Featured SnoMan Article: 1-Day Emergency Plan

The following article is featured from our friend SnoMan @ SurvivalNewsOnline.com. Enjoy!

You can be ready for emergencies in just one day

I know tons of people who haven’t prepped because they have big plans and just can’t seem to get started. If you’re one of those people, this plan is for you. Follow these 10 easy steps to get ready for an ice storm, a blackout, or an economic meltdown. Just a few hours’ work can make the difference between life and death.

This is not by any means a complete survival plan — it’s just a list of items that will get you more prepared than you would be if you do nothing. This plan is designed to get you prepped today, because you never know what might happen, or when. So it’s quick, easy, and cheap.

Most of these items can be found at Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, or Costco. Feel free to make adjustments as necessary, depending on your circumstances. Like, if you have a year-round spring, stocking water jugs might not be your top priority, and if you have a large family, maybe increase the quantities. (Incidentally, these items are not necessarily in order of importance).

1. Buy 3 to 5 six-gallon water jugs and fill them as soon as you get home. You can find these in the sporting goods section.
2. Get 20 lbs each of beans and rice. You can get detailed about your food stock later (how to build up a one year food supply). Right now, we’re just getting you some basic food so you don’t starve.
3. Canned fruits and vegetables. Just get 20 cans of each, and make sure you’re buying stuff you’ll be happy to eat.
4. Canned meat and fish. Get 20 cans of Spam, tuna, salmon, jack mackerel, beef stew, or any combination of these.
5. Chocolate and peanut butter. They store well, they provide tons of calories, and they’re great for morale. Get about 5 lbs of peanut butter and a couple or 3 lbs of chocolate.
6. Multivitamin supplement. You should have several hundred doses — say, a year’s supply.
7. Ammo. Make sure you have a few hundred rounds for your primary defensive weapon (I don’t know… 200 to 500, maybe?), and 50 to 100 rounds for your primary hunting weapon.
8. Flashlight and batteries. LED flashlights use less power, so they last longer. Also, candles and lighters.
9. Firewood. Just get a pickup load and have it on hand. You can cut more later, but you need some right now. If you don’t have a fireplace or wood stove, get a kerosene or propane space heater — and fuel, of course.
10. Battery-powered radio. When you get home, tape a new pack of batteries to the radio, then stow the lot with your emergency supplies.

Print this off, go to the store, and be ready for 2012.

~SnoMan

The Survival Podcast interviews The Berkey Guy

Click the banner & listen to the interview @ the TSP

Jack Spirko interviewed our very own Jeff “The Berkey Guy” Gleason this week on The Survival Podcast (TSP). The interview covered the subject of drinking water (big surprise?) including the issue of fluoride in your drinking water and a reference to The Fluoride Deception by Christopher Bryson. We urge you to take a read of the book if you haven’t already. Chlorine, arsenic, radiation, and chromium were also touched on in the interview. Jeff had a blast doing the interview especially because The Survival Podcast community is a valued audience who supports Directive21.com and he was finally able to thank them in that podcast.

The Survival Podcast is committed to “helping you live the life you want, if times get tough, or even if they don’t.” We are happy to continue to support Jack’s efforts, especially his Member Support Brigade (MSB). If you listen to TSP but haven’t become part of the MSB, be sure to join & take advantage of  connecting with other like-minded folk. MSB members enjoy many benefits including discounts on prepper & survival products, free downloads, and tons of valuable information!

Welcome to The Berkey Guy’s Blog!

I’d like to extend a cordial welcome to you! We look forward to providing you with great information to help you on your way to achieving greater self-reliance and peace. Please subscribe to our RSS feed and you will automatically receive updates as we make content available here. By subscribing, you will also receive a free subscription to the The Berkey Guy Newsletter, sent out twice a month. Our newsletter contains special offers that we only provide to our subscribers. And as always, your email and contact information remains safe with us and nobody else. We will never sell, trade, grant access or provide your information to anyone. Period.

