Introduction:
Welcome to another blog! This one is more general than most others but can be applied to a variety of emergencies that may occur. Examples include Tsunami evacuations, Earthquakes, weather events and wildfires.
This entry will only cover the supplies, considerations and some basic facts about general emergencies, we will not cover alerting/monitoring etc. as these aspects will be covered in specific posts (See the wildfires blog entry for an example).
The details below will go through some key things to think about and show some examples of items you can have in your emergency kit. These are photos of items I currently have, or things I plan to upgrade to.
One thing to remember is continuous improvement! You don't need to get everything all at once, you can just acquire items as time goes on - so don't stress.
What do I need to prepare for?
Obviously, this is all about generic emergencies, so this question is more about setting your expectations during an emergency.
During emergencies, you will find First Responders are very busy with:
Getting people who are in danger to safety
Preventing the situation from getting worse (If possible)
Searching for missing people
Communicating and setting up safe areas with local authorities
Establishing safe routes in and out for people and supplies
These tasks can take hours or days before they can assist the wider public, so what should you do to prepare?
General guidelines are to have enough supplies for 3 days per person, however, recent events worldwide have shown that it can take a lot longer for aid to arrive. It may be better to try and store 5 days of supplies per person, then have a plan to ration should help not be arriving by day 3.
Remember the following guidelines around how long a human can survive:
3 minutes without air
3 hours without shelter
3 days without water
3 weeks without food
AIR
Clearly, Air is not something you are going to be able to 'store' in any meaningful way, SCUBA tanks are not readily available for everyone so I will not go into them or their alternatives in this post.
WATER
Water is vital, more specifically drinking water. You may need water for washing, cooking or other hygiene reasons but that water may be better used for drinking water so you should consider the following ways to extend the water you have saved:
Store wet wipes for hygiene (baby wipes are perfectly acceptable and non-toxic)
Have food that does not need water to cook
Store Chlorine tablets or similar water purification tablets to make more clean water
Have a way to boil the water with no mains power (Camping cooker, generator and kettle for example)
Set up some collection points to collect rainwater, you can use anything that can hold water from rainfall (This should still be boiled/cleaned before drinking in case of airborne contaminants, however it will be cleaner than water gathered from ground sources)
While there are other ways to gather water (some of which I will create specific examples of in the future) these are the simple ways to prepare.
A good rule of thumb for the amount of water you need for survival is 2.5L per person per day, while this seems like a lot - it is worth remembering that certain foods do contain water in their ingredients and that can help replace fluids.
Also, weather conditions, hard work, sickness and other factors may mean other people need more water than others. This is something that cannot be predicted but if you can store extra water, it is a very good idea.
SHELTER
Shelter is very important, whether you need to keep warm to keep out of the sun you should aim to have some option for shelter in place within 3 hours. This will not always be possible, you can however improvise shelters or have equipment to help with this (see later sections).
At some point in the future SecuriKiwi will have some demonstrations of emergency shelter options you can improvise as this is a larger section that we can fit in here.
However, you should remember that shelter is important, be it a tent, car, caravan, poncho stretched between trees as a shelter and a sleeping bag underneath.
The shelter should aim to protect you from whatever the situation demands:
Sun/UV
Rain
Wind
Snow/Hail
Frost
Remember that when you sleep, your body temperature will drop so having some shelter will help protect you from the risks associated with sleeping rough outside.
FOOD
Food is one item that you can survive without for longer than people realize, there have been instances of people surviving well over a month with no food. Although this is not ideal it can help you prioritize your storage in grab bags.
That being said, food should still be an important consideration with some things to remember:
The food in your grab bags should be long-lasting (Remember 'Best before' is not 'Expiry', do some further research on the food)
Some foods can be rationed further, you can usually stretch 3 days of food to 5 by simply reducing your effort if possible and eating less.
You should not be eating until you feel full each time, the food will not last long if this behaviour is not addressed.
There are many ration types available, these are usually very high calorie and a small amount can provide the calories your body needs. You may not feel full, but you will have the energy to carry on.
Try to eat the food to reflect the amount of work you are doing, if one person is working harder than others then they should get a little more food allocated. This is a practical consideration and can be a hard mindset for everyone involved, however, it should be considered and sometimes the people who get more food need to be convinced to eat more to ensure they do not become exhausted and become a casualty.
At the bottom of this page, there are some links to food that is specifically designed for emergencies, however, you should also look into some of the longer-lasting food you can get at supermarkets (packets of dried lentil soup can actually last for a long time and in theory, each pack feeds multiple people).
Canned food can last a lot longer than the dates on the cans, do some research to see how long canned food actually lasts.
Canned fruits contain fruit juices, which means that the cans can supply food and fluids so can be a good option to keep in your kits.
MEDICATION
Prescription medication for conditions should be something you have a few days' worth in stock, strictly speaking at least 3 days of medication should always be on hand. This can mean a lot of organisation to always keep this stocked, however, you never know when you will need it.
Non-prescription medications are worth keeping in your kit, there will be a chance that there will be injuries and infections during an emergency so it might be worth getting a small first aid kit along with some of the following items you can get in any supermarket:
Ibuprofen
Paracetamol (or other pain relief)
Antiseptic cream/wipes
Burn treatment creams/sprays/packs
Imodium (This can help to avoid dehydration and reduce risk of infection due to diarrhea)
Sunblock
OTHER EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES
So the above will give you the basics to survive, so now we delve into considerations that may help make things easier and more comfortable.
Clothing can take up a lot of space, however, it will be worth it if your current clothes get wet, covered in unhygienic substances, rip or any other scenario where you would like to change. It is worth having some items such as tracksuit pants, simple T-shirts, extra underwear and maybe a hat. These should be left in your grab bag so that they are always ready to go. Ideally, you want to make sure you have some lightweight items for hot days, then a coat/hoody or similar if it gets cold.
Solar chargers are very useful for keeping phones charged, this is for your communication and also entertainment. Don't underestimate the difference some music can make to morale during an emergency.
Battery packs can also be useful for the same reasons as above, this will be less reliant on the sun and is likely to be a good immediate source of power. You may also be able to charge this with the solar charger as well.
Sleeping bags, tents, mattresses etc.. can be very cumbersome but if there is room in your grab bag they can be very useful. There are many options out there for compact options for each of these, I will create some evaluations of some options in future as this is a huge area of the market so watch this space for evaluations.
Camping stoves are very useful, there are multiple types out there, but having one will help you cook, clean water and help start fires for warmth.
Torches of all types are useful, they are safer than candles or fires and if the power is out you will need light.
Walkie-talkies can be a great backup communication method, phones and the internet may go down. If you have an alternate communication method it can be very helpful in coordinating survival efforts.
Axes or similar tools for cutting wood can be used to make shelter, gather firewood or gain access to supplies in the event of an emergency.
The above items are just some of the items you can think about taking to help you survive with some comfort and enable you to last longer between the incident and help arriving.
SecuriKiwi will evaluate several of these going forward to help you make some informed choices, while hopefully avoiding wasting money on items that seem good but are actually ineffective.
CONCLUSION
So, you should be able to follow these steps to get some items together that will help you, your family and the wider community survive.
If everyone followed similar steps, incoming aid would be more useful, last longer and allow the community to be more resilient and start down on the road to recovery.
This is not exhaustive, we plan to create advice, evaluations, recommendations and equipment evaluations to help you prepare and get that peace of mind that we all crave.
If you want a piece of equipment evaluated, please let us know and we will see what we can do (we make no promises but will make best efforts).
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