The One Year Survival Calendar is
exactly like it sounds, a one year, step-by-step guide to reach the goal of
being self-sufficient enough to survive any disaster for up to a year or more.
What such recent natural disasters as Hurricanes Katrina
and Sandy have taught us is that a disaster could strike at any time, and that
if one did, you are going to have to survive it on your own.
Even in supposedly technologically advanced nations like
Japan and the US, emergency help can take at minimum days to arrive and even
weeks and months. With the numerous potential disasters, both natural, and manmade,
it would be foolish not to at least prepare three days’ worth of food and equipment
The One Year Survival Calendar goes
even further and guides you to prepare to survive up to a year on your own.
The months are divided into four levels of preparedness
based on how long one could survive without outside rescue or assistance.
Level 1 – 3 days
Level 2 - 3 weeks
Level 3 – 3 months
Level 4 – 1 year or more
The Preparedness Levels range from the simplest and least
expensive, to progressively more complex and more expensive.
On the right side of each month are lists of the skills
you should learn, the equipment you should gather, and the supplies you should acquire
for that month. On the left are pictures of the types of equipment that can help
you choose your own equipment.
This calendar is a great motivator for anyone that has
been planning on getting some emergency supplies together but haven’t found an
easy and clear way to do so.
If you have been conscious for the past ten years you no
doubt have the same feeling that all of us have, that maybe things aren’t going
so well. We seem to be facing dozens of potential disasters that may change our
society as we know it. The threats are many, war, depression, famine,
pandemics, the collapse of the monetary system, martial law and dictatorship,
asteroid impacts and grid collapse. Even if you don’t believe it’s the end of
the world no one can argue against taking a few precautions by storing some
extra supplies and learning a few lifesaving skills. This is just common sense.
When one begins to prepare for a potential emergency or
disaster you come across a lot of good advice such as, store three weeks’ worth
of food and water. Prepare a First Aid Kit and a Bug Out Bag. Then learn some
First Aid, self-defence, and wilderness survival skills.
One important piece of advice is to work with friends,
family, and neighbours.
I have tried to follow this advice. I approached some
friends, family and neighbours and spoke of my concern for current events and
that if something of a disastrous scale were to occur could I depend on them to
work together with me in mutual support.
Most just looked at me strange. “Oh you’re one of those
preppers.” Some would say. “Well yes and no. I’m not one of those preppers, but I do believe it
would make sense to take some precautions, in case a disaster does occur and
government services aren’t available.”
Fortunately a couple of my buddies said they understood,
that they had a month’s supply of food, a backyard garden, and an extra cot, so
they got my back covered. Well that’s nice, but I still felt there was
something missing.
I joined some Prepper and survivalist groups and while most
offered moral support and some great training workshops, the whole idea of how
we would support each other during an emergency was never defined.
And that’s as far as I got with that advice.
So while working with a group of like-minded individuals to
support each other during an emergency is sound advice, no one can really
explain how it would all work out. It is sort of left to, ‘When a disaster
strikes, we’ll know what to do then.’
Well you won’t. During an emergency is the least likely time
everyone will suddenly get their shit together. What is needed is a plan because without a plan, an
emergency will become a disaster.
So I began to think about a plan. I wanted something that
was easy and simple that everyone could understand quickly, but also something
that would work and solve all issues. And when you think about it, there will
be a lot of issues that will need to be solved.
After much thought I have come up with The Plan. Here’s why this plan is one the most important survival
tools in your kit.
Scalable: This plan works for groups of five or fifty. It
also can be scaled to a few people wanting to prepare for a short term natural
disaster, to those people that are planning for the end of the world as we know
it and are working towards long term sustainability.
Adaptable: People living under any circumstances can
implement this Plan regardless of geographic location and income. It can be
used by farmers in the country, middleclass families in the suburbs, and even
homeless people in the inner cities.
Equitable: Everyone involved is an equal, and has a voice
and vote on all decisions made by the group.
