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5 Likely Hurricane Aftermath Scenarios To Prepare For

September 11, 2018

5 Likely Hurricane Aftermath Scenarios To Prepare ForReady Nutrition- Likely Hurricane Scenarios To Prepare For Pin

It is currently hurricane season for the Atlantic and Pacific regions of the United States.

As I write this article, Hurricane Florence is a Category 3 storm with the potential to reach Category 4 status. As of now, the storm has an uncertain path, but East Coast folks – please watch this one closely, as some models suggest it could head right for you.

Helene and Issac could form in the Atlantic later this week. In the Pacific, Hurricanes Olivia and Norman are being watched closely.

Hurricanes are unpredictable, as anyone who has experienced one knows. This makes them challenging to prepare for, but fortunately, there are things you can do to increase your odds of survival, should one head for your region.

It is important to understand that a hurricane need not be a Category 5 to be incredibly dangerous and cause serious damage. When Hurricane Isabel hit my Virginia neighborhood in 2003, the storm was barely a Category 1. It was the first (and to date, the only – thankfully) hurricane I’ve experienced personally, and back then I really had no idea how difficult the aftermath would be.

I fully expected the “authorities” to take care of everything after Isabel passed. I thought they’d clean up all the debris and have the roads cleared and power on within a day or two.

I was seriously mistaken.

Isabel had an unusually large wind field (an example of a hurricane doing “unpredictable” things). Thousands of trees were uprooted. Power lines and telephone poles were downed all over. Hundreds of houses were damaged…many beyond repair. Hundreds of roads, including major highways, were blocked by fallen trees and other debris. The heavy rainfall caused inland flooding, which closed roads and damaged homes and businesses.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

5 Likely Hurricane Aftermath Scenarios To Prepare For

September 7, 2018

5 Likely Hurricane Aftermath Scenarios To Prepare For

Ready Nutrition- Likely Hurricane Scenarios To Prepare For Pin
It is currently hurricane season for the Atlantic and Pacific regions of the United States.

As I write this article, Hurricane Florence is a Category 3 storm with the potential to reach Category 4 status. As of now, the storm has an uncertain path, but East Coast folks – please watch this one closely, as some models suggest it could head right for you.

Helene and Issac could form in the Atlantic later this week. In the Pacific, Hurricanes Olivia and Norman are being watched closely.

Hurricanes are unpredictable, as anyone who has experienced one knows. This makes them challenging to prepare for, but fortunately, there are things you can do to increase your odds of survival, should one head for your region.

It is important to understand that a hurricane need not be a Category 5 to be incredibly dangerous and cause serious damage. When Hurricane Isabel hit my Virginia neighborhood in 2003, the storm was barely a Category 1. It was the first (and to date, the only – thankfully) hurricane I’ve experienced personally, and back then I really had no idea how difficult the aftermath would be.

I fully expected the “authorities” to take care of everything after Isabel passed. I thought they’d clean up all the debris and have the roads cleared and power on within a day or two.

I was seriously mistaken.

Isabel had an unusually large wind field (an example of a hurricane doing “unpredictable” things). Thousands of trees were uprooted. Power lines and telephone poles were downed all over. Hundreds of houses were damaged…many beyond repair. Hundreds of roads, including major highways, were blocked by fallen trees and other debris. The heavy rainfall caused inland flooding, which closed roads and damaged homes and businesses.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Tips For The Caffeinated: Coffee After The SHTF

September 1, 2018

Tips For The Caffeinated: Coffee After The SHTF

If you are anything like me, there’s nothing like that first sip of piping hot coffee in the crisp, cool, and silent morning mountain air, then you’ll understand the importance of making sure you’ve got your ‘cup of joe’ covered, even if the SHTF. Here are some tips and tricks to prepare for the worst, while still making sure you continue to enjoy the simple things in life – like your morning coffee.

Did you know that coffee restores mental alertness just seconds after you drink it? Although we’re primarily concerned here with it as a drink, caffeine, as well as ground coffee, is available in other forms, such as tablets and as an ingredient in a mixture.  It takes a lot to overdose, and the lethal dose for an adult is 150 to 200 mg of caffeine per kg of body weight.  To place this into perspective, if you weighed about 120 lbs., you would have to drink about 75 cups of coffee before you checked into the big Starbuck’s in the sky.

