Front Sight, Press

Sitting in the dark for a week with no electrical power gave me a lot of time to think about survival. What developed in my mind was a “hierarchy” of conditions required to stay alive, maintain some quality of life, and recover when the crisis has passed. The order is descending, starting with those things which will cause potentially fatal problems the quickest.

Air – This may strike you as a “duh” but air that is toxic will get you really quickly. Bad air could come from a chemical fire, a chemical weapon or even a volcanic eruption. One common source of toxic air during a disaster, one that many people don’t think about, is a portable generator running in an enclosed space. A woman down the road died of carbon monoxide poisoning because she ran her generator indoors so that she could watch TV.

Body Temperature – If you lose your ability to maintain normal body temperature you will last only a few hours. This can be in either direction, hot or cold. In cold climates, you need the capacity to warm yourself and dry your clothes. Without that, hypothermia sets in quickly. In hot climates, it is necessary to be able to cool off and re-hydrate to avoid sun stroke and heat exhaustion. Maintaining body temperature may require foul weather gear such as Gore-Tex rain suits, temporary or improvised shelter, fire starting capacity and stores of water, depending on conditions.

Water – In normal conditions, a human being can live between one and two weeks without water, depending on the physical condition of the individual. If your water service is interrupted or contaminated, how will you procure clean water for drinking and personal hygiene? Do you store extra water? Do you have water purification equipment?

Food – A healthy human can survive about a month without food, but it will be incredibly unpleasant. If the food distribution system is disrupted, how will you obtain food? Do you have the means to hunt or trap animals? Do you have stores of non-perishable food that would stay good without refrigeration? Do you have a means for cooking food such as camp stoves or outside grills? Do you have a supply of fuel?

Self-Defense – During a protracted disruption of the infrastructure, a certain type of person may try to take advantage of the chaos by attacking you and your family or by stealing your provisions. In our civilization, the most effective means of personal self-defense is a gun. It may mean several guns. If you are uncomfortable with guns, I would suggest that you become very good friends with someone who is not. Ideas about survival firearms branch in two divergent paths: self-defense and food procurement. Thinking in terms of minimums, I would suggest that each adult in the party have a handgun and at least a hundred rounds of ammunition for it. The handguns should be of sufficient power to stop an attacker and possessed of superior reliability. For food procurement, .22 caliber rifles are excellent. They are highly accurate and will take small game found almost anywhere. .22 ammunition is very light and inexpensive, and it is possible to carry large amounts of it should you be forced to live off the land for an extended period of time. Perhaps the single most versatile firearm of them all is the 12 gauge shotgun. The 12 gauge will do it all. It is excellent for self defense, and with the appropriate ammunition will take any animal on the North American continent. The drawbacks of the 12 gauge are that the ammunition is large and heavy and the gun has a very loud report which could draw attention to your position. Urban dwellers who decide to “shelter in place” might also want to consider a high velocity air rifle. They will take small game such as birds, squirrels and rabbits, but are very quiet.

Data Security – Do you have your bank account numbers memorized? Do you have your birth certificates, deeds, titles and other critical documents duplicated and stored in a safe location? Could you prove who you are and what you own after a major calamity? If not, give it some thought. One excellent idea is to scan your important documents and store them on a laptop computer that you could take with you easily.

Financial Security – …and I don’t mean your retirement plan. This is closely related to data security. Do you have your account numbers, statements and other important documents stored safely and in a form that you can take with you should you have to evacuate quickly? Do you have cash or barter goods that you could trade for supplies? How would you live on the road for 2-4 weeks or even longer if your bank was disabled or your place of employment destroyed? If you “shelter in place,” do you have a means for protecting and securing your goods and financial resources?

Electrons – Stop for a moment to consider what will happen if you lose your electrical power… scary, isn’t it? The one that gets most people howling the quickest is that refrigeration stops and all of your stored food begins to thaw out and spoil. At the very least, this is an expensive waste and it may become a survival threat if the food cannot be quickly replaced. Do you or a loved one take medicine that requires refrigeration or use a breathing device that uses electricity? Somewhat less critical, but still important, many other devices will go dead: television, wireless phones, washers and driers, air conditioners, lights, computers, some hot water heaters and stoves – the list is extensive. How many flashlights and batteries do you have on hand? If you cook with electricity, do you have an alternate way of cooking and boiling water? Do you have a car charger for your cell phone? Consider buying a portable generator. I did.

Personal Hygiene and Sanitation – If you have no running water, how will you flush the toilet? You can survive being dirty for quite some time, but good sanitation contributes to better health, and being able to wash and groom yourself provides an important psychological lift. Do you have soap, Clorox, toilet paper, pain relief? Do you have a first aid kit? What level of injury are you able to treat? The capacity to provide comfort can be an important psychological tool for maintaining morale in a survival situation.

Sanity – This is not one that often appears on lists such as this, but what are you going to do with your mind when you have endless hours with little to do? How will you entertain your kids and your self? We played a lot of acoustic guitar and I did some reading when I had light. I also have a little digital voice recorder that proved to be very useful for recording my thoughts and passing the time.

No list like this is complete, and it will vary a great deal depending on each individual’s needs, capabilities and location. My intent here is to raise the questions and begin the process of shaping a framework for getting my family in a position to survive disasters better. What we went through was kid’s stuff compared to Katrina and Ike, but it was damned inconvenient, created some real problems and made me look at this question in an immediate way that I haven’t ever had to do before.

There is an excellent site called “Listening to Katrina” which is devoted to learning from the experience of Hurricane Katrina. Due to the inspiration for the the site, the author’s emphasis tends to be on evacuation.

A site called “Survive the Next Disaster” may get you thinking on things you need to do to “shelter in place.”

“Equipped to Survive” has an excellent set of links on the subject of survival.