Flexible: The degree of commitment is flexible and can
either intensify in order to meet goals or impending signs of catastrophe, or
relaxed when goals have been met or potential dangers wane.
Democratic: There is no command structure. Everyone votes on
almost all parts of the plan.
Practical: Everyone has a clear role to play in both
preparing for disaster, and an action plan of what they should do during a
disaster.
Goal Driven: This Plan also works as preparedness triage,
going from how to prepare for the most important and immediately life
threatening situations first, and then moving through to how to prepare for
indefinite self-sustainability.
The Plan also includes information on:
How to found a Community,
How to form teams and what each team is
responsible for
An apptitudequestionnaire that will help each member in
choosing a team
Rules and codes of conduct
Ways of funding your Network
Membership agreement
Graded preparedness and skill levels used to set goals and plan your preparedness strategy
Lists of skills, supplies, and equipment needed
for each individual member, team, and Group needed to reach four clearly
defined Levels of Preparedness
Plus a timeline plan of action for what every
person and team should do during a disaster.
The Plan is a template that anyone can use to form and run
their own mutual aid emergency support group that will be able to prepare and
train for any emergency and can provide all members with lifesaving help when
you need it most, even the end of the world.
If
you wish to create a community to survive the many dangers that we face today,
then The Plan is the best tool available.
For
more information on how this plan works please see my slide show presentation
video on youtube here:
I had a chance to test our Bug Out capabilities the other
weekend when I took my 59 year old wife and our 23 year old family friend into
the wilds of Algonquin Park.
I had been canoeing the Park since I was 13 and part of a
three year outward bound program that was the best learning experience I ever
had at my middle school. I learned how to travel light and make do with the minimum
amount of comforts.
Canoeing anywhere into the park requires that you do at
least one portage, and often three or more per day. This means humping
everything you brought, plus the canoe and paddles anywhere from 100 yards to
three miles.
(Showing off)
Those that are bush savvy make the portage in one trip -
backpack, canoe, and paddles all on your back in one go. Those that haven’t
learned the lesson of traveling light, have to make two or three trips. Instead
of carrying 90lbs for a half a mile a day, they carry 180lbs three miles a day.
Nothing makes you question the usefulness of a piece of
equipment more than having to hike back to go and get it six or more times a
day.
It was for this reason that I always viewed my Bug Out Bag
with skepticism. I believe the assumption most Preppers make is that in an
emergency you would just toss the BOBs into the truck and head for the sticks.
However, as I discussed in my previous article,The Summer Shower that Took Down Toronto, evacuating an urban center during
an emergency in a vehicle is likely doomed to failure.
The second assumption then is to sling your BOB onto your
back and hike out of danger. It is this second assumption I will address.
Too Much Weight
Like most Preppers I stuffed my day pack with as much
survival equipment and supplies as it could hold. I have a Bug Out Bag for
every member in our home but they were far to heavy for either my wife or our
young female friend to possibly carry for more than a few blocks.
Our strategy was to duplicate the items in each BOB so that
if one or more were lost, we would still have full redundancy in the third. I
can guarantee that if we had to hike out of a danger area, half our equipment
would be discarded before we got a mile.
An often recommended inclusion in a BOB is 3 days’ worth of
water. The girls wanted to bring bottled water instead of drink from the lake, (which
I have done on numerous occasions without boiling or disinfecting with no ill
effects), and since we had only one portage on our trip I acquiesced. However,
if we had to actually back pack the water, there is no way we could have
carried that weight.On the first
portage we had to make two trips because of the water we carried. Coming back,
with only a litre of water left for each of us, we were able to do the portage
in a single trip.
In a real disaster evacuation, I would make sure to have one
or more methods of purifying water and focus on finding sources of water as you
go.
One of them fancy newfangled water filters I wish I could afford. Till then I just boil my water.
