Survival of the Prepared

“A sensible person sees danger and takes cover,
but the inexperienced keep going and are punished.” Pro 22:3

I have seen the devastation of floods, tornados, hurricanes, blizzards, ice storms and a few other disasters. I’ve also met survivors some of whom were prepared and some who were not prepared. Believe me, it’s better to be prepared!
We are in a disaster prone area! But, the worst may be yet to come. The greatest concerns are tornados, floods, high straight-line winds, ice storms, pandemics and even earthquakes. Are you prepared?
In the past, the advice from disaster survival experts has been to have a three day supply of survival items. We are now being told that in a worst case scenario involving a pandemic, households may be quarantined for several weeks at a time. Yet, most of us have no home survival plan or preparation whatsoever.
It is beyond the scope of this article to provide much information on survival preparedness, but I hope I can get you started thinking about it. Each person in a household requires about 3 gallons of water per day to survive. How many gallons do you have set aside? Do you have canned food reserves? How will you cook, heat, or light your home if there’s no electricity or gas for several days or weeks. How will you communicate outside your home if there’s no telephone service which, by the way, is very vulnerable. Do you have any emergency power capabilities (We need to start thinking solar energy).
When you think seriously about it, the list gets longer and longer. You may be thinking, “I can’t afford to do all that.” Maybe you can’t get fully prepared immediately, but you can start. Save your juice jugs, clean them and store tap water in them. Don’t use milk jugs or jugs that have had chemicals, cleaners, etc. in them. Buy a few extra cans of food every time you shop for groceries. Do what you can when you can, but start now!
There are many sources of information on the internet. But, beware, many internet sites are there to try to sell you survival “stuff” like heater meals and shelters. Stay away from them!
Here is a short list of sites with good information:
http://www.fema.gov/plan/index.shtm
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/oes/docs/FamilyDisasterPlan.pdf
http://www.equipped.com/urls.htm (This is a site that lists many links dealing with survival.)
I am not an expert, but I probably am one step ahead of most folks I know. If there’s enough interest, I would be willing to develop some further training and guidelines or, at least, facilitate discussions on the subject of home preparedness.
FEMA also has on-line training courses for disaster preparedness.

Wife kj4emt, grandson ki3lji, and I wa3rev reported to Beulah Baptist Church, Douglasville for Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief duty with GA 14C Communications Unit. She and I worked EMCOMM from First Baptist Church, Powder Springs, Ga on Saturday and Sunday, Oct 26-27. Grandson worked from First Baptist Church, Austell, Ga Oct 26-28. I will return to Douglasville for two more days Thursday and Friday, Oct. 8-9.

The following is quoted from Cherokee Co. EOC Situation Report FYI:
Chairman Ahrens has declared a local State of Emergency for Cherokee County. Current Situation Storms have produced between 3 and 8 inches of rain across Cherokee County today. Three day rainfall totals are nearing 15 inches. Multiple roads are closed and many rescues have taken place and continue this evening. Streams are at or above record flood stages at many locations. Evacuations Many locations particularly in the Woodstock area have been evacuated. Rescues and evacuations are underway along PKWY 575 in Woodstock. This includes 3 hotels. Several apartment complexes are also being evacuated in the Woodstock Area. Shelters 1-Shelter is open at the Cherokee County South Annex located just north of Woodstock. At the present time, 35 people were in the shelter and field command posts report an additional 100 people will be transported to the shelter over the next hour. The shelter is being staffed by Cherokee CERT, Cherokee County Public Health, Cherokee County DFACS and Red Cross. The Cherokee Sheriff's Office Division of Emergency Management has deployed its shelter supply trailer to the shelter location. Road Closures I-575 south of Hwy 92 north & south bound Bells Ferry south of Hwy 92 Hwy 92 west of Hwy 5 Arnoldmill Road east of Woodstock Hwy 5 at the Little River Bridge Vaughan Road at the Bridge River Station Terrace Towne Lake Pkwy @ I-575 Epperson Road Kellogg Creek Road Victory Drive Mohawk Trail Haynes Road West Marietta Street Longview Drive Emergency Support Functions All Emergency Support Functions are activated in the Response Phase . . . Weather Forecast Tonight: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. Cloudy, with a low around 69. South wind around 5 mph. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Tuesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 80. Southeast wind between 5 and 10 mph.

So far, this "Hurricane Season" has been non-eventful - and that's good. There is a small problem with that, however. We, or at least I, get complacent and fail to keep some of my emergency communications skills honed and our "go kits" ready. So, I have resolved to spend the next few days making sure my capabilities such as Winlink, D-Star, and Echolink are up to par as well as inventoring my go boxes: Radio accessories, food, survival, and first-aid. If I don't have to use them, so much the better.