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Preparedness

Hurricane season approaches. Hard times are coming. As we discussed in our last post, the government advises us all to have three days of supplies, so that we can be self sustaining until the cavalry arrives. I have a disaster plan, and I keep updating it as I change my opinion or as my needs change.

This is not about being a survivalist or about surviving. Surviving is a part of living, but surviving is not the main goal, it is merely a path to our goal. This is about being able to survive a disaster and being able to recover as much of your life as possible. We must survive, recover, and rebuild.

Recovery is the area where most people spend the least effort, but where a little preparing goes a long way. You need to safeguard the documents and other things that we need to live in the 21st century: Documents, family photos, licenses, certifications, and other important records. We also need to have meeting places (rally points) and other essential details worked out in advance. For more on that, see this post.

Now we can start thinking about supplies and kits. Remember that preparedness is not a kit. Don’t think you can put a kit together, and you are all set. The kit is a means to an end. Here are the categories that I recommend for a kit:

Records: The aforementioned documents, photographs, and other needed items. I include a moderate amount of cash on hand ($300 or so) in this category.
First Aid: Medications, drugs, bandages, disinfectants, etc. Nothing elaborate. Simple is better here.
Heat and cooking: You can live on cold canned goods and MREs, but they are simply not tolerable for more than a day or two. Hot meals are best.
Light: Flashlights, lanterns, fire, batteries for them, chemlights, and other ways of creating light.
Tools: People are tool users. Screwdrivers, knife, hammer, hatchet, etc.
Communications: There are many ways to communicate. Cell phones, radios, flags, spray paint, chalk or grease pencil markings left on buildings, signs stapled to telephone poles, etc.
Food and water: Obvious. From half liter bottles of water to reverse osmosis, MREs to farming, we need to consider short and long term food and water needs.
Shelter: Tents, homes, hotels, tarps, even your vehicle. Any way to get out  of the weather.
Security: Weapons, cameras, sensors, rotating watches.
Energy: Solar, fire, electric, generators, etc. Anything that helps us power our equipment or our selves that is not cooking or heating related.

The exact contents of those categories will vary depending on the length of time we are to be self sufficient, our finances, the amount of space we have for storage, and the disaster we want to be prepared for. My two week hurricane kit is in yesterday’s post.

By Divemedic, ago

Prepping

The government advises us all to have three days of supplies, so that we can be self sustaining until the cavalry arrives. From my personal experiences during my responses to various disasters, I can tell you that three days is a minimum. If you are further away from a distribution point than average, it may be more like 4 or 5 days. More if the disaster is more serious.

So, I have put together a bunch of supplies to get me through a disaster. Here is what I have come up with:

Food: I have 8 cases of MREs, and 2 cases of Mountain House freeze dried meals. I also have 3 cases of freeze dried meats and eggs. Round that out with a couple of cases of canned goods (tuna, soup, veggies) and I have enough non perishable food for 172 people meals. That is enough food for 6 people for 9 days. Two weeks if I stretch it.

Food prep: I have propane cooking equipment and enough propane to cook 3 meals a day for a week.

Shelter: Other than the house, I have 3 two man tents, and tarps to make more lean-tos.
Communications: In addition to cell phones, I have 4 FRS radios and 2 HAM radios in the 2 meter band.
Power: I need to work on this. I am thinking about solar chargers for the radios and flashlight batteries. I don’t need to run the whole house just yet.
Water: I have 30 gallons (at one gallon per person/day, this will last 6 people for 5 days) of water containers, and we can and will fill 2 bathtubs for non drinking water. We can boil that water for cooking if needed. 
I have ample firearms for security, and plenty of ammo.
There are also medical supplies, lights, and other supplies. 

Even though there are only two of us here, I have enough to supply 6 people for two weeks. Longer if I want to cut it down to subsistence rations. Living in hurricane country, it is just prudent.

By Divemedic, ago

Radio Installation

I recently got my HAM radio license. I spent the day last Saturday installing a Yaesu Ft-7900 in my pickup. I went out this morning and I was able to hit a repeater that was 30 miles away. Excellent radio. It is a dual band radio that transmits in the 2 meter band and the 70cm band.

I put the radio body under the passenger’s seat, the control head on the center console, and I mounted the antenna on the roof with an NMO mount. Being under the seat, it was a little hard to hear, so a mounted a speaker to the back of my console. I can hear it just fine now.

I also have a handheld radio in the 2 meter band. I want to get one or two more, and at $120 each, they are quite affordable. Add a base station to that, and another item is checked off my list of things I need for the zombie apocalypse. More on that later.

By Divemedic, ago

Spinal Immobilization is not always what is best

This is another one of those EMS related posts. For those of you who are not in the medical field, I am sorry if this post makes your eyes glaze over a bit.

We have been taught to backboard every trauma patient. My protocols have us routinely backboarding patients who have been in car accidents, falls, penetrating trauma to the neck or torso, and a host of other accidents. Even when there is no sign of damage to the spine, we backboard. This is a result of the practice of defensive medicine. That is, we do this under the theory that we could be sued by the ambulance chasing “if I don’t get you a big payoff, I don’t collect a fee” lawyers that are always on the television during the day. The belief goes that if the patient needed to be immobilized and wasn’t, there is a chance we could lose, but throwing someone who isn’t really injured on a backboard doesn’t hurt the patient, so we cover our collective butts by doing it to everyone.

Studies are starting to show that immobilizing patients is not a benign treatment. In fact, this 2010 study of over 45,000 trauma patients shows that patients who are victims of penetrating trauma to the torso, but do not present with any specific neurological deficit, experience a higher mortality rate when immobilized than similar patients who are not immobilized. We need to cease backboarding everyone. We are killing people. The lawyers are killing people. This needs to stop.

