I find that I have been glued to cnn.com as of late. We don’t have cable tv and I always seem to miss the evening news. Fortunately the family I have in Baton Rouge are all ok. I was able to speak with them both on the internet and via phone during the brief times when they have phone service. Even as far away as BR supplies are getting scarce as their population has gone from around 200k to 300k in just a couple of days. My aunt told me she was going to a grocery with an armed guard as people were getting mugged in the parking lot. I can’t imagine what it would be like to feel that desperate. Thankfully help has begun. I read on cnn that the area they are sending help to is 90,000 sq miles. That is an area more than twice the size of Kentucky (about 42k miles). No wonder it is taking so long. I just hope MS, AL etc don’t get forgotten in the mix.
I can donate to the Red Cross and send my prayers but sitting here watching from a safe distance still leaves me feeling pretty helpless. I have always been of the belief that I have to be prepared for anything. This meant keeping a stocked pantry, emergency kit in the house and car(s) etc. I even have a small rod on my key chain that can give off enough spark to start a fire if used with a piece of metal and something fluffy like cattail fluff or a cotton ball. As I looked at the pictures and watched the video of the people in the New Orleans I realized that more important than a stocked pantry (which can be obliterated quite easily as is evidenced by Katrina) is having a survival mindset and knowledge of how to use items around you to your advantage. There are ways individuals can purify water for drinking, wild foods that can be easily prepared with minimal or no supplies and simple shelters that can be set up for protection from the elements. More than ever I am feeling a need to get more educated in these areas.
Steel wool will take that spark and burn, and will do so in wet conditions.
A piece of info to add to your survival base.
Jenn,
I had actually heard that. I wonder if it will work with the soaped up steel wool (SOS pads) too or if they would have to be rinsed first? I see an experiment in the making…
I feel the same as you but am still waiting for the news of a close friend…its been 8 days now since last I heard of him…still no word.
Soaped up steel wool works too. Trust me. I was playing around with a SOS pad as a possible camping stove/fuel thing.
I recently had a friend come over to my place and pretty much out of nowhere, she said, “With all of the camping equipment you have lying around, I’ll be sure to stay near you in the event of a natural disaster.” Up until that point, I’d never really considered myself “prepared” for an emergency in quite the way that my parents were prepared with the stocked pantry full of MREs and whatnot. It was then that I realized that the same mindset that makes me survive for a week in the backcountry (and call it fun, no less) could get me through the after math of a storm. After all, I do have a water filter designed to turn pond sludge into something drinkible.
Anyway, if you want to bone up on survival skills, just pick up a basic intro-to-backpacking book at your local library. While it doesn’t tell you how to skin a squirrel with your bare hands, it does cover the basics such as eating what you see other mamals eating, how and where to eliminate your wastes, how to purify water, the ten most important items to have (I have forgotten them because I realized I had all 10 and then some …), and several different ways to start a fire.
I grew up north of here in upstate NY where it was not unusual to get snowed in for a few days. We always kept the basement stocked with food for those times when the roads were impassable. Boy, do I hate the taste of powdered milk! We were without water for about a week after Hurricane Floyd flooded NJ a few years ago, so now I also keep gallons of water in the basement along with my food stocks.
Glad to know about the soaped steel wool. O.R. did you know that powdered milk can be used to make yogurt or cheese? Powdered milk mixed at 1/5-2x the normal strength makes a great yogurt. I’ve even used old p.m. that had an off smell. Once it was made into yogurt you couldn’t tell the difference from yogurt made with fresh milk.
I too am one of those people that many of my friends say they will look up when the shtf. I like to have a backup of food and water around. It may be several months worth of beans and rice but at least I won’t go to bed hungry. I have one of those waterfilters on steroids too. lol
The one thing that hit me with this hurricane though is how fast all of those items could be history given the right set of circumstances. I think a backup of supplies is necessary but more importantly is a knowledge of how to use what is left around you to get what you need. Wild edibles, various ways of obtaining and purifiying water (if I don’t happen to have that filter with me), shelter, fire etc. There could come a time when that knowledge is all I have left.
During and just after a disaster it is normal to experience shock and panic initially. At some point though your very survival could depend on your knowledge and developing a game plan. If you have survival skills (both urban and in the wild) the odds of that panic taking over is less. It is impossible to think clearly during a panic. Watching the news of Katrina I would see so many people sitting on the side of the road in the blazing sun when items that could have been used to shelter them from the sun were sometimes just a few feet away.