Poor Man Survival
Self Reliance tools for
independent minded people…
ISSN
2161-5543
A Digest of Urban
Survival Resources
Essential Bug-Out Resources
Solutions that have proved surprisingly
essential during California's wildfires
You may have a vague idea of just how unprepared we are as a
country..., but recent studies show that 87% of Americans are critically
unprepared for any of these situations...
Take a look at what's happening in
California right now...
Fires are causing hundreds of thousands of
families to evacuate and an estimated half a million people will be without
power.
You just never know when you're
going to get a knock on your door at 3am by a sheriff's deputy telling you IT'S
TIME TO GO NOW.
The
following is a piece by someone who experienced CA fires first hand and
contains solid advice. [You can find a variety of survival supplies at our
storefront below].
by Adam Taggart
Gas
& Cash
Having now been surprised
by two massive fires (the Tubbs and the Kincade) within the past two years, in
both instances, the preparation I was most immediately grateful for — hands
down — was having sufficient on-property stores of gasoline and cash.
The moment your community
realizes that flight may be necessary, forget going to the gas station. In my
area, the lines were 20+ cars deep.
Waiting in those kind of
lines (when there’s no guarantee there will be gas left when your turn finally
comes) can easily cause you to miss your window of safety. As I mentioned
yesterday, my friends who tried to evacuate just 45 minutes after I did
eventually had to turn back home because the roads out of town had become
hopelessly gridlocked.
So get in the habit of
keeping your cars’ fuel tanks topped off, especially during times of seasonal
risk (fire season, hurricane season, flood season, etc). Make it a point never
to return home with the gauge below half-full.
Also, keep at least a
tank’s-worth of gasoline stored on your property. In my case, I have four
5-gallon gas cans. This ensures I can get to safety even if I’ve forgotten to
keep the car tank full. And if I’ve remembered, I can throw the cans in the car
for an extra 300+ miles of range.
Similarly, once the
electricity goes out, the ATMs stop working. Having $500-$3,000 of emergency
cash on hand to take with you makes a huge difference.
First, you don’t need to
attempt to hit the ATM on your way out of town, losing valuable time. Those
long gas lines? You’ll have the same experience at the ATM (provided it’s still
working).
Second, you never know
where you’ll end up. Your escape route can easily change based on the on-the-ground
realities. You may end up in an entirely different place than your intended
fallback destination due to road closures, etc. Having cash on hand gives you
plenty of opportunities you may not have otherwise for obtaining food, lodging,
medication and other essentials.
As I type this, due to
PG&E’s mandatory blackouts, there are still millions without power in the
areas surrounding Sonoma County. This is a stark reminder that you may end up
fleeing to a place that is similarly compromised, where credit cards may not
work. Cash goes a long way in those situations.
Your
Smart Phone
As strongly as I advise you
be prepared for situations in which your phone doesn’t work (dead battery,
downed communications grid), if mobile service is available to you, a smart
phone is practically invaluable.
In addition to the basic
calling function, which by itself is extremely useful for updating and
coordinating with others, today’s apps and services have turned our phones into
a Swiss army knife-style smorgasbord of utility.
GPS/Maps are incredibly valuable for navigation and directions, and
increasingly suggest alternate routes when your intended path is compromised by
accidents or traffic. Weather apps with
forecasts tell you what to prepare for. Heck, most phones can now operate as
pretty effective flashlights.
But beyond those standard
apps, there are a number of others I’ve found particularly useful in
persevering through these latest fires.
Nixle sends you text and email updates from your
local public safety departments. It’s invaluable during an emergency; letting
you know when and where power shut-offs will occur, which roads are being
closed, what actions are being taken by the authorities. It has been the
primary source of information for everyone in my community during this crisis.
When I got the notice that evacuation in my area was mandatory and I had to
leave? That came from Nixle.
Nextdoor is a local group messaging provider
connecting neighbor-to-neighbor. It’s an easy way to communicate with folks in
your immediate neighborhood to keep each other updated, or ask for assistance.
During the past few days, neighbors have used Nextdoor to report where the fire
was spreading, identify who in the area needed assistance with evacuating
(e.g., the elderly and infirm), and ask for help with transporting heavy
livestock to safety.
Social media & texting have proved to be an effective way to
broadcast your status to those worried about you. Many of you have
tracked my posts to Facebook throughout this fire situation. I’ve
really valued how this one-to-many form of communication saves me lots of time
that would otherwise be spent on the phone updating folks one at a time. By
being able to blast my status out to my entire community within minutes, I have
had a lot more time and mindspace to devote to the primary task of keeping my
family safe.
Radio streaming apps like TuneIn have been
surprisingly valuable. Our local radio stations banded together to create a war
room that reported on the crisis, and all channels broadcast the same feed.
This was incredibly appreciated and was the best resource for staying informed
of where the fires were, what the authorities expected, and what they planned
to do next. But as we were mobile, in many areas, my actual radio encountered
trouble finding and/or holding the signal. Using TuneIn, I was able to stream
the broadcast through my phone at a much more dependable and higher-quality
fidelity than my actual radio.
During a crisis, authorities will often post
interactive maps to show where the danger is, where it’s mostly likely to
progress next, and which towns could be affected. In my region, everyone has
been glued to this fire incident map, and Windy.com‘s
wind forecast map for the area.
