Familiar stories from survivors in the Philippines

Whole cities were leveled by Typhoon Haiyan that recently hit the Philippines - devastation being described as apocalyptic. For those of us who pay special attention to these things, the descriptions and accounts coming from the survivors sound all too familiar.

There are the shortages--clean water, food, shelter and medical supplies. Relief from government forces has been slow to come. No matter how well organized the relief forces are, rebuilding a broken supply chain and mobilizing vast amounts of resources takes time.

Boxing Day 2004 Tsunami Documentary

An older video--maybe some of you have seen, but I had not. Interviews and video from survivors of the massive tsunami of 2004 that left nearly 300,000 dead. Touching and sad reminder of the importance of family and how fragile our world is. Tragic, but worth a watch.

The full video is split into 8 parts; the first part is embedded above.

Don't wait for a disaster

"We started preparing after our area was hit by a bad winter storm."
"Since the stock market tanked, I've invested more heavily in precious metals."
"I've started carrying a bigger handgun since a shooting happened nearby."

I hear these kinds of statements all the time, from good people who needed a wake up call to get them moving in the right direction.

There's certainly something to be said for making adjustments, but at the same time, the problem with these kinds of statements is clear. They're making adjustments after the fact - after disaster has struck.

We are usually fortunate enough to make it through life's problems relatively unscathed, giving us the luxury of after-the-fact analysis. But that's not the point here, really.

We're preparing for something that won't leave us unscathed. Something major and life-altering. Something where there's no second chance and no do-over.

Don't get me wrong--preparedness is a process. You can't wave a magic wand and instantly know everything and have everything that you could ever need to survive any conceivable scenario. We're all working on it.

But DON'T wait around for a disaster to give you a kick in the butt and get you motivated. Don't be lazy about it. Be honest with yourself. Put your skills and your preps to the test before bad times roll around--make the adjustments now, when you can.

I'm preaching to the choir, here, I know. You guys and gals are awake, aware, working and refining. Stay frosty and try to get your friends and family to wake up, too.

Heads up - Close call with an asteroid

An aircraft carrier-sized asteroid is scheduled to fly between the Earth and the Moon today. It's travelling at speeds of around 29,000 miles per hour and will come within a few hundred thousand miles of the Earth. While it does not look like we will be seeing a real-life version of Armageddon this time around, NASA is saying it won't be until 2028 when an asteroid flies this close again.

Read more on WSJ.com >

Experiences and learnings from the Tuscaloosa tornado

Here are some questions and answers from our friends in Tuscaloosa. For background information, they are a wonderful, hardworking church-going family. He is an outdoorsman and PhD candidate at the University of Alabama, she is a stay at home mom. They have a three year old boy. This is account is written by the wife. They hope it is helpful to others preparing for disasters like this, and also to helpful to explain some of the emotional factors that people go through after a major, life-changing disaster.

If you would like to donate to the recovery effort and help people rebuild their lives, there are some links at the end of the post.


Did you know the tornado was coming? 
Yes and no. I'd heard severe weather was headed toward Alabama, but that happens relatively often. I did know enough to have the news on so I could watch the storm's progress, but I did not know until about an hour before the storm that it was headed straight for town. At that point, I got my son and a bag of snacks/toys and we headed to campus.

Where were you when it hit?
We met my husband at his building on campus and hung out in the basement for about two hours. We had done this once before when a storm was close enough for UA to cancel classes. We snacked, our son watched a movie, and we watched the weather updates until the university lost power. We stayed inside for another hour or so because there was a second tornado trailing the first, but once the sky cleared, we left. One of the things I am most grateful for at this point is that we were not at home. The places we were planning to bunker down were both intact, so we would have lived, but I can only imagine the horrible sounds, sights, and smells those who were stuck in the middle have to try to forget. I'm having a hard enough time sleeping as it is.

