As you expected, TSHTF, panic is widespread, there is looting and violence everywhere and it's time to leave. It's spring/summer/autumn. You're trying to make it to your BOL (bug-out location) where you have buried caches of food, weapons, tools, shelter materials, first aid, etc. (In case that doesn't pan out, you'll head for your alternate BOL.) You're traveling on foot because your BOV (bug-out vehicle) can't get you there. You don't want to waste time along the way.
Do you want to have to build a shelter and a fire at each stop or would you rather spend the time getting closer to your BOL?
Pack your BOB (bug-out bag) with ready-to-eat foods. You can eat as you walk. When you need rest unfurl your lightweight Jungle Hammock, tie it between two trees screened from view, and collapse into it. No need to clear an area to pitch a tent and it'll keep the ticks, bedbugs, and skeeters from getting to you while you sleep.
Speaking of ticks, etc., your BOC (bug-out clothes) should be treated with Permethrin so arthropods of all sorts will stay off. Imagine finding that you're crawling with ticks partway to your BOL. You don't know how many have already dug into your skin where you can't see them. You don't know where you picked them up. Suddenly every tree, bush, log, patch of tall grass becomes an item of dread, forcing you into the open where you are an easy target.
You can avoid this nightmarish concern by treating your clothes with 0.5% Permethrin. You can get spray cans of the stuff at Walmart or online marketed as Permanone by Repel. Treat your outer clothes, tops of your socks, and hat and they're good for two weeks' protection, even if washed or soaked. Put your clothes on only after they are dry because Permethrin can be absorbed though the skin. Thus protected and with a dash of 100% DEET on exposed areas, you need have no fear of bloodsuckers and the diseases they carry.
Need caffeine? Pop a couple of caffeine tablets (NoDoz or other brands) and chase 'em with water. You're on the move. No time to build a fire and make coffee.
What else would slow you? Hunting, fishing, collecting wild fruits, nuts, greens, bartering. Don't engage in any of these activities till you've run out of ready-to-eat stuff. (If you get injured and can't travel, that's a different story. Then you'll need to crawl around and set some traps and lie low till you can travel again. Winter and heavy snow may also delay your progress but as long as you can travel, that's your main focus.)
One thing you might need: foot baths. You need to take care of your feet if you're putting many miles per day on them. Change socks at least every three days, more often if your feet are sweating a lot. Wash the old pair and secure them on the outside of your pack to dry. Soak your feet and scrub them well. Use fresh socks when feet are dry.
As for the rest of your body, wait till you are at or just around the corner from your BOL to bathe, the latter only if you are meeting others there. Your need to feel clean is just cultural conditioning. How often did the mountain men bathe? Or the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert? If you are deer hunting, you need to be scent-neutral but you're not deer hunting, you're fleeing to your BOL. Don't get distracted.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
A few preps for nuclear events
With North Korea and Iran now poised to build nuclear arsenals, attention has turned to a nearly 60-year-old concern, what to do in event of nuclear engagement. It is fairly easy to be at least partially prepared to survive a nuclear event.
I am now the proud owner of a NukAlert, a small device that can serve as a key ring charm or a pendant that will let forth with squeals of radioactive delight when in proximity of a ticking dirty bomb, operating X-ray machine, or the hot rubble spewed by a thermonuclear blast. One squeal in a half-minute means you're 42 days from getting radiation sickness if the radiation were constant. Ten squeals means you'd better get the hell outta there 'cause in two hours you're cooked. The battery is said to last ten years under normal conditions.
I also have KI pills (130 mg. Potassium Iodide) at home, in my van, and in my bug-out bag. They keep your thyroid from concentrating radionuclides of Iodine, which can kill you if the blast or the fallout radiation doesn't. The main strategy following a radiological event is to place mass and distance between you and any surfaces that would collect radioactive fallout. The level of gamma radiation attenuates rapidly so a couple days' hunkering in the most protected position before making limited indoor forays should do the trick. You'd need water and a waste bucket at a minimum. A pile of food, a mattress, and blankets would be great assets too.
If an incredibly bright, searing, and lasting flash occurs, leap for cover, away from windows and exterior doors, covering your face, eyes, and head. Do not look at the fireball as it can scorch your retinas and leave you permanently blind. A tornado-force wind gust will shatter windows and rip doors from their hinges. Race for the basement if one is present. If in the open, dive behind a solid feature such as a large rock, log, or stone wall. If none are around, look for a ditch or other depression. A pond or stream might be a great place to be. A large culvert is another great shelter. Intense thermal radiation will commence from the outset and continue as the fireball lifts over the terrain. The exterior of any building you might be in may catch fire.
Once the shock wave is past, quickly seek out the most protected area to serve as a fallout shelter. You may have only a few minutes before fallout arrives depending on blast proximity and prevailing winds. In that time, grab lots of water, food, buckets, plastic bags for waste, a battery or hand-crank radio, mattress, blankets and, barring the presence of a serious fallout shelter, make yourself a small cave, surrounding yourself with as much mass as possible. A large, sturdy table would make a good starting point. Load boxes of books, bricks, canned food, full water containers, stacks of lumber, bags of concrete mix, fertilizer, potting soil, etc.. If breezes could blow fallout into the area, nail, duct-tape, or thoroughly staple plastic, tarps, or blankets over openings to keep the fallout from entering.
