely. While extremely rare, a toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum is the worst danger in canned goods. NEVER USE food from containers that show possible "botulism" warnings: leaking, bulging, or badly dented cans; cracked jars or jars with loose or bulging lids; canned food with a foul odor; or any container that spurts liquid when opening. Even a minuscule amount of botulinum toxin can be deadly. Can linings might discolor or corrode when metal reacts with high-acid foods such as tomatoes or pineapple. As long as the can is in good shape, the contents should be safe to eat, although the taste, texture and nutritional value of the food can diminish over time. Home canned foods should be used within 1 year.” (US Department of Agriculture, 2019)

Because of their long storage life, and because most canned foods are easy to prepare (just heat and eat) they can form the initial portion of your stay-at-home food supplies. Just buy extra of the canned foods that you are already eating to build up your preparedness supplies. While canned foods do have a long shelf life, it is still a good idea to get in the habit of rotating your newly purchased food with your stored food. As you purchase new food it is placed into your preparedness supplies, and those same items from your preparedness supplies are moved to your pantry to be eaten.

Dry Goods and Other Items

While storing canned foods is a good way to begin building your preparedness supplies, you will need to store other items to make your meals more palatable and nutritious. Beans and rice are commonly recommended staples for long-term storage, and in combination they do make a nutritious meal.

The LDS Preparedness Manual is an excellent resource. While this manual has been prepared for, and is intended to be read primarily by the active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All contents are fully applicable to other parties who are interested in meaningful preparation.

Storing Water

Water is an essential survival item; without it you cannot live more than a few days. But water is also one of the most difficult items to store in large quantities. Water does not compress and it weighs one kilogram per liter (8.34 pounds per gallon), making large amounts of water both bulky and heavy. 

The CDC recommends storing at least one gallon of water per person / per day for drinking and sanitation, and further recommends having at least a two-week supply if possible. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021) This 14-gallons of water will weigh approximately 117-pounds and take up a bit of room, but is still workable for a single person. As group/family size grows so too does the weight and bulk of the water that needs to be stored. Storing two-weeks of water for a large family quickly becomes infeasible.

Bugging Out to the Wilderness

If your plan to survive a major disaster is to bug out to the wilderness and live off the land, you will almost certainly fail! There are very few people who are skilled enough to support themselves and their families entirely by hunting, gathering, over any length of time. Mel Tappan, one of the early leaders of the survivalist / prepper movement said: ““If, however, your idea of living off the land is heading for the nearest woods with nothing more than a backpack and a gleam of confidence in your eye, then I would rate your chances of surviving the sort of catastrophe which I contemplate as somewhere between zero and none.” (Tappan, 1981, p. 49)  

U.S. Air Force survival instructor, Jonathan Hollerman expressed a similar sentiment, saying: “The #1, absolute, positive, you’re-going-to-die mistake is to take the “Lone Wolf” approach. You know who I’m talking about. The guy on the prepping forum that plans to move out to the national forest and “live off the land” like the Legend of Mick Dodge.” (Hollerman, 2016)

When planning for survival, many people think that they will be able to live off the land and survive. Whether this is possible or not is both location and skill dependent – are there plenty of wild edibles and game at your location and do you have the skill (and knowledge) to gather that food? The bottom line however is one of calories. Can you take in more calories than you burn? If the answer to that question is yes, then you will be able to live off the land. If the answer to that question is no, then there will come a time when you will have to obtain an alternate food source or starve to death.

Conclusions

Being a survivalist is about being prepared, having the skills and the supplies to weather a major disaster or disruption of the critical infrastructure that supports your community, state, or region. 

Are You Ready?

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, January 26). Creating and Storing an Emergency Water Supply. Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/emergency/creating-storing-emergency-water-supply.html

Gravely, M. (2017, February 21). Before You Toss Food, Wait. Check It Out! Retrieved from US Department of Agriculture: https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2013/06/27/you-toss-food-wait-check-it-out 

Hollerman, J. (2016). Survival Theory: A Preparedness Guide. McConnellsburg, PA: APOC Publishing.

Tappan, M. (1981). Tappan on Survival. Rogue River, OR: Janus Press.

US Department of Agriculture. (2019, July 17). How Long Can You Keep Canned Goods? Retrieved from US Department of Agriculture: https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/How-long-can-you-keep-canned-goods