Just in Case (2 page)

Six-year-old Ben helped his dad carry in wood from the shed. Then he walked through the house with his sister, unplugging all of the appliances and lights. They would be using a gas-powered generator to keep the freezer running and to operate the pump for the well, but they had a limited amount of fuel and did not want to waste it on nonessentials. Though it would be several days before they would need to dig into the supplies in the basement food storage area, they did a thorough check to make sure everything was in order.

The days remained busy. There was always food to prepare. Each day they baked bread and made a batch of yogurt. There was water to keep heated, wood to carry, and the fires to tend. They did little wash but the essentials, like diapers, because they were using a small, pressurized hand washer that handled only small loads. They dried the clothes on a rack in front of the cookstove. When not attending to chores, the children read, played games, and entertained the baby.

When the power came back on, the Brown family talked over the experience. A few things had been problematic. In the future, they would need a more efficient way to heat water. They also needed more gas for the generator; they would have run out if the power had been out much longer. And they realized that they all had missed the company of other people; they needed to figure out a way to hook up with other families who were striving to be selfsufficient in a crisis. Still, they felt this had been a good test of the systems they had put in place. The older children appreciated that they had been necessary contributors to the effort of keeping the house running smoothly. Not only were they not traumatized, but they seemed to regard the experience as an adventure. They were dismayed and saddened that so many others had suffered. To them, being prepared and selfsufficient was second nature.

T
HESE TWO SCENARIOS
are fiction, although I fear the Tucker family story would be close to accurate for most of us if we found ourselves off the grid for more than a few days. The majority of families in North America are unaware of how entirely dependent we are on outside services for our very survival.

Many of us have a false sense of security. We have become used to assuming that technology will prevail or that some government agency will bail us out in a crisis. The grocery store is just around the corner and the array of food and supplies looks nearly limitless. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Keeping those shelves stocked relies on transportation and computerized inventory control systems. If there was a run on grocery stores, supplies would be gone in a matter of hours. We assume continued access to medical care even though history has taught us that in an emergency, it is the first system to become overwhelmed. With the use of credit and debit cards and cash machines, significant numbers of people carry very little actual money with them, not prepared for the cash kiosk on the corner to be out of commission and those little plastic cards to be virtually worthless.

Still, being prepared for an emergency — whether personal or global, natural or human produced — strikes many as irrational or succumbing to fear, being unduly pessimistic, or coming from a position of insecurity. But actually, the opposite is true. Being prepared to care for oneself and one’s family brings with it a sense of calmness and security. Being self-reliant and independent gives one the confidence to face any challenge and see it as just that: a challenge, not the end of the world.

Everyone with a savings account and a firstaid kit is preparing for an emergency. Each family with a woodpile or a backyard garden is exercising a degree of independence. Even a smoke detector, a flashlight, and health insurance signal that you are aware that the unexpected can (and probably will) happen and that it would be irresponsible to be without some form of backup.

Developing a system for preparedness takes that sense of responsibility a step further. Managing a personal food supply, organizing your home, assessing your family’s needs, and acquiring those goods that would see you through a time when the cavalry might not come to rescue you — these concerns are a sensible precaution, given what we know about the world and how it has historically operated in times of crisis and turmoil.

Such an undertaking might seem overwhelming at first. I have heard all of the arguments and excuses. “I don’t have the space. I don’t have the time. I don’t have the money. I wouldn’t know where to start. I’ll never use all that stuff.” This book will address all of these issues. Like all important journeys, the road to self-reliance and preparedness begins with a single step. That step is realizing, as all wise people do, that change is part of the human condition and calamitous change has defined our history. And faced with change, you can choose to take control of your own destiny rather than leave it up to fate to decide your personal outcome.

Being prepared is no longer the province of kooks and alarmists. It has gone mainstream. I have found it to be a liberating experience. Preparedness allows me to move forward with confidence and security and not feel burdened by the worry of an uncertain future.

My objective with this book is to offer access to the kind of crisis information that will be helpful to ordinary families in extraordinary situations. I have not, for instance, included the directions for making your own shoes or tanning hides because I don’t think many people want or need to know how to do those things. But I have covered fire safety in detail because house fires can happen to anyone and we should all be aware of basic fire safety.

We live in precarious times, with a looming specter of global warming and climate change, pandemics, terrorism, and food insecurity assaulting us every day. Many families live only a paycheck away from homelessness. Our fragile and interdependent system of transportation, communication, and finance leaves most Americans only a few days away from hunger. My intention is to encourage all families to become familiar with the basic goods and skills necessary for self-reliance should the worst happen. I hope this book will challenge you to learn more and to pass that information on to your friends and neighbors.