You will notice many exciting things in the months to come, so stay tuned and please feel free to offer your comments here, Like Us on Facebook, Follow Us on Twitter, and Visit Us on Youtube!

If you would like to submit an original article or would like to see an article about a particular subject, please email us & let us know @:   blogarticle@directive21.com.

Thanks,

The Berkey Guy

Bullets and Beans: Consideration of Priority & Being Practical

Facts & motives are powerful catalysts to action and must be weighted in moderation.

Over the years, customers call in and ask some interesting questions. An infrequent question recently surfaced when I had a conversation with an individual who decided to pick my brain about almost all-things-preparation. To paraphrase her question, she asked, “I have a 72 hour kit and because I live in [in a densely populated U.S. metropolis] I think I really need a gun…what do you recommend?” Here are some of our thoughts with respect to setting priority in steps toward greater self-reliance. My recommendations can be summed up in one word: Practicality.

It is too easy to get side-tracked in our preps when there are so many areas that seem appealing and meritorious of highest priority status. Newbies and old-timers alike can easily find themselves concentrating in many areas of detail such as:

• Should I raise a Barnevelder or Brahma variety of chickens?
• Should I start off with a handgun, rifle, or shotgun?
• What are the criteria I should employ in choosing a brand of colloidal silver?

To avoid this analysis-paralysis one must remain focused and concentrate on building the basics. There is the idea of utilitarianism which essentially declares: do the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people. In the particular case of the individual I spoke with, what was most practical for her and that which would accomplish the greatest good was working on her food and water storages. She, like many, was lacking in her practical preps. In her mind, she was most concerned about the first 72 hours post-incident. She anticipated that those 72 hours might require the use of a firearm for protection from looters and vandals. Indeed, I don’t discredit the manifest potential of her scenario, but ultimately, bullets aren’t beans. In other words, hydration, energy, & nutrition are life-sustaining priorities that will provide the stability and foundation, upon which she can progress to personal/group safety considerations.

I know an individual who is intent upon improving his marksmanship in close-quarter combat as well as “reaching out to touch someone.” No problem. Range time is fun. However,he has no medical preparations, horrible social skills, and lives in a crowded apartment building. For him, one practical need is to become more sociable and learn to interact with others, so he can create & strengthen his support network. The support network is the second-point of emphasis that I shared with my friend during our conversation. It is completely do-able and necessary for individuals to strengthen ties & relationships with trusted & like-minded individuals whose interests are shared. While you are building your supplies and hardware inventories and learning self-reliant skills, specialization in interpersonal communication and conflict resolution/negotiations is an ability that is priceless. It can be learned and improved upon no matter your degree of experience and comfort level. Individuals who develop these skills are able to understand human behavior much better and are in a powerful position to act appropriately with/without weapons training & availability.

Beans represent food.

In the interest of time & to keep this post short, I offer this summary. Bullets (security measures) prove valuable in hunting, defense, and offense. Beans (food) sustain life and are the fuel to simple survival and being able to weather the storm during a sustained power outage. Get your beans & then your bullets, or get them both together.

-The Berkey Guy

Please share your thoughts & feedback in our comments section below. Also, feel free to Like Us on Facebook, Follow Us on Twitter, and share your thoughts on the blog.

Emergency Lighting: The Importance of Lighting

Many people underestimate the importance of having light available during an emergency, but what does that mean? Why is lighting needed? Here are five basic & obvious reasons:

1. Safety
2. Security
3. Search & Rescue
4. Utility
5. Comfort

Professionals make sure their basics are covered. You should too!

Safety

In the event of power-outage, disaster, or emergent event, distancing yourself from hazards and danger areas is crucial. When lighting is limited, poor, or nonexistent, your lighting solutions will prove life-saving. Lighting which does not pose a threat to life will also help to avoid a sudden explosion or fire in the event that combustible gases/liquids are present.

