Odds ‘n Sods:

Refrigerator or Counter? Where to Store Some Produce May Surprise You. There are some foods that absolutely need refrigeration and some that are better off stored outside of your fridge. – H.L.

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Why Colt Can’t Shoot Straight. An interesting read, but remember that the source magazine is owned by Bloomberg. – T.P.

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Gun Seller Dropped By Bank Rejects Their Attempt ‘To Kiss And Make Up’. – G.P.

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If the severe drought in the Southwest wasn’t enough to strain food growers, now they are dealing with a plague of grasshoppers: Grasshoppers cloud weather radar.

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Now we know why Obama thinks a large standing army in a time of war is unnecessary: Obama at West Point: ‘Effort to Combat Climate Change…Will Help Shape Your Time in Uniform’ . – T.P.

Notes for Saturday – May 31, 2014:

May 31, 1895 is the birthday of George R. Stewart (novelist, university professor and toponymist) died: August 22, 1980. In the preparedness community, he is best remembered as the author of the classic post-pandemic novel Earth Abides.

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Today we present another entry for Round 52 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value),
  2. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear,
  5. A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value),
  6. A $300 gift certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  7. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  8. A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com, (currently valued at around $180 postpaid),
  9. Both VPN tunnel and DigitalSafe annual subscriptions from Privacy Abroad (a combined value of $195),
  10. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304,
  11. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit, and
  12. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $300 gift certificate.

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. Acorn Supplies is donating a Deluxe Food Storage Survival Kit with a retail value of $350,
  4. The Ark Instituteis donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package–enough for two families of four, seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate– a $325 retail value,
  5. $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P),
  6. A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials,
  7. A full set of all 26 books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  8. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value),
  9. Autrey’s Armory – specialists in AR-15, M4s, parts, and accessories is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  10. Dri-Harvestfoods.com in Bozeman, Montana is providing a prize bundle with Beans, Buttermilk Powder, Montana Hard Red Wheat, Drink Mixes, and White Rice, valued at $333,
  11. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $150 gift certificate, and
  12. Organized Prepper is providing a $500 gift certificate.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security,
  5. A MURS Dakota Alert Base Station Kit with a retail value of $240 from JRH Enterprises,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances, and
  7. Ambra Le Roy Medical Products in North Carolina is donating a bundle of their traditional wound care and first aid supplies, with a value of $208.
  8. SurvivalBased.com is donating a $500 gift certificate to their store.

Round 52 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Proselytizing With Pandemics, by D.C.

Perhaps in the nature vs. nurture debate, it is going to turn out that people worried about emergency preparedness are just born that way. Certainly, I have tried for years to persuade many of my skeptical friends that having, say, some extra food on hand or some means of personal protection, or even a backup source of energy greater than an extra D battery, is just plain common sense. What I have experienced in response to my well-intentioned suggestions are rolled eyes, turned backs, and closed minds. I’ve pretty much despaired of ever making even the smallest dent in their evident disdain; I figure maybe it is just the way they are, like a law of nature or death and taxes. Maybe, but then again, maybe not. I’ve recently found that there just might be reason for the smallest sliver of hope on my part; for at least a select few, there may be a way to coax out some common sense. Let me explain.

An Opened Door

My youngest daughter lives in downtown Los Angeles and dates a boy who is predictably “left coast” in his attitudes– negative towards guns, prepping, and pretty much anything or anyone to the right of Hillary Clinton. I try to avoid talk of politics and religion when I’m around him, if only because, given the state of things, who needs more stress and conflict in his life? However, when I called her several months ago to see how her job search was going, I found them together and somewhat shaken by their most recent earth tremor. This particular one had not been terribly destructive, especially by California standards, but “it went on and on and on, and I thought it never would stop!” moaned my daughter. (I wanted to say, “If you live in downtown LA, earthquakes would seem to be the least of your worries”, but I was a good father and bit my tongue.) What bothered her boyfriend most was that in one particular area north of them, gas and electricity had been cut off for a rather long period of time. “If the ‘big one’ ever occurred, what would we do if that happened to us?” he exclaimed to my daughter. “No lights, no water. How would people react?” I thought I might be hearing one of those “mugged by reality” moments.

