The black boots go with the navy blue that many US Fire/Rescue teams wear, just part of the tradition. Working in rubble piles and mud will quickly dirty any boot, the darker color tends to hide the dirt a little. As you say the actual color probably does not matter for this individual, just as long as they provide the proper protection.

Pete

Advice from people who travel and work in crowded places:

Expect and be prepared for digestive issues brought on by stress, irregular schedules, and strange food/water:

Imodium, generic - Loperamide, to control diarrhea.

Pepto tablets - generic bismuth tablets, to smooth out digestive problems.

Tums, generic calcium carbonate antacid tablets, to sooth sour stomach from stress or strange food/water.

A supply of bland and known safe food can keep you going if your stomach isn't cooperating. A short supply of Mainstay or other 'survival rations' are usually acceptable. Pick one you like but avoid things you like too much, and things with a lot of flavor. A friend in another country spent three very exhausting days because all they could find that was safe and would stay down was roll of Lifesavers. A box of graham crackers would have been welcome.

Diarhea is a possible outcome of a new location and a sore bung problematic. Baby wipes with aloe, a small tube of Preparation-H, and/or Diaper creme with zinc oxide and balsam can keep things comfortable. These also have use as lubricants, hand creme and to coat minor scrapes.

Your going to be around a lot of people who will be moving around while you try to rest. Invest in ear plugs, the foam ones are usually best. They can be reused by a person a few times if still clean. Also get a sleep mask. Bring spares of both for friends.

Lay in a supply of Benadryl, generic - diphenhydramine, they are safe and effective sleeping pills and a very effective antihistamine. Haiti is a tropical island with a wide variety of potential allergens. Sleep and avoiding allergy attacks are both good.

Haiti is very near the equator. The sun, even in the winter, can flay the skin off your average lily-skinned Yankee in a few hours. A supply, and reserve, of a strong water-resistant sunscreen is going to serve you well. Wide-brimmed hat, long-sleeved shirt, and sunglasses with retainer(and a spare pair) will save you trouble.

With the cool wind coming off the water a fleece jacket is going to feel good after you acclimate to the heat. It also gets cool in the hills.

A short personal supply of Aspirin or whatever headache pills work for you wouldn't be out of place.

Bring your own reserve of toilet paper.

With a lack of clean water, crowds and dead bodies I would bring a supply of mentholated rub to apply under the nose to help with the smell. Haiti is pretty fragrant to start with. Disaster is unlikely to have improved it much.

You can't go wrong with a half-dozen bandannas. Plenty of uses.

Jerry,

There's lots of threads on PSKs. FWIW here is a start (see disclaimer below):

- Personal First Aid Kit (personal health is paramount; hand sanitizer and a CPR shield may be a good idea as well).
- Emergency blanket or bag (personal shelter and doubles to treat victims of shock - garbage bags could work in a pinch and do additional duty for water collection).
- In a wilderness PSK, matches or other fire-starting methods would be carried but I am not sure how vital these would be in this situation. Do you envision someone having to bug out and live off the land for a day or two? If so then include some matches in a waterproof case, a lighter (as simple or sophisticated as you like), and the spark-lite. You may want to have several options here and give the kit user a heads up to bring their own preferred method. Some tinder quik tabs would also be a good idea.
- Water is critical so carry some water purification tablets and sturdy water bags - the Nasco Whirl-Pak® Water Bag from the PSP Plus looks promising (standard disclaimer here and elsewhere in this post). I am sure there are other options; a simple baking bag with reusable zip tie may suffice. Some tubing might be ideal to reach pooled water behind some rubble (see Doug Ritter's Mini Kit elsewhere on the ETS site).
- Whistle, bandana, maybe a strobe or signal laser or other signaling items. I am thinking loud would be more useful than bright. For versatility, make the emergency blanket or garbage bags a bright color too (that's why I like the Heatsheet so well).
- Bring along some high calorie ration bars or similar energy food. In this situation a meal can be easily overlooked or worked through and you may suddenly find yourself ravenous. Something to eat, while admittedly not critical, can keep you thinking clearly. If long term living off the land is a possibility, include a fishing kit.
- A spare small headlamp (DRs eq headlamp comes to mind - don't forget extra batteries), a good plier tool, and mini sharpener. Not sure what other "tools" might be useful.
- Spare goggles and dust masks or respirators (there may be access to something a lot better but this is what I know - see disclaimer below), wipes, tp, insect repellant if bugs will be an issue, sunscreen, and sunglasses.
- Some wire, paracord, duct tape, sewing kit, safety pins, fresnel lens, aluminum foil, paper and pencil, and rubber bands.
- Navigation items like a compass are also normal for a wilderness kit but thinking these would be less critical in this situation.
- A prybar and jack-hammer would be nice but won't exactly fit in a small kit.

I mention my disclaimer again that I am not a professional, just thinking along PSK lines here. Others will have better input I am sure. Any items already being carried or deemed unneccessary could easily be dropped from the kit and replaced with other more neccessary gear. You could also start with a PSP and add some of the suggested items that are missing like the FAK, emergency blanket, water tabs, water bag, tubing, bandana, rations, headlamp, batteries, plier tool, mini sharpener, spare goggles and dust masks. Hope this helps.