Security

Lighting that does not pose a threat to explosion, fire, or releasing dangerous products of combustion is the only viable option. Flashlights, emergency strobes, and glow-sticks will perform well as solutions to darkness. Appropriate lighting can also prove beneficial by allowing individuals to become identifiable either by color coding light lenses, being able to visibly discern faces/features, and communicate via light-signals, traditional or improvised. Laser pointers are also excellent solutions to strategic pinpointing without necessarily exposing the origin of the sender of the laserbeam, just never shine the laser directly into an individual’s eyes!

Search & Rescue

We all need to be able to avoid becoming part of the problem (becoming a victim) and being able to see clearly is essential to that. In a house where structural damage is almost unavoidable, the ability to safely and clearly access injured children, adults, pets, etc., will be a matter of highest priority. Because we are all potential victims, providing personal lighting solutions may be a method that saves our lives when rescuers have to dig through rubble and confined space in order to extricate.

Utility

Lighting provides the ability to disassemble car engines, mechanical applications, and medical treatment. Even in daylight, access to a proper lighting solution such as a pocket-light will allow assessment of a victim’s pupils, to determine brain or optic injuries, as well as taking one’s vital signs. A pen light also allows us to examine sensitive areas of the body where visual indicators or serious injury are visually limited at best, such as the nostrils, ear canals, mouth, genitals, and deep puncture wounds.

Comfort

Lighting also offers psychological advantages such as site identification, landmark recognition, comforts individuals with phobias of darkness, and allows us to visually observe people/locations to keep them safe and free from unwanted/unauthorized visitors and intruders.

-The Berkey Guy

Emergency Communications by Alan Halcon @ Dirttime.com

The following article’s author, Alan Halcon, published it on February 28, 2011. We are re-posting it with his permission. You may also visit his website: Dirttime.com for other great articles by Alan & his colleagues. Click Here for the original.

We often take for granted things that have become part of our daily lives. But, once those things that we come to rely on so much are stripped from us, do we realize how vulnerable we are.

As part of preparation for disasters, we spend an insurmountable amount of time and money putting together the perfect kit with the right amount of gear. We lay in wait, hoping for a disaster to occur, only so we can spring into action and prove to everyone that all those years and hundreds of dollars we spent were actually for a good reason, and that we weren’t wackos after all.

It is a sad fact, however, many of the preppers I’ve had the opportunity to sit with and discuss preparedness come up short in one area, communications.

The internet, cellphones, and so many other methods of communications have become so embedded into our culture that we just accept them as life and can’t imagine, let alone consider, they won’t be there when we need them.

There are countless examples of failed communications during times of disasters:

September 11, 2001

After the attacks, Cell sites were overloaded causing communication malfunction
Interoperability between agencies was a major issue and is said to be a cause for why so many firefighters died
internet affected
Katrina, August 2005

toppling of communication towers during the storm, which disrupted cellular tele­phone lines and other civilian communication infra­structure employed by many emergency responders.
internet affected
Northeast Blackouts, 2003

Telephone Systems were overloaded
Cell phone systems were overloaded
internet was knocked down in many areas
In all of these cases, there was one reliable system that really help coordinate relief and rescue efforts… Amateur Radio!

As part of my emergency plan, I am a licensed Ham Radio operator. It takes very little effort for me to erect an improvised antenna and communicate with folks in other parts of the world.

Not long ago, on my little Yaseu VX-6R, with nothing more than the stock rubber duck antenna that comes with this unit, I was able to communicate with someone in Alaska and another person in Okinawa. Keep in mind, I live in California.

There are many emergency radio plans that can be designed and used with a ham radio, but the biggest benefit is it’s ability to work when all other systems have failed.

For the paltry 14 dollars it takes to become licensed, it really is worth investigating a bit further and consider, if you really want to take your preps to the next level.

ARRL.ORG is a great resource to helping you get started on what can be a life-saving investment.

By Alan Halcon, on February 28th, 2011

To find a local Ham Radio Club, Click Here.