Of course having a plan and materials already in place would be a big help. You might not be able to build a fully encased concrete bunker beneath your cellar stairs but you could identify the basement corner you would use and have several five-gallon containers of water, a bunch of ready-to-eat canned food, a can opener and spoon, some spare blankets and pillows in protective wraps, an air mattress, a box or two of small or tall-kitchen trash bags, a potty bucket, some toilet tissue (!), some tarps or polyethylene sheeting and duct tape for sealing off broken windows or other intrusions, and a hand-cranked radio.
You may not be home when disaster strikes. For this reason keeping a few items in your vehicle would be a good idea. Besides KI tablets for a half-dozen people I keep a full roll (10' x 100') of polyethylene, two big rolls of duct tape, a five-gallon container of water, and a week's food supply in my van. I am at least partially prepared to improvise a shelter wherever I am. I can't count on driving home first because the thermal radiation and shock wave may have destroyed my vehicle and the roads could be impassible from debris and disabled vehicles.
If you don't have a radiation measuring device, you will have to rely on your radio for news on the attenuation factor so you can know when it's safe to emerge and help in the cleanup effort. Long-lived radionuclides will still exist in low concentrations. You don't want them to lodge in your lungs where they can cause cancers so be sure to wear a close fitting particle mask during the cleanup phase. I keep a couple boxes of N-95 face masks handy (good in case of flu pandemics too).
I am now the proud owner of a NukAlert, a small device that can serve as a key ring charm or a pendant that will let forth with squeals of radioactive delight when in proximity of a ticking dirty bomb, operating X-ray machine, or the hot rubble spewed by a thermonuclear blast. One squeal in a half-minute means you're 42 days from getting radiation sickness if the radiation were constant. Ten squeals means you'd better get the hell outta there 'cause in two hours you're cooked. The battery is said to last ten years under normal conditions.
I also have KI pills (130 mg. Potassium Iodide) at home, in my van, and in my bug-out bag. They keep your thyroid from concentrating radionuclides of Iodine, which can kill you if the blast or the fallout radiation doesn't. The main strategy following a radiological event is to place mass and distance between you and any surfaces that would collect radioactive fallout. The level of gamma radiation attenuates rapidly so a couple days' hunkering in the most protected position before making limited indoor forays should do the trick. You'd need water and a waste bucket at a minimum. A pile of food, a mattress, and blankets would be great assets too.
If an incredibly bright, searing, and lasting flash occurs, leap for cover, away from windows and exterior doors, covering your face, eyes, and head. Do not look at the fireball as it can scorch your retinas and leave you permanently blind. A tornado-force wind gust will shatter windows and rip doors from their hinges. Race for the basement if one is present. If in the open, dive behind a solid feature such as a large rock, log, or stone wall. If none are around, look for a ditch or other depression. A pond or stream might be a great place to be. A large culvert is another great shelter. Intense thermal radiation will commence from the outset and continue as the fireball lifts over the terrain. The exterior of any building you might be in may catch fire.
Once the shock wave is past, quickly seek out the most protected area to serve as a fallout shelter. You may have only a few minutes before fallout arrives depending on blast proximity and prevailing winds. In that time, grab lots of water, food, buckets, plastic bags for waste, a battery or hand-crank radio, mattress, blankets and, barring the presence of a serious fallout shelter, make yourself a small cave, surrounding yourself with as much mass as possible. A large, sturdy table would make a good starting point. Load boxes of books, bricks, canned food, full water containers, stacks of lumber, bags of concrete mix, fertilizer, potting soil, etc.. If breezes could blow fallout into the area, nail, duct-tape, or thoroughly staple plastic, tarps, or blankets over openings to keep the fallout from entering.
Of course having a plan and materials already in place would be a big help. You might not be able to build a fully encased concrete bunker beneath your cellar stairs but you could identify the basement corner you would use and have several five-gallon containers of water, a bunch of ready-to-eat canned food, a can opener and spoon, some spare blankets and pillows in protective wraps, an air mattress, a box or two of small or tall-kitchen trash bags, a potty bucket, some toilet tissue (!), some tarps or polyethylene sheeting and duct tape for sealing off broken windows or other intrusions, and a hand-cranked radio.
You may not be home when disaster strikes. For this reason keeping a few items in your vehicle would be a good idea. Besides KI tablets for a half-dozen people I keep a full roll (10' x 100') of polyethylene, two big rolls of duct tape, a five-gallon container of water, and a week's food supply in my van. I am at least partially prepared to improvise a shelter wherever I am. I can't count on driving home first because the thermal radiation and shock wave may have destroyed my vehicle and the roads could be impassible from debris and disabled vehicles.
If you don't have a radiation measuring device, you will have to rely on your radio for news on the attenuation factor so you can know when it's safe to emerge and help in the cleanup effort. Long-lived radionuclides will still exist in low concentrations. You don't want them to lodge in your lungs where they can cause cancers so be sure to wear a close fitting particle mask during the cleanup phase. I keep a couple boxes of N-95 face masks handy (good in case of flu pandemics too).
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