– At this point, we’ve analyzed and determined the most likely threats we’ll face. Now it’s time to begin taking our first step toward practically preparing.
– This is the stage where we begin to take action and put gear and knowledge in place to enable ourselves to be able to survive for three days after a disaster without any external help.
— After major disasters, on average, it can take three days for help to arrive.
— In those first three days, you may well be on your own.
– – A few notable examples are:
— — Hurricane Katrina. If you remember how badly that situation quickly deteriorated, you can see that may very well be on your own, and survival is up to you.
– – When I initially prepared this video, Buffalo, NY, was hit with a massive snowstorm leaving man unprepared.
– – There are countless many other examples, but these are just the ones that come to mind. It’s important that, at a minimum, you start with being able to survive for 3 days on your own.
– – This is really the starting point.
– Additionally, we must factor mobility into our preps.
– – Let me start off by saying that staying in your home is the ideal situation. If a major disaster impacts your community, the goal is to shelter in place. It has everything you need, there’s comfort and security, and you’re not exposed to the elements and threats.
– – But, it’s very important that we factor in the possibility that we may be forced to leave.
– – An example is Colorado Springs which had a fire that ravished a community in mere minutes.
– For 3 days of preparedness, we need to think in terms of having the items that will enable us to survive if the stores were closed and our utilities were out. Since you’re compiling 3 days of crucial gear, we might as well pile them into a bag or container in case we have to quickly move.
– So let’s define milestones and action items for this first state, which we’ll call “Ready”.
– – To move on to the next stage, you must have bugout bags and/or containers for yourself and each of your family members. These bags or containers must be in a place where you can easily grab them in case of an emergency. I personally store my gear in the garage during the winter and move most of them indoors during the summer when my garage gets hot. I do this to prevent the food and medicine from being damaged and sometimes rodents get in my garage during the summer.
– – – I’ll post links to a few different bug out bag videos, including one that shows how to make an affordable bag along with a recent video I did showing my personal gear setup and items I have on standby ready to go.
– – – The next action item is to do a dry run to see how long it takes to get all your stuff in the car. Of course, this assumes you’ll leave in your car. But what if your plan is to leave on a bike? The important thing here is to do a test to determine how quickly you can grab the items you want to take and determine how much time this would take you.
– – – Water: You must have three days of water stored for all of your family members. The bare minimum is one gallon per person per day. Is it on standby and accessible if you had to flee? What will you store this water in? Again, I have links to videos below that will help.
– – – Food: You must have three days of food and the tools to cook it even if the power goes out. There are several options for food, and in the video on bug-out bags, I cover some simple food items you can store in these bags.
– – – – I personally approach food in our bug-out bags from a very minimalistic perspective: I don’t want to cook our food b/c I don’t want to add the weight of utensils and the need to add gear required to cook. Again, I cover this in my many bug-out bag videos. In the next few videos, we’ll talk about learning how to cook at home after a disaster.
– There are lots of materials and information available in the ‘Beginner section,’ so after going through these first introductory videos on building your bug-out bags and basics of water storage, get these items set up before moving on.
– Hopefully, this gets you started. I’ll see you in the next section: 3 weeks of preparedness named the “foundation”. I’ll see you there.
LINKS
How to build bug out bags + storing them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR9hd3VaGPw
Affordable bug out bag: https://youtu.be/TtNLGtm6A3M
Intro to storing water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju3heLQOx5I
Water storage items: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bLHxpiZX7Q