Did you know your house had been hit?
We had a pretty good idea. The news was reporting the twister was at the mall which is fairly close to our house, so we figured there'd be some damage. When we emerged from the basement, however, and each had many frantic messages from people who had heard Krispy Kreme's was demolished, we started to worry. Krispy Kreme's was just kitty corner from our house.

What happened next?  
We drove as close to home as we could through some insane traffic, but the roads were blocked off about 1/4 mile from home. We parked and walked in. While we drove and then while we walked, we tried to call someone from church/our parents to let them know we were okay (we'd had many calls) but there was virtually no reception. It was similar to 9/11 when the networks were all flooded. We eventually did get through to a friend and hoped she'd pass the word along that we were fine. Our son had fallen asleep at this point, so we carried him home.  We made it over a little hill north of our house and from there could see nothing but devastation. Before then, we'd not seen anything other than a few downed limbs and some broken glass. The hospital was spared, but everything south was not. The weirdest thing were the downed trees. The area had many very tall trees and we were not used to an unobstructed view. As we neared our house, we started to run. We just could not make ourselves walk.

Could you tell it was your house?
We turned the corner and it took a minute to figure out which house was ours for two reasons.  First, our neighbor's house had been pushed back off the foundation, so that marker was gone.  Second, our laundry room was ripped off the back so the dimensions were off.  I could see some of our things through what used to be a double window, though, which was strange. Right as we approached the house we looked up and saw some friends from church. There was nothing I could do at that point but cry: cry for my house, and cry because they'd come looking for us.  One of our friends held our son (who asked her, "what happened to my house? where is my window?") while we went inside to survey the damage.  We were barely inside before we smelled gas and a police officer came over and told us to leave. There was a gas leak in the neighborhood and they were clearing everyone out. We grabbed our 72-hour kit and our box of files and left. My son and I went to our friend's house while my husband stayed in town to help out.

And then what?
The first eight hours were the worst. We were in shock, there was no power so no news updates, we were still frantically trying to contact family and friends, our cell phones were dying, Jonah was upset, etc. etc. etc. My husband was out until after midnight, but around nine a man from our church showed up with a bag of diapers, clothes, and toys for our son. His phone also had better reception than ours and he had power at his house (therefore he could charge it when he got back) and so he let us call people for hours.  I imagine his wife and children missed him, especially on a night when everyone wanted to be with their families, but we really appreciated the chance to touch base with family. Up until then, only texts had been going through and even then only about half of them.

Where are you staying?
With our friends (the couple that met us at the house). They have been nothing but welcoming and there is no way for me to explain how great they've been in all this. They're letting us store our things in their dining room and garage, they've fed us, cared for our mental health, made us homemade ice cream, done our laundry and the husband even changed our fuel filter because he noticed the car coughing. I could do every nice thing I could think of for them for the rest of my life and never make up for them scooping us up off our front lawn and taking us in.

Did you have emergency supplies?
We did. I'm glad. The things I was most pleased to find inside: pudding (things were not so dire that I wanted to eat straight tuna fish yet, but it would have kept me alive), clean socks and underwear, chapstick, sunblock. The things that should have been there: toys for my son, a weather radio, a pair of tennis shoes (we were all wearing flip flops), pajamas (I'd originally thought I wouldn't need them in an emergency, but I wanted something clean to sleep in...luckily our friends lent me something), copies of our important documents, neosporin, a solar-powered cell phone charger. UPDATED: I woke up to pouring rain today. We should have had umbrellas or ponchos. I actually think there might be a poncho in there somewhere, but one would not be enough for all of us.  Also, from my perspective, 72 hours is plenty. After the first 48 hours, food and water were readily available at every major intersection. By Saturday or Sunday (3 and 4 days out), the same intersections also had clothes, diapers, flashlights, etc. There must be some wisdom in the 72-hour rule.

