a word to the wise on survival

international | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Saturday September 03, 2005 15:31 by ipsi

By now everyone with a tv set knows that after 120 hours the poor of new
Orleans are getting food, water and medical supplies.
I've left an article, filled with Jesus describing what happened in the
USA in the last week, which soon enough will be forgotten, and i've moved
to american time not the first time in my life I wake at american morning
and work till american night. Yesterday america's tv and newspapers got
into "state of emergency". Yesterday the anchor news opinion shows of the
4 networks got down to real business. Answering the questions, spinning
less propaganda, telling "you" how to help, giving facts, figures and to
a one voicing the desperation of their own "ex war correspondents" in New
Orleans.

120 hours.

What follows is advice for you and your friends and family as members of "our community" on what may save your life if ever your city goes through a similar disaster.

120 hours:

That's the period you have to work with.

On very rare occasions I play cards from my private offline life in my contributions. Not often. I did after the Madrid bombings and I did this week. If you're reading this article you are interested in "how to survive when your city collapses".

120 hours. You need:

Water. Food. an Electric portable light. Some basic medical supplies. & some other very cheap household items. You don't need any special training, you don't need to have invested a lot of money, there are practical steps and supplies every household ought have and can keep despite monthly hardships, or precarity.

You don't need a satelite phone ;-) & unless you're very strong and very well trained and in a large group *without children or elderly*, you shouldn't consider entering the "official" disaster shelter till 100 hours have passed.

They are very dangerous places with very desperate people in them. They are not the places you go to survive. If you can survive elsewhere then do.

120 hours water is a lot of water if you are moving. It is best not to move that much. If you are moving you shouldn't try and travel too far. Covering 3 kilometres a day is good enough. Go to "higher ground" or at least the top of any building or if possible to a large open space, such a public park or even a school playground. Anywhere with enough space for a helicopter to come and land
and get you out, or in the first 100 hours just drop boxes at you. Do not expect anyone to take you out in the first 100 hours. There are
priorities, the first to leave New Orleans were the foreign national guests of the uptown hotels. The fact that they were queue jumped under guard caused further breakdown of "order" in the stadium/superbowl
shelter. If you live in London and the flood barriers break or a nuke goes off in zone 1 you should head for the green belt parks. If you live in Dublin and Bertie / Mc Dowell finally gets up some nuke-toting power's nose, likewise do not go unless you have no option to "official shelters". And be mindful that the irish state does not have resources to fly choppers into playgrounds.

It is considered "professional" to divide your water supply in 2 forms.

One bottled and one purified. You can carry between 30 and 40kg over short distances without much effort or practise under stressful conditions. Any and all of you. Even those who never take exercise or those of you who are disabled. Water weighs 1kg a litre. You ought consider carrying a 8
litre water bottle within a bucket it saves space and fits in a backpack (a typical household item) Do not wheel a supermarket trolly or a wheelbarrow. It might look the part but is a frustrating waste of energy. If you or any member of your group are in a wheelchair, you ought reduce the pressure of the air in the tyres and if facing debris strewn streets chain the wheels. Treat a debris strewn street as a snowcovered street.

You need 2 litres or 2 kg of water per person a day. & you must drink it. You need a few hours to purify most water. If facing extreme weather situations you have opportunity to gather rain water - do. This water will purify more reliably than any other. Consume purified water in a ratio of 1::2 with your bottled variety. You might be interested to know that Nestle has won the bottled water contract for the survivors of New Orleans as the US Red Cross favoured supplier.

Water purification tablets cost around 1€ and are available in camping stores. Always have some in the house.

Food: Most people stock up to get through the poor months, or lean times on non-perishible food items which require cooking and a lot of water.
In disaster this is not the favoured food nor does it transport well. This is where problems and the supermarket trolly and the campstove begin. Its a waste of energy.
You can survive 120 hours on cheap multi-vitamin tablets, a lot of water and easy to digest carbohydrates such as honey or sugar. Add a bag of sugar to your backpack. Biscuits likewise. Chocolate bars are go! They're portable and they last for almost 500 hours before going mouldy or wormy by which stage they're arguably better for you.
Nuts provide those minerals and protein your brain needs to continue thinking whilst walking. Gram for Gram they are the most sensible source of protein. Add them to your bag. Porridge oats or meusli as well are good food and can mix with water.

If you are a nursing mother or a diabetic your conditions are different. Both these types of people _need_ more water and must be cared for. Do not allow a diabetic to start binging on chocolate, generally though they have inhome supplies. It is possible to cook food with little energy in pitfires or insulated pots. Heat grain. rice, pasta water to boiling and then leave the pot firmly closed wrapped in blankets or a sleeping bag for 9 hours. The food will continue to cook.