Day Packs, Back Packs
Like most people I live on a tight budget, and as much as I
would like to throw money at the problem of emergency preparedness, I have to
watch my expenses. For our Bug Out Bags I chose some fairly rugged looking day
packs in the $50 range. Since they are intended to last for only three days,
this would have sufficed. The reality is that these bags probably wouldn’t last
much longer than three days anyway. This trip helped remind me of how tough,
travelling through rough country can be on equipment, and people. (See further
down)
When I have saved enough money, I will look to purchasing at
least one "H" frame hiking back pack with waist belt and chest strap in
the $200 plus range. I used these in my younger days and can attest to their
ruggedness, the benefits of distributing the weight through the hips, and being
able to strap all sorts of gear to the outside.
This is what I got.
This is what I want.
Grocery Cart
As an experiment we brought along one of my wife’s grocery
carts. Stripped of the attached bag, the remaining frame was lightweight and
folded up taking up minimal space in the canoe. The wheels were larger than
those usually found on the cheaper carts, a full six inch diameter, and made of
rubber instead of PVC.
We found that we could strap all sorts of equipment to the
frame and one of the girls could easily pull more than twice the weight she
could carry. When I finally buy a good frame backpack I will look into
improvising a set of those wheels onto it and substitute the metal pull handle
for a heavy duty shoulder strap. I’m sure this configuration would allow the
girls to transport an entire Bug Out Bags’ worth of equipment with much less
effort.
Yes Sir! er...I mean Ma'am
(I have researched the commercially available backpacks that have wheels
already incorporated and would not rely on these to work in a bug out scenario.
While they may be fine for pulling along polished airport lobby floors, in the
wild, my guess is that they wouldn’t last a day.)
I don't think so
Physical
While all three of us are more fit than most people we know,
this trip required effort we didn’t expect when we set off. My wife and I are
well into middle age and as much as it pains me to admit it, we started to feel
our age. Even PJ, a fairly fit 23 year old woman, was pushed to exhaustion.
Doing Pilates at the gym is great to stay looking thin and fit, but it does not
prepare you for the type of work required to travel through tough terrain. What
with lifting, carrying, collecting firewood, building cooking fires, setting up
shelters, cooking, and keeping the fire going, we must have done the equivalent
of 250 squats a day. By the end of the
day my quads and calves were cramping. When was the last time you added 250
squats, a three mile hike with an 80lb back pack, and five hours on the rowing
machine to your work out?
Range
We set off fairly late in the day and made about five miles
in five hours. This would be a good rule of thumb to go by, one mile per hour.
Under perfect conditions, with fit people, the maximum range in your evacuation
plan should be no more than 8 miles per day. For most people, five miles would
be a stretch. Add adverse weather, sickness or injury and your range could drop
to a mile or two per day.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Fitness
I think that the most important factor in your survivability
is physical fitness. Evacuating on foot from a disaster and providing for the
basic necessities while on the move will be an intensely physical ordeal. If
you don’t have the health and physical stamina, then all the equipment and
supplies can’t help you.
Rehearse
You will never know how well your survival plans will work
unless you have tried them out in a dress rehearsal. Take your BOB out into the
wilderness for three days. Only through experience will you be sure that your
supplies and equipment will provide the necessities for staying healthy and
comfortable for three days.
Less is More
Assume that a BOB is something you will be carrying on your
back all day, not something to throw in the car. After your dress rehearsal you
will find that many of the items you’ve stuffed into your BOB is not worth the
weight to benefit ratio. Take those items you no longer want to include in your
BOB and put them instead into your Car Kit, or Home Kit. During an emergency,
you won’t have the time to go through all your packs discarding the extra
weight.
Conclusion
Camping in the wilderness is not only a spiritually
rejuvenating experience, but also a great work out, and a means of testing
yourself and your equipment. If you’re serious about emergency preparedness, it
is something you should do at least once a year.
Please watch my short video below of our Algonquin Park trip.
Toronto, a modern international city, financial and cultural
capital of Canada, was taken down in twenty minutes by a summer shower.
