In any decent size emergency you will have to do basic first aid care for those around you. Hospitals and emergency care professionals will be overwhelmed with life threatening cases. You will have to take care of less severe medical care yourself. The first thing you need is training. Is it not all that useful to buy a really good medical kit with bandages, medical tape, ace bandages, gauze, gauze rolls, etc. if you have no clue how to treat basic medical conditions. In other words, having a bandage does not mean you know how to use a bandage. If you are medically handicapped do not let that stop you from getting a good first aid kit, but sooner or later you should get some education in first aid care.
So what should be in your first aid supplies? You should consider the type of emergency you are preparing for. There are some basic types of emergencies: one is the random accident, a sprain, cutting a finger with a knife, falling and scraping hands and/or knees. This happens all the time and is the basic stuff you should be prepared to handle. Another is the situational “accident”. Being involved with scouting and backpacking trips we learned to count on blisters, knife cuts, and 1st degree burns. Any campout with young men will result in these types of “accidents”. You should anticipate and prepare for them. Next is the advertised natural disaster such as a hurricane. You have advanced warning and can prepare for the event. The last type is the sudden onset natural disaster such as an earthquake or tornado. This last type requires more thinking, preparation, and education. Broken bones are likely in this last type, and where do you go for help? You may have to take care of these things yourself for the first couple days after an emergency.

With this in mind you should prepare your kit based on your knowledge and what is likely to happen. It is advisable to over prepare vs. under prepare. We recommend different levels of kits. A hiking kit and home preparedness kit.
The hiking kit is a smaller first aid kit designed to be light weight and portable. Below is a basic list along with a description of what to use it for:
• Sterile gloves: this is both to protect you from blood borne pathogens and to protect the patient from germs and bacteria. This is more important when working with people you don’t know or it is not possible to sanitize your hands.
• Hand sanitizer: for cleaning your hands and the wound area. Germs are bad, we want to minimize chance of germs and infection.
• Antibacterial soap: for cleaning your hands and the wound.
• Ace bandage: good for putting pressure on wounds, sprains, or holding ice onto an area. I had an operation on my leg once and an ace bandage supported and protected the incision so that I was still able to walk and move.
• Scissors: for cutting tape, bandages, clothing, making makeshift bandages, etc.
• Various quantities of different size sterile gauze and gauze rolls: used to cover lacerations or incisions.
• Variety of medical and athletic tape: used to hold dressings in place.
• Moleskin: for preventing and/or protection of blisters.
• Second skin: to cover and protect burns.
• Steristrips: for wound closure until you can get stiches or staples in place.
• Cortisone: poison ivy?
• Antihistamine: for treating allergies or allergic reactions.
• Triple antibiotic (such as Neosporin): protect wounds from infection and aid in healing.
• Thermal reflective blanket: keeping patient warmer and protected from the elements.
• SAM splint: for treating broken or dislocated limbs.
• Pen light: for checking pupil dilation in case of head injuries, and for light in case it is night time.
• Ibuprofen, aspirin, Benadryl, and various antibiotics

Kit #2: Home preparedness Kit. This is an advanced medical kit for the home. It can contain more stuff because you are not hiking around with it. It contains all the above items from hiking kit, just larger quantities, plus
• Facemasks with eye protecting, also antiviral mask
• Thermometer
• Eye pad
• Quikclot or Celox trauma bandage
• Antibacterial ointment (e.g., bacitracin): protect wounds from infection.
• Tincture of benzoin (bandage adhesive)
• Anti diarrhea medicine
• Ibuprofen that can be used anally (in case of severe vomiting with fever)
• Field surgical kit and sutures
• Occlusive dressing: an air and water-tight dressing primarily used for lung or intestinal wounds.
• Large irrigation syringe
• Several cravat bandages
• Emergency resuscitator pocket facemask
• Stethoscope and BP cuff
• Fiberglass casting wrap
• Greater variety of surgical items
• Lidocaine, needles, and syringes
• Skin stapler
• Cotton tipped swaps
• Alcohol
• Greater variety of antibiotics and other prescription meds
• Emergency cricothyrotomy kit
Each person in your group should be trained in the basic medical skills and have each carry a hiking kit. Each group or family should have someone in charge of medical and it should be their responsibility to train the others.