With much of the power still out, finding a
working television to watch live news updates is challenging. But with today’s
mobile internet, you can stream most TV station live feeds
online.
All the above shows how
your smart phone is truly a miracle resource — as long as the cell towers are
still operational. Or as long as your phone has battery life.
Which is why having
multiple ways to recharge your phone is highly advised. Probably more than any
other responsibility, keeping an eye on our phones’ juice has occupied my
family’s attention constantly since we fled our home.
There are great portable battery rechargers available for between $60-$200. Get one.
Keep it charged up at all times and ready to grab & go. It will be worth
its weight in gold should you be forced to hit the road.
We’ve been making good use of a battery-powered LED lantern that has USB ports for charging digital
devices. It charges our phones pretty quickly, and will keep doing so as long
as our supply of batteries lasts. I recommend getting one (or several) of
these.
Video
Record Of Your Possessions
If time allows, before you leave your home for
safety, take a few minutes to walk through your
house while using your phone to make a video recording of each room and its
possessions. This will prove extremely useful should you file
an insurance claim for any damage incurred during a disaster.
I did this once evacuation
became a possibility. It only took about 5 minutes, walking around the house
and providing some high-level narration to the video for clarity.
You do this because, if
your house burns down/is leveled by a tornado/floods out/etc, your possessions
and any related receipts will be destroyed. If you then file a
renters/homeowners claim, it will be your word vs the insurance adjuster’s when
it comes to determining how much you should be reimbursed for.
But if you have a video
record, your case becomes significantly stronger:
What matters is that you have a list, pictures, and/or
video of everything in your home. That’s not as daunting of a task
as it sounds. Walk around your home or apartment and slowly take video or
photos of each room, making sure to get each wall. It’s a good idea to
open cabinets and drawers, as well to capture the contents – that’s all the
stuff that you’d forget if you were making a list after a loss!
Adjusters love video because it’s easy for them to pause
and dig in on a particular area to make sure they’re giving you full value for
the items, but pictures also work. In either case, make sure you upload
them to the cloud somewhere. If your phone suffers a loss and the video
is on your phone, you’re in trouble!
Note
the wisdom of uploading the video to the cloud in case your phone gets damaged.
If pressed for time, just text it to a family member or friend, who can keep it
as a backup copy.
Yours for a
Socialist-Free America!
Bruce ‘the Poor Man’
USEFUL STUFF…
Democracy’s once-steady
growth around the world has stalled, and is maybe beginning to reverse. For the
first time since World War II, the number of countries moving toward
authoritarianism is exceeding the number moving toward democracy, according to
a recent study by Anna Lürhmann and Staffan Lindberg of the University of
Gothenburg in Sweden.
Stated more crudely, Washington overthrew the duly elected
government of Ukraine in early 2014 because its leader was deemed too cozy with
Moscow. And in the vanguard of that illegal meddling in the governance of a
sovereign foreign state was Obama’s state department led by neocon Assistant
Secretary Victoria Nuland, Washington’s self-appointed roving proconsul John
McCain and at length Vice-President Joe Biden.
Despite all
the Democrats' crocodile tears for the constitution and rule of law, Vindman's
beef wasn't really about their whole abuse of power canard. Nor did it touch
upon the risible Dem/MSM nonsense that in asking a foreign government to
undertake a legitimate action (an investigation of the corrupt use of taxpayers
money by the former Vice President) Trump was committing a violation of U.S.
election laws.
Title VIII is where the rubber meets the road: What exactly is
terrorism, according to the federal government? Unfortunately, this Title does
little to clarify what terrorism is, instead focusing on declaring a number of
actions (such as attacks on transit) as “terrorism,” regardless of intent.
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It's hard to believe Schiff would have called him as a witness
had he known what Morrison was about to say. Read more…
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Poll Results: Do You Think Voters Will
Dump Trump in 2020?
88% of respondents say Trump will win again/do not
support impeachment and feel Dems are using this approach because they can’t
win in 2020. This is the 4th poll I’ve found in support of Trump in
the past week! I strongly suspect those
aired by CNN are fake polls.
Handwell [Backup] Well Pumps
We manufacture a series of easy-to-install "Narrow-Profile"
deep-well pumps, engineered to install in the well alongside your existing
electric water well pump system. All of our manual well water pumps can be
permanently installed for daily use, or stored and ready for loss of power
How to
start a neighborhood barter club
People need to become more self-reliant,
not more dependent on government.
How to Survive the War on the Middle Class
Download at: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AgMpmQI6plfXh0T3zKGDM-c3PUnr or here:
http://1drv.ms/1d9kfiU
Free enterprise, limited
government, individual freedom!
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You Can’t Buy Life Insurance After You’re Dead
Not Prepared?
That's Bad News...
A Smoking Frog Feature, Shallow Planet Production
3 comments:
Sure sounds like this guy has his crap together. We get the effects of these fires in our valley [Phx] & wish CA would learn better forest/fire management methods-their governor is a real socialist jackass.
great post-picked up many good tips.
Mighty relevant. Some of my crew are saying these fires are what CA gets/deserves for its anti-America policies. What do you think-karma?
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