LA Times article "After a big earthquake where will people go?"

Came across this the other day. Found the story really interesting. They attempt to go past the normal earthquake story. You know, ground shakes, buildings fall and then we go back to thinking about other things.

Take a moment and read the article....... we will wait......

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-earthquake-refugee-arizona-20180603-story.html

Al'righty, let's think about this for moment. We make it through the earthquake. Then what? What if the roads suddenly look like the one in the picture above? Your not going to just drive home. Maybe you are trying to get home and this is in your way.

I know, some of you are laughing and think this is a good thing, LA being cut off from the rest of the world....... but for the rest of us.

"In the San Francisco Bay Area, more than 400,000 could be displaced in a magnitude 7 earthquake on the Hayward fault, which directly runs underneath cities like Berkeley, Oakland, Hayward and Fremont, said Ken Hudnut, the U.S. Geological Survey’s science advisor for risk reduction. And it’s possible that more than 250,000 people in Southern California could be forced out of their homes after a major earthquake on the San Andreas fault, Hudnut said." 

Imagine 250,000 people suddenly moving. Most of us can not really wrap our heads around the idea. Not really. We may think we have a grasp of the numbers. In reality very few of us have any idea what a migration of this type would look like. 

"Not everyone will need to stay in public shelters — many will stay with relatives, friends and hotels. Still, more than 175,000 people may have no other choice than stay at a public shelter in Southern California, which could be could be challenged with acute shortages of food, water and medicine, according to ShakeOut, a USGS report simulating a major Southern California earthquake." 

Even if we skip trying to wrap our heads around that many people moving we can imagine the roads being blocked. How long can the large urban centers go without trucks bringing them supplies? Two days, three days or maybe a week. At some point the supplies have to come in our the people have to move to the supplies. This is what the article starts to address. A portion of the scenario which seems to be over looked by many people when they discuss planning for "The Big One".

"Arizona recently took a major step in dealing with this question. Officials in May launched a full-scale exercise that simulated a mass exodus of 400,000 evacuees from Southern California. The drill gave emergency workers a chance to consider how they would respond to the many elements of the disaster: providing food and shelter, helping unaccompanied minors, assisting in family reunification, and dealing with the transportation and resource hurdles.

The exercise was aimed at beginning to think about how to deal with such a refugee crisis, though experts in California said it’s unlikely that many people would end up in Arizona. It may actually be quite difficult to leave California after an earthquake moves one side of the San Andreas past the other by as much as 30 feet — severing routes to Phoenix on Interstate 10 in the Coachella Valley and Las Vegas on Interstate 15 at the Cajon Pass.

Also complicating problems would be a widespread lack of power, thwarting the ability of motorists to refuel. “If you choose to go, it’s going to be difficult to do so. It’s a pretty hot desert between you and Phoenix,” seismologist Lucy Jones said."

Picture traffic on a Friday night. Took me almost two hours to travel around sixty miles today. Traffic wasn't really bad for a weekend. Now picture people upset, scared. trying to get to what they believe is safety for them. Maybe they have a car full of kids. By the time they decide to move odds are they were running out of items they need. Food, water, maybe their shelter is gone. Think of Friday traffic and add in these elements. Traffic and people's attitudes while driving can be bad enough. Now envision them thinking their life truly does depend on reaching their destination..... 

The article points out highways would be severed by the ground shifting in several key points. How would that effect the flow of traffic out of the LA Basin or in your city? Traffic heading to Las Vegas on a weekend can be absolutely ridicules. Add in roads physically damaged and unusable. 

How does having the roads severed effect relief supplies from making into the city? Sure the authorities could bring enough supplies to make a difference. Even with the roads out they could bring in supplies. There is always airplanes and helicopters, right? How much weight in supplies can a big helicopter bring in? Is it enough for the 13,131,431 in the LA Metropolitan area?  

Maybe you could find another road? Lots of surface streets most of the city dwellers use daily to beat traffic. Must be some way around damaged freeways to make it to Arizona, right? No. There is a lot of desert to get stranded in and die......... Our normal mode of travel and daily routine tend to give us a false idea of distance. 20 miles isn't too far on a normal day. same 20 miles at 5 miles an hour, with hungry kids in the car is a totally different experience. 