Coffee beans will last up to three years, but without electricity, or your handy Keurig, how will you prepare it? Well, plan for coffee after the apocalypse today so that should the worst-case scenario indeed come to pass  (or even a far-from-worst-case-but-totally-normal hurricane, snowstorm, or blackout) you’ll be able to move into an electricity-free world with ease; at least when it comes to your coffee. There are many “off the grid” coffee makers, and those who often camp know a percolator can be invaluable.  A percolator allows coffee to be made right over the campfire. The Yosemite percolator is an excellent choice, and it’s a bit heftier than the granite-colored ones we tend to think of from years past. Steer clear of vintage glass percolators simply because they just aren’t as practical and all that glass can be a tad nerve-wracking to deal with.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Here’s How You’ll Die When the SHTF (and How to Prevent Your Untimely Demise)

August 25, 2018

Here’s How You’ll Die When the SHTF (and How to Prevent Your Untimely Demise)

When it hits the fan…I mean REALLY hits the fan in a permanent kind of way, the most likely outcome is death.

That’s not pretty, and I’m well aware of it. I always try to be positive and optimistic, because, for me, preparedness is the ultimate act of optimism, but sometimes we have to look at the numbers and face some things that are pretty terrifying. The first reality check is that some research says that only 3 million Americans are preppers.  That means that 315 million Americans are not preppers. Some experts predict that within 30 days of the power going out, 50% of Americans will be dead. Within a year, an astounding 90% of the population will be dead.

Do you want to survive such a scenario? Do you want your children to survive? When you read this information, you have to realize that it’s very unlikely that you and your family would live through a grid failure of a year or more unless you are proactive and develop a preparedness plan that takes all of these causes of death into consideration.

The Top 10 Ways to Die in a Long-term Disaster

So here are the cold hard facts. One of these is the way that you are most likely to die when the SHTF, particularly in the event of a long-term grid failure. The good news is, now that you know this, you can take steps to prevent your untimely demise.

  1. You die of thirst or waterborne illness.  Most people have a case of water bottles kicking around, and perhaps a 5-gallon jug for the water cooler. What they don’t have is a gallon a day per person for a long-term emergency. Most people also don’t own a gravity fed, no-power necessary water filtration device with spare parts and extra filters.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

SELCO: Observe and Prepare for the Confusion, Panic, & Mayhem of SHTF

August 8, 2018

SELCO: Observe and Prepare for the Confusion, Panic, & Mayhem of SHTF

I have been writing articles and doing survival courses for years, and while it is much easier to show the importance of basics in real courses, it is a bit harder to do that in my articles. That’s because we as humans tend to look for flashy things. We love quick and interesting facts that will occupy our attention. But you must also prepare for the basics so that you can perform those things during the confusion, panic, and mayhem of SHTF. You must observe your surroundings before anything terrible happens.

Basics are simply that: basic – and because that we often overlook it, or forget it.

For example, an article with news about the latest development in tensions between the US and Iran with all the flaming rhetoric will catch more attention than an article about how to grow tomatoes.

We look for flashy stuff, but the majority of us need to go back to the basics (or at least to refresh them).

Every now and then, I like to remind people about that.

Why I don’t like list posts

Lists about what to do and what not to do in the form of “10 things to do” or “10 things not to do” or “10 things to have” are not my favorite, because some people tend to think those “10 things” are definitive lists that solve all problems.

But, as we write, it is easy to put it in that way as a concept. You as a reader must understand it is a list that continues, and as long as you understand that you need to constantly refresh your basics.

Big world events usually will happen no matter what you do or think about it.  You need to operate in your “small circle” where you actually can change things for real.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How To Prepare For The 5 Most Common Financial Disasters

August 5, 2018

How To Prepare For The 5 Most Common Financial Disasters

The worst financial disasters to affect an individual are often not due to the overall global economy and the bringing about of Armageddon.  They are more personal and localized.  We have a few tips to help you avoid financial ruin in the event one of these five most common financial horrors were to strike.

Families often have to deal with the loss of jobs and unexpected medical bills.  But having a plan in place could help you avoid losing even more of your hard-earned money should the unthinkable happen.  Many Americans go about their day with absolutely no care in the world and not even an extra can of peas on the shelf. Many don’t think to prepare for an event, even a localized or more personal one and have often looked down on those of us who have these plans in place.  In fact, only 16% of Americans say they are prepared for a disaster like one of the five we will cover.

*Keep in mind, some of these go hand in hand.  For example, if you have major medical bills because of a car accident, you’ll also have added car expenses.  If you are dealing with the death of a spouse who is employed, you also now must deal with the loss of a job.

