Category: The Basics

The Basics: Medical

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Perhaps no other aspect of personal readiness is more misunderstood than medical preparedness. Many of us have access to the supplies we need, but it is often the knowledge and mindset that is missing. On top of that, there is more to medical preparedness than treating wounds. Much more.

First, the disclaimer. I am trained in first aid and other minor medical procedures. I used to teach a wide variety of health and safety courses for the American Red Cross and for my own company and I’ve stayed up on this knowledge. I am considered a ‘knowledgeable person’ by the legal definition and, therefore, able to teach minor medical treatments. I am not, however, a ‘trained medical professional’, doctor, nurse, or professional healthcare provider. I do not give professional medical advice. Therefore, this post and all others by me or by non-medical professionals on this site are for information and educational purposes only. You should speak to your trusted healthcare professional for medical advice.

Mindset

As with most preparedness activities, the most important thing is approaching it with the correct mindset. We must be mentally ready to do what needs to be done.

Back in my 20’s I had a girlfriend whose sister was determined to be an Emergency Medical Technician. She loved the aspect of community service and helping people out, especially those who were having what was likely the worst day of their lives. She went to school to learn everything she needed to know and get her certification. Since she was paying her own way, it took a couple of years and in the gaps between class time, she did everything she could to learn more, stay fresh on her knowledge, and even learn the business side of ambulance services.

Finally she completed the schooling and went on her first ride-along with an ambulance. On that first evening, she went to a call for a victim with a gunshot wound.  The amount of blood, level of trauma, and sounds of suffering from the victim were more than she could stand. They got the victim to the hospital, but she found that she was unable to make herself get back in the ambulance. She was too traumatized.

Despite all of her desire and training and preparation, she could not deal with the trauma and never returned to finish her certification. Her mindset failed her.

Don’t get me wrong, people are built differently and I’m not passing judgment on whether her reaction was right or wrong. I’m just saying that she did not have the mindset that allowed her to fulfill her goal.

Make sure that you have the correct mindset to achieve your goals, or that you have a resource who has the mindset as well as the skills needed.

Preventative Medicine

One of the most overlooked portions of medical preparedness for emergency situations is to make sure that you are in the best health possible before the emergency situation.

Proper fitness levels can prevent or delay injuries when your body is called upon to do something outside the norm. If you are in good cardiovascular health, have muscles accustomed to being worked, tendons and ligaments used to be flexed, then you are much less likely to suffer from sprains, strains, and pulls when you’re called into unusual action.

Beyond the normal day-to-day activities you do, ensure that you are getting proper medical advice. Go see your trusted medical professional at least annually to make sure that everything is still good. Heart health issues such as high blood pressure and endocrinological conditions such as diabetes can creep up so slowly that we can be unaware of their onset. According to Mount Sinai Medical Center, those under 30 should get a checkup every two to three years. People between 30 and 40 should get a checkup annually. If you’re over 50, the annual is a must and you’ll likely need additional testing or monitoring if indicators of common health conditions are present. Between 40 and 50, no specific guidance is given, but the annual physical examination is a good idea.

The American Dental Association is a bit less helpful in their recommendations in their statement, ” To maintain optimal oral health, the American Dental Association (ADA) recommends regular dental visits, at intervals determined by a dentist.” If you read a bit further it seems that they recommend a checkup and cleaning at least annually and your dentist may recommend more frequent visits if you are considered high-risk patient. As someone who had a tooth break during Thanksgiving dinner one year (American Thanksgiving is on Thursday for our international readers), when no dentist was available immediately, most were closed the next day and following weekend, I can say that a broken tooth only complicates normal life. I would never want to experience an emergency situation with a broken tooth added on. Get those chompers checked and brush according to your dentist’s recommendation.

The final component of preventative care is diet and nutrition. Ensuring proper nutrition serves as the foundation for the other items. Eating right gives your body the resources necessary to stay fit. A balanced diet ensures that you have the right combination of macronutrients and micronutrients to allow your body to maintain your musculoskeletal structure, and fight infections. Lower acid foods means less wear on your teeth and crunchy foods help strengthen the muscles and ligaments holding your teeth in place. All of this works together help maintain that base level of health that you may have to rely on in an emergency situation.

These three preventative care considerations should help greatly and may actually prevent the onset of an emergency situation. It is an unfortunate fact of life that we don’t know each instance of when something didn’t go wrong. We only know when it did go wrong. Staying healthy should assist in keeping that count low.