"Experts say it would be much better to shelter in place at home. Owners can take steps to do so by retrofitting older houses or apartments now at risk for sliding off its foundation or collapsing in an earthquake. Residents can prepare by storing water, food, medicine and other supplies to sustain themselves for, ideally, two weeks, or at least a minimum of 72 hours. A gallon of water per day per person is recommended." 

Most of us have heard this before. We should have at least 72 hours of supplies on hand. How many have noticed the "experts" keep upping the number of days you should be able to take care of yourself? Three days is a great place to start! We all should have this amount on hand as a minimum. Once we do have three days worth we just replicate what we did the first time and now we have six days worth. Which puts us well above what our neighbors have done according to the experts.  

Remember what we start with can be as simple as this. Here is a link to an earlier article about using $20 to start preparing. 

https://broadheads.blogspot.com/2014/12/20-canned-goods-ralphs.html

"Unfortunately, most Californians don’t bother to be prepared, and a failure to stock up on something as basic as drinking water could lead residents to leave even if their home is structurally sound.... It’s clear the public doesn’t think about these things,” Hudnut said. “I’d rather be one of those people who doesn’t have to go and has more water stored.”

Article is focused on people leaving but what happens if your neighbors know you have water and they do not? What happens when they come over and ask for your water? What happens when they keep asking for your water? What happens when you have to tell them they can not have any more water from your families supply? People will do all kinds of things to take care of their family and themselves. Something for my friends in California to think about as they continue to allow their ability to have tools to defend themselves slip away....... 

"But a big wild card that would push someone to flee are fires following an earthquake, with shattered pipes expected to hamper firefighting......... in Southern California, it’s possible the equivalent of 133,000 single-family homes will be charred."

Well just when you made it this far in a post and your thinking "I am good! We have everything in place for what he has pointed out! I am done!" OOPS! This article again goes past the normal earthquake story. 

Suddenly fire comes.... You rode out the earthquake. You set up shop at the house. Everything is good to go. Then you notice a red glow in the distance at night. Maybe you see smoke, the dark brown, black, dirt colored smoke you know means a fire is coming. Are you ready to run? Even with one plan in motion we need to remember to be ready to start another. Mother Nature has a way of humbling you when you think you have a handle on things. 

Random picture to reward those who are still reading this....... 

"Elements of emergency plans have already been put in force. When more than 100,000 people were ordered evacuated downstream of Oroville Dam last year....But one lesson that has been learned is that most people aren’t inclined to flee long distances, as was the case in the Wine Country wildfires last year."

In reality how far could you move. Take a moment right now. Earthquake comes, right now. You ride it out but now is the time to go. How much gas do you have in your cars? How many routes do you know? What if the roads are clogged? Can you physically move yourself under your own power to a distance which would help you to survive? 

https://broadheads.blogspot.com/2015/03/reality-of-bug-out-bag.html

“We found most people want to stay near to or close to their homes,” Huston said, even if it meant pitching a tent in front a damaged property. That means a key priority may be, for instance, “to provide food and assistance to neighborhood by neighborhood.”

Are you thinking you can just pitch a tent in the front yard and wait for help? Do you have a tent? Do you know how to pitch it? You sure waiting for the government to feed and water you is a good idea.

https://broadheads.blogspot.com/2015/04/reality-of-government-help.html

This is getting long so we will stop around here. This article seemed important to share. If this paper is posting articles going past the basics of earthquake planning maybe we should take heed of this? Maybe we should take stock of what we really could handle or do, right now! Not what we plan on doing a month from now. But using this moment to think about what we can do and work toward improving our abilities to deal with emergency situations. 

And just to keep the balance in the universe..... 

As Always,

Stay Safe! 

Corsair Trainers

WISE COMPANY 5-Day Survival Backpack review

Let me start off by stating any equipment or supplies are better than none. I rather be in a bad situation and have this backpack than find myself standing there empty handed. (Yes this is my "say something nice" statement before I write things some people might not like.)

As I started to really educate myself on the realities of emergency preparedness a few things stood out to me. One of which was the prepackage emergency bags or backpacks. What could be better than a bag all ready to go? All you would have to do is grab the bag and go! Man, that would be great!

