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Well we have made it to the end of the spooky month again. I hope everyone had a good one and has a treat filled Halloween. Be safe and remember that some of those zombie trick or treaters might be looking for finger food.

I have updated my Kindle book list with some new books. Take a look.

Kindle Books

Download the Kindle App: Free Kindle App

Despite your opinion of whether the U. S. should have been in Afghanistan still or even in the first place, there are still lessons that disaster planners can learn from the chaos resulting from the withdrawal. I am not sure anyone would have called Afghanistan a stable country, but there was definitely some structure in place with the U.S. military on site there. Taliban forces were unwilling or unable to take over locations held by those forces. That all changed when the military withdrew. The timing and aftermath are where we can find lessons to be learned.

The first lesson is that things can happen quickly. Many areas were seemingly taken overnight by the Taliban as U. S. forces withdrew. This left those who would be targets for Taliban persecution in a panic. Many simply fled in fear for their lives. While most would say this could never happen here, you simply have to look at concrete examples that dispute that. During Katrina many who choose not to evacuate were displaced immediately. The water literally rolled in as a wave covering areas.  Another example is the occupation of the supposed “autonomous zone” in Seattle by protesters. This left anyone with homes or businesses in the area at the mercy of protestors. While luckily widespread violence did not occur, there were 4 shootings in 10 days and a large amount of vandalism and property damage. This is all while the authorities watched from a distance.  The takeaway from this is that you need to be aware of how things around you are unfolding and be ready to hunker down or move in very short order.  Speed is your friend when it means you can get out of an area before things escalate or at least ahead of the masses clogging the way.

A second lesson to learn from this is that any promised aid in the event of a disaster may never materialize. Many of those individuals in Afghanistan that assisted the military either with translation, logistics, or security were promised visas to allow them to come to the U. S. and sanctuary. Only a percentage were granted before the last military flight left. This left those depending on that trip to safety in a lurch. The same again happened in Katrina. Many were promised aid by FEMA and other organizations, but were left to fend for themselves against the elements and criminal activity in the area. The Superdome is a prime example. People were packed in there with little to no supplies and security. The supplies that did arrive were completely mismanaged and many sat unused.  This shows us why it is important to take personal control of the planning and supplies you may need in those situations.

Hopefully most in the U. S. will not need to have alternate identification or illicit routes to leave the country like many may have needed in Afghanistan. Having a full tank of gas and a packed bag of supplies ready to go would be a great idea though.  Anything you can do to take responsibility for your own safety will greatly increase your chances of surviving unscathed. Waiting and depending on someone to save you is not a proper plan.

While many of us don’t like to think about it, boring things keep us safe. Things like checking your mirrors and blind spots before you swap lanes. When you first begin driving a good teacher will emphasize this. The longer we drive though, the more complacent and distracted we can get. That is until one day we side swipe a SUV because we failed to look. The same principle applies in disaster planning. When we start, we check off all the items we bought and preparations we made. We keep up a good rotation of things like food, medicine, and batteries. The longer we go, the more apt we are to slip on that. If things go wrong that can render part or all of our plan useless.

The first item that most people refer to when talking about rotation is food. All food has expiration dates. It could be argued these are suggestions, but do you really want to gamble on that when things go wrong? It is wise to set up a rotation using a First In, First Out policy. This simply means that you use the oldest items first. This prevents some of them making it to the back of the shelf and expiring before you realize it. It is also a good idea to keep some kind of list of what you have including expiration dates. This gives you a good way to plan meals to use up items BEFORE they expire. Plus, different kinds of food have widely varying expiration periods. Some people also write the expiration dates in large clear text on the front of the container. That is much easier than reading the sometimes-tiny dot matrix style printed expiration date that is somewhere on the package. One other thing to keep in mind with food rotation is that you need to routinely look for spoilage in your stock of items. It is possible that there was an issue with the item causing it to fail, such as a can not being sealed fully and swelling or cracking open. Another possibility is that there have been pests in your supplies. Sometimes things like weevils will come in with your rice or grain. They can hatch and destroy additional supplies such as pasta. Other times you will have rodents compromise your supplies both by eating and soiling them. Finding this quickly can help minimize your losses. You can then take steps to keep it from happening again. The same precautions need to be taken with water. While it does not “expire”, it may be best to rotate it out. This prevents accidents related to degraded retail bottles and risk of contamination.

