Every year, disaster strikes. Somewhere in the world, people struggle to survive earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, superstorms, blizzards, and flooding, as well as man-made disasters such as terrorist bombings, nuclear plant meltdowns, and plane crashes. For those of us lucky enough to never have dealt with a major disaster, we still deal with the threat of smaller disasters lurking all around us. From active shooter situations to camping emergencies to bridge collapses, disasters are all around us.
There is an old adage that says, “It pays to be prepared.” When catastrophe strikes, no matter how big or small, being ready and knowing how to respond can be the difference between the loss of life and survival. Even if our lives aren’t threatened, our property may be, and there are many ways to be prepared for protecting what we have worked hard to obtain.
It’s only human to not want to think about disasters, catastrophes, and major emergencies, but they do happen. Chances are high we will all be affected at least once in our lifetimes—if not by a nearby volcano bursting a pyroclastic flow or a tsunami hitting our beach community, then at least by other forces of Mother Nature. Such forces, because of climate change, are becoming harder and harder to predict or pin down.
Just as important as learning how to survive the worst is learning how to survive everyday emergencies such as bee stings, snakebites, house fires, gas explosions, poisons and toxins, and perhaps even the errant bear confrontation while camping in the woods. It’s all important, and it’s all in this comprehensive guide.
Surviving an emergency involves three parts. First, it helps to understand what potential emergency situations we might be exposed to based upon where we live and work and what the past has to teach us about natural and manmade disasters.
Second, we need to be ready, to be prepared, and with so many products and tips and tools at our fingertips, thanks to the Internet and prepper shows on television, we have no excuse for being caught unawares.
Finally, we need to learn how to react and respond when disaster does strike because knowledge is power. We might still panic, but once we catch our breath, the information we’ve absorbed about what to do first, where to go, how to get the proper news about evacuations and shelters, and what we need to bring with us should we leave the comfort and safety of our homes and offices could keep ourselves and our loved ones alive. Disaster preparedness is critical, but perhaps even more so is how we respond when it happens and how we plan to stay alive and thriving in the days, weeks, and months to come.
As a trained CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) member, I have the benefit of years of training through the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency). I am trained in all areas of preparedness and response and how to work in my home, neighborhood, and community to assist first responders in a disaster. More importantly, if no first responders are available, I know what to do to help my family, my neighbors, and myself. We were once told to have only seventy-two hours’ worth of food and water stored for an emergency. Remember those days? Now we are told to have a minimum of two weeks worth of food, water, and medications because our infrastructure in a major disaster might be crippled enough that goods cannot get to our ports, across our highways, and into our stores for weeks.
I learned these things via CERT and also Red Cross training, but not everyone has that luxury, although I highly recommend getting this free training if it’s offered in your community. That is why a book like this can be a huge help in giving the reader plenty of solid information to put to use if and when it’s needed.
If writing this book can help just one person survive a disaster, I as an author and CERT member will be thrilled. My hope is that it helps a lot of people think hard about getting over those “Oh, I’ll do it next week” excuses and preparing NOW for what might be right around the corner. The last thing we want to do is be caught off guard, having promised ourselves and our families we would come up with an emergency plan when we had time.
The time is now.
This book is divided into four sections that cover past disasters and what we learned from them, as well as current threats we face, preparing for any disaster, responding when it happens, and valuable resources to get prepped and ready. Don’t have a bug-out bag or emergency kit? Check! Not sure how to get news during a major disaster? Check! Wondering what to do if you’re on the road when something happens? Check! From tick bites to nuclear fallout, tornado outbreaks to terrorist bombings, chemical spills to flash floods, and everything in between, this book will give readers plenty of tools to increase your odds of staying safe. Whether you travel or camp or hike or stay home, there is ample information on how to take care of yourself and your loved ones if anything out of the ordinary should happen. Because if watching the news or going on social networking for an hour has proven anything, it is that something will happen.
There are a lot of lists in this book. Lists upon lists. Lists are a wonderful way to convey information in a structured manner for the brain to absorb. Lists are repetitive, and repetition is the mother of, well, of something. So be ready for lists, including some very helpful lists in the appendix section you can fill in yourself.
There is also a lot of sheer common sense in these pages. You may read it and say, “Did I really need to buy a book to hear this?” But apparently many people still do not use common sense when it comes to the potential for an emergency that could disrupt their normal, day-to-day routines. They want and need to be told exactly what to do over and over again until it sinks in and becomes a habit. The subconscious needs to be programmed before the conscious mind recognizes the importance of having a plan.
Life will never be emergency- or disaster-free. There will always be challenges to overcome, no matter where we call home or what we do for a living. Disasters don’t pick and choose, they just happen. The onus of responsibility falls upon us to sit down and make the plans we keep putting off with our families and loved ones in order to survive.
Here is a challenge: Take one week out of your life and watch the nightly news for an hour. Every night. Then think about what you would do in each and every one of the disasters—natural or manmade—reported. Would you survive? Would you fall apart? Would you panic and become immobilized or jump up, take the lead, and save the world? The problem is that we don’t really know what we will do until we are called upon to do it. But having plans helps. Having knowledge helps. Having options helps.
Think back on your life to when you had to go through something totally unknown and foreign to you. Were you terrified or elated? Maybe a bit of both? We wake up each morning under the false assumption that the day ahead of us will be pretty much the same as the day behind us, and most of the time we might be right. But on those days when all hell breaks loose, nothing goes as planned, and everything that can happen does happen, how do we respond? What is our default operating mode when something knocks us off our schedule and out of our routine?
It might behoove each of us to ask those questions and then ask, “Can I do better?”
There are no guarantees in life, but we can certainly guarantee that the more we know, the better our chances will be. It doesn’t require thousands of dollars, or thousands of hours of time; it does require a commitment to making emergency survival a high priority because there are many things that can be put off in life for another day.
This is not one of them.