Were you able to get your things?
We've been to the house four times. Each time I hope it's the last. It is hard to see what I worked so hard to make home in pieces and my things and memories on the floor. The pictures are the worst.  Even though I have digital copies, I picked up all the pictures I could find because I just can't leave a picture of my baby boy in all that rubble.  The first, that night, we grabbed a bag with our emergency supplies and our files.  Later that night, after clearing roads for hours, my husband and some friends went back and grabbed whatever he thought we would need in case we never made it back.  They grabbed a handful of clothes for our son (literally. We had some socks without matches and lots of pajamas since it was the top drawer), my husband's guns (he did not want looters having access to firearms), our scriptures, our wedding pictures, our son's baby pictures, the spare computer (which has personal information, etc), our son's two favorite stuffed animals (filthy and embedded with debris, but intact), a few toy cars, my sewing machine (that was him being sweet....pieces of it are missing so I'm not sure if it works, but it was very kind of him to think of that), and my flute. At about 4:00 the next morning, when I couldn't sleep, I made a list of what I would grab if we were able to get back in.  That afternoon, when my father in law dad came to town, we took him to see the house and went in to salvage what we could. That walk through we noticed there was quite a few things that could be saved if we can ever get the mud and insulation off them. Finally, the next day, we went by with a crew from the church and took out everything else we could. I'm in the process of sorting through it now. Some things, like our son's bed, were intact but I'm nervous they might be embedded with glass or other debris. Still, we were much luckier than those who have nothing left but a foundation slab.

How is your son?
He is doing as well as could be expected.  He has seen the house and is obviously concerned about the house and our things.  Whenever anyone starts crying, he gets very still.  He wants to know what is wrong with his broken house.  He will tell anyone who listens, "my house is broken, but mommy is going to find me a new house", so I think he understands that we will not be going back.  The first few days he asked to go home to his broken house and if we could fix it.  He was not sleeping or eating well immediately after the storm, but he is currently with his grandparents, and they report he is doing well. The first night was definitely the worst. 

What next?
For us? We meet with the insurance representative on Wednesday and we're looking for a new place to live.  We fly out to see family and pick up our son on Friday.  For the town? Clean up, clean up, clean up.  There are still over 300 missing.  At this point, five days later, I don't know how many more survivors we can expect to find.  There is just so much destruction.  Half of town is still out of power, thousands of families have lost their homes, probably tens of thousands of trees will need to be chopped and moved (Alabama is a very green place...even typing that seems unreal, but there was one house we visited yesterday with over 30 trees on the property, so I believe that's an accurate guess).

What is being done in town?
Lots.  I know there is more to do and I hope people don't get tired of helping before it gets done (I'm predicting months at least), but there are people handing out food and water all over town,Tide's Loads of Hope is here, mobile claim RVs from most insurance companies are here, power companies from all over the region are here, the National Guard is here, our church is bringing in a crew and supplies (in addition to the crews of workers who just live here anyway), Home Depot is giving away boxes and plastic tubs, the grocery store is giving away tarps, and most neighborhoods seem to be banding together. There has been looting and I've heard reports of rape, but most everyone I've seen is looking out for someone else. It has been a life-changing experience. I hope to write down some of the relief efforts I've seen but my fingers are falling off already.

How can we help? 
The schools have posted a list of things they need here. A friend who lost more than we did can be found here. It's humbling to accept so much help, but we greatly appreciate everything which has been done for us. We would do the same for those we love. We are better off than many. Most of our furniture is fine if it can be cleaned. Our closets were all fine (there's a reason people hide in closets and bathtubs when storms come through!), so most of our clothes and some of our blankets and a lot of the kitchen cupboard contents were salvageable. I joke that next time we move I'm putting the stuff I use every day in the cupboard and the stuff we never use on the counter, that way if another tornado hits, the cherry pitter is ruined but my toaster will be fine.  I'd much rather have all the books that were on my nightstand, for example, than my box labeled "junk", but since the latter was in the closet, it survived. 

Photos from the Tuscaloosa Tornado Aftermath

My good friends in Tuscaloosa have sent through some pictures of the devastation and destruction the storm left in its wake. Thousands are still without power, hundreds still missing.