“How about putting a case of bottled water in your apartments, or maybe a case in each of your trunks,” I suggested. He agreed that sounded like a good idea. What I had not known was that his mother and her boyfriend had just recently been returning home to San Francisco from visiting one of his siblings. Their car had broken down at night in one of those “God-forsaken” parts of California that people back east don’t even know exist. They had not died of hypothermia because the man had left, by accident, some blankets in his trunk. Putting survival items in the trunk now seemed like the very definition of good sense to the boyfriend.

I knew I had to act fast. “When is your birthday?” I asked. It turned out to be just a couple of weeks off. (It was obvious to me at that moment that God was on my side.) “How about I send you something you can keep with you or in your car to help out if need be?” “That would be great!” he exclaimed, but honestly that might have been more a factor of someone caring enough to give him a present than any particular safety concerns. I rushed to Amazon, bought a good quality carabiner keychain, a compact whistle, the tiniest LED flashlight I have ever seen, and a small magnesium fire starter. I hooked them all together and threw in one of those credit card survival tools to boot. Now people online will argue back and forth ad infinitum about the pros and cons of the smallest piece of survival gear, as if the fate of mankind hung in the balance. Frankly my dear, in this particular case, I didn’t give a care if this was a particularly good set of tools to carry on a key chain or not. I had bigger fish to fry. The door had cracked open, and I needed to get an attractive-looking foot into it before it slammed shut.

What next? How do I exploit this opening?

Now when I am trying my best to convince acquaintances of the need to prepare by talking about electromagnetic pulses, biological and chemical weapons, or even attacks on the electrical grid, I am usually met with something akin to a yawn and “yeah, yeah, like that is ever going to happen”. Like the “black swan” metaphor of risk fame, if it hasn’t happened yet people find themselves incapable of even conceiving the possibility.

However, that response (or more properly, non-response) won’t do when the subject of pandemics is raised. Pandemics are real. They’ve happened in the remote past, the less distant past, and in the recent past. It is (almost) impossible to argue that they won’t happen again. Plus, unlike our hypothetical chemical attack, everyone has “seen” the flu– personally and up close. Mention a flu epidemic and the first thing people visualize is their pathetic and suffering selves, wrapped in blankets wishing they were dead. Influenza happens.

Then I realized, there it is. If we want to start people on the path to understanding the importance, not to mention the necessity, of emergency preparedness, you first must address a perceived need.

As an aside, it is interesting that this issue of convincing a “non-believer” has been addressed by Christian philosophers since almost the very beginning of the faith. “Believe, and the rationale will suddenly make sense,” the theologian says. “I’m not going to believe, until it makes sense,” replies the non-believer. As St. Augustine said, nobody ever believed what they didn’t first think was rational. Pandemics are rational.

The Pandemic Emergency Kit

So the remainder of this article discusses the Pandemic Emergency Kit I assembled for my daughter, and by extension, her boyfriend. It is designed to meet three (3) goals:

  1. Treat the infected individual,
  2. Keep the caregiver healthy and free of the infection, and
  3. Support both of them for a period of at least thirty days, while meeting and travel bans are in effect.

The kit is based in large part on a paper written by Dr. Grattan Woodson, MD, FACP for his own patients[1]. I included a paper copy of this article in the kit, since it contains a lot of diagnosis, treatment, and explanatory information. I added my own twist, based on a paper describing a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study into the use of Elderberry syrup (Sambucol®) to treat flu patients.[2] The study specifically looked for immune system response to viral pathogens (cytokines). The conclusion of the researchers was that formulations of Sambucol® activate the immune system by increasing cytokine production. I’ve listed another study[3] below that can be referred to by anyone caring to do so.

Goal 1 – Treat the Infected individual

The treatment of influenza has progressed very little in the last hundred years. We do have anti-viral drugs, such as Tamiflu®, but it is a prescription medication and, if not administered within the first two days of the infection, is pretty much useless. As several Internet writers have noted, it usually takes one day just to realize you have the flu. So in a flu pandemic, are you realistically able to get an appointment, see your doctor, get to a well-stocked pharmacy, and administer the drug, all within the time limit? Not likely. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough to be concerned about with trusting to Tamiflu®, it turns out that it is not that effective, even when you do meet all of the above conditions.