When any disaster hits the first people that you can help, or that will be able to help you, are your neighbors. It therefore makes sense to talk to your neighbors, get to know them. Have neighborhood pot luck dinners or BBQs. As you get to know them help them to prepare. What good does it do you to prepare food and water for your family if most of your neighbors do nothing? Conversely, how much better can you deal with things if your neighbors are equally prepared? Prepared people form a much better support group and allow you to draw on the specialties of the different individuals to assist the entire group. This is why we form communities to begin with. Neighborhoods and communities that prepare and work together through any disaster will be much better off than those that do not. This web site describes many different disasters and how to prepare for them. Work with your neighbors and family and help them to prepare for what they are willing to accept. The act of preparing for something small gets them in the mindset of being self reliant. This is a big step. We live in a world where large numbers of people do not take their responsibilities to provide and protect themselves seriously. As you prepare for events work with those around you to also prepare. You will all be grateful.

Self protection is exactly that – the ability to protect you and your family from outside threats.  These threats could be from wild animals, or from looters, gang members, or other ‘zombie’ types.  This does not neccesarily mean getting a gun. But this is an area that should be thought through.  In any type of disaster situation relying upon police support might not be the best idea.  Two situations that immediately come to mind are the Rodney King riots in LA and Hurricane Katrina.

I know people that live in the LA area and they said two things that happened woke them up to the realities of riots.  1) The police did not interfere.  No road blocks were set up.  No one in the area was warned.  I remember seeing on the news a truck driver pulled out of his semi by a group of men.  One of them smashed the driver in the head with a brick.  Ouch.  2) The police did not interfere with the rioters, but they did forbid the sale of guns and ammunition.  One of my friends in that area had a rifle, but no ammunition.  As the riots progressed and they saw that the police left, he got worried and went to find a box of ammunition.  No luck. All the stores had guns and ammunition locked up by order of the police.

Some options for self defense are below.  Remember that you and your families lives are affected by this decision – so choose wisely.

• Friends
• Martial arts
• Knives
• Guns

Friends
If you are worried about the other options you need to find a friend you trust that lives close to you.  With this option you are delegating your right to self protection to someone else.  So be sure you can trust this person with your life, because you are.

Martial Arts
In karate movies the hero beats the snot out of all the bad guys attacking him.  Good luck doing this in real life.  But learning how to defend yourself using martial arts is handy.  You learn how to use the body as a weapon, and your body is always with you and legal to boot.  Be sure to stay up on your practice so you can do the right moves under pressure.  What martial art is the best?  Whatever one you can learn and practice.  One important benefit to martial arts training is that you practice fighting so hopefully the initial shock of the confrontation is minimized.  You also gain more self confidence which may help avoid a situation by not looking like a victim.

Knives
This includes all bladed weapons. Knives are very intimidating, cheap, don’t require a lot of practice (maybe), silent to use, and easy to conceal.  However, you can not carry one everywhere (such as airports) and are illegal to conceal if the blade is too long.  If you are depending on a knife for protection you should learn how to use it.  Poking someone is easy to learn, but where do you use it?  What are you trying to target and why?  Where are the bleeders, immobilizers, or the death spots?  If the other person also has a knife and attacks you, now you are in a knife fight and that is not so easy to learn. It is wise to also remember the saying: don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.

Guns
If you decide to get a firearm for protection – learn how to use it!!!  If you don’t know what you are doing you are a danger to yourself and others around you.  Every single time I have taken a “newbie” pistol shooting the  same thing happens.  I have a semi automatic pistol and so I teach them how to hold it, aim it, squeeze the trigger, and to NOT turn around and point it at me!  So what do they all do?  Every one of them aims at the target, shoots several rounds, and then get all excited and hand me the gun – by pointing it at my face.  I now stand close to them so that when they turn around I am there to keep the gun pointing down range.  I may not have much of a face, but it is the only one I have and I want to keep it intact.