Their neighborhood was hit hard by the storm and their house wrecked. They are in the midst of cleaning up and trying to pick what they can salvage from the ruins. Here is a picture of the neighborhood in normal times:

And post-storm:

View of their neighborhood from across the street.

Here is their house; totally trashed. It was a rental and they luckily
had insurance. You can see the pile of salvaged belongings in
front of their home.

View of the side of their house and some of the devastation beyond.

Our friends were remarkably blessed to make it through the storm unscathed, and they have been able to save a large amount of stuff. They're awesome people and pushing through it as best they can, with lots of support from family, friends and the extended community. An army of volunteer workers have descended on Tuscaloosa in answer to numerous payers.

Our friends have been kind enough to share some of their experience and learnings from the ordeal. Stay tuned for those later today.

Survivalism: How to get started

The Japan disaster has many people thinking about getting preparations in order, and has non-survivalists thinking about getting some supplies in order. Newbies are often daunted by the amount of information and stuff out there for survival and are unsure of where to begin.

Below are a few quick points to get new survivalists started on their way to being better prepared. These are affordable, easy to do and provide a good foundation for adding further preparations. You will want to branch out and build redundancy (three ways to accomplish anything important) into your supplies, but you've got to start somewhere.

This guidance is intended to keep you going for a two-week time period; scale it up or down as needed. Two weeks is a decent beginner goal; its affordable, manageable, and being ready to make it through two weeks without outside support will get you drastically ahead of the rest of the populace.

Shelter

Having some way to keep warm and dry is the number one priority in any survival situation. Your car/truck/SUV will become your primary form of shelter during an evac. You need some kind of redundancy if your vehicle is not an option (stranded, broken down, destroyed in disaster). You've probably got some warm blankets and warm clothes lying around the house, and if you've got some decent camping supplies (tent, sleeping bags), you're well on your way. You don't need anything technical or crazy expensive.
Target: Portable shelter (tent or tarps), warm clothes and a warm sleeping bag or blankets for each family member.

Water

Water is essential. I am personally a big fan of using Military Water Cans for water storage. They are a bit more expensive than other cans (around $20/can), but are durable, transportable and made to last for years of service without leaking. Another option is storing multiple flats of bottled water or gallon-sized jugs of drinking water (we like Arrowhead from Costco). A basically free option is keeping water in used 2L soda bottles (if you drink a lot of bottled soda). 

Target: Two week supply of water. Figure a gallon per day, per person. That's eight normal, 16oz sized bottles of water per day, or 112 for the whole two weeks, per person.

Food

There are lots of options for survival food out there, and numerous outfits trying to sell you $50 cans of freeze dried stuff, MREs, giant pails of bulk staples and so on. These certainly have their place, but you don't need to worry about them at first. Instead, buy normal, non-perishable food stuffs from your local grocery store. Buy extra of what you will usually eat and focus on easy-to-prepare items like canned goods (meats, veggies, beans) and just-add-boiling water (noodles and pastas, instant potatoes, rice, instant oatmeal, stuffing, etc). I find it easiest to plan in terms of meals--three meals per day, 21 meals per week. I recommend storing at least some of this food ready-to-go plastic bin or storing some empty bags nearby. Keep an eye out for sales, coupons and hit up the local Costco or Sam's Club.

Target: Two week supply of food or 42 family meals. 

Security

Japan has demonstrated how people can stay civil even in the worst disasters; however, this is the notable exception to the rule. "Nine meals away from anarchy" is the common saying. There are scumbags out there who will use a disaster to loot, plunder, rape and pillage. It's not a time that you want to be unarmed. Start your firearms battery with a handgun. A compact-sized handgun like the Glock 19, Sig P228, or similar will do most of what you want--still big enough to shoot comfortably, adequately sized magazines, small enough to conceal and chambered in respectable calibers. You will need a good holster (probably a few different holsters), spare magazines, magazine holders, ammunition, and probably a lockbox of some kind to store it in. Being armed is not inexpensive, but it provides great peace of mind. If you're on a tight budget, look for deals on used or surplus handguns. Also, make sure all doors and windows have secure locks and get in the habit of using them.
Target: A handgun, support gear and ammunition. Make sure your home has good locks.