First Aid and Trauma Training

This aspect of medical preparedness is what receives most of the attention in preparedness circles. It is important, so we’ll spend some time on it. However, we just can’t go into enough detail in this format to provide training for those who need it and retain interest for those who don’t. So make sure you do follow up with appropriate training.

Strangely, though the Red Cross is considered the premiere agency for delivering First Aid training, they don’t really pause to define first aid. So we’ll go to Wikipedia where it is defined as, “the first and immediate assistance given to any person suffering from either a minor or serious illness or injury, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery.”

The United States has a set of laws commonly referred to as the Good Samaritan laws which endeavor to hold harmless those who provide first aid as long as they are not exceeding their level of training and basically do no intentional harm. If the person being treated is conscious, some states require you ask their permission before rendering aid (be aware of your local laws). Those unconscious are generally considered to have given implicit consent. With these stipulations, you can see it is a good idea to take training so you can prove your level of training should it be required as well as potentially understand other legal ramifications of providing treatment.

Certain professions have a duty to render aid with their own laws, regulations and rules. Such discussions are far outside the scope of this article.

The next item to understand is that there is a difference between first aid and trauma treatment. General cuts, scrapes, strains, stresses and even breaks can be treated through first aid. Trauma treatment is often outside the skills of first aid providers and the most those trained in first aid can do for a trauma victim is to attempt to stabilize the person and wait for advanced medical providers to arrive.

In this context trauma is considered major injuries, often with severe blood loss such as from car wrecks, gunshot wounds, or violent attack. In modern, developed nations most people will never see a trauma victim first hand. Those in the military or law enforcement, high-danger jobs, or closely associated with criminal activity will have a higher likelihood of such encounters and may benefit from such training.

Many classes will also teach you ‘expedient’ tricks and techniques you can use if proper equipment is not available. This is good to know, but relying on them is like relying on flint and steel to start a fire to stay warm when you can turn on the heater in your house. To continue the analogy, make sure your ‘heater is working’ by collecting the proper equipment.

Equipment and Medications

There are first aid kits available in a wide variety of styles and contents that will help facilitate such treatments. The costs and contents fluctuate widely. A personal recommendation is that you buy a decent basic kit that has most of what you need and then augment it with additional supplies purchased individually. For instance, many first aid kits will only have a small number of adhesive bandages (and they will often be of low quality). If that kit has a good selection of other items, go ahead and get it and then add adhesive bandages from a box purchased separately so you have enough to meet your needs. Most mass-produced first aid kits don’t come with the very useful triangular bandage. Trying to find a kit with the triangular bandage can be frustrating and expensive. Again, get the basic kit and add this extra item.

Large kits can be kept at the house, where most accidents happen, medium sized kits can be stored in your vehicle, and small kits designed specifically for the activity you’re undertaking can be stored in your office desk or even carried in a backpack or purse.

This idea of activity-based kits is important. There will, of course, be commonly shared items such as adhesive bandages and over-the-counter pain killers. But if you’re going on a hike, adding a mole skin to prevent blisters would be advisable. If you’re going for a night on the town, hand sanitizer may be more helpful. Change the contents of your small kit to fit your needs. By combining small numbers of the ‘extra’ contents you bought to supplement your main kit, you may be able to stock your small kits from existing supplies.

The way to know what these needs are involves planning – which happens to be the subject of the Thursday posts, so make sure you’re checking back for those – or go ahead and subscribe below to be notified of updates.

For most in the medical or trauma professions, first aid kits are considered ‘boo boo kits’. Most will not come with the items necessary to treat severe trauma. The main purpose of a trauma kit is to stop major bleeds. Usually they include pressure bandages, seals for sucking chest wounds, blood clotting dressings and a tourniquet. The user should receive specific training on the use of each of these items as the misuse could result in no assistance being provided or even further injury. Seek out appropriate training for this equipment.

Now that covers some of the ‘sexy’ equipment that can be used, but there are more mundane items which are more commonly used and need just as much – and perhaps more – attention.

So many people need medical equipment these days and that medical equipment relies on electricity. Electricity should, therefore, be considered a medical necessity for these folks. Whether you need an oxygen generator for breathing issues while awake, or a CPAP machine while asleep, you need electricity to keep your devices working. Your first step should be to ensure you have a battery backup for your life-saving equipment. Your next step should be to ensure you have a method to recharge the device or a plan to get to a location where you have access to electricity. If you are reliant on any other medical device for your day-to-day health, ensure that you can keep it operational at least long enough for you to get somewhere else.

