UNPREPARED? Wake up!!! <br>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Many many moons ago...there once was this guy. He was not prepared to be out in the freezing cold winter when his apartment building burned. The only time he had was enough to get dressed. Angry at himself he was, and vowed to never allow this situation to unfold again. Never again would he be left at the mercy of others. He read, researched, and purchased an array of tools and other items. Today he sits at the keyboard and tells the story of how he was irrevocably altered that fateful night. (Do you know who it is yet?...Yeah, it's me.) <br><br>I'm curious to know if anyone else has ever been affected in this way. Were you once a "clueless" as I was? If so, what changed your thinking? These days I'm well prepared and much more aware of the everchanging surroundings that I move through. In a way, I'm very thankful for the wakeup call that I was given.

I have not had such a tramatic wakeup call but I have had many much smaller mundane wake up calls. My training started as a Boy Scout and was fostered thorugh years of being a member of the Fire, EMS, and rescue services. Y2K prompted me to increase my families preparations. Extreme weather causing state wide flooding, week long power outages, and virtually closing town the down for a week due to ice and snow, have allowed me to practice and use my supplies. <br><br>As a responder, I have seen on a daily basis how well meaning and otherwise knowledgable people are caught without necessary supplies and plans, sometimes through no direct fault of their own. The constant reminder of seeing how others are effected, has encouraged me to try and prepare for the unplanned event. <br><br>Even after years of research, I constantly come across new ideas and techniques that make my preparations obsolete or in need of adjustment. <br><br>I look forward to your insights.

Gatekeeper -<br><br>Kudos to you for taking charge of your life! Thanks for sharing your story.<br><br>I've been lurking on the forum for a while, but your post prompted me to write.<br><br>I fly a widebody airplane (mostly East Coast to Europe) and am frequently amazed at some of our passengers and even off-duty crewmembers. <br><br>On a night takeoff in heavy snow, they turn on the overhead reading light and slip their shoes off. (No night vision left in case of an emergency egress and no foot protection in case of climbing out of a burning plane - embers, hot metal - into the snow.)<br><br>I'm not advocating a full polar immersion suit ;-]] but at least keep one eye closed and have your shoes on. A PSK would be wayyy over the top for most of these folks, though!<br><br>Thanks for letting me rant.<br><br>

Where did it start... I'm not even sure.<br><br>As a kid I remember the “duck and cover” drills, and lining up in the halls and covering our heads, in preparation for air raids.. but I don’t think that was ever real to me. I remember the tension during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and someone tried to explain to me that we might all die at any time, but I don’t think I really understood.<br><br>At some young age, in reading Heinlein’s novels (I think I read the first at about seven) I came across “Tunnel in the Sky”, and I’ve always owned at least one copy since, and given some away- it’s still one of my all-time favorite books. That was still fiction, and not day to day reality, but it did get me thinking. Much later I read his “Farnham’s Freehold”, and “Time Enough for Love”, both also containing great survival advice, along with all of his other books. He probably had somewhat more influence on me than my parents. I don't think you can be a Heinlein fan and not be survival-oriented, they're almost the same thing.<br><br>I think the first inkling I had that real life could really be unpredictable was the NYC area blackout in 1965. It was relatively event free, in retrospect. Where we were, even the phones still worked. Still, all the authorities were so obviously helpless to either predict it or do anything about it, it had to get you thinking. My thoughts ran more or less along the same lines as James Burke’s, much later, in the first chapter of “Connections”, which starts out with this incident. <br><br>I remember clearly the first magazine article I read about Outward Bound. We didn’t have the web then, and I kept the article with me for weeks and re-read it several times. Couldn’t get my parents to consider it for me.<br><br>I was in the DC area during the riots in ’68, and saw the armed troops, the tanks rolling down the streets of the nation's capital.<br><br>Sometime about then I found the original edition of “The Complete Walker”, by Colin Fletcher. Up until then I’d only been camping a few times, and had no idea such adventures were even possible. That book certainly changed my life, and opened up the possibilities of getting by on my own, with very little. I became a backpacker for many years.<br><br>I was still in the DC area when it was hit by hurricane Agnes a few years later. I was actually trying to get home in a car- sense won out eventually, and I crashed at a friend’s. The next morning I walked through park areas and saw cars up in the trees from the flooding the night before, the pavement itself ripped up and scattered downstream.<br><br>Not too many years later, my parents were caught without power for a week in sub-feezing temperatures in the famous ice storm in Connecticut. They were the only family in the neighborhood not to abandon their house. With no generator, the oil stove was out, so my father drained all the pipes in the house so they wouldn’t freeze and burst, and the family moved into one room. The water was from an artesian well, so there was pressure enough to fill buckets in the basement, for drinking, cooking, sponge baths and flushing the toilet. They cooked in the fireplace that also supplied heat. My father had wood already cut to length but not split when it started- he said it took 12 hours of splitting wood to fuel that fireplace for 24, with a margin of safety. Many other houses didn’t come out so well.<br><br>Then there have been blizzards, ice storms where I’ve been stranded downtown, the Y2k thing, etc. etc. I was in San Francisco during both the Oakland fire and the Rodney King riots there, the latter of which I was a little too close to. Could have been a lot worse.<br><br>So for me, it was a gradual thing, not sudden, lots of incidents over many years, but lots of reinforcement, too.<br><br>Now we’re at war with terrorists and have anthrax casualties, and I can hear the military jets circling over the area all night, every night. It’s been a lot of years, but I don’t regret any of the thought or learning.<br>

