Pictured: Times Square during the North East blackout of 2003
Well, guys, I goofed. while taking a tour through food, I forgot one very important thing...peanut butter (that is, so long as you are not allergic to peanuts). Peanut butter smeared over crackers makes an excellent survival food....so long as that isn't the only thing you eat. My bad.
Now that we have discussed food, lets talk about some other basic needs that you would need to have on hand during any type of emergency, whether it be tornadoes or a job layoff. Now, I can't take a tour through your head or your house and poke through to discover what you need. After all, all of our needs are different. Even with food, I tried to make my suggestions as general as I could.
But there are two items that I do think all people need.
The first is, quite simply, water. Water to drink. Water to boil the pasta. Water to reconstitute our dried foods. Water to add to soup concentrate. Water to make our coffee with. And last, but certainly not least, water to clean with. A water main break is probably the most common water emergency you will face.
I do not suggest going out and purchasing gallons upon gallons of bottled water. After all, it has been discovered that most bottled water is tap water. Oh, it says spring water? Well, sure....I'm sure it came from a spring....at some point in time. Having a case or two of individually bottled water could be a good idea, particularly if your emergency is short lived. Still, you don't want to have to run out to the store and fight with everyone in ten neighborhoods for the last case of bottled water. However, bottled water is expensive, and water takes up a lot of a space.
What takes up far less space is a water filter, and plenty of extra filters on hand. Two of the best water filters I have heard of are the Katadyn and the Berkey (also known as the British Berkfield). I have heard tales of people putting tea or coffee in their Berkey sport bottle and having it come out pure water. The sad part is that their price reflects how good they are. We have a simple store brand with about 3 years worth of filters. Keep your spent filters, though...you can use the "spent" filters and two buckets to construct a pre-filter in the event that you are forced to use water collected from other sources...water that may have sediment, dust, bugs, and leaves in it.
You could bottle your own water. A word of caution, though...do not add bleach to this until after you have opened an intend to use it. Some people in the know are suggesting that storing a gallon of water with a drop or two of bleach added could turn the bleach into chlorine gas....not a good idea. Plastic milk jugs deteriorate too quickly to be used. Washed 2-liter bottles for soda for bottles for juice is a better idea, but don't last long either. Bleach bottles...well, just like adding bleach, not a good idea. What I have found to be decently sturdy are bottles of vinegar, and occasionally 1-gallon jugs of apple juice. After cleaning out your jugs, I suggest adding some baking soda to some water and swishing it around inside to remove any odor from the bottle's previous inhabitant.
The second major need will be toilette paper...or whatever it is that you culturally use for sanitation necessities. One peak-oil gal that I use to hang around with on the internet for a while couldn't stress enough having a store of toilette paper, and I agree. Sanitation supplies, whether it be women's needs, infant's needs, or something everybody uses should not be rationed. I remember the talk shows in the 90's with all of the penny pinchers...it always seemed to be the men who felt the need the regulate how many sanitary supplies the family used...even the women's sanitation supplies. Scrimping on sanitation can lead to infection, so matter what that sanitation item is. Saving a few pennies here and there is not worth the expense of going to the doctor or emergency room with an infection.
Which leads me other to other disposables. Women's needs, infant's needs, and other disposables. Many of you probably have cloth diapers for your little ones. Excellent! Some women out there have turned to "green" items that are healthier for the environment. Priceless. Unless, of course, you are stuck in a basement after a tornado knocks down part of your house. Having a few disposables on hand that you can stick in a plastic bag and tie up tight is certainly more sanitary than lugging around a bucket full of poopy cloth diapers and trying to figure out how you are going to clean them while you wait for help to show up...if it ever shows up.
