Posts Tagged disaster
Where would you go?
If you and your family had to evacuate, where would yall go? Part of the answer also depends on the situation, needs of the family members and type of disaster.
Shelter in place or leave? There are many factors should help determine where there is a real need to evacuate, or whether the family unit can shelter in place.
Lets take the example of a hurricane. In September of 2008 Hurricane Ike made landfall in the Galveston, Texas area. The storm surge 100 miles to the east drove 10 feet of water 20 miles inland. The only cities there were protected from the surge were the ones that had a barrier built around them. One of the things that saved Groves, Texas from flooding was the barrier around Port Arthur. Bridge City on the other hand received several feet of water. Out of the hundreds of houses in Bridge city, only around a dozen did not receive some kind of damage from flood waters.
Even though Hurricane Ike made landfall 100 miles to the west of the Beaumont, Bridge City, Port Arthur and Orange area, if a family lived just above sea level there was a real need to evacuate.
Sometimes an evacuation means just moving to higher ground, sometimes it means leaving to area and traveling over 100 miles. But anytime a family unit leaves their house, there is the question of where are they going to go?
Baby food considerations after a disaster
One consideration that is often over looked is baby food. Even though baby food is artifical food, and should be avoided, feeding infants after a disaster should be a serious consideration.
In the “real” world there is no such thing as baby food. There are no trees that grow jars of baby food, there are no baby food seeds that can be planted to grow a baby food plant. The only natural food for infants and babies is breast milk. Everything else is artificial food.
With this in mind, mothers that breast feed have a distinct advantage over mothers that do not breast feed. In the event of a disaster, mothers that breast feed their infants do not have to worry about formula, bottles or nipples. This means that infants that are breast feed have a better chance of survival in the event of some kind of wide spread or long term disaster.
Questions about survival gear
If you have a question about survival gear, then visit the survival gear forum.
Regardless if your looking for candles, flashlights, bug out bags (BOBs), alice packs, molle packs, or anything else, the community is there to help you. It does not matter what kind of disaster your preparing for – whether its a hurricane, plague or nuclear strike, its important to have the gear to help you and your family get through the event.
Lets start things off with a few example topics:
Barricaded store fronts during a disaster
When some type of disaster occurs, the owners of a store will take measures to protect their business and their property. A lot of places like wal-mart will stack bales of compressed cardboard in front of the doors.
These blocks of compressed cardboard act as a barricade to help stop people from driving cars or trucks through the front doors. Most of the time the front doors of these large stores will be made of glass – which offer little to no protection from a car or truck. During the Rodney King riots, some store owners also used these blocks of cardboard as bullet stops. Its kinda difficult for a bullet to penetrate 3 – 4 feet of compressed cardboard. The store owners were able to band together behind these blocks of cardboard, and stop the crowds of looters from destroying their stores .
This video was filmed just before Hurricane Ike made landfall in Galveston, Texas.
This video shows a real life example of some of the measures that store owners will take to protect their property. This is not a fault of the store owner, the items inside the store is their property and they have the right to defend it.
These bundles of cardboard are best moved by a forklift, or wrap a chain around it and drag it to the desired location with a truck or car. Even though it weighs several hundred pounds, it is not too difficult to move with a little help. If hand power must be used to move the bundle of cardboard, use jacks to get it off the ground, then get some pipes under the block. Then just roll the block on top of the pipes.
Hurricane Ike Video Series – Part 1
On the morning of September 13, 2008, the eye of Hurricane Ike approached the Texas coast near Galveston Bay, making landfall at 2:10 a.m. CDT over the east end of Galveston Island. People in low-lying areas who had not heeded evacuation orders, in single-family one- or two-story homes, were warned by the weather service that they may “face certain death” from the overnight storm surge.
In regional Texas towns, electrical power began failing before 8 p.m. CDT, leaving millions without power (estimates range from 2.8 million to 4.5 million customers).
September 11, 2008 – parts of southeast Texas have started calling for a voluntary evacuation.
Hurricane Gustav – Part 1
As Hurricane Gustav approaches the coast of Louisiana and Texas, its time to start preparing. One of the first concerns is fuel for the generator. Gasoline is usually one of the first things to disappear, so its important to stock up while you can.
Even if your area is not directly affected by the disaster, if other people evacuate through your area, those people will clean out the gasoline supply. So if you live along a major (or minor) evacuation route, its important to stockpile fuel before the supply in your area dries up.
Instead of using 5 gallon gas cans, consider using 16 gallon drums. These are still movable by one person, but take the place of 3 – 5 gallon drums. The drums in the video held some type of syrup used for making DR. Pepper. These 16 gallon drums need to be bought in advance of any kind of disaster, washed out with soap and water to remove the syrup and allowed to dry.
The first 72 hours after a disaster
This past July 4th weekend my family and I spent 3 days at the camp. This “3 days” is important – the gubberment says that after a disaster you can expect at least 72 hours before relief services are put into place.
While my kids were busy playing in the creek and shooting fireworks, I was thinking of the situation we were in. Even though this was an enjoyable weekend and everyone had fun, there were some serious situations that needed to be considered.
What to expect from the Red Cross
After Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, a summer camp in east texas took in about 400 evacuees. The camp in question was used during the summer by several of the local churches for religious and non-religious based events. When hurricane Katrina struck, the camp was closed for the winter – no church or religious services were planned for at least 8 – 9 months, or when the local schools were closed for summer vacation. The camp was set up very well to take in evacuees, there was a full kitchen with a dinning area that could feed several hundred people at one time, dormitories with bunk beds, activity areas, full bathroom facilities and even a first aid station.
Because this summer camp was religious based, one red cross worker kept throwing fits. It seems that some of the buildings that were being used as check in points, food distribution and to house these people has Christian symbols in them – such as the cross. Even though the summer camp was closed to the public and for the winter and there were no religious events planned, this red cross guy kept throwing religion up. The people that owned the camp finally asked that
Preparedness planning and baby food considerations
This article is designed for the mothers and parents for what ever reason decided, or could not breast feed their children. Breast milk and breast feeding should always be the first choice of parents. As there are certain health benefits received from breast milk that artificial food can not duplicate.
If there is one aspect of disaster planning that is often over looked, that is baby food and baby formula. While on a recent 3 day trip to the camp, one of the first supplies to run out was my grandsons baby formula. My stepdaughter did not pack enough of the dry powdered formula to get through the 3 day stay. This was no big deal. We just drove back to town, which was about a 20 minute drive.
But, what would things had been like if we had been in a disaster area? After regional or localized disasters, such as earthquakes or hurricanes – the government says to be prepared for at least 72 hours, which is 3 days. During this time do not expect any help or relief services.
With the power outages that may follow a disaster, dry baby formula might have the advantage over milk or other liquid formulas because it does not require refrigeration. With the dry formula mix, as long as there is a supply of safe drinking water, the formula can be mixed to make the babies food.
If a mother is breastfeeding there is no need to keep the milk cool and the parents do not have to worry about if the watter used to make the formula is safe. The mother just needs to make sure the water and food she eats and drinks is free from contamination.
It is the responsibility of the parent to make sure that infants will have enough food after a disaster. For those people that might be trying to plan, figure for at least a week (7 days) that you will have to rely on yourself. This means that you will need to make sure that infants have enough food, diapers and other basic needs for that time period.
If the disaster is know of before it happens, such as a hurricane, expect the local grocery stores to be cleaned out as panic buying erupts. Its very important that parents not wait until the last minutes to try and get supplies. By then, it will be to late.