What to do when assistance is badly delayed?

Watching the news tonight, and they were concentrating on communities of northern Japan that weren't wiped out by the tsunami. Apparently there's a complete loss of infrastructure support. No piped in water, electricity, or natural gas, and they're out of gasoline. I presume that heating oil and sewer service is out of commission too. The roads to the shelters are also, apparently, not car passable since many of the refugees are arriving on foot.

Assuming the above scenario were staying put is no longer an option: What gear do you take and how do you transport it?

Documents necessary to reestablish life
Irreplaceable item (wedding album)
Camping gear
Food/water

Garden cart or modified bicycle (Remember the bikes that were used to transport supplies along the Ho Chi Minh trail during Vietnam?)

Also: Sneakers vs work boots?

No piped in water, electricity, natural gas, out of gasoline, no heating oil or sewers... sounds like a normal wilderness situation. I would be camping out in my backyard most likely, but if circumstances compelled me to move, I would go as light as possible. The wedding album would be stashed for later retrieval, and I would pare down the "camping gear."

With impassable roads, I would turn to my trusty touring bike, loading it up with about no more than fifty pounds, including spare tubes, and minimum repair tools. I would be able, if required, to shuck the bike, plump about 35-40 pounds on my back, and walk out.

The advantage of a bike is that one could easily accomplish fifty miles a day, even more, depending upon road conditions. The bike can be carried over and around obstacles that would stop cars.

I would be wearing a pair of medium cut, medium weight, hiking boots. Sneakers or trail runners would probably be a little too light and unprotective, but if I could wear them safely, that would be my first choice.

If you are going to use a bicycle for this application, you want a touring model with racks and panniers, relatively wide tires, and low gearing. The usual skinny tired road bike isn't nearly as good.

Local circumstances and weather can profoundly alter these arrangements, but they would work for me, where I am.

I suspect that you make do. Sounds trite but the disaster is just so huge, so overwhelming, that all you can do is pick a spot and make baby steps to make things better as time, energy, resources allow.

There is a good example of this if you look closely at pictures from Japan. Just hours after the event I noticed that people were not climbing, or even stepping over, debris. Someone has started clearing paths. This is the essential fist step in any recovery. Having a feeling for the Japanese way of thinking, I don't claim any great insight, I suspect that this small first step was completely spontaneous and done a bit at a time by a people who nearly compulsively have a desire to 'tidy things up'.

The idea here is to pick a spot and do what you can. If that is nothing more than shifting a single piece of wood to help clear a path then that is still a step in the right direction.

As far as equipment goes, I have always felt that high-top leather work boots are the best bet when dealing with wreckage. Resistance to punctures coming up through the sole, protection from sharp edges coming at your ankles, and support to help prevent turning the ankle while stepping on uneven surfaces. Heavy duty boots and leather gloves are a good start. A good crowbar looks to be a good idea for rooting around in debris.

My assumption here in the San Francisco Bay Area is that there will be no way out. We're on a peninsula with two highways on either side, both with over/underpasses. One parallels the San Andreas Fault. My assumption is that we'll shelter in place, and we have a month's supply of food, clothing, shelter, and cooking gear. Also a corkscrew.

We're both trained as CERT volunteers in light search and rescue and first aid, and we've both taken wilderness first aid courses, on the assumption help won't be arriving. We're experienced campers. We're both ham radio operators, with links to the sheriff's office and fire department. We have an HF radio with antennas, so if the gear survives, we'll be able to communicate outside our disaster area.

Assuming we survive without injury, we'll survive. The "without injury" part is the big problem.

Effectively you are lost; not because you lost track of where you are, but because where you are has changed so much that familiar orientation is gone. So consider the mnemonic for what to do when you realize you are lost:

STOP: Stay Calm, Think, Observe, and Plan.

The classic big first decision when lost is whether to stay where you are / bug-in because you judge help will come, or whether to try self-rescue / bug-out because you judge help will not come soon enough.