Similarly, many people are reliant on life-sustaining medications. One issue that many have is that they are also reliant on the insurance industry to purchase these medications. Insurance companies are notorious for not allowing over-purchasing. So it is difficult to have a supply of these medications for emergency needs.

It is important to follow applicable laws and not falsely report anything to insurance companies, but one method that I have seen that works well for accumulating an emergency supply is fairly simple but takes a while to generate a substantial ‘excess’. Most insurance companies will pay for your next refill about seven days before your current prescription runs out. If you stay on top of it then, you can refill your 30-day prescription every 23 days. That adds a week of ‘additional’ medication every month. If the dates fall correctly, you could potentially have 12 weeks of ‘extra’ medicine by just staying on top of your refills.

I’m not a doctor or a lawyer, but I do know that it is a violation of federal law to take a medication in a manner inconsistent with product labeling. Most (if not all) medications come with a disclaimer discard by a certain date – usually a year after purchase. It may, therefore, be illegal to take medication that is more than a year old. I’m not telling you what to do or not to do, just bringing this to your awareness.

Conclusion

There it is, a thought project on medical preparedness. The general summary is stay fit, eat well and get checked out regularly. Have the skills and equipment you need to help yourself and others. If you can do that, you are many strides ahead of virtually everyone you encounter on a daily basis – which means you are a leader in medical preparedness. Encourage others to become leaders as well so maybe they’ll be there for you should you need it as you would be there for them.

The Basics: Shelter

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Though we all use it daily, shelter is one of the most misunderstood basics of personal preparedness. Let’s take a quick look at essential shelter ideas and how to make sure that we are doing what we need to do.

So Really, What is Shelter?

In the grand scheme, shelter is what protects you from the outside world. At this fundamental level, your skin could even be part of your shelter. Working out from there, obviously you have your clothing, protective gear (gloves, HAZMAT suits, goggles, etc.). Sleeping bags or blankets could also be considered shelter. Next we go to the more traditional thinking on shelter such as tarps, tents, houses, buildings and the like. In extreme circumstances, a shade tree or a snow cave could also be a form of shelter.

There is a common ‘survival’ adage called the Rule of 3’s that goes something like: you can survive 3 seconds in hostile conditions, 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food. That’s a very general statement, but it is easy to remember and helps prioritize your needs. Of course the 3 seconds of hostile conditions assumes VERY hostile conditions such as, perhaps, hot lead screaming in your direction at over 900 feet per second. Regardless, thinking about it in terms of ‘shelter is really important’ we have a starting place from which to explore.

Breaking shelter into three different groups may help:

  • Biological
  • Clothing
  • Structural

Biological Shelter

Your biological shelter is literally the skin you’re in. It is the largest organ on your body and serves to keep ‘you’ separate from ‘not you’. As such, it needs to be in good condition and appropriate condition for your expected activities.

A primary goal in personal preparedness should be making sure that your first line of protection doesn’t get holes in it. Avoid cutting yourself. Cuts can provide an avenue for infection. Take active measures to reduce the likelihood of blisters – which can be extremely painful and, if ruptured, can also be a vector for infection. By this point, other skin penetrations such as being stabbed by a tree branch or knife or other even more violent penetrations of the skin should be seen as something to be avoided as well.

Other, lesser considered issues include chapped hands and lips, over dried out skin or overly saturated skin and sunburn. All of these conditions serve to reduce the protective value of your skin. Take protective action by using lip balm, moisturizing lotion and sun screen. Some may balk at the idea of using lotion. That’s fine. If you are in a prolonged situation where your hands start developing calluses, that is your body forming it own protection and will assist you. Until then, especially if you don’t have excess of experience in the outdoors, lotion will help preserve your skin’s elasticity and moisture in emergency situations. Diet and nutrition also assist in maintaining proper skin health.

Of course the primary way most people take care of their skin is by moving up the scale to the next layer of protection:

Clothing for Shelter

If you take time to think about shelter, it may be obvious that clothing is protection. Most people, however, think of it more as fashion, and expression of individualism, or even a screen for their modesty. Simply stated, in a world of climate-controlled environments, most people have lost touch with the reason that clothing was invented in the first place.