WOW! Thanks a lot for the responses. It's not just any forum that a new guy can get immediate, in-depth views from the vets. I look forward to future correspondence at ETS.<br>The Gatekeeper

When I lived in the midwest I used to be the one that was "always prepaired for everthing." Then I moved to NYC and fell off badly thinking that everything I want is at my finger tips. Anything in the world to eat or drink is only a few blocks away. Everything you need as far as the phone.<br><br>Then 9/11 was a big wake up call! I quickly realized that I may, at any time (even living in the center of the universe) be forced to rely only on what I know and what I have on me. And mabey for an indefinate amount of time. <br><br>I am quickly reverting back to my old ways and this site has been helping me. Fortunately, knowledge will give you a greater edge than any knife you may carry.

My other interests and experiences slowly coalesced into "being prepared". I was fortunate to live in Arizona as a child. My best friend was Apache, and we learned a few skills from his father. He was no Tom Brown "Stalking Wolf" mentor, but a modern cowboy. Then I enlisted in the Coast Guard and went to arctic, marine and desert (!) survival schools. In college I majored in Archaeology. I quickly appreciated that the"'Noble Savage" capable of living with mother earth with little more than a knife is a myth. Ditto the Rambo superman. Humanity is a tool using animal. It may be stone and sinew, but the oldest flint knife is a incredibly complex and sophisticated tool. We are all gearheads,from our most distant ancestors to the grandson recieving his first knife. It's the fella with a folsum point dart/ leatherman that survives the cavebear/power outage :0)