So the treatment (and hence the kit’s contents) are going to be pretty much the standard things your mother used to use– keep the patient comfortable, push clear liquids, and don’t let them infect others.

The kit’s Goal 1 contents include:

A basic fluid solution to be mixed from the following:

  • Salt – 1 lb.
  • Sugar – 10 lbs.
  • A source of clean water (not included)

General items for comfort:

  • Baking soda – 6 oz.
  • Caffeinated tea – 1 lb.

Over-the-Counter items for treating symptoms:

  • Tums Ex: 500 tablets
  • Baking soda – 6 oz.
  • Ibuprofen 200mg. – 100 tablets
  • Benadryl 25mg – 60 capsules

Essential equipment for measuring and recording progress and mixing the basic fluid solution:

  • Kitchen measuring spoons and cups
  • Electronic thermometer
  • Blood pressure cuff
  • Notebook and pen or pencil

Dr. Woodson’s paper talks about using all of the above, including the protocols for making and administering the basic fluid solution. The suggested quantities are enough to treat one person. They could easily be scaled for larger groups. Again, the modest goals of the kit were based on willing adoption, not optimal quantities.

My particular addition for treating the viral infection was:

  • Sambucol® Black Elderberry Original Extract – 12 bottles, 7.8 oz. size

The Sambucol® website has a “Most Frequently Asked Questions” section that I also printed out and put in the kit. The suggested adult dose for periods of immune system stress is one tablespoon four times per day. Since we will want to treat both the patient and caregiver, we need enough for 30 days for two people. This was the most expensive item in the kit, but even then it was not unreasonable.

Goal 2 – Keep the Caregiver Healthy and Free of the Infection

The Sambucol® need for the caregiver was taken into account as part of the patient’s treatment kit. (The dose is lower– two teaspoons four times per day, for the caregiver.) The primary items needed now were to prevent the spread of the disease, which can be spread through both the respiratory and digestive tracts.

The kit’s Goal 2 contents:

  • Procedure Facemasks – 1 box of 50
  • Hand sanitizing gel – alcohol based

Non-alcohol-based hand sanitizers have not been shown to be effective against influenza virus strains. However, I did not include hand sanitizer in the kit, since they already use the stuff by the barrel.

Goal 3 – Support Both of Them For a Period of at Least Thirty Days

This was the most problematic, since the topic of food storage might potentially set off alarm bells of prepping. (Some have super-sensitive hearing in this area.) So instead, I relied upon expediency. Alright, they probably have enough in the house for two adults to eat for 5-7 days, so I went with seven days that they’d eat– not eat well, mind you, but eat. The sick person will definitely not be eating much during the illness, so taking these two points together we have already met the dietary needs of the patient. I went low again in figuring a one month’s supply of food for the caregiver, basing it as I did on 1200 calories per day. I thought survival bars, peanuts, and beef jerky would be adequate. Okay, it is not haute cuisine, but nobody’s going to die of starvation with that. Whenever I visit, I plan to drop a few items in the box.

I understand that my solution for Goal 3 probably was not sufficient, but my point here was not perfection; it was adoption. I only was trying to address pandemics, not other situations, which I hope they, one day on their own, will also recognize as representing threats.

I have discussed my pandemic kit with various friends, and I have found a surprising lack of push-back about the contents. “Not a bad idea” or “Would you write those down for me” are the most often heard responses. Some folks are never going to change, and I just have to accept this. They figure the government would never let a pandemic happen in the first place and, if somehow it did, that same government would take care of all of us. Unfortunately, I do not have a kit for that way of thinking.

So, where do things stand now? The kit has safely arrived and has been stored in the back recesses of the apartment’s hall closet. They seem genuinely appreciative. We’ve even discussed some alternative scenarios they might encounter. They’ve told several of their friends, a few of whom have asked for more information. So at least, at an implementation level, my idea seems to be bearing fruit, and I think it may also be starting to have another effect. The two of them are coming back east to visit with our extended family this summer. Her boyfriend has asked me take him to the pistol range.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. Always check the actual products for the most accurate ingredient information, due to product changes or research that may not be reflected above. The statements made in this article have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Nothing above is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If you believe that you may have any disease or illness, please seek treatment with your healthcare practitioner immediately.