On Monday July 8th a record 126 millimetres of rain fell on Toronto
in just two hours. Around 4:30, just into rush hour, the sky turned black and a
sudden deluge descended. Twenty minutes later the power went out throughout the
city. A half hour later every major artery out of the city was flooded. The
flooding combined with the lack of traffic lights ensured that traffic
throughout the city came to a standstill.
Public transit fared no better, subway stations became
flooded and all trains were stopped. The railway lines for the commuter train
service, known in Toronto as the GO system, came to a halt stranding thousands.
One train tried to make it out of the city but ended up swamped in six feet of
water where it took seven hours for police in zodiacs to shuttle 1200 trapped people
to safety.
The power blackout lasted, in our neighborhood, for three
days, which gave us a chance to test our three day emergency kit. Although it
was a record rainfall for one day, it was, after all, a summer thunderstorm,
not a category 5 hurricane, not a 9.0 earthquake, not a nuclear attack.
The following are some observations on what worked and what
didn’t and some tips on how you can fare better.
Communications
Firstly, the national weather center totally dropped the
ball. No severe thunderstorm warnings were issued. Later the excuse was they
were tracking two storm cells and had no idea they would converge over Toronto.
In addition to internet, TV, and ground line phones going
dead, all cell phones and Wi-Fi connections went dead as well - only radio was
left.
We had an emergency radio that you could recharge using a built-in
dynamo hand crank. This radio worked great and we we’re able to listen to talk
radio shows to kill the boredom of sitting around for three days.
We pulled out the radio after about a half hour without
power to see if there was any news. There wasn’t. Public radio was at least two
hours behind what was happening on the ground. Personally, I find a two hour
delay in getting information on a developing emergency situation is too long.
After spending twenty minutes scanning the AM/FM and even
the SW channels I got the hint that we were not going to get any useful information.
So we broke out the EMCOM
Kit and our Yeasu HT and tuned into the emergency services trunk line.
Within minutes we started to get a picture of what was happening in the city.
We found out which roads were closed or going to close, good
to know if you plan on evacuating. We knew which public transit services were
affected. If you’re an urbanite without a vehicle, this info could well affect
your decision on whether to shelter in place or evacuate.
We also found out that within a half hour, all emergency
services were stretched to their limit.
Most of the emergency calls were for people trapped in
elevators, followed by people trapped in cars, followed by car accidents.
Lesson learned? Avoid elevators and roads during an emergency. Keep this in
mind for everyone thinking they’ll just load the Bug Out kits into the SUV and
head for the cottage should the shit hit their fan. This minor emergency shut
down all roads, imagine if there had been an evacuation order or a wide spread
disaster.
There were dozens of other emergency calls, such as the
three people swept away into the river and clinging to a tree branch. Or the warehouse
roof collapse, the sink hole, and dozens of medical emergencies usually for the
elderly who were experiencing panic attacks. All of this kept the EMS hopping
as evidenced by the near continuous wailing of sirens that went on for a sold
twelve hours.
Supplies
Of course we had more than enough food for ourselves for
three days and so did all of the neighbours we spoke with. One problem was the
food spoiling in the refrigerators. Things stayed cool in the fridge for about
12 hours, but after that, things started to spoil. As soon as the blackout hit,
my wife put all the items she wanted to keep cold into the freezer. Especially
the beer, which stayed frosty for the entire ordeal and was the one luxury we
enjoyed. She also keeps about six one litre water bottles of water in the
freezer so that if there was a power failure the blocks of ice will keep the
freezer cool longer.
Twenty-four hours into the blackout our neighbours were throwing
out bags of spoiled food.
People living in the 35 story tall hamster cage next to us all
had electric stoves, so trying to cook and thus save some of the food before it
went bad wasn’t an option. Most camp stoves and improvised cooking stoves are
dangerous to use in a small apartment with no ventilation. The real hero in our
case was the pop can alcohol stove.