Ladies and Gentlemen

I have used this forum for ideas for years and thought that you might like to see how New Zealand Red Cross equips its international disaster response delegates. We have to strike a balance between discharging our duty of care to our employees and not over burdening them. As a minimum they go with:

1. Hard shell case (Pelican 1510)
2. NZRC padlock x2 (+ TSA locks, USA use only)
3. Security cable
4. sheet sleeping bag – silk - long
5. Mosquito net and command removable hanging hooks
6. Insect repellent (small)
7. Loo paper x 2
8. Waterless bactericidal hand wash (small)
9. Sun block (small)
10. Poncho (cheap rain protection)
11. Very small windup torch
12. IFRC/NZRC/ERU (Finish) vest
13. NZRC T Shirt x 4
14. NZRC Sun hat
15. Life jacket (+strobe, +heliograph, a lot of our work is in Pacific Islands)
16. Food x 6 days (emergency)
17. Water filter + water sterilisation drops
18. Water bottle
19. Laundry liquid (conc.)
20. Polythene Tarpaulin/whiteboard (2x4 m)
21. Whiteboard pen (2 colours)
22. Builders twine
23. Personal first aid kit
24. Duct tape
25. Folding bucket
26. Can opener
27. Universal bath plug

The case, cable and padlocks together provide a reasonably secure stowage for valuables. At a pinch the polythene sheet duct tape and builders twine will give weather protection. If we suspect that accommodation will not be available we add a personal accommodation pack:

1. Backpack
2. NZRC padlock x2 (+ TSA lock, use only inside USA)
3. Security cable (2 meters)
4. Sleeping bag (lightweight)
5. Sleeping mat
6. Tent (self supporting, may be used as mosquito dome)
7. Food x 8 days
8. Knife Fork Spoon Mug & Plate
9. Cooking pot set
10. Multifuel stove & fuel bottle
11. Flint and steel
12. Loo paper x 4 roll

No matches, no lighters, to avoid arguments at airports. Each delegate has a personal issue SOG multitool, optimised for electrical work.
NZRC maintains an IT&Telecoms Emergency Response Unit for use by the IFRC, they may be deployed at 48 hours notice anywhere in the world. In the event of going to extreme climates we send them to an outdoors shop with a budget limit and tell them to buy what they need.
It was not our turn to delploy this time, never the less I have grown a few more grey hairs over the last couple of days.

Matthew

Matthew, thanks for contributing! Nice to have a Kiwi's perspective.

One question--what form does the food in your kits take? Like our retort-pouch MRE's? Or by "emergency" food, do you mean something more like compact lifeboat rations?

Interesting list. I like it and coming from Montana where everyone carries a knife of some sort...I am glad they get the multi-tool!

Areny, th 6 days food in "Personal Deployment Pack" (Pelican case) is simply lifeboat rations. It is there for those occasions when I make a complete misjudgement and there is nothing to eat on arrival. It buys time to send real food.

The food in the "Personal Accommodation Pack" (backpack) is complete daily menus "heat and eat" similar to MRE. The food is heavy so we send more when required. There are also a "Base camp" (mess tent, camp beds, tables and chairs)and "Base Office" (tent, tables, chairs,wifi, printers etc...) kits but these are sent as freight and are rarely required because most of the time we find buildings from which to base our operations.

A team comprises a team leader (technically capable but with good social skills to interface with the wider world) an IT speciallist and a Telecoms speciallist. All are expected to be able to contribute in their non speciallist field.

Matthew

Question - Multi-tool optimized for electrical work. Any comments on what those optimizations are? My most likely call out of for comms work. It's funny, as a ham, most of the guys in our group think "ham radio". My though (2 minor things, plus talking with the guys who have BTDT) is more "standing watch on some commercial radio, sat phone, helping run messages around, setup fax machines etc" - ham is the next to last choice, but the operators are traned in how to write down a clear message, and forward it

I know that's I've been asked to help wire phones, lans etc, and have alwasy been glad for my small bag of tools, and my leatherman

Anyone else carry a pair of field telephones and a spool of cable in their "Comms" bag? Useful at a shelter etc instead of tieing up an overused radio at times

Are you talking small electrical work, i.e. electronic devices like phones, radios, etc, or actual electrical work like house wiring?
For the small stuff the leatherman squirt EL/E4 (was called the EL back when I bought one) is pretty nice. The stripper is nice and sharp.

I have an EL - too small for all but the lightest use. Try and cut a cat5 with it. It's a good keyring addon to a real multitool

Being able to cut RG-58 is good. Ditto cat5. Work on the 12V power side of portable radios is critical

As it is now, my truck kit has some tools, and right next to my "radio box" is an orange dry box with "electrical tools". Things like a can wrench, adjustable wrenches, RJ45/RJ11 crimpers, stripper/crimpers for 22-10 gage wire (and a nice assortment of ring lugs/splices etc) a Butt set, tone trace set, etc etc (including gear to strip coax and install everything from F connectors to UHF, BNC, N, TNC connectors up to RG8/RG213/LMR400 class coax (you get to hardline, your on your own - that's not temp work)

Thing is, I'm not going to lug my dry box around all the time, so the question is - You're out in the field, away from your box, but will always have a multitool on you. An "optimized" multitool would be a "good thing"