You are assuming the ability to boil water. Chemical treatment is valid and should be discussed.

Discuss Iodine as the vast majority of people can use it safely and its cheap. Chlorine based treatment is the other option.

Water is such a huge priority not teaching all the treatment options is doing a disservice.

Flip

I am assuming nothing. I am fully aware that boiling water may not be an option and I do believe that all options relevant to the audience should be "discussed". I am also not stating that chemical treatments should not discussed but rather that samples should not be handed out just as medications (even aspirin) also should not. Perhaps I was not clear before. Hopefully this clears things up.

Rather than simply hand out the stuff, take a leaf from the Scouts: "Tell-Show-Do" Have the items there and coach them through assembling the entire thing. Even better if they have to "fabricate" part of it, such as winding a little duct tape around a piece of label backing or something like that.

Agreed... Also of course it must keep it relative to the audience. Obviously youre not going to show 5 year old kids how to start fires. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Not if you want to be invited back anyway. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Besides, these days you'd be brought up on child abuse charges a month later when one of them burned their finger. <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

FEMA has a kids section.

When I go looking for additional "Preparedness" sites, I find two basic kinds. There are commerical sites that may offer some information but are mainly interested in selling products. Or there are sites that are more "Survival" vs. Preparedness related. Survival sites tend to think more along the lines of wilderness survival and not much about Home Preparedness. Usually there is volumous discussion about guns. There seems to be a "My pile of guns is better than you pile of guns" along with "You have the wrong kind of gun" disscussion. Weapons have a place in preparedness but often the other areas get overlooked.

Finding information about preparing your home for a 3 -14 day emergency is difficult to find. The CERT program teaches good information along the lines of basic first aid and very basic rescue. Not much information about preparing your home. CERT assumes you are basically fine and normal and are offering help to less fortunate. Great if that is the case but we are still looking for how to keep ourselves safe and protected.

American Red Cross and FEMA both have 72 hour kit lists. Both leave out knifes, guns, and defensive stratgies. FEMA has PUB305 about how to build a hurricane/tornado shelter which is excellent building source. I believe it indicates to get a 72 hour kit but goes no further.

http://www.survival-center.com/ Captain Dave's is a commerical site but has very well written articles about preparing. His site is not extreme and should not scare most people new to preparing. He has also realized that after the first 72 hours are covered, it boils down to food programs.

http://theepicenter.com/ The EpicCenter has some good articles and is also a commerical site. Newbie friendly.

http://beprepared.com/ Again a commerical site but PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. friendly articles.

I have yet to find a good web site that really starts new people out with a plan. I would say a good home plan would start with at least one 72 hour kit with growth into a kit for each family member. Alternate Heating, Shelter, Water, Sanitation, and Food are the areas to be discussed. It seems the most difficult is the Food Storage and Rotation program.

A food storage and rotation program seems to be the component that is the real separater. It take disipline to create a true food storage and rotation program. A weeks worth of canned goods is easy for most to pull together. More than a month of food and you have to learn how to bake bread from scratch, and really learn how to cook. You have to plan ahead and it takes more effort than most really want to put towards preparedness.

Some sites try to make a years worth of food easy by selling a years worth of food in 5 gallon buckets for a couple of grand. More money than most people want to fork over at one time and it does not really take into account your varied taste preferences and eating habits. The most common story are the Y2K people who bought the food and 2 yrs later donate a buch of it to charity.

Sensible things like storing duct tape, sheet plastic, roofing nails, and a hammer to repair holes in the roof or windows after a storm is needed. Due to the recent build a plastic room to fight against chemical attack overshadows the usefulness of plastic and duct tape as a storage item.

Storing human powered tools is overlooked. Try and find a brace and bit today. Who owns a hand saw? People will spend $350 on a chainsaw but not store any gas. A $15 bow saw and $3 replacement blade would just clutter the garage and rust.

Lists abound on the web of people who wrote down every possible thing they could think of they might need if Y2K really happened. Most start with a lengthy list of guns and ammo, followed by a generater, and a HAM radio setup. Next is a list of food that goes on for pages. Seldom to you find any information about proper sizing and use of a generator, with the exception of Epic Center.

I digress. Good Luck.

Tom Brown's Field Guide to City and Suburban Survival

Tom Brown has a reputation for wilderness survival. Some swear by him, others swear at him. The above book is a good starting place for new people who are not interested in wilderness survival.

Resqman:

Is Tom Brown the guy who once stripped naked before walking into the woods and then lived in the woods for a fairly long time making whatever he needed?

Bountyhunter