This little beauty easily boiled pots of water for coffee, (imagine going three
days without coffee?) and we cooked all our meals with it. We set it on top of
our electric range and there was no fire hazard or fumes.
The next day, most of the other tenants took to their cars
in search of coffee shops and grocery stores in areas where the power had been
restored. The local grocery store had emergency generators and so they stayed
open for the first 24 hours, but then their generators stopped working. The
condo complex also had back-up generators that kept the elevators, lobby
lights, and hallway lights working but by the second day that generator stopped
working too.
Batteries, I keep about 16 rechargeable batteries
8AA and 8AAA and they served our needs for the three days, mostly because we
had the hand crank emergency radio. But I could see that without being able to
recharge them, those batteries would be used up in a week
Crime
Toronto is one of safest places to live in the world. Our annual
crime rate is about equivalent to any Sunday morning in Chicago. However, on the second day, the police issued
warnings to the residents in the still affected blackout area of an increase in
burglaries. No power, no alarm system, easy pickings. These burglaries were
crimes of opportunity, but what would happen if the power stayed off for two weeks
instead of two days, and people were hungry? Those burglars won’t be after TV
screens and laptops, they’ll be after food, period. And they won’t be just the career
criminals, but your starving neighbours too.
Shelter in Place or Evacuate
The first question one asks in an emergency situation is
whether to shelter in place or evacuate.
During the first 12 hours there was no sense trying to
evacuate since you would only get trapped in a traffic jam. Most people stayed
put and sweated it out, literally. The temperature and humidity ranged between
Turkish Steam Bath and Bangkok in July. Sleep consisted of lying naked and semi-conscious
while your sweat soaked the sheets and pillows beneath you.
By the evening of the second day, and with recent reports that
the transformers servicing our area were still under thirty feet of water, most
residents, fed up with the heat, lack of food, light, internet, cable TV, and
hot meals, started to evacuate to friends, families and hotels outside the
affected areas.
We really had nowhere else to go, so we toughed it out.
Which brings me to my biggest oversight in my preparedness equipment. Living in
Canada we assume that a power blackout will entail slowly freeing to death, and
so we have means of generating heat. But in this instance we were in serious
danger of succumbing to heat stroke. There was nowhere to go to get out of the
heat. We took cold showers when we started to become a little dizzy, but if
there had not still been water available, heat stroke would have been a real
possibility. I’ll be looking into getting a couple of battery powered fans, and
extra batteries.
On the evening of the second day the property management
brought in four portable generators. Tenants that had extension cords could
plug their fridge in. Of course anything in the fridge would have gone bad by
then, but our fridge was still icy cold from all the ice blocks. Most tenants
didn’t have extension cords that could reach the generators. While it was nice
to have some power to run the fridge and even plug a fan into, the noise from
these machines is deafening.
Finally, after 72 hours power to our area was restored. The
minute the air conditioner started working again, the outside temperatures
dropped to a cool breezy 18C.
Summary
The three days without power was a nightmare. The boredom,
the noise, the heat, the isolation and lack of communications was trying. While
our emergency supplies and equipment was enough to provide the basic
necessities, it wasn’t enough to ensure we would be comfortable.
What concerns me is what if this had been a real disaster? I tend to be more
positive than the doomsayers who predict social chaos following any serious
disaster, but I question now that I may have been too optimistic. No one we
spoke with had even thought about preparing an emergency kit. They would become
very desperate very quickly.
Lessons Learned
Anyone that has a lick of sense already knows that relying
on government for anything is futile. From preventing crime, providing medical
services, and protecting the environment, to responding to a disaster, anything
the government touches turns to instant excrement. Not to say the Emergency
Services guys and gals didn’t do a good job, they did, but they are restricted
to working in a system created and run by politicians.
A three day kit for everyone in the home is the absolute minimum
requirement. A three week supply of food, batteries, cooking fuel, and water
would be even better.