So what gun should you get?  Pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, what caliber, make, or model?    Much of this is up to personal preference and what you are preparing for. Once you have decided make sure you have adequate ammunition on hand. Guns work better with bullets

Pistol
Pistols have the advantage of being legally concealable (with a weapon permit), and easy to have on your person.  You can have a pistol on you and still use both hands to do things with.  Shopping, hiking, gardening, doing house work – all are possible to do with a pistol on your person. Try doing those things with a long gun . To determine which is best for you go to a range and try different pistols to see what you prefer. It should feel comfortable in your hand and should aim naturally at whatever you point at. Try it out. Popular calibers to consider (for man sized targets) are: .357, .45, .40, 9mm, 38 special. Decisions about calibers bigger or smaller than these should be made carefully – based on size of hand and age of user. One danger with bigger calibers is penetration. Ideally the bullet enters the target and almost makes it to the other side. Bigger calibers will go right through, being a danger to anyone on the other side. The choice between semi-auto and revolver depends primarily on the ability of the user to handle potential malfunctions and simplicity of use. Semi-autos carry more rounds, but are slightly more complex to handle and sometimes jam. You need to know more to safely handle a semi-auto. They need to be cleaned well to minimize jamming and are therefore more maintenance intensive then revolvers. Revolvers have fewer rounds in them, but are simpler to load and use. They also do not jam and and work adequately even when not cleaned well.
While pistols are a good self protection choice they are harder to aim than long guns and are inherently more dangerous because it is so easy to point it somewhere without thinking (like someones face).

Shotgun
If you know you will not practice much you should consider a shot gun. They are easier to aim than a pistol or rifle, are very intimidating, and very dangerous at close range (out to 30+ yards depending on ammo used). There are several calibers to choose from – based on the size of the shooter. 12 gauge is the most popular, followed by 20 gauge and the .410. For self-protection you want a shorter barrel. Something with a 18-20 inch barrel is good. It should also have an extended magazine to hold more than the standard 3 for hunting. With a shotgun it is important to keep the extra rounds with the gun. Look into getting a side mounted shell holder and/or a sling that holds extra rounds.

Assault Rifle
Assault guns give you a lot of firepower in a hurry and are accurate out to 600+ yards. Depending on the scenario and finances optics can be added to increase the accuracy at longer ranges (you can’t hit what you can’t see). As with any gun tho you need to learn and practice.

Practice
Practice, practice, practice. Whatever your self-protection choice is you need to practice to become proficient enough to use it. With guns this includes practice handling the weapon, changing magazines (if semi-auto), changing cylinders (if revolver), drawing it, aiming, trigger squeeze (make sure it is unloaded if you do this). You need to be familiar with your weapon once you have it.

Parting thoughts. If something really bad happens 911 will not be able to respond. Without police help what will you do? What will be the consequences of doing nothing, of keeping your head in the sand and denying that anything bad will ever happen? Are you prepared to live with those consequences? Every choice has a consequence. Be prepared to live with the consequences of your preparation choices.

Let me talk a little about cash.  There are some important facts to be aware of.  First, the vast majority of money is electronic.  Credit cards, checks, wire transfers, paypal, debit cards, these are all ways we have to interact with our electronic money.  This electronic money depends upon: electricity, computers, and the internet.  If any of these go down our access to our electronic money is also down.  An important part of preparing is to make sure you have enough cash on hand to put you at ease.  How much cash?  How long could the power be out?   My philosophy about preparing is that I would rather have too much than not enough.  You should have at least 1 weeks worth of cash for buying required items in the aftermath of a disaster.   The exact amount is up to the individual.    A disaster puts a mostly cashless society into a cash and carry society.  Be prepared for this.