By Divemedic, ago

Worker’s comp

Several years ago, I was injured at work. I ruptured my Achilles tendon. My employer sent me to a health clinic that they have a contract with. In the lobby of this clinic is a sign which reads: “We specialize at getting your employees back to work.” This attitude of the personnel at this clinic seems to be that all employees are goldbricking fakers that need to go back to work.

I told them that it felt like there was a problem with my Achilles tendon. Feeling the back of my swollen ankle, I could feel where the tendon was not there. They wanted to take an xray. I told them that a ruptured Achilles tendon won’t show on an xray. They argued with me and took it anyway. They saw nothing, diagnosed me with a sprain and sent me back to work on light duty. My employer gives no option of staying home sick when given light duty for an on the job injury.

Three weeks later, I finally demanded and got an MRI. Diagnosis? There was a fluid filled gap where the tendon is supposed to be. The ankle specialist that they finally sent me to said that it would probably be a career ending injury, and that I would never walk properly again, because there is a time limit of 10 days for repairing this sort of injury. He offered to try the surgery anyway, with the understanding that if it did not work I would need a cane for walking for the rest of my life. I went ahead with it. He said that even if the operation was a success, it would be 6 months before I could walk, and 18 months before I could work again.

It was 8 painful months later that I returned to full duty. I endured surgery, nauseating drugs, excruciating physical therapy, and unbelievable amounts of pain, followed by a month of weaning myself off the narcotics.

I was injured again this afternoon while responding to a burning Denny’s restaurant. This time, the other ankle. I am being sent to the same clinic that almost crippled me before. I am overjoyed.

By Divemedic, ago

The fiscal ship is sinking

While wages and other job-related income fell by a record $206 billion last year to $7.84 trillion, transfer payments from the government such as unemployment checks and Social Security burgeoned by $231 billion to $2.1 trillion. Meanwhile, the amount of taxes that individual Americans paid plummeted by $325 billion to $2.1 trillion as a result of middle-class tax cuts and because nearly 6 million people were thrown out of work and are no longer paying payroll taxes.

Did you get that? We pay out more in “give aways” that we are taking in through taxes, and that doesn’t include law enforcement, the courts, jails, or the military. This country is past the point of no return. It is doomed to failure.

By Divemedic, ago

Militia is not useless against tanks

One of the standard lines that you hear when discussing the Second Amendment as a tool for allowing the citizens of a nation to replace the government if it becomes abusive is that citizen militias are useless for opposing government tyranny, because the government owns all sorts of weapons like tanks, jet fighters, Aegis cruisers, and even nuclear weapons, and a citizen militia armed with what amounts to hunting rifles would be powerless against that kind of force.

Leaving aside the fact that making such a statement makes me believe that this is actually making a case for loosening restrictions on what arms the citizens can own, the belief that a citizen militia cannot beat a tyrannical modern military is a sign of unimaginative thinking. I will admit that a bunch of citizens armed with semi automatic rifles would be soundly defeated on a battlefield by any modern military employing those tanks, jet fighters, and artillery. It is a wise move to avoid any battlefield where such weapons are being used. That is when a smart militia redefines the battlefield.

The M1 Abrams is a fuel hog. A company of 14 of those tanks needs nearly 1,000 gallons of fuel to move 100 miles. The tanks break down every 250 hours or so. The F16 fighter uses an average of 7 pounds of fuel for every minute of flight, and requires 12 hours of maintenance for every hour spent flying. Both of those weapons need spare parts, as they are wonders of technological achievement. Therein lies the weak spot. Convoys of fuel trucks and spare parts are easy to raid, and a tank with no fuel becomes a fixed pillbox. A jet fighter on the ground threatens no one. So the military has to spend time guarding the convoys.

Then you attack the factories that make the spare parts, the electric lines bringing them power, and the supply trucks and pipelines that supply the factories and refineries. Now the military has to use the high tech weapons and equipment to guard those.

Let a military armed with tanks and jet fighters choose the battlefield and you will lose. A citizen militia would have to avoid allowing that to happen, but it can be done.

By Divemedic, ago

My busy life

There hasn’t been much posting here, because my life has become quite busy this year. There are a number of issues that have been demanding my attention as of late. Since the first of the year:

  1. I work two jobs: Firefighter, which takes up 56 hours a week of my time, plus the 202 hours of overtime I have worked so far this year, and I also work in Health Services for a local theme park.
  2. I am currently attending college, and trying to tie up the last of this degree. I am taking 25 credit hours this semester, and finals are next week. All 8 classes are A’s thus far, with one possibly a B. I graduate magna cum laude with my fourth college degree in June.
  3. I took the GRE exam to enter a Master’s degree program next year. I spent quite a bit of time studying for that, and it paid off: 630 verbal, 780 math.
  4. I also studied for and passed the Amateur radio technician’s license.
  5. I am representing myself pro se in my mortgage foreclosure case, and in a lawsuit against my mortgage holder. I settled the lawsuit for a hefty sum, and it looks like the court will be dismissing the foreclosure case, so I get to stay in my home awhile longer.
  6. and I am a season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team, and I have to drive 70 miles each way to attend hockey games.

So, as you can see, blogging sometimes takes a back seat to the rest of my life. I am working to get into graduate school so that I can go do something else once they cut my pension benefits as a firefighter. I can do better than what I am getting paid. I have not had a raise in over four years, in fact I make 20% less than I did four years ago. There will be no raises in the foreseeable future, and now they are cutting pension benefits in half. No thanks. If the cuts go through, I am done. The only reason I didn’t leave years ago was that pension.

I am a hard working, intelligent employee who brings a lot to the table. I think I can do better. I will be getting my Masters of Health Science and go be a Physician’s Assistant now. More money, fewer dirtbags.

By Divemedic, ago