Very FIRST important (overlooked) thing to do in the case of a national emergency? (farmer, house)

[MissingAll4Seasons]

We used a basic grid-type spreadsheet to list the 5 categories for survival and noted items to meet the different levels of each (from first-line/immediate to long-term/sustainable).

5 Categories with some example sub-cateogries/levels (too bad I can't get tables to work on here!):

1. Personal protection: clothes first, then shelter, then fire, then basic survival knife, then (last) other weapons and security measures.
2. Sustenance: water first, then ready food, then food forage ID references, then food procurement tools (fishing line, nets, snare wire/traps, hunting weapons), then (last) agricultural necessities (seeds, tools, livestock)
3. Health: basic first-aid & poison ID references first, then basic entertainment (mental health counts!), then trauma kit, then herbal ID & remedy references, and (last) long-term entertainment and surgical
4. Communication: smoke/mirrors/flares first, on up to phones/radios/satellite internet
5. Travel: basic navigation (map & compass) first, on up to different vehicles, fuel procurement and fuel manufacture.

Some items may actually be in more than one category -- like your knife & some weapons (personal protection & sustenance) or your truck (travel and longterm sustenance/personel protection). Keep in mind that not everything in this list has to be a tangible "real" item; knowledge, learned skills, and reference materials all count.

Additionally, you can prioritize each item by priority and usefulness (or severity of impact if you don't have it). Some Pri 1 & Sev 1 would be something that you'd pretty much die without; while something Pri 4 & Sev 4 would be something that is really only a "nice to have" but doesn't really help you all that much.

If you're pressed for time, start with your Pri 1 items first, by severity, and work your way down. Sometimes, it's a little tricky to determine if a Pri 1 Sev 4 is more or less critical than a Pri 2 Sev 2, so use your best judgment. Any item that fits multiple categories gets a little higher weight, especially if it's a Pri/Sev 1 or 2 in more than one.

Of course, you should probably do a risk/threat analysis and mitigation plan (AKA - Risk Management) during this process so you can actually put accurate Pri & Sev to your items based on your circumstances and the probabilities of any "what if" scenarios you identify (your Risk Matrix). Risk Management is way more complex... but here's a good reference to get you started if you're not familiar. While this article somewhat focuses on the Business/Engineering/Software uses of Risk Management, the process can be applied quite nicely to any situation... especially if we look at Survival (short-term and sustainable) as just "Projects" in the grander scheme of things

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Here's a really simplified example of the steps this process:

1. You identify that you live in an apartment in a densely populated area.
2. In the event of most larger-scale calamities (either natural weather/seismic events or civil breakdown) this location poses the following risks: A) increased competition for food and other resources, B) no/minimal land for forage/hunting/farming , C) no/minimal securable means to procure water, D) increased risk of personal injury, illness or assault (these are all well-documented risk increases in urban areas).
3. Based on the previous information, you decide that one possible mitigation is to relocate to a less populated area where you have more securable resources at your disposal with less competition.
4. In that scenario, you identify that you have a Pri 1 Sev 2 need to erect a sturdy permanent/semi-permanent shelter for Personal Protection.
5. To erect that shelter, you have a *Pri 2 Sev 2 need for a hammer (*you don't absolutely need a hammer - see #6 - but's it handy)
6. But what if you don't have a hammer? You could use a rock or a big chunk of wood, this is your mitigation plan for not having a hammer.
7. So what else is a hammer good for besides building? You can bash an animal's head in with it or use it to crack a shell, so it's also a Sustenance Tool. You can use it to bash an animal or person's head in, so it's also a defensive weapon under Personal Protection.
8. Would a rock or a big stick work just as good in those scenarios? Maybe, but the hammer makes it a big handier and efficient... so maybe the hammer should be given a higher priority than we originally listed it.
9. So what else besides a hammer do we need to build that shelter... repeat the process
10. So what other things do we need for the bug out scenario... repeat all processes
11. So what do we need if we decide to stay put... repeat all processes
12. Does the type of catastrophe dictate which scenario we enact and what things we think we'll need? If yes...
13. What catastrophes could happen? How probable are they to occur? What's the impact to your survival if they do occur?
14. Identify the ones that are the most probable with the worst impact... those are the big ones you need to focus on (come back to the others if you have time).
15. Do any of the scenarios and inventories you worked on before address (mitigate) the most probable and most severe impacts? If not, repeat the process...

And so on. You can see why doing the risk assessment (steps 13 & 14) first can save you a lot of wheel spinning, but you have to be careful not to let the specifics of those threats impact your action and inventory planning too much because then you won't be able to reuse and modify those plans to fit other scenarios as easily.

About as clear as mud, eh? That's why Program Management and Risk Management is a whole discipline unto itself. I just hope that my simple explanation helps anyone who isn't naturally gifted with this particular mindset and skill (not knocking anyone if they don't, we all have different natural talents and skill sets... I can't bake )

[Convert 54]

Originally Posted by NY Annie

Of course, there always has to be one of these comments.

Im glad I made your day, now lock and load or get out of the way
This is playing around stuff but serious keep yourself alive stuff.