References


[1]http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/files/ComingPandemic.pdf

[2]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11399518

[3]http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/11/16

Letter Re: Cashing out your 401K accounts

Dear C.P.

This is in response to your query about cashing out your 401K accounts. I am a CPA in California and have been practicing for 20 years. I like your idea of cashing out your retirement accounts to live in a paid-for home. I have two suggestions:

  1. If you can, wait until you are 59 1/2 before cashing them out. This avoids the additional 10% federal tax on early withdrawal. There may be other ways to avoid this penalty that are more detailed, so ask a CPA that is familiar with this. Rolling all of the accounts directly into a self-directed IRA with a discount broker or reputable precious metals broker will give you more options for tax-free or at least penalty-free withdrawal under the tax regulations.
  2. If you do wait to cash them out, you may wish to close out any positions you have in the bond or stock market and leave your funds in a cash account or money market “guaranteed” type of account within the Plan to avoid risking the principal on any market crashes or adjustments.

Depending on your tax situation, you may wish to split the distribution over a two calendar year period, to keep yourself in a lower tax bracket. Withdraw half before December 31st and the other half first thing in January of the next year.

Letter: New Federal Information Grab

To the Editor,

I am relatively new to your site and now read it daily. It is a valuable site, and I have been passing the word to my friends. Thank you so much for your work in getting the information out there that you provide.

My reason for writing is that I am firmly convinced that a SHTF event is coming, and coming soon. A daily reading of the news provides a piece or two at a time to be incorporated into the overall picture. We are witnessing pervasive domestic racial violence that is being largely unreported, our economy is tanking, and the Fed just keeps on printing more money with no backing. Our “great and wonderful” president keeps ignoring the laws that he doesn’t like and circumventing Congress to enact measures that he does like. Our values system has been destroyed, inflation and unemployment are at the highest levels in decades and the numbers are being fudged by the various bureaucracies to hide the truth, and the federal government is taking in more tax revenue than in our nation’s history and still has to borrow trillions of dollars to maintain our entitlement society. Illegal immigrants are being essentially state sponsored by our own government that is supposed to be protecting our borders, our foreign enemies are being emboldened by the coward-in-chief and his inane foreign policy, Russia and China are holding joint military exercises, and the Federal alphabet agencies are making power grabs of unprecedented magnitude, e.g. the EPA and NSA for two. These same agencies (USDA, NOAA, Dept. of Education, USPS, BLM, DHS and on and on) are buying untold numbers of assault weapons and ammunition.

This brings me to today’s latest– two unheard of federal agencies are going to compile a vast database of nearly every person in the country which will include personal data of every conceivable type. Please take a moment and read the article that I have provided a link to, and if you see fit please pass it on to your readers.

New federal database will track Americans’ credit ratings, other financial information – R.F.

Economics and Investing:

They just can’t seem to get it. Progressive aldermen propose $15-an-hour Chicago minimum wage – A.B.

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FDIC Reveals That Over 400 Banks Remain on the Problem Bank List – G.G.

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Items from The Economatrix:

The Theft Of Your Retirement Accounts Will Accompany The Seizure Of Bank Accounts

Bad Trend Breaking: Why Retail Results Are Not Better Than Expected, But Worse Than Ever!

U.S. Gold Holdings Close To Zero-Rob Kirby

Wall Street Criminals Threaten That Economy Will Blow Up If They’re Prosecuted

Odds ‘n Sods:

Water Wars: Ankara suspends pumping Euphrates’ water, cutting off the water supply to Syria and Iraq It appears that Turkey has control of the Euphrates River and has shut off flow into Syria and Iraq. This happened well over a month ago, but it is now reaching crisis proportions for the people and the agriculture in the region. Will this bring warring factions to the table? Will those factions now join to move against Turkey? Or, will all sides just let millions suffer and die of thirst as the supply of drinking water vanishes? – C.M.

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Report: ‘Undocumented Immigrants’ Will Be Able to ‘Join the Military’ First, use hostile and covert techniques to unlawfully invade my country. Second, take an oath to protect, promote, and defend the Constitution. – JMC

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More U.S. citizens turning in their passports. – G.G.

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Pesticide Companies Use Clever Loophole to Avoid Regulation of Genetically Modified Grass. – H.L.

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MSM Press Omits the Most Important Maya Angelou Quote of All: “I like to have guns around”. – T.P.