Some warnings about getting, storing, and using cash.  Getting cash: although you have every right to own cash, doing so may invite the attention of the DEA who may think you’re some kind of drug dealer.  After all, only drug dealers use cash (duh).  This is a real worry because the drug laws seem to say you are guilty until proven innocent.  Be cautious about how much cash you withdraw at the same time – cautious, but not paranoid.  Also, make sure your cash is in small bills so you are not dependent upon change.  People surviving Katrina learned that having a $100 bill was as helpful as having nothing – no one had change.  I guess you could always overpay for that can of diet coke….

Storing cash: don’t tell people you have cash around.  My neighbors house was broken into and in the closet they found his emergency cash.  They came back several more times looking for more.  Keep it quiet and hidden.  You may want to take steps to defend yourself and your property.  You also want to protect your cash from fire or water damage.  Buy an adequate safe to keep it safe .  Having a fire and loosing your emergency cash adds insult to injury.
Using cash: if everyone around you is broke and hungry, it’s very prudent to keep your own cash out of sight. A desperate person will go to extremes to feed their family; a hungry person will do whatever  is necessary to procure food. Someone who flashes a lot of cash is courting danger.  When buying things make sure you separate your cash into what you think it will cost.  You don’t pull out a big wad of bills and count out what you need in front of other people.  If there are people out there today that rob and kill for $20, what will they do when they see a “fortune”?  You may want to consider means of self protection.

Food is important both for physical as well as emotional reasons.  During any type of emergency hungry children can make anyone’s life very difficult.  Who can look into the face of a starving child and not be touched.  Now what if that child is yours and the situation is there because of your neglect?  Preparation is important and the time for procrastination is past.

What type of food

What types of food should you store?  Storing the food that you normally eat is best, if you can afford it.  The grocery stores where we live have case lot sales twice a year.  During these sales we try to buy 6 months of the food we normally eat.  This accomplishes two things.  First, at any given time we have about 3 months of food on hand.  Second, during case lot sales the food is 30-40% off which means we get more food for the buck.  As inflation drives up the cost, I mean as package portions shrink for the same price, spending wisely on food is something everyone should start doing.  There is only so much money left at the end of the month.

An alternative to the normal food we eat is the freeze dried foods.  They are not too expensive, but more so than the normal food.  They have the advantage of having a longer shelf life and take up less space.  We provide both Mountain House and Wise freeze dried foods.  The mountain house food is  good tasting but slightly more expensive than wise and has a lower shelf life of 7 years.  Freeze dried food from Wise comes in protected 4 gallon buckets and is less expensive.  It also has a shelf life of 15-25 years depending on if you get meat or vegetarian.  The taste is pretty good for the ones I tried.  This type of food is the easiest to store and use.  Just add water.  There are breakfasts, entrees, fruits, and vegetables, easy to store, transport, and use.

Another type of food is the basics: meaning wheat, rice, beans, corn, etc.  This is probably the cheapest route to acquiring food, and it has the longest shelf life.  Most of this type of food will store well over 30 years if stored properly. This type of food will require practice to use.  If you have 500 lbs of wheat stored for emergencies, what will you do with it?  Do you have a grinder?  If so you can make cracked wheat cereal, scones, bread, pancakes, etc.  But you need a wheat grinder.  I have tried the hand powered type and decided that is for the birds.  I have a nice electric grinder and a power system in case the grid goes down.  Whatever food you store you should learn how to use it.

Which type of food is best for your family?  This will partly depend on your budget.  If money is important it is recommended that you start by getting three months of normal canned food that you eat.  This enables you to buy food when it is on sale, saving you money for other items you need.  You can then supplement this by getting either the freeze dried and/or basics.

You are preparing for an emergency.  No one has the responsibility to provide for your family during this time.  If an emergency happens do you really want to eat gross food or be hungry all the time because you are on half rations?  You will have enough stress without hearing complaints about being hungry or how the food is nasty tasting.  Prepare decent food and enough of it for as long as the emergency may last.

