What to Pack for Disaster—And What to Leave Behind

[canoeist52]

"Think of your mind as your most fundamental and important emergency kit. You have a great deal of what you’ll need to survive there already, but if you’re not careful, a lot of junk will end up piled on top of your excellent equipment. Lift up that big television of yours, for example, and gently lob it out the window. It will fill your head with hysteria, presuppositions, misinterpretations, stereotypes, exaggerations, and racial slurs that will leave you ill-prepared for what to expect when your world is turned upside down.

Be careful with newspapers, online media, and those emails your anxious friends forward to you. Watch out for experts who aren’t (or who have an unspoken agenda), for authorities who lie and withhold crucial information, for hysterics, and those who fill in the blanks of disasters past, present, and future with invented scenarios. Be clear that a lot of the worst-case scenarios are just that, not breaking news (though what happened in Japan was and continues to be pretty horrendous).

A disaster is a big foray into the unknown and into uncertainty. We hate those things. We like to know what’s going to happen. Even in our own quiet everyday lives, we like to fill in the blanks. The media feeds this urge during crises with a lot of speculation and a stream of stereotypes. After all, it’s their job to know, and yet a disaster means a million unexpected things are going on all at once amid severely disrupted communications networks, which often means that they don’t know either, that no one does."

http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/rebecca-solnit-what-to-pack-for-disaster

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I'm not one to prepare for anything. I'll take whatever comes my way. I'm disgusted with

Americans wild fear of the 'unknown' and near panic if some body wears the wrong thing getting on an airplane.

[RKP5637]

2. +1, n/t

[canoeist52]

3. which is some of what she says in the article...

[Javaman]

4. I guess you never lived in earthquake or tornado country. nt

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Lived in both.

[Javaman]

9. Same here.

I have experience both.

And have been glad to have my bug out bags.

in the earthquake I wan't able to get back into my apt for 4 days.

in the tornado, 5 days.

So, yes, having bug out bags is a very good thing.

[AndyTiedye]

13. Our Burning Man Camp is Our Disaster Kit

Packing for a disaster would be a lot like packing for Burning Man.

I can put up the dome single-handed in under 30 minutes. No ladders needed.
The guy ropes are only needed in very windy environments.

[CleanGreenFuture]

6. I went to Gulfport/Biloxi, right after Katrina to help with relief. I strongly suggest preparing

for any possible disastrous event.

[pipi_k]

14. Yep, and it doesn't even have to be a huge disaster, either...

A couple of years ago areas in the Northeast got hit by a nasty ice storm.

We have a generator, but Mr Pip failed to prepare for winter by checking to see if it would work.

Our electricity was out for three days. The pellet stove ran for a while on the marine battery in the basement. Then we hooked up the generator.

Oops. It died.

Luckily, he had some kind of power inverter thing that he hooked up to our vehicle out in the yard and ran a line into the house so at least we had heat, one small light, and a radio for the rest of the time (two more days).

Now he checks the generator once a month to make sure it will run.

[pipi_k]

12. You call it "wild fear" and "near panic"...

The rest of us call it having A Plan.


It can often be the difference between survival and not. Would you call it "wild fear" for, say, someone out hiking in a mountainous area to prepare for things like sudden cold, getting bitten by a snake or other animal, or getting lost?

Unless someone is Cody Lundin or Les Stroud, two guys who can survive on dirt and worms, that person who thinks it's not macho to be prepared...or that it's too much trouble...is a huge drain on others.

Just like people who know a hurricane is coming but refuse (without good reason) to have a plan for leaving their homes...forcing others to have to risk their lives to rescue these idiots when the area gets flooded and they're sitting out on top of their roofs.

sigh...

:eyes:

[sinkingfeeling]

15. I don't think you read the article. It wasn't about packing for a hiking trip.

[damntexdem]

7. Contact Emergency Management in your local public health department.

They will likely not just have generic recommendations, but recs that fit with likely local emergencies -- e.g., earthquakes in California vs. tornadoes in Kansas.

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. kick

[Dappleganger]

10. If you have pets, I implore you to have a plan and supplies in place.

Having them microchipped will help if they're displaced, and they need water and food/meds just like people do. Know in advance which shelters will allow you to bring a pet and what is expected (are their shots UTD and do you have a crate?). If there is no emergency shelter for you to go with your pet, then make other plans and try to lobby your county or city to change their rules. People w/pets who have no place to go quite often won't leave, so this is a human safety issue as well.

We are in hurricane season so we are prepared not just to help ourselves but to help others (chainsaws and a pickup truck go a long way to help your neighbors). Have a network of folks you contact to make sure everyone has some form of lights on or way to run medical equipment, too.

[Taverner]

11. Red Cross has some excellent pre-packaged survival backpacks

Everything you need, including foil blankets, food rations, and radios