Getting out of debt (especially credit card debt) should be the first order of business when planning for any financial crisis.  Paying off debt means that in the event of a financial disaster, you’ve encountered a setback and not a game changer in your life.  Start by no longer using credit cards. Keep one for emergencies if you can be responsible with it, otherwise, cancel them as you pay them off.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“God Help Us” – British Army Readied In Case Of Hard Brexit

July 30, 2018

“God Help Us” – British Army Readied In Case Of Hard Brexit

Just as was extremely evident prior to the actual vote in 2016, scaremongering around Brexit (deal or no deal) is escalating among the cognoscenti or desperate Remain ‘told you so’-ers.

Britain’s Sunday Times reports that UK ministers have drawn up plans to send in the army to deliver food, medicines and fuel in the event of shortages if Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal.

Blueprints for the armed forces to assist the civilian authorities, usually used only in civil emergencies, have been dusted down as part of the “no deal” planning, with helicopters and army trucks used to ferry supplies to vulnerable people outside the southeast who were struggling to obtain the medicines they needed.

However, as ominous as this sounds, The Sunday Times admits – a number of paragraphs into their “Army on standby for no-deal Brexit emergency” story – that a source inside the Ministry of Defense said they have not yet received “a formal request” to assist the civilian authorities.

And while desperate not to have this positioned as the work of “Project Fear’, pro-EU opposition MP David Lammy took aim at the news on Twitter saying: “God, help us. This is not coming from Remainers. This is not project fear. Pro-Brexit Ministers are drawing up blueprints for the army to deliver food, fuel and medicine if we leave the EU with no deal,” adding his own touch of hysteria… “We have a duty to prevent this self-immolation.”

✔

God, help us. This is not coming from Remainers. This is not project fear. Pro-Brexit Ministers are drawing up blueprints for the army to deliver food, fuel and medicine if we leave the EU with no deal. We have a duty to prevent this self-immolation.https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/army-on-standby-for-no-deal-brexit-emergency-dz3359lrf …

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

What Life Is Like for Venezuelan Refugees: The Crisis Isn’t Over When You Escape the Collapse

June 30, 2018

What Life Is Like for Venezuelan Refugees: The Crisis Isn’t Over When You Escape the Collapse

I find the most difficult aspect of survival is to keep a positive mindset. Definitely, it is. The crisis is not over when you escape the collapse. While I expected when I got my family out, our struggles were over, they have just begun.  Once you have been a successful professional, with an entire life ahead of you, and a good amount of the road already left behind, and find as refugees in a foreign country…this is where you really know about how strong you can be.

Or how weak, in my case. Don’t misunderstand me, please. I have been much more fortunate than many of my people, and I give thanks to God for that.

Some reflections, some advice.

These days have not been easy. There are a lot of people already in the labor marketplace around here, working for less money than they should, and rents are increasing because of the people looking for a place…and somehow finding something to work close to home has been uphill. My reserves have been in a slow decrease, and I am starting to worry a little bit.

I have you, unknown friends, but a wonderful prepping community that has avoided that the water covers my nose, and I appreciate that much more than you would believe (Receive our blessings please!). I had some cash stashed away that worked for buying my ticket and left just in time. I hold a professional degree that many people would kill to have, and skills that made me earn some degree of respect everywhere I arrived to work at some facility. I wanted to use this opportunity to spend some more time with my young kid, as a regular engineering work consumes a lot of time, and I was without my son ¾ of a year…but you know how it is.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The First 10 Things Every New Prepper Should Do (Some of Them Are Free!)

June 14, 2018

The First 10 Things Every New Prepper Should Do (Some of Them Are Free!)

Over the past few years, here in America….

Contaminated water caused a complete loss of municipal services in both Ohio and West Virginia, resulting in almost a million people vying for the stock in local stores.

A freak confluence of storms caused a “Superstorm” that took out power to much of the Eastern Seaboard, including New York City and the coastal parts of New Jersey. Nearly a year later, some families were still without electricity to their homes.

Four winters in a row, a “polar vortex” caused horrifyingly low temperatures and paired with winter storms to make the mid-western US resemble the Arctic Circle.

A small town in Missouri was under siege twice in a few months due to a police shooting of a young black man, and the officer’s subsequent acquittal.

Job loss and poverty are at an all-time high.

Wildfires have torn through numerous states, giving residents only minutes to flee and leaving utter devastation in their wake.

An island territory suffered a hurricane that left thousands dead and many have been without utilities for almost a year.

A deadly virus that everyone thought would be relegated to the distant regions of Africa was diagnosed here in the US, not just once, but multiple times.

