Just in Case
JUST IN CASE
JUST IN CASE
HOW TO BE SELFSUFFICIENT WHEN THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS
BY KATHY HARRISON
The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.
Edited by Margaret Sutherland and Nancy Ringer
Art direction and book design by Dan O. Williams
Cover, part-opener, and two-color illustrations by © A.J. Garces
How-to illustrations by Alison Kolesar
Author photo by John Polak Photography
Indexed by Christine Lindemer, Boston Road Communications
© 2008 by Kathy Harrison
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other — without written permission from the publisher.
The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey Publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information. For additional information, please contact Storey Publishing, 210 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247.
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Printed in the United States by CJK
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harrison, Kathy, 1952-
Just in case / by Kathy Harrison.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-60342-035-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Emergency management. 2. Survival skills.
3. Safety education. I. Title.
HV55I.2.H38 2008
6I3.6—dc22
2008026107
CONTENTS
PART 1: THE OAR SYSTEM
ORGANIZE, ACQUIRE, ROTATE
CHAPTER 1: Organize
CHAPTER 2: Acquire and Rotate
PART 2:PREPAREDNESS
GETTING YOUR HOME AND FAMILY READY TO HANDLE CRISIS
CHAPTER 3: Personal Preparedness
CHAPTER 4: Home Systems
CHAPTER 5: Communications
CHAPTER 6: Preparedness with Children
CHAPTER 7: Pets
CHAPTER 8: Preparing Your Car
CHAPTER 9: Evacuation
PART 3: DEALING WITH DISASTER
WHAT TO DO IN AN EMERGENCY
CHAPTER 10: Loss of Power
CHAPTER 11: Fire in the Home
CHAPTER 12: Natural Disasters
CHAPTER 13: Toxic Hazards
CHAPTER 14: Pandemic
CHAPTER 15: Terrorism
PART 4: DOING IT YOURSELF
THE ARTS OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY
CHAPTER 16: Skills for Independence
CHAPTER 17: Food from Scratch
CHAPTER 18: The Stored Food Cookbook
EPILOGUE: Could We Really Do It?
Introduction
O
N A THURSDAY MORNING
in midwinter the Tucker family woke up to the eerie silence and deepening cold that signal a power outage. Mike Tucker stumbled to the window. Every house on the street of their affluent suburb was as dark as his own. He muttered softly as he lit the fireplace in the family room. The fire was soon roaring, but it heated only a small area directly in front of the hearth. The rest of the room remained chilled. Lisa Tucker rummaged through the kitchen cabinets, looking for breakfast for the couple and their three children, eight-month-old Dan, six-year-old Austin, and twelve-year-old Audrey. Everything but a few boxes of cold cereal required some source of electricity to prepare. She looked longingly at the electric coffee grinder and automatic coffeemaker. They weren’t much good without the power to operate them. As the children awoke, they gravitated to the only warm spot in the house, directly in front of the fireplace. Baby Dan woke up hungry and wet. He had to settle for a cold bottle while his mom opened a box of disposable diapers and quickly changed him.
The family pondered what to do. It was hard to make plans without being sure what the problem was or how long the power was likely to be out. They tried to make a few calls, but the cell-phone network was overloaded and they couldn’t get through to anyone. Mike finally bundled up and headed out to the car. He planned to head over to Dunkin’ Donuts to pick up coffee, doughnuts, and news. But without power, his garage door wouldn’t open. At least he was able to use the car radio to hear the news. It wasn’t good. A main switching station in upstate New York had failed. The tumbling blackout it precipitated ranged from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania. The power grid had long needed a major overhaul to handle increasing demand, but no one had been willing or able to make the financial commitment to get the work done. Officials were not giving estimates about how long the blackout would last. They asked that all but essential personnel stay home and off the streets. Schools would be closed until further notice. The broadcast was followed by a list of emergency shelters for people without the means to keep warm and fed.
Remembering the chaos at the New Orleans shelters after Hurricane Katrina, Mike and Lisa decided to tough it out at home. After all, this was America. No one was going to freeze or starve to death in the few days it would take to restore the power.
By day four, the Tuckers were questioning that premise. Their own supply of wood was gone. Mike had jimmied the garage door open and scavenged the surrounding area for more. He was able to find two unattended piles and, without any thought to right, wrong, or the state of the interior of his SUV, brought home what he could. The disposable diapers and the formula were gone. Lisa cut up her designer flannel sheets for diapers, washing them by hand in the cold water they kept running night and day in order to keep the pipes from freezing. Food was scarce. Dan developed diarrhea after the abrupt switch from formula and baby food to the less-than-adequate table food the family was able to prepare. Between the outdoor grill and a camp stove they had bought for a long-ago camping trip, they were able to cook what they could salvage from the freezer before it rotted. Cleaning up the mess and getting rid of the food they couldn’t eat was a problem. They ended up letting it sit in the backyard, where it soon became a magnet for the neighborhood dogs. They quickly exhausted the food in the cupboards, surprised at how much a family of five consumed. A shocked Mike Tucker found himself standing in line to receive food handouts from an overwhelmed FEMA.
Nightfall was especially difficult. The flashlight batteries had quickly worn out, their few candles were burned to stubs, and there was no light except from the fire. Most people had left the neighborhood and the small family felt increasingly isolated. The Tucker children were used to being plugged in for entertainment. They had few resources to occupy themselves as the days turned into weeks. Austin got angry. Audrey became depressed.
By the time the power was restored, after several weeks, the family was ill and exhausted. As the news stories began to surface, it was clear that they had actually made out better than many. Some people had frozen, and while none had actually starved, many hundreds of thousands had gone hungry. It took months for the Tuckers to recover from their ordeal.
N
OT FAR FROM
where the Tuckers lived, another family also had to deal with the blackout. When the Brown family woke to find the power out, though, it caused barely a ripple in the course of their day. Steven Brown started a fire in the woodstove in the living room, which kept most of the downstairs warm. He started a second fire in the old cookstove they kept in the basement family room for just such occasions. Twelve-year-old Marsha made up a batch of her favorite pumpkin muffins for breakfast, baking them in the cookstove. Her mother, Claire, started a pot of coffee on the cookstove top and nursed the baby while it finished perking. While they ate, the family listened to the news on a radio powered by a hand cranked generator. There was much to keep them busy once they realized that this blackout was far from typical and they would need to rely on themselves for the foreseeable future.