I came across a sale on this item and decided to purchase one. The idea was to see what the bag could do by touching, feeling and using what the bag came with. Ordering the bag was simple and it came exactly when they said it would. Just for the record this cost me less than a hundred dollars, I think! I can't find the receipt right now, DUH!

First thing I noticed was the bag claims to hold food, water, first aid and warmth for five days if you read what is written the way most people read things.

Looking at the placard attached on the backpack one would think you are ready to deal with tornados, hurricanes, wildfires and floods just by having this bag! What could be better? Even the smaller print makes it seem as if this is what I need to be ready in the event of an emergency. This bag comes with 32 servings of gourmet entrees! Water, a stove, not any cup but a stainless steel cup, flashlight, survival whistle thing, matches, blanket, emergency poncho and even a set of playing cards! If they can put a set of playing cards in the bag the bag must be really loaded for a bad day! The 42 piece first aid and hygiene kit will come in handy if you have to survive out of this bag!

This morning I opened up the box the bag came in and was kind of like a kid at christmas! I couldn't wait to see what I could learn from this bag. They managed to get five days worth of supplies for one person into a rather small bag and I wanted to learn how. 

The bag is about the size you would buy for an elementary school child. There are pockets and straps all over the bag which gives you options for packing gear. The material is a really thin type, the straps  are not padded and do not seem to be made for any long periods of use. Inside the bag I found three bundles of supplies. As you can see one was filled with water packets, one with food stuff and the third had equipment.

Let's start with the water supply provided. You see these packets being sold as emergency supplies. One might think from the presentation of the bag five pouches of water would equal enough water for five days. After all the bag is labeled as a "5-DAY SURVIVAL BACKPACK".

The amount of water in each is 4.227 fl oz. or 125ml. "Well how much water is that? Must be enough if they are saying this bag will last you five days?" Let me see if I can put this in prospective for you. I emptied one of these packets into a regular sized glass from the kitchen, looking forward to a nice glass of water while I went through the rest of the bag.

Obviously I was disappointed at what the pouch held. Good thing I was not really thirsty, you know like after surviving a tornado or running for my life from a forest fire. This is some hard core rationing for even the hardest ones of us out there if this is all the water you get for one day! How about a few more visuals to help you.





















That is all the water included in one of these pouches, half a drink glass or martini glass. No the pouch is not filled with liquor for either of these! Which might be a good selling point or marketing scheme to another company. "We got booze for your emergency kit!"

There is no way you are going to be doing much physical activity if these are supposed to be consumed one a day, for five days. Of course the bag also comes with water purification tablets. Issue is the bag does not come with anything I can use to hold the water in I want to treat? This was really the first WTF moment I had with this bag. If you are going to say this bag is a 'grab and run' or a bag you can use to survive for five days you might want to include items needed to utilize the supplies you put in the bag. Otherwise what is the point of putting items into the bag I can not use? Would suck to be standing next to a stream with no way of filtering water. And no the stainless steel cup does not allow you to follow the directions provided for the water purification tablets...........

The water purification tablets and other supplies were contained in a separate plastic bag from the water. Five tablets and their directions are located in the lower left section of the photo. The directions state to transfer the water from one container to another. Containers not provided in the bag... The plastic bag also contained a medical kit, matches and other items.

I am not sure what was supposed to be hygiene items in this bag or advertised '42 piece first aid and hygiene kit'. There are some tissues provided, the kind and size to blow your nose and I really hope they do not expect you to use those on your rear. But you should have enough q-tips to keep your ears clean for five days. Unless you get a small scrap or cut this first aid kit is almost useless.

Let's focus on the food stuff provided in the bag. Water and food would probable be the two top items of concern if you were suddenly stranded on a roof top or stuck up a tree during a flood. You know a flood like the one pictured on the placard. Water all the way to the roof tops of homes.

Six pouches of food items is provided. I am not sure but the items seemed to have just been randomly thrown into the plastic bag and tied off. Not sure why I think this just my impression of how the package was packed. Pasta, beans & rice, tortilla soup, two types of cereal and whey milk....... These are supposed to last five days.......