[Urban Sasquatch]

It's going to take a while, especially since I have to do it myself, almost against my wife and her family. These are the people who told me during the ice storm January a year ago that they'd rather find a hotel while EVERYTHING was out of power (including hotels) than to come out to my place where I had a fire for warmth, a gas stove for cooking and lamps for light.

However, I think using the threat/risk assessment grid as a jumping off point and then following with the basic categorization of Get Out/Stay Put will take me a long way.

Living on the IN/KY border in the Ohio valley, we're near a major fault line, we're prone to some pretty volatile weather for ALL seasons (half the time we live in paradise; half the time we live in Hell).

Having 10 acres (slowly developing under my ministrations) in a stay-put scenario we'd almost have it made, except for defense (working on), our vicinity to a major city (only 30 minutes outside Louisville in the uneducated borderlands between the Midwest and the rural South) and the lack of a well. Given time, this could be turned into quite a nice place approaching a HIGH degree of self-sufficiency.

In a Get-out-of-Dodge scenario, we'd be like anyone else out there, with the exception of my military training and my preparatory mindset.

[HappyTexan]

Cities are NOT the place to be....first Haiti after the earthquake and now Chile after the earthquake:

Chile sends army against looters, deaths hit 708 - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100228/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_chile_earthquake - broken link)

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Sasquatch - sounds like you'd be best served staying put if you can finish building up your 'Stead. Luckily Louisville isn't a *huge* city and your fault line isn't super-active... some minor defensive measures and seismic planning for your buildings and you should be fine As you mentioned before, when you're prepared most volatile weather doesn't make much of an impact, only catastrophic weather events like hurricanes and tornados (which aren't too common in that area). The worst you'd really have to worry about is freak weather damaging your crops, livestock & buildings... get a home weather station!

I think you're right on track, even if no one in the family is helping you. Can you get a well drilled or driven on your property? I think securing a continuous potable water supply is extremely important... like Pri 0 drop everything and get it done important

Are your kids old enough to get involved a little? I think it's a great learning experience when the prepping parents can get the kids involved with conservative measures and long-term planning rather than letting the other parent and society/media train them to be good little consumers looking for instant gratification. Most children (pre-teen) I've known seem to adapt rather well to a more self-sustainable lifestyle when they're included. Teens can be a little harder if they've been in the land of malls, iPods and Playstation then get suddenly plunked down in the boonies with chores... but even a lot of them eventually adapt and come to enjoy (or at least appreciate) it.

I've been lucky that my husband is on board, and that my sister and her husband are on board (they've got their place started in TX), and my folks don't necessarily think we're totally insane. His folks are in England, and they do think we're crazy... but oh well. My folks wouldn't have a problem coming to visit in the summer and needing to carry a shotgun all the time (bear country!), his folks are completely mortified at that fact. I think my sister and dad would be ok to come up in a harsher season; but my BIL & mom would never make it. His folks, OMG, I seriously could not imagine them hanging out here in the boonies when it's 0F, much less -40F hahaha

I think being in the military or growing up as a military dependent, especially if you were ever stationed overseas, really changes your perspective and makes being a planner and preparer a bit easier. When you know, for a fact, that the world is not always a kind and gentle place and you're not really as safe as you think you are it's not a leap of faith to start collecting gear and making plans... and you've had some amount of training in it courtesy of Uncle Sam.

[NY Annie]

Originally Posted by Convert 54

Im glad I made your day, now lock and load or get out of the way
This is playing around stuff but serious keep yourself alive stuff.

My issue was with your reference to the welfare hordes not to the hordes who would take what doesn't belong to them. They come in all sizes, colors, education, and income levels and are not restricted nor limited to those receiving government subsidies.

I have no issue with having weapons. For defense or sustenance.

I have neighbors that I call the Clampets. They both have college degrees and are gainfully employed by uncle sugar. They do not work; they are only employed by your uncle. They have the work ethic of gnats and a "I want what she has, GIVE IT TO ME" attitude. We don't get along and they would be the first ones to demand some of what you and I (and others replying to this topic) have stashed and stored away or would get through our hard work.

That was just to illustrate that it often is not the WELFARE hordes, but the entitlement hordes.

[Huckleberry3911948]

disaster preparation, change portfolio
1/2 canned goods, 1/2 ammo

[gogoloopie]

Nat'l weather/universal phone charger crank radio would be nice - in case you're lost in the woods or trapped under rubble . . . .

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Originally Posted by NY Annie

That was just to illustrate that it often is not the WELFARE hordes, but the entitlement hordes.

Um, I think "sense of entitlement hordes" is technically more accurate Someone on Social Security Retirement or Disability Income (SSDI not SSI) or a Gov't Pension/Annuity is receiving a valid entitlement (it's not welfare or a freebie since they paid for it out of their income while they working).

But yeah, I know what you mean about people with that attitude... drives me bonkers since it makes my getting SSDI look like I'm a slacker waiting for a handout instead of collecting on a government insurance program (that they automatically deducted the premium for from my paycheck without asking) because I'm now disabled.