Now, read that and try to tell me that disasters don’t happen.  Try to say that it’s impossible that they’d happen to you. If you say this, you’re deluding yourself because the reality is too unpleasant, and we both know it. If you’d like to continue deluding yourself, thank you for stopping by. Enjoy the articles about wholesome food, and pretend not to notice the articles that urge you to take responsibility for yourself and your family.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Selco’s SHTF Reality Check: 5 Deadly Mistakes That Preppers Are Making

May 10, 2018

Selco’s SHTF Reality Check: 5 Deadly Mistakes That Preppers Are Making

It is hard to bring the mindset of survival to the people who have not experienced a hard situation of at least some kind of survival event.

Over the many years of being connected with people who are into survival, I realize there are the same topics for discussion and people actually become fixated on those topics.

Inside those topics over the years “rules” are set and it is hard to change them. Opinions are formed and if you jump in with a different opinion, you are going to be ridiculed.

The survival community has turned in into a parody of itself. Something that should be free from the mainstream has turned into a very mainstream thing.

Misunderstandings.

Intentional false information.

The survival industry.

We are living in a society where we want it and we want it now, and what is most important we want it the easy way without effort and sweat.

This is true for the survival community, too.

That is the way survival myths (and mistakes) are born. Here are the 5 biggest mistakes that preppers make. Mistakes that can get them killed.

1) Making too specific a plan (and sticking to it)

Because of tons of information, we are being “funneled” into forming opinions about survival and especially about the reasons of possible bad events in future, possible SHTF situations, collapses or whatever you call it.

So we have preppers who are getting ready for an EMP, or an economic collapse, or an immigrant crisis, or a war, or simply a bad weather event.

In essence, there is nothing wrong with it, except some people stick so hard to one imagined” possible scenario that they do complete planning based on that scenario only.

As a result, if that scenario happens they could be good, but if any other scenario happens they are in deep trouble.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

5 Common Sports Items You Can Use to Protect Yourself in an Emergency 

April 6, 2018

5 Common Sports Items You Can Use to Protect Yourself in an Emergency 

OK, I’m going to start this off with almost a “disclaimer,” of sorts.  Please do not think that I do not buy gear of top quality; however, I’m skeptical about much of the equipment out there on the market.  Just because something has a brand name attached to it doesn’t mean that it is quality.  Much of the stuff that is “garbage” and is passed off as being “quality” is manufactured on the cheap in China and other countries that are not trying to produce something that will last a long time.

That being mentioned, the article is specifically for people who don’t have $80 to “dump” into Oakley Tactical shooting gloves, or Tactical Military knee pads at $70 to $80 per pair.  And more.  While there are some great places to find quality tactical gear, this article can give you some ideas on how to build up a supply of reserves (or daily, whichever you prefer, with your “good” gear in reserve) for when times are tough.

You can find some good deals for used sporting equipment by simply doing a search on the internet. Ebay, Amazon are some big names that have used sporting equipment, but there are other websites that specialize in used sports gear. So, check it out in your free time. That said, let’s jump into it!

5 Types of Sports Equipment That Can Be Modified Into Protective Gear

Gloves: One of the things the Oakley’s have that attracts a lot of people are those hardened plastic “knuckles” on the outside.  That’s fine.  I personally feel that if you have the glove that covers the knuckle, you don’t need an “artificial” one: if you’re going to strike a blow, you’re not going to hit the individual on top of his helmet.  You’re going to pick a “soft” spot such as his jaw, his temple, his throat, etc.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Selco: The Dirty Truth About Water and Sanitation When the SHTF

March 30, 2018

Selco: The Dirty Truth About Water and Sanitation When the SHTF

Note: The biggest concerns in any long-term emergency are water and sanitation because the lack of these things can cause serious illness or even death. Because water and sanitation aren’t nearly as glamorous as guns and gadgets, they’re often overlooked in a preparedness plan. I asked Selco some questions about these important issues in this interview. The truth about it is dirty, unpleasant, and something for which you absolutely must plan.

Once there was no more running water, how did you get drinking water?

Just like most other things (especially when it comes to non-preppers) it was a matter of levels and layers.

The tap water was going on and off for a few days before service went completely off, so people had a few bottles of drinking water stored. But of course, most of us thought everything going to be restored very soon so nobody had thought about storing big amounts of water.

When it comes to lack of water and being unprepared, the levels and layers that I am mentioning meant that you first looked and asked for tap water (clean) for drinking. Then collecting water from rooftops sounded like a good idea. Then drinking directly from the river was good if there was no other source. And then, finally, when there was no other source. you simply drink dirty water even when you were sure it is quite dirty.

It was a matter of low resources, desperation, and of course low skill levels.

Our main sources were rain and the river.

Can you tell us about your rainwater collection system?