Another item that should be on rotation is medication. This applies to over the counter and prescription alike. Each has expiration dates based on when it loses potency. It is best to abide by these so you get the full benefit from them. In addition, you should review any new medical conditions that may have come up. That way you can evaluate if any new or alternate medications needed to be added. You may even find that some of your preferred OTC medications are no longer healthy for you to mix with your condition or other medications. This hopefully will assure that you have what you need when things happen.

The last item you should review is your plans themselves. Some plan and sit on that same one for years without thinking how changing conditions may affect it. Things constantly change. The plan you set up when you children are toddlers may be very different than the one you would if they are now teenagers. Things to look at can include who is included in the plan, what supplies are you including, where this plan is implemented, and when this plan should be implemented.

Let’s start with the who. Since your plan was last evaluated you may have had additions, such as new baby, or subtractions such as adult age children moving across the country for work. These not only change the number of people, but may also shift responsibility around. A new baby may mean that the person caring for them is not free to do other things. On the flip side, a child that is now a teenager may be able to take on much more responsibility than they did as a preteen. Also, anyone that is no longer part of the plan may have had skills that you depended on. You will have to decide how to deal with that.

The next thing to review is the supplies you need to include. Changes of circumstances may require alterations. In the instance above of a new baby, you may need to add formula, diapers, and baby specific medications. You may also have added someone that needs specific items such as medications or mobility aids. They could also have specific valuable skills such as ham radio you need additional equipment for. In addition, you may have things you have found that are better suited for your needs. You use them to replace whatever supplies that filled that gap before.

Third, you will need to review how your location affects the plan. Maybe you moved to a new apartment 5 miles from your old one. This might mean you have to draw up new routes for evacuation or to get home from work. There may be streets that flood in your way, where there were not any before. Your new location may also be more susceptible to certain emergencies. If you moved from Florida to Colorado, you will need to worry more about blizzards now than hurricanes. There may also be environmental changes that affect you. It is possible that the bridge you planned to use is no longer there or a new housing development near it means it is much more likely to be backed up like a parking lot. You could also have new stops to make such as picking up your child from daycare or having to go across town to the high school instead of the middle school down the road. Also, this could affect how you deal with supply storage. If you lived in a 2-bedroom apartment alone and then move to a 3-bedroom ranch with a basement with your spouse, you will be able to store far more supplies easily. If things are the other way around, you may have to get creative in order to fit the same amount of supplies. So not all changes may be negative, but you have to evaluate that routinely to keep from getting surprised.

Lastly, you will need to see if your triggers for enacting your plan have changed. This can be affected by the above items too. For example, if you now work 50 miles from work instead of 10, you may need to react much quicker in order to make it home before the 12 inches of snow come down. It could also be that you now have additional people to include, so a faster reaction ensures everyone has time to grab their gear and go. Alternately, maybe you have finally moved to your dream location with a mountain of supplies, solar and generator backup power, 10 acres of garden, and all the farm animals you could ever want. In this case, you may not need to trigger anything or go anywhere. Sadly, most of us are not in that boat and we have to walk the line between jumping for nothing and acting too late. Taking an honest calculated look at this can ensure you know when it is appropriate to enact your plan for that scenario.