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.” Leviticus 26:3-13 (KJV)

Notes for Friday – May 30, 2014:

JRH Enterprises is having a sale on New Gen 3+ Pinnacle Autogated PVS14’s. They come with all accessories and a 10-year warranty. The P+ Upgraded unit is on sale for $2995. It comes with a FREE weapons mount, and the first 10 customers will receive a FREE Light Interference Filter as well. The Standard model Pinnacle Autogated PVS14 is also on sale at $2695.00

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Today we present another entry for Round 52 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value),
  2. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear,
  5. A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value),
  6. A $300 gift certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  7. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  8. A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com, (currently valued at around $180 postpaid),
  9. Both VPN tunnel and DigitalSafe annual subscriptions from Privacy Abroad (a combined value of $195),
  10. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304,
  11. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit, and
  12. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $300 gift certificate.

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. Acorn Supplies is donating a Deluxe Food Storage Survival Kit with a retail value of $350,
  4. The Ark Instituteis donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package–enough for two families of four, seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate– a $325 retail value,
  5. $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P),
  6. A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials,
  7. A full set of all 26 books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  8. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value),
  9. Autrey’s Armory – specialists in AR-15, M4s, parts, and accessories is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  10. Dri-Harvestfoods.com in Bozeman, Montana is providing a prize bundle with Beans, Buttermilk Powder, Montana Hard Red Wheat, Drink Mixes, and White Rice, valued at $333,
  11. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $150 gift certificate, and
  12. Organized Prepper is providing a $500 gift certificate.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security,
  5. A MURS Dakota Alert Base Station Kit with a retail value of $240 from JRH Enterprises,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances, and
  7. Ambra Le Roy Medical Products in North Carolina is donating a bundle of their traditional wound care and first aid supplies, with a value of $208.
  8. SurvivalBased.com is donating a $500 gift certificate to their store.

Round 52 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

What to Expect When Planning A Hardened Shelter With A Professional Team of Engineers and Architects, by D.C.

I’m writing this article to persons considering developing their retreat with a fortified shelter. Here, I will thoroughly explain the expected preparation and process we went through on our shelter design and construction phases with our design professionals (engineers and architects) and other building industry professionals (general contractors, subcontractors, and product vendors).

I am a licensed architect, with licenses in more than eight states and over 25 years of experience. Much of my career has been spent in highly technical commercial work (MRI suites, computer data centers, pharmaceutical labs, and so forth). For a mid-career alternative, in 2001, I also launched my own residential practice, which performed a design/build enterprise. In other words, my team functioned as both architects and general contractors. Presently, for select clients, we have designed hardened shelters, using my knowledge and experience in the principals of infantry combat as a former U.S. Army Reserve Infantry Lieutenant.

First of all, in most of the American Redoubt rural areas, you are not required to have a licensed architect or professional engineer to design your home; you can design it yourself. Often your local contractor can provide you with a drafting service to plan homes; alternatively, you can also reference plan books, which abound at magazine racks and online, and go over them with your contractor.

That may work, if you only need to build a modern, code-compliant home that is up to about 3,000 square feet with very modest improvements to perimeter security. You really would be well served to select a plan from one of the many books available and select the best contractor, who has both the most competence and impeccable references.

If your home requires something above the local contractor’s skill set and/or plan books’ capacity or is simply “different” from those. Some “different” requirements might include a high level of physical and/or environmental protection/security, design planning for extended family members, or accommodations for those with disabilities. In any of these cases, you would need to consider hiring a professional architect and engineering services. Please understand first and foremost that your project type will then cost more than the standard level of construction.

In general, the costs associated with a custom project, both in terms of the professional design fees and the resultant construction costs, are much higher. For example, if the cost of new construction in your region is typically $140 per square foot for a nicely upgraded home of about 2,000 square feet, a custom home that is fortified or an especially hardened structure, may cost you in excess of $250 per square foot.

The reasons for this are myriad, but it all stems from the multiple aspects of life support/life protection which must be achieved for a hardened shelter to be truly sustainable. For example, if one wishes to ride out a nuclear or biological event, that person is often seeking to be interred in the shelter for a period of a month or longer. A system MUST be in place to provide a continuous supply of clean air and keep contaminated air from entering. This is one of the key lifesaving technologies needed to be employed in any shelter and is often referred to as CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear). However, this system requires engineering, planning, and a source for continuous energy. How are we providing power? If it is by generator, how are protecting the generator from sabotage or routine failure? Engineers have proven solutions for this, but they come at a cost.