Here are the directions printed on the food pouch. Yeah, about that 3.5 cups of water, where do I get that? This is an emergency bag, bag implies the situation is bad enough I have had to leave or other wise can not use the comforts of my home. Isn't electricity one of the first things to go out? Followed by gas? I know in California if the Big One hit we can expect an interruption to the electricity and gas supplied to our homes. Guess that would leave you with option three, using an emergency heat source. They did provide me with one in the bag! I'll try that but first;

We have covered this in other post, you need at least 1200 calories to stay alive and over 2000 if you are being active. Total calories in this food pouch 1040? Guess this is what you get to eat for one day. Once you prepare the food plan on eating it right than because there is nothing provided to save your uneaten food with. If you manage to find 4 cups of water I guess you also can find a Tupperware bowl or something else to store your cooked food in.

For some reason milk was included but no other drink choices (should have included alcohol). Of course some how they figure I have procured water which was not provided to make the milk. Milk, really?

Having opened the box right before lunch time I decided to try and prepare a meal from this bag. I quickly found out I would need items not included in my 5-day survival backpack. Water, water in an amount not provided in the bag was the first thing I needed, along with a way to measure the amount of water in order to follow the directions.

Four cups is a lot of water to carry around in a measuring cup........ sarcasm intended. Next I took the items outside to cook up my lunch utilizing the items in the bag.

Took me a minute to figure out how to open the "stove". And just so you know I picked the tortilla soup for lunch, I really like tortilla soup.

Took four of my twenty matches to start one of my four fuel tabs. Wait, I got four fuel tabs in a 5-DAY SURVIVAL BAG? Twenty minus four, minus four, minus four, minus four leaves me four other matches to use for five days? Well maybe it does not take four matches each time to light the fuel cubes?

Found out my stainless steel cup does not fit on my portable stove....... Which means I had to find another way to heat up my 4 cups of water.......

I had to find an old pan in the cupboard. Did not want to get in trouble for using one of the new ones. I guess if a disaster struck and I had to utilize this bag finding a pan would not be a big deal. Especially since I already found a measuring cup, along with extra water.

The water never reach boiling as the direction wanted.

The fuel cube ran out of flame before the water boiled. I decided to just keep trying to make lunch and not use another of the three remaining fuel cubes.

Well the next thing I found out I needed was a spoon and a lid to follow the directions on the package. Really, not a single piece of this kit can help me eat the food I am trying to make? I guess if already found water, measuring cup, pan, a lid for the pan, there should not be any issue finding eating utensils.

Following the directions I ended up with this. A pan filled with flavored water sitting on top of uncooked rice. If there is any tortillas in here, you know to make it tortilla soup, I could not find them.

Well not wanting to waste food I took the "soup" inside the house. You know the house which I might have to leave carrying this 5-day survival backpack. I utilized the gas stove, which is lite via electricity and this bag of tortilla chips to try and salvage the meal. After ten minutes on the stove and the addition of the tortillas to the tortilla soup I had a decent lunch!

In all fairness I will report the soup was decent, even had extra I might take to work with me.

After the attempt at lunch I did not even try to test out anything else from the bag. I figured the quality of the the other items and thought put into the planning of this bag was determined already.

Why am I being rather negative in this review? Because I hope everyone reading this will understand a few things from this.

One, you are responsible for you! People will package and sell anything someone else will buy but at the end of the day they will not be relying on the items to survive.

Two, there are no prepackaged one size fits all answers. If there was a company selling bags which could do this I would be adding a link and filling my garage with them!

Three, you get what you pay for. As I stated this bag did not cost me much (still can't find the receipt) but is almost a complete waste of resources. I literally could walk around the house, with maybe a trip to the dollar store and make a more useful bag than this one.

(trying to end on an upbeat note)

If you have nothing else this bag is a starting point from which you can build a far better 5-day survival backpack............

As Always,

Stay Safe!

Corsair Trainers

Planning #5 - Lighting

Time for another trip down the rabbit hole......... Once again we will slid into a subject which can drive you insane if you are not careful!! All it takes is one situation of you sitting in the dark and next thing you know you are trying out every new flashlight and hoping to never be caught in the dark again!!!

For the train of thought we have been going with here, something happen and you are staying at the house. So far we figured out all kinds of stuff but now the sun is going down and we have to prepare for the night. A night when no lights come on when you flip the switch......................