Emergency Cash
Have two week's worth of cash on hand--the amount you'd usually spend on food, gas/transportation, bills and half of your monthly rent/mortgage and so on. Keep most of it in $20s.

Other Stuff
You'll need to be able to stay functional in a no-grid situation. Here's a quick roundup:

• Flashlights--and not cheap dollar store ones; decent LED lights. Headlamps are awesome for general utility.
• A pocket-sized AM/FM radio to keep up-to-date on the news; this little Sony is $10 and works well.
• Many spare batteries...a few bulk packs from Costco or the like.
• Some way to cook food and boil water. A propane-powered camping stove is easy and functional; add extra propane bottles, too.
• A well-equipped first aid kit
• Two week's worth of other household consumables. Toilet paper, paper towels, garbage bags, soap and so on.
• Basic fire starting kit
• Durable work clothes and work gloves
• A shovel
• A couple 5 gallon buckets for general utility use
• A couple pots for boiling water and cooking
• Sturdy fixed blade knife for utility purposes
• Quality multitool like a Leatherman Charge
• Several rolls of duct tape
• A box of contractor-grade trash bags
• Water bottles or canteens for everyone in the family, with a preference for stainless bottles

There you go. With these items in your home, you've got a great start on being well prepared. There are indeed many other important supplies out there, but I feel these are a good starting point to expand on. 

Did I miss anything essential? Got any questions? Comment away.

Japan 8.9 Quake

Prayers out to the people of Japan in this time of crisis. The quake was one of the largest in recorded history, and the scope of devastation is not yet fully known. Japan is luckily pretty well equipped to handle massive earthquakes, and their buildings are built to stand up to pretty bad quakes. The Japanese people are also, in general, not the kind of people to turn to rioting, looting and violence in the chaotic aftermath.

We're now watching the aftermath period, with people trying to get home, find shelter, evacuate or reunite with family. Here are a few tweets from Wall Street Journal's LiveBlog:

"The roads are not moving at all. The people streaming by who are walking are moving faster than those of us in cars. The car navigation systems are indicating that almost all entry points to the highway are closed. Children are walking back from school, some wearing protective head gear that resemble a cone."

"Many Tokyo residents found themselves unable to get home as public transit in the city was halted...residents purchase bicycles in order to get home from a retailer in the Shimbashi area of central Tokyo."


"About 60,000 to 70,000 people were evacuated from the Sendai area, according to Kyodo News


"As mobile phones remain down in Tokyo, Twitter is proving to be one of the best ways to contact loved ones and get updates on the quake."


"Immediately after the quake, thousands of business people in central Tokyo's main business district fled their skyscrapers for the streets. Many clustered in groups of 10 or 15, some wearing white protective helmets or with silver-colored backpacks marked "For Use in Emergency." 


"Unable to use cellphones, many used their smartphones to tune into television broadcasts and find out what had happened.It's very convenient being able to watch live TV when the phones are down," said Minori Naito, an employee of Royal Bank of Scotland in Tokyo. "Otherwise, we'd have no idea what is going on.""


"Walking near Tokyo Station, windows were falling out of a building and glass shattered on the sidewalk. People were streaming out to the street, with no way to get anywhere but to walk. No available taxis, buses. No trains working."


"With many in central Tokyo facing either a very long walk home or hours stuck in the office, convenience stores in central business districts like Otemachi are already starting to run low on supplies as city dwellers stock up. Soft drinks, sandwiches, pre-packed snacks—even instant dried noodle packs—all dwindling."

This is how we know the aftermath unfolds...traffic jams, people struggling to get home or evac.