Another cost consideration to balance is HEMP. In the event we are protecting against a nuclear blast, what are we doing about HEMP? HEMP often coincides with a nuclear event. HEMP events disrupt and/or disable many electronics, and, therefore, the shelter’s energy source. So, the air pressure/filtration CBRN system must also be HEMP protected. Possibly other living spaces need HEMP protection, but this should be kept to a minimum, if budget is a constraint.

The two technologies– fields of CBRN (air filtration and overpressure) and HEMP-shielded enclosures– must be planned in unison. Any unplanned utility penetration in an HEMP shielding solution will cause the HEMP shield to fail. However, these engineering specialties are each the work of separate professional engineers, which must be coordinated by an experienced project manager.

Additionally, the logistics of calculating and planning an ample source of energy, with fuel, is a very costly undertaking. While you are in this shelter, you will need to prepare food, access drinking water, maintain human sanitation, and live in an environment that does not drive you or your group members into emotional issues. You are essentially taking 21st century first world civilians and placing them in harsher conditions than we place highly-trained and rigorously-screened candidates for the U.S. Navy submarine fleet. This is not to be underestimated! FEMA guidelines for disaster shelters are rumored to have been developed with an acceptance of a 10% suicide rate. What is the acceptable suicide rate for your sheltering group? If it is less than 10%, then we would like to plan your shelter with more comfortable amenities than you would have in a FEMA- specification quality of shelter.

So, the bottom line is…no, you simply cannot have a nuclear blast protected bunker which can sustain your family through an apocalyptic event for months and months with air filtration, generators, water, food, storage, and hardening against small arms up to .50 BMG for the same price a standard home.

Generally this is the point at which some potential clients depart from engaging our services. The projects we work on are generally over a half million dollars. This is not to say a lesser cost project is impossible, but the challenges increase, and it does cause the design and engineering fees to become disproportionate to the project cost. For a project over $500k, the complete design and engineering package is roughly 10-12% of construction costs. For projects of $250k and less construction budget, the engineering costs do not come down in equal proportion to construction costs, and can exceed 15% of construction budget.

Well, what about those entire metal bunker structures you can find on YouTube and all over the Internet for $39,990? These may offer some utility for some types of scenario for a very limited duration; you can do your own research on the depth of soil cover required for plate steel to be enough to stop gamma waves (nuclear fallout). Be sure to confirm that the weight of fully water-saturated soil at the adequate soil depth does not exceed the strength of the steel box. Is the price advertised inclusive of shipping, excavation, and utility infrastructure? If you need a place to go hide during the next LA riots and can be very sure no one will find and disable your source of electricity and/or water, you could be okay in a metal box shelter. Also, these types of structures are acceptable, if you are looking truly for just a tornado shelter. The FEMA guidelines on how to construct one are perfectly acceptable, as well, for potentially even greater cost savings.

Beyond the hardened structure, every client also needs a longevity plan. That being a plan for what to do after the major event subsides and how to maintain an ongoing posture of security and to transition forward into a new lifestyle. This includes everything from considerations for permaculture, child-rearing, or mounting an active defense against numerically superior forces. A sophisticated team for fortified shelter design will include security consultants and be able to help plan the steps to take to set up life post event, and it also includes provisions in the design for life afterwards.

So, this brings us back to the article title: What To Expect When Planning a Hardened Shelter.