Working in the Industrial Security field and running three separate staffs who had to work together at a single location with 17 buildings and over 2500 employees, temps and contractors on site, I quickly learned to always have my gear with me. There's nothing like being caught in a full blackout while inspecting a huge underground hazardous waste tank from the inside to make you glad you always carry your flashlight! There's nothing like running into professional gamblers who have come up to your site to break the legs of one of your employees to make you glad you always carry your radio! There's nothing like calling 911, then standing in an intersection waving your arms and still seeing the ambulance turn away from you rather than toward you to make you glad you always carry your whistle! Etc.<br><br>At this same site, we had three Emergency Response Teams: a Medical Team, a Hazardous Materials Team and a Fire Brigade. Although it was not required by my position, I chose to join all three. I wanted the experience, I wanted the training and I wanted to be able to best understand how my staffs could/should operate in conjunction with the ERTs. There's nothing like being in a burning building trying to keep a fire from reaching a storeroom of explosive gas canisters to make you appreciate your gear, your training and your fellow responders!<br><br>(As an aside, later in life, I became a computer geek. After changing careers, employers and locations for about three months, I realized how really really comfortable it is to work in a building that is not designed to "blow up the corrrect way". ^_^;)<br><br>Since I first started driving, I have always kept a few items of basic "car gear" in my vehicle along with some basic cold weather gear during the Winter. Since my medical training, I have always kept a bag ready at home and carried one in my car. One night when I was 20 or so, I was driving my little econo-sedan in a freezing rain. I crested a hill and saw cars waiting at the "valley" at the foot of said hill to slowly take turns trying to cross some rushing water pouring over the lowest portion. One car had washed out and was pushed to the side of the road. Others had crossed successfully, but had failed to make it up the hill on the far side, because of ice on the road. They were staggered at various points, all stalled out up the road. A Jeep CJ took his turn and just beebopped along through the water and up the other side, slowly but easily handling ice and water alike. I thought, "Oooh, I want one."<br><br>Over fifteen years later, I finally got a Jeep Wrangler. The first time I took it offroad, I immediately realized I had the ability to drive out significantly farther than either the ambulance or the tow truck could reach. I understood that if I ever had a problem while I was out, it would be up to me to handle it, and that it would be too late, at that point, to go shopping for whatever I needed. So, I expanded on what gear I regularly carried, adding repair and extraction gear to my always carried items, and also began swapping my cold weather gear out for hot weather gear during the Summer. Indeed, I find it so comforting that I created a very small bag I carry in my checked baggage when I fly and immediatly drop into the trunk of any rental cars I get when I arrive. (They don't come with jumper cables and fix-a-flat, so you'd better carry your own if you want them.) I realize that's a lot of trouble, but so is everything else that I do, and the peace of mind I live with is very much worth the effort and expense, I find.<br><br>A couple of years ago, I went hiking up through Washington state and into Canada for nine days with my girlfriend. Nothing bad happened, but there were a number of areas where I realized we would be in trouble if anything did. That was what prompted me to begin trying to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and experience, especially in the area of "outdoor survival".<br><br>The L.A. riots, Seattle, Y2K and some untimely blackouts during ice storms taught me to think differently about my home, and I now keep a nice rotating supply of water, firewood, non-perishable foods which do not require cooking and other items. I'm not storing grain in 55gal drums, but I'm not going to starve, dehydrate nor freeze this month, either.<br><br>One night on the news, I saw how a derailed train carrying chlorine for swimming pools had forced the evacuation of several square miles of residential area near where I lived. I realized I live very close to some well-used railroad tracks. Oops! So, I made up a bug out bag and then realized it would be just as useful should my home ever catch fire and I need to relocate temporarily some day or night. I considered respirators for chemical spills and figure I should get some industrial ones like we used at my old job. Also, I am now considering respirators for bio issues as well, but have not added those to my bug out bag, at least not as of yet. We'll see...<br><br>My girlfriend finds comfort in my preparations, especially recently during our hightened emotions in this period of crisis. My girlfriend's sister thinks I'm silly and somewhat paranoid. She trekked Nepal and didn't take a thing except the small kit I convinced her to carry just for her father's peace of mind. My girlfriend's father is glad I take all of this seriously. He likes the gear I've given his daughter for her car and home, and even gave me a winch, welding lessons and a small arc welder for my Jeep. My girlfriend's mother used to think like the sister, but since WTC has come to think more like the father. My own family was much like the mother, considering me to have a somewhat peculiar hobby, but since 9/11 have come to appreciate living in a more prepared stance.<br><br>So, no one big wake up call for me; just years of various experiences teaching me that someone has to take the initiative, or the equipment and the knowlege of how to use it won't be there when the crisis hits, and that I'd better be the one to take that responsibility, since it's not likely that anyone else is going to do it for me.

Over 40 years ago while driving back to college in a driving blizzard, my car stalled in the middle of the Walt Whitman bridge connecting NJ and Philadelphia, PA. The bridge police pushed me across the remainder of the bridge and around and under it !! - so far that I could not even see the lights of the toll booths through the driving snow. Totally unprepared with only street shoes and a light jacket, I nearly froze for an hour and a half. Fortunately the problem with the vehicle was a vapor locked carburator and it finaly restarted. I've always looked upon this serious experience as a blessing since I've never been so hopelessly unprepared since.

Chris: as always, your comments are thought provoking. I've heard of a book called "Primitive Wilderness Living & Survival Skills" where the author goes into the wilderness and survives with only the clothes on his back. Do you believe this? Maybe there is a time limit here- you can survive for a short while on very little, but in the long run, you're going to be sick and unhealthy?<br><br>What are your reasons for not believing in self-sustainability (the Noble Savage myth)?<br><br>P.S. In case you're interested in reading about that book, I found a link at:<br><br>http://www.hollowtop.com/hopsstore_html/mcpherson.htm<br><br>I haven't bought it, but I have considered it.