Footwear supports and protects your feet whether you are wearing a hiking boot to take on the local trails or sandals to cross the hot parking lot to throw out your trash. Though I can’t find a lot of practical use for a six-inch, strapless, stiletto-heel shoe, at least it serves as a protective layer from rough or sharp surfaces.

Similarly, pants and skirts, shirts and blouses serve to protect against brush, vines and bushes if you’re in the wild. Heavy working pants protect against rocks if you’re kneeling and the occasional brush against a barbed-wire fence if you’re out running in the field. More modern pants are adapted to our current environments and activities – some even of materials made to wick moisture away from your skin to help in cooling. Shirts are used for the same purpose as pants and loose, thin shirts are often used as protection from the sun.

Hats, gloves, heavy vests, bandanas, etc. all evolved to fulfill their little niche of the protection game. In fact, much of fashion evolved with these items. Gloves of thin material and hats without brims showed that one of significant enough social status that they didn’t need to be protected from the same dangers as those ‘beneath’ their social status. Some truly outrageous shoe designs that would obviously prevent using stirrups on a horse showed that a person was well-off enough that they could afford a carriage – and thus served to elevate themselves above even those well-off enough to be able to afford a horse for riding, but then subject to the dangers thereof.

Regardless of fashion considerations, clothing was almost certainly developed primarily as thermal protection. Initially when humans were exposed to the capriciousness of the wild, they layered on mud and vegetation, then animals skins and finally, textiles. Once they finally moved into caves and structures, the clothing changed to meet the new circumstances. That brings us to the final layer.

Structural Shelter

Finally, this is likely what most people think of if you say the word ‘shelter’. The words are synonymous now as it is likely that the first thing built was likely to provide protection. But the idea carries more with it than just buildings. Where clothing is something worn for protection, structures can be considered a location to go for shelter – even if you carry it with you like a sleeping bag.

Generally speaking there are two types of structure: natural and artificial.

Natural structures such as caves, rock overhangs, and trees provide some level of protection from weather. If caught in the wild, finding such a structure for shelter can literally be a life-saver. This type of structure, however, is usually temporary and most likely will have some deterring factor. Trees may not protect from the wind, rock overhangs may be in the path of rising water, and caves may be treacherous to reach or outside of convenient distance from a water source.

These deficiencies are why artificial structures were created. Light-weight, portable tents can be placed where they are needed and moved relatively easily. Sleeping bags provide thermal isolation to allow the user to stay comfortable through the night and thus awaken more refreshed. These items, however, still leave you somewhat exposed to predators. Thus the sturdy building that can keep out the elements and predators while providing a place to gather and keep safe items of importance has become the gold standard for shelter.

Conclusion

Just because a building is literally the go-to in shelter doesn’t mean we should cast off the other elements. Keep the basics with you: lip balm and a small tube of lotion. Dress appropriate for your environment and the activities you plan (including appropriate safety gear if relevant) – with consideration for what may go wrong. Taking just that little extra bit of precaution may make those unexpected hiccups be just a bit easier to weather and may help you get back to home where you can once again keep the world out.

The Basics: Skills and Reference

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Most people consider that there are a few basic items you need to consider for your preparedness journey. Usually those are Food, Water, Shelter and Medical. While these are important, they all are a subset of what I consider myself to be an overarching ‘basic’: Skill Development.

A World of Learning

The ideas of buying food, water, shelter or medical supplies are all useless if you don’t have the underlying skills. If you can’t prepare the food, ensure the water is potable, construct the shelter or use the medical supplies then you probably should have saved your resources for what you do know how to do.

All is not lost. There has never been a time in history where it is easier to learn a new skill. With online resources, stores full of books, and groups across the nation who are reaching out to share their knowledge, this is a prime time to learn new things.

Use DuckDuckGo – a search engine rival of Google that doesn’t track your web activities – to search out virtually anything you can think of and you will likely find dozens (if not hundreds) of sites dedicated to exactly that topic. Many homesteading blogs and channels are out there which cover a variety of topics. Financial planning sites can give you an understanding of how to invest for your future. Medical sites (and soon this one) will guide you through basic first aid. There are even sites out there dedicated to astrophysics for laymen if that is what you are into. The point is that humanity has never had it better when it comes to learning potential – and for most people it is in the palm of their hand.

Direct Experience

So, while the Internet is a great place to get exposure to topics, watching videos and reading blogs will only take you so far. You need to take the concepts you learn and practice them.