Your medicine cabinet, including first aide supplies, should be well-stocked. I remember during the North East blackout of 2003, there was one family who had to borrow the power generator of the news crew interviewing them so that they could get their child's nebulizer working until an ambulance came to pick the child up and head to the hospital. I'm sure the family was probably destitute and received the electrical version through medicare...their doctor should have prescribed a non-electric or battary-run back up nublizer in the event of an emergency such as this, and the insurance should have made the jump to pay for it! Putting a child in the hospital is a much greater expense than purchasing a simple battery-run nebulizer. But then again, Insurance companies (particularly government-run ones) are wacked out of their minds.
But I put this forth as an example...if you have a life-saving medication or machine, you need to ensure that you have some kind of back up, and ensure that it is working, before you have an emergency. Explain to your doctor that you are putting together an emergency kit in the event of some disaster, such as a black out, ice storm, or other disaster common to your area and that you would like to have extra medication (or a battary-powered version) of these life saving items so that you are not a burden on the medical center in the event of a emergency. A smart doctor would take that into consideration, particularly for someone who is diabetic or asthmatic. (Please note...most narcotic medicines are NOT life saving, and doctors will NOT prescribe extra...so don't even try).
Looking through my First Aide kit, there are other items you may wish to have in the event of an emergency...things to clean wounds (such as rubbing alcohol), things to sterilize wounds (such as iodine or triple antibiotic), and things to cover wounds (such as band aids and gauze). During an emergency situation, even the tiniest of wounds can become a huge infection. The emergency medical kit we have also includes simple over-the-counter medicines, such as pain relievers, allergy medications, and insect sting relief, as well as a thermometer, sterile q-tips, tongue depressors (which could be used to immobile broken fingers) and hot and cold packs. Being parents, we also have a medicine cabinet full of every day over-the-counter medications and the like...after all, to a 10-year-old, every scratch and itch and sniffle is a National Emergency.
Now, don't forget your furred, finned, and feathered friends over there. They are going to have needs as well...food, water, comfort, medical, and sanation.
But now that you have your food and water...how are you going to cook it? How are you going to see? Will you need heat? Perhaps you'll need to be cool.
A little tour through a camping section of a store can give you some ideas of what you need. There are dozens of options for heat and fuel out there...I would have several on hand. We have firewood, charcoal, kerosene, candles, Sterno, and olive oil as our many choices of heat, fuel, and lighting. And, of course, we have the lamps, camp stoves, camp ovens, charcoal grills (never use charcoal inside), lighters, firestarters, and matches to use that fuel with. Keep flashlights and light sticks specifically for kids on hand...wind up flashlights are inexpensive, do not require you to have battaries, and are just one more thing to keep kids busy...from winding it, to playing with the light. If they have their own source of light, they will be less incline to act foolishly around dangerous forms of light that require fire. Be cautious also with animals and fire...even a small dog can knock over a candle.
On the other hand, an emergency that happens in the heat of summer can be just as health devestating...there are battary powered fans one could purchase to keep cool. During that same New York blackout, people took to the streets at night because their apartments were too hot. And if you have kids, having a small hand-held one that they invented for ball games could be fun as well as aiding health.
That camping isle tour might also give you and idea of some comfort items you might need or want. You are further going to have to decide what you cannot live without. Paper towels, paper plates, hard candies or chocolate (M&M's store better than most chocolate). Games of diversion and simple comfort items can keep everyone in a mental state that is beneficial. One has no idea how a simple game of UNO can refresh the mind, or a comfortable place to sit down can make all the difference.
I have already alluded to the final item, but I want to point it out now. Plastic bags for trash or other 'sanitation needs'. Lots and lots of them. If your emergency ends up being long-term, trash can be burned outside (like most rural individuals without sanitation pick up do) or buried. But whether short of long term, these plastic bags will provide a place to store unsanitary items until they can be properly disposed of.
Stan Deyo of the Millenium Ark has an excellent computer program that will not only help you inventory your food, but will also give you other ideas on what you may need or want to store for a long-term emergency.
People mentioned in this article are:
Stan Deyo of The Millennium Ark ( http://www.standeyo.com/index1.html )
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