September - Disaster Preparedness Month

Before we end September next week, which will be Gretcen and I's 2 year anniversary...

What an awesome day, sunny and 73 degrees, one of my best memories.

... let's talk about some basic things you can do to bolster your home and family for the coming winter.

First, an accounting of the Rule of Threes:

You will survive only...

... 3 hours without shelter

... 3 days without water

... 3 weeks without food

There's more but those are the basics for us common folks.

I'm not going to talk about tactical gear or much about guns, read further for boring yet essential stuff.

Shelter:

1) Make sure your insurance (renter's or home) is up to date. 

2) Now is the time for repairs, at least in our area as the weather is mild. Summer would've been best but you've still got time.

3) Think about what is a common natural disaster in your area. Get supplies for that now. Bags of landscape sand, tarps, boards, snow shovel, rock salt, trash bags, utility cordage... stuff like that.

4) Check your tools or update your tool kit. Hammer, nails, screws, screwdriver, wrenches, duct tape, glue.

5) Clothes. Make sure your winter coat is good or look into getting a new one. Socks and shoes. Hat and scarf. GLOVES!!

6) Blankets, time to get them winter throw blankets out.

7) Alternate heating system. Think about how to heat your home if the primary heating system were to go out. Our primary is electric, secondary would be our fireplace. I need to get some wood. The chimney has been swept.

Water:

First, The last 2 years we, in Portland, have had water situations. Both times the local news showed people going to the market and panic-buying water. My own Brother in Law went to Costco and it took him 3 hours to buy some cases of water.

General rule is gallon of water per person per day. This includes hygiene and food prep. I have a family of three plus three cats to care for - 4 gallons per day is my calculation. 5 days of fresh water (20 gallons) is my goal. Sounds hard? Just do this:

Buy:

Five Gallon Water Jug

Things to remember:

1) Cycle the water every 6 months or so. I use these for car camping so it's how I cycle through them. 

2) When I fill them I will add just a couple of drops of bleach to keep it clean in storage. This is not to purify, just keep things clean.

3) Water is heavy, five gallons of water will weigh over 35 pounds. If you will have difficulty carrying 35 pounds than take a different approach.

4) Learn to filter and purify. Learn the difference between the 2.

In a nutshell - 

Filtering gets "stuff" out of the water: dirt, pollution like mercury and DDT, bugs, motor oil, solid things like that. Some filters go down to the micron level and will pull microbes out too but that is not common.

Purifying kills things at a microbe level like crypto and Ecoli. This is done with bleach, UV light, boiling.

There are a ton of ways to explore filtration and purification.

That's it for now.... off to Historical Wargames Day at Guardian Games!

Edit: 

I failed to mention duct-tape and batteries. Have a good supply of both as both can save your bacon. Now is a good time to switch batteries out of flashlights, not when you need the flashlights. Personally I switch out my "utility" lights every October (my personal use lights get switched out more regularly as I use them all the time).