Gardeners call this ‘dirt time’. You may learn which seeds to plant, what the soil consistency should be, the fertilizers to your, when to plant in your climate, etc. But you don’t really understand how it all comes together until you step outside and start doing the work.

I spent two years reading books and blogs and watching videos on beekeeping until I felt comfortable enough to finally get a couple of colonies and try it out. I was amazed at how much I learned in the first two weeks. I had the basics from my research, but I quickly found that I didn’t even know what questions to ask to get to the next level. The direct experience helped me develop those questions and searching out those answers gave me another step forward in the skills.

So don’t be an armchair expert. If you haven’t gotten out there and performed the skill, you don’t know as much about it as you think you do. There are few guarantees in life, but that one is a certainty.

Start Your Library

Just because it won’t make you an expert doesn’t mean that reading and research is useless. It is fundamental to the learning process. This is why you should develop a library.

It is practically impossible to learn everything you need to know prior to needing to know it. That means that you may have to learn the basics of something quickly. Or you may (as I did with beekeeping) need to learn enough that you then know which questions to ask to move your understanding forward. This is where a library comes in.

In good times such a library may be online sites, subscriptions to newspapers or financial reports, or even television channels which deal with the topics of interest. Since this site is dedicated to helping you deal with times that are not-so-good, it is also highly recommended that you develop a physical library. This could be books on various topics, printed web pages, even saved videos that can be played offline. Student course manuals, specialized magazines, and notes from conferences can be added to your library as well. The idea is to keep a physical copy for reference.

Pass it On

Finally, realize that learning doesn’t necessarily end with you.

Once you have learned your skills and developed experience with them beyond a new-comer’s level, you have something to teach. If you’ve gone through a couple of planting seasons, you can let others who are starting gardens in your area which plants did well and which didn’t. If you have developed negotiation skills or have deep insight into leadership or firefighting or electronics, you can pass this knowledge on.

Write it down and give it to others (for free, or for a fee if it is valuable enough that others will buy it). This starts your contribution to their library.

If you have the ability, teach it directly to others so that they not only develop a baseline understanding, but also start building the hands-on experience.

At the very least, leave a legacy of your knowledge and understanding for those you care about so that, perhaps, they will not have to start from scratch.

Strategic Shortage Preparedness

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It looks like we’re heading to a new round of lock-downs across the country. Even in areas where lock downs are unlikely – such as states where they have sworn them off – there may be an impact. Just like when we have a headache, it makes it difficult to do other things, when one area of the country locks down or integrated supply chain makes it a virtual certainty that the impact will be felt nationally – even globally.

Pre-stock

With that in mind, this is a good time to make sure we have our supplies in order. Do you have your canned meats, your veggies, the items you like in your freezer, disinfecting wipes, toilet paper, and all the rest? If you don’t, consider getting what you need now.

There are three main reasons for pre-stocking:

  1. Ensure you have what you like. Even during the depth of the early-COVID shortages there was usually  substitute for what you like. If the store didn’t have your favorite green beans, then probably had – or shortly received – some green beans. But you have your preferences and during times of stress it is nice to have what you like and the products your familiar with.
  2. Maintain your safety. Regardless of whether you believe COVID is as a harmful as is being reported (we won’t be getting into that), by being able to avoid stores jam-packed with people who are desperately seeking what they need you can avoid the hassle and potential of infection.
  3. Allow others to get what they need. If you have what you need, you can not only avoid the need of being in the store, you can help ensure that those who have not stocked or who were unable to stock up can find what they need.

This last point is something that many seem to not only fail to consider, but actively work against. It is an important consideration though. By leaving something behind and not contributing to shortages, you actually help ensure that the supplies you spent your hard-earned resources on last longer.

Many people prepare not only for themselves, but to assist others who are less fortunate in emergency situations. If these people don’t need to deplete the shelves purchasing items during a shortage, then more people will be able to provide for themselves, thus reducing the need for the prepared to provide for others.