So, while rotating boxes of pasta and reviewing maps may not be the most exciting thing, it can be a very vital part of your planning. By keeping your supplies and plans up to date you avoid being surprised and having everything fall apart right when you need it the most. I have often referred to this review in my September posts related to National Preparedness Month, but depending on the situation yearly may not be often enough. In the end, as with all this, you must be your own judge on this. Just don’t allow yourself to become complacent and let all your planning be for naught.

Here is hoping that anyone that reads this is well prepared, safe, and happy in this holiday season.

We have snow which makes the first white Christmas in a long time. That adds an extra bit of cheer.

Despite, or in spite of, all the trials of 2020, I hope that you and yours have a great Thanksgiving Day. May it be a day to help you remember what you are planning to protect.

 

In this modern age I feel there are many things we take for granted. One of the most significant in my eyes, aside from food, is light. For a large part of the world a simple flick of a switch will light your home all night.  This light is also constant and bright. If a bulb goes out, we just replace it and if we need more light, we just add another source like a lamp or buy higher wattage bulbs. This has not always been the case.

Throughout much of history civilization patterned its life around daylight. This is because having light was difficult or costly. The first campfire build by man much have been a glorious sight, Turning the darkness into light, providing warmth, deterring predators, and allowing food to be easily cooked. It probably took a short time for that fire builder to come to understand how hard it is to gather enough wood to keep the fire burning all night, If it rained, things became an even bigger deal. Light took work. Further through time people developed “better” ways to provide heat and light. One form would have been an oil lamp. Whether it was whale oil, olive oil, or later kerosene, these needed fuel. Again people found that they needed to work to gather that fuel or at least pay someone else to do it.  The light given off by these lamps was dim and smoke often accompanied it. All the way into the late 1800s many people were still limited by the need for this fuel if they wanted extra hours of light.

Jump to present day and you will find a significant portion of the world has access to reliable electricity which translates into light. Now, I fully understand that we still have electric bills and thus still pay someone for the “fuel” for our lights. The big difference now is that in reality a kilowatt of electricity is dirt cheap compared to the alternative fuels of the past. This has lead to many people depending entirely on electricity for light an heat. Aside from a flashlight or two, most people have no other way to provide light. They assume that they will rarely need an alternate source. Take a look at people that are long term residents of areas prone to power outages from snow, ice, hurricanes, or tornadoes and you will see something different.

These people that, for various reasons, understand that electricity is not a 24/7/365 guarantee have been forced into planning for lack of it. This planning means that, while it still may be a inconvenient, it is not an emergency. This is something that many people should learn from. Having alternate forms of light can prevent an extended outage from becoming a personal disaster. There is also a chance that the power outage could be a symptom of a much larger event that causes it to be much longer term. This makes it even more critical to have a secondary plan.

Planning for this does not have to mean a huge investment. A good beginning is to purchase either a battery or fuel based lantern. These provide area light and can be moved around. Battery ones are convenient, but propane or liquid fuel ones do not require battery upkeep. Here are a few options.

This one uses the same one pound propane bottles that the Coleman camp stoves do. If you have a stove, this might be a good option that can share fuel.

Coleman Gas Lantern

This is another Coleman type lantern but it runs on liquid Coleman fuel or unleaded gasoline. This gives you the option to use the fuel stored in your car if need be.

Coleman Premium Dual Fuel Lantern with Hard Carry Case

Coleman also makes a stove that is dual fuel like the lantern

Coleman Guide Series Dual-Fuel Camping Stove

This is a battery only lantern that is good if you prefer ntyo to use liquid or propane fuel. I suggest storing the batteries with it, btui not in it so that if they leak, they do not destroy the lantern. Also, swap the batteries out routinely.

Coleman 1000 Lumens LED Lantern with BatteryGuard

These are just a few of the options for providing light when electricity from the grid is not an option. Other options like solar panels with battery banks, generators, wind powered devices are also possible, but much more involved and expensive. So I advise getting the basic level covered before venturing into those.

 

 

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy Halloween. Don’t let the zombies bite. Stay safe and have a bit of fun.