There are several pre-design steps one can take to begin conceptualizing what will be needed to meet your goals in a hardened structure, including those below:

  1. You need to list the threats you are preparing to survive and then rank these in priority. These can be natural disasters, man-made events, or others. This is your own list. A design team will begin designing to achieve protection for the most major event. By doing so, most often we find that we cover most needs presented by the threats further down the priority list, and we can make inclusion for those events in addition to the overall major planning criteria.
  2. Given the identification of the most major event to protect against, we ask what is the longest you want to remain interred in the shelter without coming out?
  3. You need to list the assets you are protecting– human assets and material assets. Who is to be included? What things need to be preserved for after the event to get your life back to a “new normal”, following the major event? Discovering how many people is just part of the equation. Who are these people? What are their individual special needs? What is their relationship to one another?
  4. What is your site? The aspects of regional demographics, site topography, terrain analysis, soil type, the adjacency relationships of your site to its neighboring properties, roads, towns, military installations, power stations, waterways, and seismic faults all contribute to a complex site development analysis process to help determine how to best protect our clients.
  5. What are your group’s abilities and limitations? This is an important criterion to really look hard at your entire group dynamics at the present and into the foreseeable future, and not based on the past. Maybe a member of your group has special medical skills. Remember all that training is most useful when provided with a facility and equipment/instruments to perform those life-saving skills. Maybe someone in the group was a very accomplished athlete, but that was 20-plus years ago or the person is most busy presently with small children who are also part of the group.

Once these criteria are identified, they can be translated into performance goals for the Hardened Shelter, such as size, engineering, and technology needed, plus a list of spaces and special features. Once this is determined, then a team leader, architect, or project manager can assemble the team of engineers needed to develop your Hardened Shelter. Also, this set of goals becomes a program statement, which you should receive from your design team and review carefully. You should make sure all your needs are met in this program statement; otherwise, it is likely some of your goals for the shelter might not make it into the design. At this point your designer may be able to communicate a rough conceptual budget for the project, based upon the program statement and his past experience with other projects. This early conceptual pricing statement has a +/-20% accuracy, because so much is not yet know with the design, and how the actual site impacts costs of the project. However, it is very important at this early phase in the planning process that you check your goals versus the possible budget for the project. This is the easiest time to readjust goals to align with your budget.

The adjustment of goals to match budget is a very difficult mental process for many clients, and here is another place where clients fall out of design services. Many folks just cannot get past the idea that if they cannot have everything they wanted for the budget that had in mind, then the project is not worth doing at all.

This is not realistic thinking. We all make value choices in products everyday based on cost versus performance or quality. We do not always buy the top-of-the-line vehicle or household appliance. We do the best we can within our own priorities and resources.

The important thing is to really look hard at your priorities from an aspect of most-likely threat to protect against and a worst case threat you must protect against with the minimum acceptable outcome of these two scenarios. With these goals as the guiding principles, often we can help clients focus on realistic budgeted projects.

One example of this is duration of sheltering. Often clients come to us with a perception of a need to shelter continuously for many months. This criteria is very expensive to achieve, both in terms of space required and also in logistics and energy provisions. However, there are alternatives to multiple months of sheltering, which can be considered and still have high expectations of survivability.

Once the design program aligns with your budget, your design team is able to move forward with planning your project.

This is an interactive process, and you as the owner have tremendous impact in the outcome. One temptation to resist is over designing. There are infinite possibilities in design– far more than there are choices in the marketplace when researching a new vehicle or appliance. However, exploring all of them is not realistic, and it is important to remain focused on the goals of the project and accept standard construction practices as much as possible.

With these concepts in mind, it is highly possible for you to be able to plan a Hardened Shelter, with the help of professional engineers, which meets an adequate level of survivability metrics to ride-out many foreseeable SHTF scenarios and allow you and your loved ones to emerge ready to take on the real challenges of life in the world after TEOTWAWKI.

Letter Re: A Simpleton’s Guide To Preps: The Best And The Overrated

HJL,

I enjoyed reading A Simpleton’s Guide To Preps: The Best And The Overrated, by B.H. He (she?) gave some excellent arguments against gold, generators, batteries – in one type of situation, but life is never that simple. The thing about crisis is we don’t get to choose what it looks like. It might be the lawless TEOTWAWKI they are describing. It might equally be a totalitarian jackbooted police state with severe deflation. It might be global thermonuclear war, or it might just be a national economic malaise, such as what Fernando FerFAL Aguirre went through in Argentina, 2001.

In FerFAL’s situation, those things which B.H. called “overrated” (gold, gas, antibiotics, etc.) rise in usefulness. FerFAL said that when it was over, he went right down to the pawn shop every payday and bought bags of junk gold, because at that time gold was only about $200 and he chose junk gold because no one could/would test the purity of anything traded, so bullion went for junk prices. He was grateful for his generator and batteries during the rolling blackouts, which inevitably happen in poorer countries.