If you are a drug addict, or alcoholic Disasters are very difficult times. You rarely have enough supplies for 120 hours. Most people in that situation will go to the nearest or largest public shelter. Remember that.

"Looting" which last night (or american time last evening) finally was defined as "moral" by teh 4 US network tv stations if only for-
Water - Food and Medical Supplies.

You ought have provisioned your emergency supplies in the first 20 hours of disaster.
Then you move. To the outskirts or open area and wait. For a variety of reasons paracetamol is not the best painkiller in such situations. Aspirine is cheap always have a supply in the household. Any painkiller based on coedine with plentiful supply of water will serve a body in serious pain or discomfort better than any substance short of morphine. If you provision medical supplies do not be greedy. Leave supplies for others. This will help others survive and keep a situation from turning completely desperate.

Morphine or treated coedine (washed through coffee filters with an acidic solution such as lemon juice) ought be administered IV to the sick or dying as sparingly as possible.

The Dead ought preferably be buried before 24 hours. No dead body ought be left in temperatures above 12º for more than 30 hours. IF need be, such as it being difficult to move away from the dead (rooftop situations) you should "seal" the body within 2 hours. This can be done with large black refuse sacks. You should carry at least 20 refuse sacks and lot of condoms in your backpack. These are items which may need to be provisioned. The best place to provision these supplies is public bars. Within the first 24hours they will be opened by less sensible or worthy looters. Leave the alcohol and cigarettes behind. They won't help you. Take the condoms and refuse sacks.

You should add both condoms which contain water or fluid upto 8kg but better 5kg are also perfect for sealing infectious areas for a short time. Please note such emergency treatment is more XVI century than "up to the minute" but a tourniquet can be made from a condom by which to stem bleeding and a gangerous or infect wound covered in a condom. If you're a devout catholic,... its probably ok to use condoms this way.

You must remain dry. Do not move other than to collect rainwater during storms.
* If you are in a post nuclear situation, do not use rainwater, and do not move from your position more than 1km a day. You will know if you are in a postnuclear situation if buildings or trees appear to be burnt on only one side. May God and Jesus help you then.
A normal person can suicide painlessly on 3 ampules of morphine.

At reduced food intake, chills, the common cold and other "smokers' coughs" can kill you and will most certainly kill elderly. Layers of blankets and natural fibres such as wool are best. You can make a shelter from bin liners. You don't need to invest in all weather wear or provision artic survival equipment. These shops will generally be "looted" in the first 36 hours and by very dangerous people. Avoid any un-neccesary competition, the simplest injury or wound can cause death in extreme situations.

Other items which are essential are electric torchs or lamps, use as sparingly as possible, and keep the batteries seperate from the aparatus when not in use in a dry place or condom. At night if you hear helicopters are large vehicles use your torch to signal your position waving it in an arc.

You should not light signal fires in an emergency situation unless in a clear area of 20 - 30 metres diameter.

Use candles if light is needed at night sparingly, and candles should be in your backpack along with matches and lighters.
Press matches into candle wax when soft and they will be waterproof. Collect candle wax, be conscious that thrift, sense, economy on every level will help you survive.
You should naturally have quality string and if possible rope. Many metres of it and a sewing kit in your bag, if need be steal a washing line. You may if you wish go completely rambo and fight it out down the campstore with the hunting knife and archery supply maniacs for some edible candles. Don't bother.

Once you have arrived to an area with a group of people not exceeding a thousand but more than a hundred, your chances of rescue and sharing resources and treatment of any medical conditions is higher.

Other items ought include - acid solutions such as lemon juice, essentials such as salt, and vinager. Keep your feet and hands scrupulously clean with a little vinegar.

Forget about the rest of your body for 120 hours. ___________________________________

One of the FACTS that has helped so many people survive in New Orleans and adjust in Heuston, is the "barrio system" of anarcho-syndicalist organisation. People whose names will never appear on network tv, who will never be carved in bronze worked in the first 120 hours after Katrina to save lives.
Ordinary people. People like you. People who provisioned those essential supplies.
People who made sensibile choices.

__________________________________
I'm sure I've left out important items. Or other tips which maybe other readers will supply. And the most important which is HOPE.
But realistic hope. No-one is coming to "git you" in less than 100 hours unless you're a foreign national in a 4 star hotel. HOPE is often musical. a penny whistle is good for keeping up spirits and attracting attention.
& every survival group needs to chew the fat and listen to stories.