How much food?

This is a perfectly valid question.  How much food should you store?  How much is enough?  This depends entirely upon what you are preparing for.  For an earthquake you might need 1 month.  For a pandemic 3 months is recommended.  For a zombie apocalypse you should have at least 1 year.  Figure out what you want to prepare for, determine the types and quantities of desired foods, then go for it.  Here is a Food storage calculator to help determine how much of the basics you need for your specific family and length of time to prepare against.

If you miscalculated and run out of food here is a useful chart reproduced from Iowa State University’s web site. It shows how some insects as food compare to lean ground beef and broiled cod.  Gotta love those insects

Keep it safe

All food should be stored in a cool dark place.  If you have a basement this is the perfect place.  Without a basement avoid the garage or external shed.  Temperature extremes are really hard on the nutritional content of food.  Any food purchased in bags should be transferred to #10 cans or plastic 5 gallon buckets.  If you are doing this yourself be sure to use dry ice in the bucket first.   After washing the bucket place a piece of dry ice the size of your last thumb joint into the bucket, then pour the wheat, rice, or beans in.  Place the lid on but do not seal it tightly.  As the dry ice evaporates into CO2 it forces out the lighter O2.  After 24 hours it should be safe to seal the plastic lid.  Driving out the oxygen makes sure no insects will hatch and eat your food before you do.  This will also protect it from mice, animals, or water damage.

How to prepare it

Now you have all your food.  What are you going to do with it?  How do you prepare it?  How do you cook it.  If you have 500 lbs of wheat stored that is awesome – but what are you going to do with it?  Do you have a grinder to turn it into flour?  Do you have a way to cook bread if the power is out, such as a solar oven?  If you have canned food do you have a non-electric can opener?   Do you have a camp stove to heat or cook your food?  I have been on camp outs with 12 yr old boy scouts and seen them eat cold spagettiO’s from the can and uncooked ramen noodles with the flavor pack sprinkled on it.  Yuck.  I prefer to cook or heat my food.

Neighbors and Family

Another thing to consider are your neighbors and family.  You need to talk to them and get them to prepare something.  If these people are not prepared, guess who will come knocking on your door asking for help?  Do you have enough for all of them?  What are the consequences for not helping?  A natural disaster may only last a week or two, your relationship with neighbors and family will last a lot longer than that.  There are a couple of things you can realistically do:

1. Help educate and motivate them to prepare.   That is the purpose of this website – to help you do this.  Share it with your family and neighbors.  They need to get prepared just as much as you do.
2. Store enough food for all of them. Right, as tho that is doable.  However, if money is no object and you have the space then go for it.  And please move closer to me
3. Get out of dodge.  And go where?  If things go south and things get really bad, where are you going to go?  This ties into having a prepared zombie plan.

Unprepared people will come knocking – how will you handle it?  It would be wise to think this through.  Charging them a fair price for items they need might be the way to go, gouging them for items they need or refusing to help will bring resentment that could last a long time.  Trading is also a good option.  In all your sharing try to be fair or the consequences after it is all over will be hard on you and your family.

So how do you rotate and use your food so it does not go to waste? I found that having two storages works well for us. The first one is a 3 month storage of caned and other foods that we eat on a normal basis. When food goes on sale we buy more of it, bring it home, date it, and rotate it on the shelves. This is the one we use and rotate in our day to day cooking. The second storage contains food that stores for 30+ years. This includes: wheat, rice, all kinds of beans, corn, oats, honey. This is food that will keep us alive, and we don’t bother to rotate it. We do use it, we make oatmeal for breakfast, home made granola, whole wheat bread, chile beans, etc, but I don’t worry about rotating it. This system works for us, you should experiment to see what type of system works for you.

News and information:

• Iowa State University’s web site contains nutritional information on insects and some yummy recipes  (store your own food or you’ll regret it).