It was not anything smart, especially in the beginning.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Selco: What We Ate and How We Got Food When the SHTF

March 12, 2018

Selco: What We Ate and How We Got Food When the SHTF

Editor’s Note: If a disaster is bad enough and lasts long enough, it isn’t going to take long before there is no food to be had. In this interview with Selco, he shares his real-life experiences and explains how people kept from starving to death when there was no food in the stores. ~ Daisy

How do you get food when there are no stores?

At the beginning of everything, most of the people did not have any significant “stash” of food in their homes.

In other words, the majority of common folks had food a or couple of days in their pantry and that was it. There were exceptions to that because the process of collapse did not happen in a few hours (in terms of suddenly there is no food in the stores).

When the chaos started, people looted stores after a short period of everyone buying things in a panic. Still, the majority of folks did not manage to get a decent stash of food from stores. Some did not want to believe that they were gonna need a stash. Others did not want to go out and participate in looting because it was dangerous. But I think the most obvious reason was that all food from stores was taken very fast.

In beginning period of SHTF, events unfold at a very fast pace. Actually, events go one after another so fast that if you find yourself lost in one event at the end of several events, you ask yourself, “Why in the name of God I did not go out and buy a whole bunch of food while I still could do that?”

Was gardening an option? If so, how did people protect their gardens?

Yes, it was an option, but the percentage of food from a garden was low because of a few reasons.

It was a city, without enough land for significant food growing, and the second reason is that even people who had some land (small gardens near houses) needed time to grow food there.

People usually did not grow food there in normal times, flowers, tea, maybe some particular kind of tomato, salad greens, and similar.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Easiest Way To Create an Emergency Water Supply That Lasts All Winter 

February 28, 2018

The Easiest Way To Create an Emergency Water Supply That Lasts All Winter 

There are reasons that everyone disdains converting snow and ice to water, such as “it’s not cost or heat effective,” or “you can’t get much from it,” etc.  In a survival situation, though, you may not have that much of a choice and this could be your only long-term water supply.  With many surface water bodies freezing solid, it renders it difficult to remove the ice and then melt it down.  Snow is the most-maligned of the two, but you can still take water from it.  Let’s go over some of the numbers and explore a few methods to get some water in the wintertime when you’re out in the wilds.

Learn About Snow Water Equivalent

The volume of ice can be converted to the volume of water by multiplying the ice’s volume by 0.92 for water volume.  This can be helpful, especially if you have a way of measuring blocks of ice or ice that has been formed within a container where you know the dimensions.  Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) is the most common way to measure the amount of water that is in a given amount of snow.  The “magic” number here is 10% of the volume of the snow is equal to the volume of water.  Therefore, if you had a large container (such as a kid’s plastic swimming pool) filled with 2 feet of snow?  Your amount of water would equal 2.4 inches, for the remaining area and volume of the pool.

The Simplest Way to Harvest Water in Winter

I mentioned these just to give you an idea.  Naturally, you won’t be lugging around a Coleco plastic swimming pool in the woods with you.  You can, however, pack in gallon-sized Ziploc plastic bags, and here’s where your math comes into play to figure volume.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How To Stay Warm in a Long-Term SHTF Event

January 29, 2018

How To Stay Warm in a Long-Term SHTF Event

As well-informed readers, you know the world situation does not appear to be improving.  At any time, we could well find ourselves in the middle of a SHTF event…be it economic collapse, a nuclear attack, or a string of natural disasters.  Regarding this last item, the steady string of hurricanes bringing a deadly swath of death and destruction to the United States has been happening as we speak.  The unmentioned problem: we’re on the “butt” end of winter, and as such, you’ll have to take extra precautions in the event it hits the fan.

10 Ways to Stay Warm in a Long-Term SHTF Event

This is going to be a very specific list; however, it is not exhaustive.  There will always be more to add, and there is never enough: that’s the bottom line.  This will get you started on your checklist, either physical or mental to ready your preparations before the winter hits.

  1. Warm clothing: and plenty of it. Gore-Tex top and bottoms are an absolute necessity, and plenty of warm socks, thermal underwear, and good boots that are waterproof, have plenty of Thinsulate and good soles, and give good ankle support.
  2. Sleeping bag, Gore-Tex cover, and sleeping pad: Remember to go for the best in terms of quality and performance. Another essential in this regard is a good compression bag and a wet-weather bag.  A soaking wet sleeping bag is not fun.  Stay warm, dry, and insulated from the conduction of lying on the ground.
  3. Plenty of hand warmers: Why? Because if you’re going to give an IV in the middle of the winter, you want to warm up the bag, that’s why.  Because you may need to thaw something out and not be able to light a fire due to operational security reasons.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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