Many have found that sitting and drinking a "cuppa" whatever your favorite non-alcoholic hot beverage supports the various portions of the STOP program.

I don't think you can expect any outside assistance in a major disaster zone like that. I'm not expecting any assistance where I live in California ... not for weeks. I do not believe our Government has the capability to address a widespread disaster zone and get food or water to many of the people. So you need to aim for self-sufficiency and resourcefulness.

If you are going to leave ... it's whatever you can carry on your back, plus maybe if you still have good roads you can wheel stuff in a suitcase (with wheels) or a supermarket trolley.

Japan seems to have a well-developed system of shelters. Very impressive. Our own facilities in the USA will be over-run. Unless the conditions at a shelter were very good, I'd probably try making it on my own.

other Pete

Hey Pete,Where in L.A. are You?I haven't Seen a SuperMarket Trolley in These parts!Are you Thinking Electric Trolley?Sorry I Brainfarted,You mean Shopping Cart,correct?:)

A lot of people will probably be doing this.
Try to stay warm and dry, tend to the wounded, and wait for rescue. Evac if you can. If not, shelter in place. Other amazing photos in this dailymail article.

I hadn't thought of those. The typical grocery cart can carry a few hundred lbs and are easily pushed. The homeless use them for the same reason.

One of the stories the world media could be focusing on in Japan instead of "Old man crying in front of rubble..." would be to explore how the loss of so many first responders, healthcare facilities and local/ regional agencies is impacting the response in some of these worst hit areas... Much of the community "knowledge pool/ trained resources" has be scattered at least, leaving "outsiders", even Japanese ones, to try to get a grip on deciding where to start tackling problems.
Think about losing your local government, Fire, police, sanitation workers, shopkeepers and knowing you are not only waiting for help to arrive, but also waiting for the resources as well as decision making to be begin to match the needed response.
Being your own First Responder will keep most of us on this board quite busy, assuming we are able, but what of the "clueless"?

That's our assumption in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our fire department trains CERT volunteers on the assumption that whoever is here when the quake hits (fire, police, EMI) is all there _will_ be here for weeks, maybe a month. Help will not arrive soon, so we're all on our own.

My assumption is that we'll all get together and help out whoever we can. CERT volunteers are trained in triage, and we'll do what we can. I have no animus toward the clueless. We're all in the same boat and making friends with everyone is a good thing, in my humble opinion. If a person isn't trained in first aid and has little to contribute in terms of food or water, they can be used as a messenger, as someone to gather food, water, wood, to hold the hands of the hurt and confused. Everyone's welcome, even the clueless. Turning away people as unworthy is just not right.

Sorry Phillip,
Didn't want that distiction to come out as cold- I guess I was drawing a distinction between the helpless, who I want to help (good neighbor rules in effect), and the clueless, who, for example plan to throw a hurricane party instead of getting out of the way of a Cat 5 barreling down on them.
I survived the 89 quake in Fremont with nothing but "distraction" while those on your side of the Bay faced disruption and even disaster. I know the cards you are dealt in an earthquake are the cards you are dealt, and am planning to make some "new friends" on that day should the time come again on the new fault line I live near :-)
The fact of the matter is, I don't have CERT training, so I myself fall into the catagory of clueless in many respects, but you are absolutely right that even my lack of training doesn't prevent me from contributing to the solution rather than the problem.

From FEMA: "Your disaster supplies kit should contain essential food, water, and supplies for at least three days."

Well, it's been three days since the earthquake, and Japan is demonstrating how ineffective THAT is!

So much for the 3 Days Rule!

On to Plan B.

Sue

I think the important phrase in the FEMA statements is "at least" three days. Obviously, more is better. Once you have the basics, you can extend the duration of your emergency preps by simply adding more food and water. Since most people make no advance preparations at all, three days for most of the population would be a vast improvement.

Nobody is dying of starvation or thirst as far as I know. The disaster there is somewhat unprecedented (EQ, Tsunami, Nuclear problems). I think they're doing ok all things considered.