Shortage Plan

In this spirit, have a plan for shortages:

  • Prepare before the shortage. Know how long you want to be able to sustain yourself, develop inventory levels and maintain those levels when there is no shortage, then rotate through your stocks in normal times.
  • During a shortage, replace items as they are used, but don’t exceed your inventory levels. Remember not to completely deplete your items before seeking replacements. Since you’ll still have something in your inventory, make sure to leave something on the shelf for those who don’t. Never take the last item – allow your community to take care of itself.
  • Replenish your stocks from alternate sources. If the local stores are having difficulties maintain their shelves, order your restock from online sources, from stores that have higher stock levels, or with bartering with others in your preparedness community. There will be people who will need that last can of beans on the shelf for dinner tonight. Let them provide for themselves by sourcing your supplies away from where others will be gathering their immediate needs.
  • Prior to the shortage, determine what you have set aside for helping others. Ration these supplies so you can help those most in need. Once the shortage has started, do not replenish your donor supplies, especially from local stores as you will effectively be removing these supplies from circulation only to redistribute them.

By following these simple strategies, you can assist yourself, those close to you, and your community at large. Once the shortage resolves, be sure to replenish supplies strategically so you can be prepared in case the shortages return.

The Basics: Food

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How can food be controversial as a necessity for survival? Well, it isn’t that we need food. Everyone agrees that we need food. The controversy comes in with its importance.

Many survival guides let you know that most emergency situations last less than three days and that the average human (absent a serious medical condition) can last far longer than three days without food. I don’t disagree. However, I don’t go shopping for an electric company every time I want to turn on a light switch. I want the electricity to be there when I need it. It is an imperfect metaphor, but there it is. When we are talking about personal readiness for an emergency situation, it seems somewhat foolish to concentrate only on the best case scenario. If we were to do that, we could skip preparedness all together.

The reason that food is discussed as the second ‘basic’ is primarily due to the expense and time related to food preparations. If you have unlimited funds, do what you will. For the rest of us, properly preparing for long term food storage is a significant expense and mistakes can represent an enormous waste of resources.

Cooking

The first thing you should work on – concurrently with building supplies – is learning to cook. If you don’t know how to take raw ingredients and turn them into a meal, your food preparedness journey will be somewhat longer and more costly. If you do know how, you’re better off and can either learn more or use your time to prepare for other eventualities.

Purchasing ingredients that can be stored so that you can make multiple types of meals will inject more variety into your meal plans and have a psychologically benefit effect. Generally ingredients are also less expensive and store longer than prepackaged foods and are more nutritious. Since the goal of food preparedness is less about have enough to eat and more about nourishing your body, a higher nutrient content will also lower the overall cost of food stocks.

Of course to cook you will need to have the ability to apply heat to food – and in a variety of methods (frying, backing, roasting, etc.).  If you have modern conveniences, this should be as easy as using a microwave or a kitchen stove/oven. If you want to be truly prepared, alternative cooking methods should also be explored such as open fire, Dutch oven, solar oven, smoking and grilling. These methods may be covered in more detail in future posts. In the meantime, consider taking a cooking class, or research basic cooking online and start developing or improving that skill.

Storing Food

Food storage has three main enemies: oxygen, temperature and time. If you regulate the first two, time becomes less important, but will always remain a factor.

Similar to cooking above, knowing how to preserve food on your own can dramatically reduce the expense of food preparations. Canning, curing, smoking, dehydrating and freezing are all viable methods to extent the storage time of food from (in some cases) hours to years. Similar to cooking, each of these skills deserve their own post (or series of posts), but they can be researched online or courses can be sought out – and are highly encouraged.

FEMA presents the following advice in their Food and Water in an Emergency pamphlet (https://www.fema.gov/pdf/library/f%26web.pdf) and should serve as a baseline in your storage / usage routine:

  • Keep food in a dry, cool spot—a dark area if possible.
  • Open food boxes and other resealable containers carefully so that you can close them tightly after each use.
  • Wrap perishable foods, such as cookies and crackers, in plastic bags and keep them in sealed containers.
  • Empty open packages of sugar, dried fruits, and nuts into screw-top jars or air-tight canisters for protection from pests.
  • Inspect all food for signs of spoilage before use.
  • Throw out canned goods that become swollen, dented, or corroded.
  • Use foods before they go bad, and replace them with fresh supplies, dated with ink or marker.
  • Place new items at the back of the storage area and older ones in front.

How Much to Store?

That is really the question, right? How much should be stored.

Unfortunately, that question isn’t as straight forward as it sounds. As is the answer to most thing, the answer is, ‘it depends’. It depends on the number of people your preparing for, any special dietary needs, the amount of time you are preparing for, whether you want to assist your community, whether you have children or elderly, and a host of other considerations. For these reasons, we’ll work from a baseline but caution you to remember that each person or group’s situation is unique, so customize your preparedness to your needs.

