Disaster survival education question.

[Fireguy6911]

As Volunteers what do you think? Do you think its beneficial for everyone to have the raw skills to take care of themselves during a disaster? Not with commercial survival products, but just everyday stuff. Would it relieve some stress on the emergency system and the shelter system?

Let me know what you think?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4kvVTLZn5I

[tree68]

When we went through Ice Storm '98, we served a few people in our shelter (albeit a lot of meals, as we had power via generator). Many had wood stoves, kerosene heaters, or knew people who did. Many others had generators. Power was out for between a week (everybody) and two weeks (outlying areas).

We didn't have mass destruction, but there was still the possibility of some serious problems, and very few surfaced.

Because we don't have any more than a convenience store within 7-8 miles, most people don't live day-to-day. They may lack some perishables, or potable water if they can't get it from their well, but they aren't going to starve.

Much of the food we served at our FD social hall/shelter early on was stuff people brought in because it was going to spoil in their fridge/freezer.

[King Hugh]

My personal opinion is that there is no excuse for any family to not have provided for their own wellbeing for a period of at least 72 hours...more in areas where there has been a history of failures lasting longer than that.

I live in the northeast and sometimes we get a little snow and ice here...with that sometimes the power goes out. Anybody who has lived here for more than a year knows that. Yet invariably as soon as the power does go out though people start calling for "warming stations" and "shelters" to be opened. Why they don't prepare for these little bumps in the road escapes me. It's not that hard or expensive to have 3 days worth of food, water and other essentials on hand, nor is it that hard or expensive to provide for some kind of alternative heat & lighting system to last 3 days.

If the emergency lasts longer than 3 days...I see no problem with helping people out by opening up some shelters on day 4...but on day 1....no.

Certainly this has no bearing on people who lose their home or their preps due to the emergency...I'm thinking of the floods we had this year...people were wiped out...no real way to prepare for that. In those cases if it's small numbers of people then they should be helped by friends, family, neighbors, etc...Large scale then shelters are appropriate.

This all goes back to people expecting the government to take care of them rather than taking responsibility for themselves.

May sound harsh but if some people get cold and hungry next time....I'll bet they won't let it happen again the time after...lifes best lessons are those learned the hard way.

[FWDbuff]

My personal opinion is that there is no excuse for any family to not have provided for their own wellbeing for a period of at least 72 hours...more in areas where there has been a history of failures lasting longer than that.

I live in the northeast and sometimes we get a little snow and ice here...with that sometimes the power goes out. Anybody who has lived here for more than a year knows that. Yet invariably as soon as the power does go out though people start calling for "warming stations" and "shelters" to be opened. Why they don't prepare for these little bumps in the road escapes me. It's not that hard or expensive to have 3 days worth of food, water and other essentials on hand, nor is it that hard or expensive to provide for some kind of alternative heat & lighting system to last 3 days.

If you live in the northeast, you are probably aware of the snowstorm that occurred the day before halloween 2011. The trees still had much of their leaves on, which caused hundreds of thousands of power outages due to heavy trees/branches sagging under the weight of the heavy snow, compounded by sticking to the leaves still in the trees.

I myself was caught off guard the day of the storm- they did indeed predict snow, but around here the weather forecasters dont exactly have a stellar reputation- and because of this I thought the predictions of snow were BS. However around 10am saturday morning, I realized "wow they weren't kidding"- it was blowing sideways out there, looked like a real January blizzard- and I noticed the tree branches sagging. So I turned up the heat to 75..We have hot water radiators in a 112 year old house. Turn em up high in the hopes that they get real hot, and stay hot for a while if the power goes out- the new boiler is a direct vent unit (with a blower and electronic ignition) that requires power to run. No fireplace, no wood stove, no alternate source of heat.

So the power did drop around 1pm. By 9:00 that night when we went to bed (nothing else to do) the temp was 60 degrees. We put the 8 and 7 year olds to bed in their pajamas with clothing over the pajamas and a quilt for each of them. The 6 month old baby slept in bed with me and the wife. When I woke up in the morning, I could see my breath. Said to the wife "screw this, we're going to my parents" down near Philly who still had power.

I did bottle about 10 gallons of water ahead of time in case the town lost pressure, and we had stocked freezers, and we were prepared to use the barbeq grill if necessary (I even had a full bottle.)

Sorry for babbling on, but I do have one question- what is a family with young children (especially a 6 month old infant) to do when the power (required to run your heat) drops??? What "alternate source of heat" do you expect??? Just curious. And kerosene heaters are not an option, nor are generators. Pretend we are poor......

I agree with you to an extent in that families should be able to sustain themselves to an extent, but when it is 25 degrees outside and you have no heat and a 6 month old that is crying because he is cold.....wtf are we supposed to do????

[King Hugh]

My comments are in red....

I myself was caught off guard the day of the storm-

Most emergencies are unscheduled...if anybody should know that we should. Preparedness is something that should be happening all the time, not just when a problem is "predicted".


I did bottle about 10 gallons of water ahead of time in case the town lost pressure, and we had stocked freezers, and we were prepared to use the barbeq grill if necessary (I even had a full bottle.)

So you did have some preps...that's good...now expand on that.



Sorry for babbling on, but I do have one question- what is a family with young children (especially a 6 month old infant) to do when the power (required to run your heat) drops??? What "alternate source of heat" do you expect??? Just curious. And kerosene heaters are not an option, nor are generators. Pretend we are poor......


The answer to your question is the same whether you have a 6 month old, a 99 year old or nobody to take care of at all. You prepare as best as you can within your means. There are a TON of places on the web that are dedicated to nothing else. I would suggest you check them out.

It has nothing to do with what "I expect" for your alternate heat. If you want to prepare then do so, if not then don't. Just consider this before you decide...when your kids got cold before you went to your family for help...what if they weren't there? What if they had no power too? What if you just couldn't get there cuz the storm was too bad? What if?

If it comes down to freezing / starving or not...I'm betting that you will wish you had prepared. Why is a woodstove not an option? Kerosene heater? Portable little buddy heaters? How about just closing off a room and you all stay in that rather than seperate beds? How about a propane camp stove for cooking? These CAN all be used safely and aren't that expensive...what price do you place on your families comfort / safety.

Bro...I hope you will think about taking some steps to prepare...I'm not a tin-foil hat guy but I do believe that times are going to get worse in this country before they get better...Having some preps is just a little extra insurance.

Take care and be safe.