Definitely reminders to have a basic "get home bag" or at least keep some basic supplies (food, water, flashlight, FAK etc.) at work and in your vehicle, and bug out bags ready to go if you are evac'd from your home.

Footage of the devastation is pretty amazing. Pray for the Japanese as they recover!

Flooding/Water Crisis in the UK

Flooding in the UK has displaced thousands and left 350,000 residents without running tap water. The flooded rivers will peak at more than 20 feet above their normal levels, and officials say that running water may not be restored for a week.

The area's water treatment plant is underwater and had to be evacuated Sunday morning. Running water won't be restored until the the water levels drop again, and until then, the government has trucked in tankers full of water, and according to the BBC, over a million bottles of water. Thousands are without power.

For more information, check here: BBC News Story

The floods in the UK are another example of the need to prepare, and another reminder of the importance of water storage. It is somewhat ironic that a flood would cause a water shortage, but as seen here and the Katrina/Rita disasters, clean drinking water can be a rare commodity during a disaster. Clean drinking water is one of the most important things to store, and one of the cheapest as well.

I've personally had good experience with 2.5 gallon jugs from places like Wal-Mart and Target, though I've heard these can be susceptible to leaks over time. Others have luck with 2 liter pop bottles, though you'll likely have to deal with a little left over flavor. You can go big and get 55 gallon drums, but they weigh over 400 pounds full, so once filled, they're impossible to move and difficult to rotate. Smaller 15 and 30 gallon drums are also available--the 15 gallons drums are a nice, handy, movable size. There are all kinds of water-storage solutions out there, I'd recommend shopping around and finding what works best for you.

I'd also put a plug in for both a good water filter and purifying chemicals. Filters come in all shapes and sizes--from small-capacity filter water bottles, to water-cooler sized units good for tens of thousands of gallons of water. Do your homework here. Regular strength, unscented bleach works well for purifying water, as do Katadyn Micropur tablets and the chemicals created by the MSR Miox Purifier. I recommend a double whammy of filtration and purification if you're going to drink flood waters. Filters will take care of floaties, bacteria, and protozoa out of the water (and also make it look a little more drinkable), but they won't do much to take care of microscopic viruses which can be prevalent in floodwaters. That's where the purification chemicals come in; add them to the water, wait, and any viruses in the water should be deactivated.

You may or may not have seen this image before. I'm not sure where it originally came from, I found it searching Google Images months back. Pretty amazing image--two shafts of light pouring into the infamous Super Dome FEMA camp. The Super Dome and Katrina disaster have since become a symbol to "preppers" everywhere, a perfect example of why you can't rely on the .gov to save your butt in an emergency.

Many of the people who filled the Super Dome were those who come to rely on the government for help in other aspects of their lives, and naturally they expected someone to come along and bail them out after the hurricane hit. These are some of the same people who are still living in FEMA trailer camps, destroying their free temporary homes. They're not the kind of people who are ever going to prepare for anything or do much to provide for themselves. Its sad and disappointing, but it's true.

In non-emergency situations, it's pretty clear to most of us that we have to provide for and rely on ourselves. We're the ones who pay the rent or mortgage, put food on our own tables, pay for utilities, medical bills, and so on. Except in cases of special circumstance, it's obvious that most of us don't expect the government to step in and pay all our bills and satisfy our needs. The services that the government provides are obviously a last resort, after everything you could possibly try has failed. And they're services you can't place a lot of faith in receiving if needed.

Disaster and emergency situations are the same way. We have to provide for ourselves. We have to save our own butts, keep ourselves alive, and get the heck out of harm's way. If things get really, really desperate, maybe government forces will be there to help bail you out, but maybe (probably) they won't. .Gov help usually comes in the form of packed refugee camps--the kind of places most of us would do anything to avoid.

And hey, what if the disaster involves a collapse of law and order, the fall of the government itself? No chance of help there. Not even FEMA camps to turn to.

Plan better than that. Plan to rely on yourself, your family, and your closest friends in disasters. Prepare for the worst--and don't expect help from anyone else.