WEBMD provides the following estimated calorie requirement based on gender, age and activity level.  (https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/estimated-calorie-requirement) Let it serve as a guide for your optimal preparations:

GenderAge (years)SedentaryModerately ActiveActive
Child2-31,0001,000-1,4001,000-1,400
Female4-81,2001,400-1,6001,400-2,200
 9-131,6001,600-2,0001,800-2,200
 14-181,8002,0002,400
 19-302,0002,0002,400
 31-502,0002,0002,200
 51+1,8001,8002,000-2,200
Male4-81,4001,400-1,6001,600-2,000
 9-131,8001,800-2,2002,000-2,600
 14-182,2002,400-2,8002,800-3,200
 19-302,4002,400-2,6003,000
 31-502,2002,400-2,6002,800-3,000
 51+2,0002,200-2,4002,400-2,800
Estimated Caloric Requirements

Use the nutrition labels to determine calories per serving and add up the calories needed for your family or group.

Assuming a four-person family with the mother and father who work office jobs in their 30’s-40’s with late teen son and daughter who are in athletics, you would have the following caloric needs:

  • Father: 2,200
  • Mother: 2,000
  • Son: 2,600 (the mid range of moderately active – attending school reduces his overall activity level)
  • Daughter: 2,000 (moderately active – attending school reduces her overall activity level as well)

The family needs 8,800 calories per day under normal circumstances. In an emergency situation where they may have to be cutting trees, helping neighbors dig out of debris, walking long distances to collect water, etc. The caloric requirements go up almost 20% to 10,700 in order to maintain health and vigor. See the Tools page to help determine the caloric requirements for your group.

Now that you know your ideal daily consumption, begin developing a reserve that will accommodate that caloric level. Multiple the calories by as many days as you want to prepare for (three days is a good beginning goal and you can work up from there).

Strategic Consumption

You may have to come to grips that you just didn’t get moving quickly enough. If you have a situation where it looks like you will need to make your food last longer than you had anticipated, you will have to ration it. This means that you have to accept that you will be at less than peak performance in order to extend your overall survivability. In such a situation, have at least one full meal per day. Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated, and prioritize those who are required to perform strenuous labor for any additional calories.

In the event that you have food stored in a variety of methods, first consume perishable food from your refrigerator or perishable goods in your pantry. If you have a garden and items are ready to be picked, consume these as well before moving to the next stage.

Next consume items in the freezer. Try not to get into the freezer needlessly so that items stay as cold as possible for as long as possible – especially if electricity goes out.

Finally, consume your shelf stable items. The goal is to make the most food possible last for as long as possible.

Keeping Stocks

Find the foods you already eat, buy ‘extra’ as you grocery shop. This could be an extra meal per shopping trip or even just one package of something that you can put back if you are on a very tight budget. Whatever it is you do to generate extra (gardening and canning? extra shopping? hunting?), be sure to keep it as extra and not to consume it as part of your normal usage.

Keeping extra is best if you establish a minimum stock level – such as you’ll always keep three cans of corn on reserve. Then rotate through it. Buy that fourth can and place it at the back of the shelf and use the oldest can you have. This keeps your reserves stocked while making sure that you have the longest shelf life possible.

Since this is the basics, we won’t discuss macronutrients or micronutrients, though these should be understood if you are developing a strategy for longer than a couple of weeks. Go ahead and add a multivitamin and some electrolyte drink mixes to your stocks.

At this point, we also caution against purchasing Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) or prepackaged survival foods. Since this is a post on the basics, we won’t go into a lot of details, but generally speaking though they are convenient, they are expensive, may not last as long as one would suspect, and may have questionable nutritional trade offs. Stick with store bought, rotated supplies for at-home use and you will be able to quickly accumulate more food for less money.

The Basics: Water

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Water is essential. It is a requirement for human life as well as a major contributor to hygiene and sanitation. It would be difficult to say that anyone ‘has enough water’ when it can be used for so many purposes and is needed in significant quantities daily. Because of this essential quality it will be the first of The Basics being covered.

There are two main considerations for water: fit for use and volume. Let’s discuss these in detail.

Fit for Use

Water is versatile. It can be used for a variety of things, but it really comes down to two main classifications: potable and non-potable.

Potable water, also known as drinking water, is what we most often think of because it is the most obvious use of water. It is what sustains life. We need a certain amount of water daily to maintain life and this amount changes due to environmental factors, which will be discussed later.