You also do want a 3rd, 4th, or 5th firearm so that you may arm every member of your family, plus at least one for breakage, loss, etc. You also might want one type of firearm for one situation and another for a different situation. I can see the rationale of having a long-range hunting rifle, a shotgun, a “house” handgun, and a concealed weapon (or two!) for trips to the store in a dangerous neighborhood. However, they don’t have to be fancy. B.H. is correct that you want to avoid using prepping as an excuse to buy more of them, but don’t throw out the baby. FerFAL also was grateful for his gun collection.

It’s also an urban myth (a rather dangerous one) that you would not want to survive a nuclear attack.

It’s also a myth that medicines and antibiotics have a short shelf life. Search SurvivalBlog and you”ll find plenty of discussion on the true shelf life of many medicines. Hint: It’s longer than what is stamped on the package.

With all that said, he is absolutely right about one thing: Become a faithful, obedient Christian. So praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!

HJL Replies: It’s important to remember that when you are just starting out, prepping for every situation is overwhelming. The article by B.H. strikes a good balance on prioritizing what to prep for. When you have been prepping for three or four years, the NBC stuff starts ranking higher because you have the more likely stuff covered. When you have been prepping for 20 years, the question is never about the 4th gun; it may be about the 15th gun. It’s all a matter of perspective– where are you in your preps and what is left to cover.

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Hugh,

Great article, but I cringed at the end section here; #8 NBC Equipment Why? Exactly! “WHY?”

The author stated that, “…there are some survival situations that are worse than death” implying little desire to waste trying to outfit to survive NBC weapons of mass destruction.

I can understand anyone budgeting their resources away from threats they think least probable of occurring. However, writing off prepping for a threat that you’re assuming would and could only come full blown enough to erase all hope for living means you’re hurting if it shows up not quite as big or not all at once as you expected and you hadn’t prepped for it at all. If that happened to me, I’d lose it for sure.

For many that’ll wish they were dead after a nuke detonates, it’ll have been a totally avoidable tragedy that they are at that time in such dire straights– be it injuries, radiation sickness, or family members dead or suffering.

The fact is, regarding nukes, most casualties, from both the initial blast and radioactive fallout downwind later, will have been easily avoided by the majority at risk if they’d known beforehand what to do. This is especially true, if they’d also understood that most everywhere would not become “…poisoned for centuries…”.

For instance, up to 15 times more people will be at needless risk of death or injury in the blast zone than will quickly be gone in the immediate “ground zero” area of total, unsurvivable destruction. This is the case all because they won’t know to do prompt “Duck & Cover”. Also, few know that even a last minute expedient, cramped, and uncomfortable shelter-in-place, for those downwind dealing with fallout later, will get most families through that first 48 hours as the radioactivity loses 99% of its lethal intensity. Finally, yes, while “ground zero” of a ground burst may become a Chernobyl wasteland forever, few grasp that most of the surrounding vast area outside that zone, along with all that countryside downwind, that initially required sheltering from radioactive fallout, most likely won’t be affected for long at all.

Tragically, though, knowledge that could be readily learned and the simple proven techniques that are easily grasped and employed are not widely sought out, as the majority of our population erroneously think it’s futile, bordering on lunacy, to even try to survive anything nuclear. They’ll all suffer greatly for it, and many may even eagerly invite death to escape it. This is tragic, needless loss and suffering.

Google the updated free 2-page article; “The Good News About Nuclear Destruction!” for more in-depth nuke prep info.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Inside the Ring: Memo outlines Obama’s plan to use the military against citizens – B.B.

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When looking at retreat locations, a SurvivalBlog reader suggested using this tool: The Criminal States of America

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After reading Patriots, Survivors, Founders, and Expatriates, I found it hard to imagine some of the improvised equipment. This is it in real life. I know this article is kinda dated, but a picture is worth a thousand words and there are a lot of pictures here. – DSB

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A false report to get even with this innocent man resulted in his being brutally assaulted and injured by the police. I never remembered this kind of thing happening in my youth! SWAT Team Ambushes Innnocent Man as he Works on Tractor in his Driveway. – H.L.

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Judges Approve USDA Confiscating Farmers’ Harvests. – H.L.