I have been asked why a book like this is important. For me, the sheer volume of available information on the subject was a problem. I was looking for a manageable amount of useful advice on family preparedness and I found wading through what was available online cumbersome and a bit overwhelming. The second problem with relying on the Internet to supply lifesaving information is pretty basic: What are we all going to do for guidance when we push the “on” button and nothing happens?

ARE YOU READY DISASTER?

• Can you provide your family with sufficient food if the grocery stores are closed?

• Do you have access to safe, clean water if the municipal water system or your well is compromised?

• Can you Keep your home warm if fuel supplies are distrupted?

• Do you have a source of light if the power grid goes down during a strom?

• Can you evacuate your home with three day’s worth of supplies for each family member in five minutes?

• Can you shut down your home systems in ten minutes?

DO YOUR KIDS KNOW:

• How and when to dial 911?

• Their names, addresses (including city and state), and phone numbers, along with their parents’ names?

• What to do if the smoke detector goes off in the middle of the night

• The location of the family meeting place?

PART 1 THE OAR SYSTEM ORGANIZE, ACQUIRE, ROTATE

W
HEN I BEGAN TO TAKE PREPAREDNESS SERIOUSLY
, more than twenty years ago, I knew I needed a plan to collect and store my supplies so I would have what I needed in places I could easily access. I needed a way to purchase supplies without doing serious damage to my finances, and I wanted to be sure that I didn’t waste my money by not using what I had in my pantry. I came up with what I call the OAR system.

Essentially, OAR refers to the process of organizing, acquiring, and rotating supplies. First, I organized to determine what I already had and identify what my future needs might be. Organizing also provided additional room for supplies. After organizing, I began a preparedness notebook and acquired food and other supplies in a systematic way. As my shelves began to fill, I rotated supplies by dipping into my stock once or twice a week to prepare meals.

This past year, I took a serious fall. I broke several bones and was laid up for nearly five months. During that time, neither my husband, Bruce, nor I was able to work outside the home at all. Although our friends, family, and community helped out with meals, we were mighty glad to have supplies on hand that met our most pressing needs and kept Bruce from having to shop for several months. Our disaster was private, but it provided a clear picture of how quickly life can change for any of us and how important it is to be prepared to care for your family no matter what life throws at you. One of the first things I did when I got back on my feet was to reestablish the family safety net of provisions.

It has occurred to me that I am only doing what every housewife did as a matter of course only a generation or two ago. She always preserved food for the coming year as it came into season and bulk-purchased staples such as sugar and vinegar. Our grandmothers did this not because they were paranoid, isolated survivalists, but rather because they had learned from experience that blizzards, crop failures, and epidemics happened. The prudent, prepared household prevailed. Others did not.

As the winter storms howl outside my window and the political, economic, and ecological news goes from bad to worse, I sleep well, knowing I can care for my family during times of plenty and times of want.

CHAPTER 1 ORGANIZE

“Honey, where’s the flashlight?”

“Has anybody seen the tweezers?”

“I thought you bought peanut butter.”

“Who’s got the scissors?”

This is what my husband, Bruce, refers to as the maddening treasure hunt: ferreting out the necessities of life from under an avalanche of clutter. On a regular day, the overwhelming junk that many families are drowning in is just bad for us. Unfinished projects, broken or useless appliances, mountains of toys, and closets stuffed full of clothing rob families of space, time, energy, creativity, and resources. But during an emergency, clutter can be downright dangerous! Do you really want to evacuate your children from a smokefilled house in the middle of the night when you can’t safely walk across their bedroom floor on a sunny day because of all the toys on the floor? When the lights go out, will you have to scour the house searching for the flashlights and batteries? Disorganized preparedness is just as bad as no preparedness if you can’t locate what you need. The biggest obstacle most people cite with planning a preparedness program — lack of storage space — might disappear if we just clean house.

The organizing process also provides the perfect opportunity to determine your family’s individual needs. After all, your family’s must-have list is not likely to be exactly the same as mine or anyone else’s. Organization will also allow you to figure out your equipment and storage-space needs. Having that list in hand will allow you pick up what you need when you find a good sale or, better yet, a tag sale or Freecycle find. In fact, all of your family systems will be getting a thorough inspection so that you can assess your needs and assets.

While the process of organizing your home could be a book in itself, the guidelines below will get you started with an eye toward creating space and assessing inventory.

FINDING SPACE

I
AM NOT, BY NATURE, ORGANIZED.
I am a gatherer. Tag sales are far more appealing to me than any sale at an upscale department store. I am a particular sucker for kitchen gadgets from the 1940s, discarded furniture, and vintage toys. Left to my own devices, my house would look as though a thrift store exploded in the kitchen. Fortunately, I married a Navy man for whom organization is second nature. His mother claims he was neat even as a child. Together, we make a good team. I can find anything on sale and Bruce keeps me from buying it unless we really need it.