Emergency Preparedness - Family Survival Course

Economic and Natural Disaster - Are You Prepared?

Most Americans face different challenges on a daily basis. Many people are called upon to face the challenge of surviving an economic or life threatening crisis on any given day. Being prepared can mean the difference between your survival or your death. Most have NO PLAN on emergency preparedness and are not "prepper minded".   Surveys reported on various news agencies determined that most, over 90 percent, of Americans are ill prepared financially and are without an emergency preparedness plan or the proper stocked supplies necessary to survive a crisis time window.   What makes the difference between success and failure during a crisis? Why do some succeed where others fail? How does someone wind up in the group that will succeed and survive? Having a plan, a course of action, is your best bet.

Family Survival Course

Having a guide, a road map to help you, is a primary factor in being prepared to execute all the necessary steps to survive and potentially thrive in trying times. It's easy once you learn and apply each of the steps before you begin. It starts with a mindset.  A plan. Then action.

Again, being prepared can mean the difference between your survival or your death. Are you willing to put together an emergency preparedness plan and follow it?  If you're serious, then you will want to understand what is important and what is a waste of time. Simply put, you should improve your knowledge first, then build your plan.  The Family Survival Course is the best plan of action out there.  I'm writing this article because of the impact this course has had on my life.  It has literally changed my life, how I think, and how I'm preparing for the inevitable economic crisis on the very near horizon.  Watch this life changing video, and if it isn't for you, don't proceed with it.  It's not for everybody.  It's for the planners, the pro-actives, parents with young families to protect who are prepper-minded.  And for some, who aren't news savvy, and aren't up to date with what's going on in our economy, our Congress, and the future of the U.S. dollar, this will be a life changing WAKE UP CALL.   The Family Survival Course, it changed my life, how I'm moving forward.   

For those who choose not to go with the Family Survival Course, I've listed below five helpful steps that you can implement in your life to increase your likelihood of succeeding during a crisis:

1. Take an inventory of your current food supply. Why do you need to do that? You need enough food to sustain you and your family for up to 6 months. The average person consumes roughly 2,000 calories per day. That is a safe target to shoot for. Any more and you are just wasting time and money.  Wise Company Food Kits are a good source for food supply (search this on Amazon).  You will need to supplement this food with multi-vitamins and mineral supplements, if you're in a long term scenario.

2. Make sure you have enough water or a source for water to provide at least a gallon per day to each family member. You need water to survive. You cannot survive without clean, purified water for more than 3 days. Good hygiene is also important to stay healthy, so additional water for cleansing needs to be added.

3. Alternative power sources. The reason behind this is you will need to power some lights, a cell phone and maybe a space heater. You may be without power for a long time. Keeping some sort of power capability is important. One more reason why this is advisable is if you are in a cold part of the country, staying warm will be essential for your survival.  Portable generators for more demanding power sources, and solar powered back up battery and chargers are good for cell phones, iPods and most USB powered devices.  

4. Have an alternative cooking source. You will want to be able to cook your food and boil water to cook and disinfect it. If you are storing freeze dried or dehydrated foods you will need to be able to boil water to clean it.

5. Have alternative shelter. Your home may be unlivable or unsafe to stay in. Angry mobs could potentially be going home to home looking for food and supplies. Having an alternative shelter in the mountains like land or a bunker may provide you this safe haven.  

To generate the best results with your emergency preparedness plan, you need to think of all possibilities, look at the resources you have to work with and put together a plan that is customized for you and your family.  The Family Survival Course can walk you through this, and prepare you for any future crisis.  Again, this course has changed my life, and I have more confidence now that I have a plan for my family.

Surviving a Natural Disaster - What We Learned

Totally Unprepared for Hurricane Katrina

Right in the Bullseye of Hurricane Katrina

My family and I moved to Mandeville, Louisiana back in June of 2005, as I was heading into a career change.. Little did I know what we were about to experience just a couple months later. Mandeville sits on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, about 20 miles north east of New Orleans. In late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina was fast approaching the Mississippi/Louisiana coast, and we were totally unprepared for what was about to happen..  It reached a Category 5 level storm offshore, then hit the coast as a strong Category 4.

Following Neighbor's Advice

Neighbors of ours, who go through this every year in Louisiana (obviously, not to the level of Katrina, but have tropical storm and hurricane watches pretty regularly), let us know what they typically do to prepare for potential storms (they're emergency preparedness plan)..

