Welcome

This blog has grown out of my weekly newspaper column. Enjoy.
A prudent person forsees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. Proverbs 22:3 (NLT)

Saturday, October 20, 2012


Mapping Your Neighborhood
       Lets play a little game of pretend.  A major disaster has hit your neighborhood.  The electricity just winked off all over town.  Maybe a tornado or earthquake or hurricane-force winds.  You’re pretty sure there’s damage on your neighbor’s house so you pick up the phone to call 9-1-1.  The line is dead.  Cell phone, “Sorry all circuits are busy try your call again later,” in that irritating, metallic voice you hate to hear.  You can’t reach anyone.  But you feel a responsibility to your neighbor, after she’s an elderly lady, lives alone and someone should probably go check on her.  After all a big tree just fell across her house.  She could be injured.  You try the cell phone again.  Same answer.  Pick up the landline, still dead.
The reality is that during a major catastrophic event, YOU are the first responder.  This is why neighborhoods all across the country are instituting a progam called ‘Mapping Your Neighborhood’.  This is a simple grass-roots plan that relies on people organizing their own neighborhoods and building a network of contacts based on who lives on your block or in your immediate vicinity.  Generally made up of fewer than 20 homes, a list is compiled of who lives where.  Do they have natural gas or a propane tank?  Is there an elderly person in the home, one who may need assistance in the event of a disaster.  Are they on oxygen?  How about insulin?  Does anyone have a toddler or infant in the home?  On the other hand, is anyone in your neighborhood equipped with a backhoe, generator, chainsaw or other item that could come in handy during a crisis.  How about skills?  Is anyone trained in medical care, maybe a nurse or someone who can give care to an elderly person or a young child?  Does anyone have carpentry skills?  Anyone skilled in counseling, maybe a minister?
All these questions will be answered at your first neighborhood meeting.  What is needed is for someone to grasp the vision of seeing their neighborhood come together and get organized on a very local level.  Only one meeting per year is really necessary and only then to update files.  Some groups simply compile a list of their neighbors and make a basic plan while others do fundraisers to buy needed equipment like fire extinguishers or community-owned chainsaws.  The extent of involvement is strictly up to the local neighborhood.
To begin simply search online for “Mapping Your Neighborhood Oregon.”  You will find a booklet you can print off to get you started.  If politics isn’t exactly your thing, but you want to contribute to your neighborhood, this may be just the opportunity for you.  There is no federal funding, but most cities in our region have someone who is designated to assist with disaster preparedness.  If that fails you may always contact me at disasterprep.dave@gmail.com  Other information can be found on my blog at www.disasterprepdave.blogspot.com.


#38 Mindsets  
       There are those who make things happen, those who watch what happens and those who wonder what happened.  I find a similar set of breakdowns when it comes to disaster preparedness.  
The first group is absolutely convinced the sky will fall in at any moment.  Society will collapse, electrical power will be cut off, and gangs of lawless marauders will be running free in the streets.  But this group has it covered, they have planned ahead.  Their “bug out location” is hidden in the mountains, well fortified and stocked with beans, bullets and band aids.  Their “bug out vehicle” is fully capable of carrying all their bug out gear and is ready to spirit them and their family to safety. These people are gung-ho and fully committed to their cause.  For them, disaster preparedness is almost a form of religion to be preached and practiced to a level of high fanaticism
       At the other end of the spectrum is the guy who, for whatever reason, has no intention of making any kind of preparations.  When the topic comes up in conversation his response goes something like this:  “Well if anything happens, I’ll just come to your house.” That’s the best way I know of to irritate a prepper.  To which one person answered, “Why would you take food out of the mouths of my children when you had ample warning to prepare?”
No matter where a person finds themselves in this discussion, sooner or later you will be required to rely on what you have set aside. Your disaster may be nothing more than a wind storm that takes down the power lines between you and the grocery store, or it could be a 9.0 megaquake that devastates an entire region for weeks.  Either way you will fare better with just a bit of foresight, a few of the basics on your shelves and an attitude that says, “We’ll get through this, and hopefully help out our neighbors along the way.”
Most of us, I’m sure, fall somewhere in the middle of the debate.  Not quite fanatical, but not quite complacent either.  So now is the time to get started.  On your next trip to the grocery store, watch for sales, pick up some non-perishable foods strictly for the purpose of setting them aside.  Next time, do the same.  Search your closets and drawers for old candles.  You know, the ones that are either broken  or just don’t match your decor this month.  Presto, emergency lighting.  Clean out your old Coleman stove and fire it up just to make sure it still works.  See how easy this is?  You’re well on your way to being prepared. For other suggestions check outwww.ready.gov or www.redcross.org.  And comments or questions can always be sent to me at disasterprep.dave@gmail.com.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012


Attitude Check
       When considering disaster preparedness, supplies and equipment are important.  Many of my columns have dealt with the issue of “Get A Kit, Make A Plan, Be Informed.”  More important than stuff, is knowledge.  But ultimately knowledge will take a backseat to attitude.   Time after time those who found themselves in a survival situation did not make it even though they had all the equipment necessary.   In the book Deep Survival:  Who lives, who dies and why: true stories of miraculous endurance and sudden death, author Laurence Gonzales points out, “....experience, training, and modern equipment can betray you. The maddening thing for someone with a Western scientific turn of mind is that it’s not what’s in your pack that separates the quick from the dead.  It’s not even what’s in your mind.  Corny as it sounds, it’s what’s in your heart.”
       My father’s generation grew up during the Great Depression.  Often times they were forced to make do with what they had on hand.  When I was 17 years old, my uncle took my cousin and me camping and deer hunting in the Callahan area northwest of Roseburg. He had an old International pickup and it was a barebones camping trip.  When we arrived at our campsite, we discovered we had no matches. This didn’t even faze Uncle Eddie.  He pulled a greasy rag from behind the pickup seat, siphoned some gasoline onto the rag, shorted a wire across the battery terminals that tossed a spark on the rag and we had fire!  I was amazed.  He acted like he did this sort of thing everyday. There was no panic, no temper tantrum, just the attitude of “we’ll figure it out.”
       The depression years taught “The Greatest Generation” they could make do with whatever they had at hand.  I have learned that when I need something, I simply make a trip to the store and get it.  My father would encourage me to “skip the trip and make do with what I had on hand.”
       During a catastrophe, we may be required to make do.  This is not a matter of making sure we have an extra ton of PVC fittings, although that can’t hurt.  Nor is it a matter of storing up several cases of freeze dried food, not a bad idea.  But it is the attitude of being able to conquer this challenge using baling wire, duct tape and zip ties.  
       So start developing your ‘can-do’ skills.  Next time you need a fastener for the garden gate, make one.  Need a widget to store your nuts and bolts? Make one.  You’ll save a few bucks and find that you really can “make do” successfully!
       If you’ve managed to get by with what you’ve got on hand, I’d be interested in hearing about it.  You can email me at disasterprep.dave@gmail.com.  Previous columns are posted on my blog at www.disasterprepdave@blogspot.com