Hopefully we have a few flashlights around the house. Hopefully we have good batteries for the flashlights. Yet the flashlights are not good for lighting a room up. We can not sit around and play monopoly or cards easily by the beam of a flashlight. We want to be able to push the darkness away if we can. We, people in general, do not enjoy the darkness. We can not see what is around us and most of us fear, even if we do not admit it, what is out there in the night.

 
Doesn't matter how cool you are during the day...... something goes bump in the night, you want more light.

Most of us do not really remember how dark it can be without electricity being brought into our homes. The kind of dark where there is no glow from the router, microwave or digital clock. The kind of dark where there are no streetlights or the reflection of those lights off the clouds. For most of us even if we turn all the lights off in our house, there is still the glow from the neighbor's house or other light sources. Here we are talking about options when it is dark, dark........

 
Candles are a good place to start. Most of us have candles somewhere in the house. Even lighting just one candle will push the dark back enough to allow you to sit around a table or in some cases light a room enough to comfortably see what is around you. Keep in mind being able to light a room is of great comfort to the little ones when something is happening.

Gentleman or Ladies, if your significant other has a "thing" for candles you can use this to your planning advantage! Buy them candles as if you are indulging them but know you are secretly stockpiling for an emergency. Heck even scented candles burning brightly in the dark are better than sitting in the dark!!! Just do not burn to many scented candles at once. Why? Because you never know who they might attract................... hehehehehehe

Before we go any further we have to remind everyone about the dangers of having an open flame inside of the house. Does not matter if it one candle or several hurricane lamps. You have to safely use the sources of light or you can end up burning your home down and adding to your problems! Here are a few basic rules to follow when using open flames inside the home.

NEVER, NEVER PUT THEM NEXT TO A CURTAIN!!! Not even if you pull the curtains back and think you have tied them in place. The heat rising from the flame can travel several feet and still cause things to catch on fire!

NEVER, NEVER PUT THEM WHERE KIDS WILL KNOCK THE FLAME OVER!! If something can be knocked over kids will figure out how to do it. Like moths, kids are drawn toward the flame!

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER LEAVE A FLAME UNATTENDED!! Fire has a mind of it's own, ask any firefighter, if you leave the flame alone it will find a way to burn something! You do not want to wake up to the sound of your fire alarm (you have smoke detectors right?) or to the heat and smoke of a fire out of control! You could find yourself going from a bad day to a horrible situation quickly!

Oil lamps, hurricane lamps or other lamps using liquid or gas are something most people seem to have or are something most of us can afford. Maybe you have something you use for camping? Camping items can quickly be utilized during an emergency and hopefully you have experience using the items. During an emergency you do not want to be trying to put together and fuel up a lamp or something you have never used before! If you do have a lamp try to ensure you have a lamp with a cover of some type. Do not leave an open flame like in the above photo if you do not need to! It is too easy to get burned, plus glass covers or other types of covers magnify the light. You can light more area with less energy.

Containers like these for candles are a great idea!

An easy, inexpensive tool for lighting during a power outage is the Luci Inflatable Lantern. We have talked about these before and for a while now my Better Half has kept one in the kitchen windowsill! I literally got up from the table I am typing at, walked into the kitchen and grabbed the lantern to remind myself of the brand name.

Other options you can think about.

Some folks sell items like this. I bet some of us out there have already figured out how to make their own? Looks like a good weekend project. Maybe I will give it a try myself..... if I can ever clear the To Do List!!!

A lot of people have these small LED lamps in the yard or maybe your apartment building utilizes these. These will work good  if charged during the day and brought in once it starts getting dark. Only issue I have had with items like these. They seem to only hold a charge for a few hours and the ones I have used seem to stop working all together after a few months.

My personal favorite non-emergency emergency lighting system is Christmas lights!!! Over the last few years we have changed out our regular plug in lights for these. Not only have we saved on the electric bill during this time of year, we also have ready made emergency lights! I have found the same issues with these as the garden lighting. some last only a few hours and some stop working all together. Yet we have enough working lights I feel good about being able to festively light up the house if we needed to!

A little prior planning can really help out when the power goes off. You can comfortable sit in your little circle of light and keep the Boogie Man at bay!!! Once you have done this going outside and looking up might be an interesting idea..... You might be surprised how many stars there really are out there without city lights. You might also gain more appreciation for why our ancestors thought more of the sky than we might do now..................

 
As Always,

Be Safe!