• The very first thing they said to do was to get reservations inland at a hotel/motel a couple hours away from the coast. This was challenging with every storm we encountered since Katrina (have to book early, or you're out of luck getting a room, unless you know someone who lives inland, which we didn't). Have a place to evacuate to..
• Next, because we were in a low lying area, we needed to get sand bags to protect our house from potential flooding. So, we sand bagged all of our door entry areas on the outside of the house.
• Next, secure or stow all loose items on your property to reduce the potential for debris damage on your home and your neighbor's home.
• Next, if you had storm shutters on your house, which we did, make sure to close the storm shutters over your windows, to protect the windows from outside penetrating damage.
• Next, if you had an extra car which you weren't using to evacuate, make sure it's protected in the garage, which we had done.

This was basically all the advice we got, before Katrina hit (because everyone was in such a hurry, we got limited information). We didn't think beyond this, and got out of town as soon as possible, a day before the storm hit.

Learned A Lot More At the Hotel..

When we got to our hotel, a day before Katrina came ashore, we learned alot more about disaster preparedness from seasoned evacuees staying at the hotel.. These folks (many of them) had emergency preparedness kits, bottled water cases, and limited food supply travelling with them in their cars.. They talked about having gas and propane powered generators for their homes, meals-ready-to-eat (MREs), hand cranked flashlights and lanterns, plenty of available cash, and a host of other ideas. We realized then how unprepared we really were.

First, The Common Sense Stuff

Obviously, you'll need to make sure you have plenty of food, water and milk on hand to last you a good week (a minimum 72 hours), to weather out the storm and the post storm clean up and repair of roads, power lines and potential store closings.. Having plenty of ice on hand, with reusable cooler packs (the blue plastic and bag encased packs) already frozen and ready to throw in a cooler, are necessities in keeping your perishables cold.. Now, you want to look for coolers that are well insulated, that can keep things cold for about 5 days or so. Coleman has an Xtreme brand of insulated coolers that can do that. We bought the 100-Quart size after Katrina, and it has come in handy with other power outages we've encountered..

Survival Emergency Kits

Survival emergency kits are essential for surviving several days after a disaster or emergency occurrence.  These kits are loaded with survival gear designed to provide the basic essentials of surviving for several days after an event.  These kits include (vary from kit to kit):  radios, backpacks, ponchos, reflective sleeping bags, multi-tool knifes, whistles, masks, first aid kits, hygiene kits (toothbrushes, toothpaste, comb, washcloths, tissues, wet naps, shampoo, etc.), candles, food bars, body warmers, toilet paper, water pouches, pencils, sewing kits, and emergency guides.  These kits really amazed me with what they have inside them.

Hand Cranked Flashlights and Lanterns

Hand cranked flashlights and lanterns are essential during an extended power outage situation. They provide a continuous source of light, without the need for batteries or electricity. I highly recommend these for folks anywhere to have handy in case of an extended power outage. This came highly recommended by those seasoned evacuees, who've been there, done that. So, we have both a hand cranked flashlight and a hand cranked lantern in our storm supply bin. The hand cranked lantern we have provides a great source of light, which lights up an entire room and lasts for about an hour between cranks. I highly (highly) recommend a hand cranked lantern.

Portable Power Generators

Portable power generators are a common commodity for residents in the Gulf states.  These generators allow you to be able to plug in appliances (such as refrigerators and air conditioning units), during power outages.  This equipment is critical to maintaining a functioning household, like keeping food from spoiling and keeping air cool, during hot summer days and nights..  And believe me, after Hurricane Katrina, we didn't have power for 10 days (and we were lucky compared to other neighborhoods around us) and it was hotter than hell.

Meals Ready to Eat (MREs)

MREs were pretty foreign to us, outside of knowing the military used these during wartime. However, many folks living where we were had MREs stocked up, in case of emergency. So, after Hurricane Katrina, we stocked up on MREs, in case the inexplicable happened again.. These MREs are essential for short term survival, providing quality meals, with a surprising variety of choices, with good caloric value, and a flameless ration heater that heats up the food pack.  Typically, MREs last about 3 years in proper climate storage.  So, don't overbuy given the limited shelf life of these items.

Family Survival Course (HIGHLY Recommend This - Never Felt More Prepared for a Crisis)

Want to be prepared after a natural disaster or a Governmental financial collapse?  I found a course for you to check out.  It is truly an eye opener for what is about to come involving an economic collapse..  You're seeing it on the news right now.  I went into this course very skeptical. I've seen it all. But this one really surprised me. This course revealed some killer strategies I'd never seen anywhere. I finally feel prepared for ANYTHING.  Check it out, you'll be glad you did:  Family Survival Course.

Links to Other Informative Sites

• Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness
  Is America better prepared today to respond to a major disaster post Katrina? The talking heads are at it again with the events occurring in Haiti. A little quip this morning from someone in the mainstream...
• Earthquake preparation tips
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• Survival Kits: List of Supplies Needed for Emergency Preparedness - Items for Your Checklist
  List of supplies to have on hand in a disaster survival kit in case of an emergency and tips to help you prepare for the worst possible scenario.