Potable water is generally taken for granted in the Western world – and it should be as freely available as it is. However, since we generally take it for granted, we often overlook the infrastructure necessary to maintain this resource.

Water is captured from natural (or reclaimed) sources and shipped to a treatment facility. That treatment facility relies on a modern infrastructure to get the power and supplies needed to clean the water. Even more infrastructure in the form of people, plants and vehicles are required to deliver the water through unseen miles of pipes.

It wouldn’t take much to disrupt this system and it is a miracle on modern life that it isn’t disrupted more often.

When the system is disrupted, or when untreated water is encountered, it is considered non-potable. This is water found in puddles on the street, in most wild sources such as streams and lakes, or even in backyard swimming pools. This water can contain contaminants which make it unsafe to consume.

Unless you expressly know that water has been made safe to drink it should be considered non-potable.

Non-potable water still has plenty of uses. For the most part it can be used to water livestock, especially if it is from a running source (as opposed to a stagnant pond). It can generally be used to water a garden or crops as long as it is not suspected of being contaminated with harmful substances that can be absorbed through the plants and passed on to you. If potable resources are very limited, non-potable water can even be used for the first round of washing dishes as long as clean water is used for the final rinse.

Discussing the limit of resources brings us to the other consideration.

Volume

By volume, we mean that we must ensure that we have enough water for the intended purpose. Since we generally don’t store non-potable water for household use, the conversation will focus primarily on potable water. Making non-potable water potable will be covered in another post.

You will find many guidelines that state you need x amount of water stored per person. If we were all the same, doing the same things and living in the same environments, that kind of guidance may be helpful. Unfortunately things are always that cut-and-dry – especially in an emergency situation.

For all intents and purposes, if you have the ability to store water, store it. Store as much as you reasonably can. As a minimum, the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommends three days of water for each member of the household. They have also released a guideline of storing one gallon of potable water per person per day. Based on their literature, that recommendation covers basic hygiene needs as well as greater than normal consumption for “[p]eople in hot environments, children, nursing mothers, and ill people”. They suggest having three days worth of water for each member of the household.

While this is a great place to start, it appears to come with an underlying assumption that such people are relatively inactive, potentially in a temperature controlled environment and/or know techniques for conservation of water resources. As someone experienced with working outside in Texas heat and rock climbing in an Arizona summer, I can say that one gallon of water per day used for drinking, cooking and cleaning will likely leave you dehydrated.

Dehydration has a number of negative impacts on the human body – up to and including death. So you can use the FEMA recommendation as a baseline. However, in order to try to make our recommendation apply to a broader range of situations, we at PREP Academy suggest having a little more water on hand and there is some variability to it.

In order to ensure that you have all the water resources needed, we recommend the following:

If there are three or more people in your group, store two gallons per person for each day of preparedness. If there are less than three people in your group, store three gallons per person per day. This should cover water for hydration as well as for hygiene and cooking purposes.

The underlying assumption is that in an emergency situation, you will be more active than normal. Not only will this increase your water needs, such activity will cause heavier, more frequent breathing and result in the sensation of thirst more often. Having a little additional water will help with both the physical and psychological aspect of quenching that thirst.

Also, when water is shared across multiple people the proportion can be somewhat reduced. Washing dishes for one person or four people takes about the same volume of water so a single person needs to storage a larger proportion of water.

As a side note, remember that your pets also need water, so include them in your plans.

As far as how many days of preparedness you will need, that mostly comes down to personal preference – and is confined somewhat by the area you have to store water. FEMA recommends three days. The majority of federal responses result in responders being onsite and active within three days, so the recommendation accommodates that time frame. However, some responses take longer and the further you are away from  a metropolitan area (where the bulk of the resources are focused), the more of a delay you may have in receiving aid – if it is coming. A week of storage would not be out of the question. Take into consideration though, water is heavy and bulky. Even a week (7 days) of water for a family of four (2 gallons per person, 4 people) ends up being around a 55 gallon barrel in volume. That equates to over 450 pounds of water. So do what you can, but realize that water requires substantial space.

Finally, if you have excess water, you may also have the ability to help others in need. While we should all have plenty to help ourselves get through hardship, we should also be good members of our communities and help those in need where we can.

We’ll circle back around to other aspects of water in later posts, but this should give you enough to start you in the right direction.