Filling in the Gaps on Firefighting and Emergency Medicine, by Nate

I’ll be the first to admit this is my first visit to SurvivalBlog, and I only received copy of “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It” yesterday, but I finished reading it yesterday as well. I’ve always had what I like to call a “jack of all trades” mentality, as soon as I begin to feel competent in one skill, I have a strong urge to begin the learning process anew and expand my base of knowledge.

I’ve been reading through the articles previously posted, and while extremely helpful and informative, I feel I have found a few gaps.  Many critically important things are mentioned casually or in passing, and then simply left there by the wayside.  I hope with this article to give a brief overview to fill in some holes, at least as they intersect with my current skill set. (Give me another five years before TEOTWAWKI and I’m sure I’ll have a bunch more unimportant titles to my name, but much more useful information too.)

Fire Fighting

It has been mentioned before that firefighting may be a necessity not just for a specialized few come TEOTWAWKI, however I have yet to see mention of skills and strategies.  Obviously the most effective way to increase your skills in firefighting is to join your local fire department.  In the ideal scenario, almost all firefighting operations today are performed by volunteers.  If you are able to do this, that is a double positive, you are gaining advanced skills, and building stronger ties to your community, and your community stronger ties with you.  If that is not an option, then you must first consider each type of fire, its main causes, and things you can do to mitigate that both pre and post SHTF.  It takes over 1 million firefighters (according to FEMA) to maintain our current fire free lifestyle. After TEOTWAWKI, it’s not a question of if you will encounter fire, but when and how often.

Wildfires burn every year, worldwide, and from Alaska to Florida. Admittedly, one of the reasons wildfire has become such a problem in civilized world is civilization’s fault.  When you aggressively fight small fires, that would naturally burn off underbrush you cause a build-up of that underbrush.  Here in the Pacific Northwest, our trees, which are naturally fire resistant, can really only take so much.  Eventually enough underbrush is built up and on the next fire, the entire forest lights from top to bottom, this is bad because the same stuff that makes them fire resistant burns extremely well once lit.  This is the situation you’ll face when your area goes up for the first time in TEOTWAWKI, presuming you live somewhere with forests of evergreen trees.

But all is not lost!  If you can afford the space, and increased visibility–remember that staying hidden for the beginning of TEOTWAWKI, may be more important than fire safety, and with the right tools this modification could be made post a few months when things in your area are largely quiet (hopefully) you can vastly increase your margin of safety by cutting down any trees or shrubs for a 100 foot thick barrier between the forest and you.  The forest service usually recommends doing this in a 100’ circle from the edge of your house (50’ is considered the absolute minimum, but remember were not going for making the firefighters jobs easier here, were hoping to completely protect you from the fire in the first place) however for the situation were planning for the most effective way would be to make your 100-foot barrier by cutting out from your perimeter fence line into the forest.  This gives multiple benefits to you:

  • You have vastly increased visibility of people that are approaching your dwelling(s) and outbuildings
  • It would be extremely difficult for anyone to cover 100 feet of completely cleared terrain without being noticed by active lookouts
  • It ensures that not just your house, but indeed your generator your garden, any fruit trees you have, your vehicle, etc. all share the same “island from the fire” status. 

You can use this land to grow short grasses for animal grazing (nothing taller than 6 inches, please) if the idea of clearing land and doing nothing with it really just doesn’t settle with you but at the very center along the fence line you must have five feet of actually clear ground to prevent the grass fire that may ensue from spreading into the compound.  Especially if you choose to keep a wild grass on this perimeter, it is still important to be armed with a large diameter hose ready to put out the errant spark or to wet the ground to prevent the much smaller grass fire from encroaching on your compound.

If your entire house catches on fire, you’re quickly no better off than any other joe blow, so the most important safety factor here is prevention.  Good habits from you and your family and new extended family come TEOTWAWKI must all remember the basic fire rules, but those are predominantly common knowledge so I’ll skip them for now.  You should never have to leave the room to get a fire extinguisher, especially if you are in the kitchen or any room that regularly has a heating source in it (garage, living room, workshop etc)  If you are using a standard compact fire extinguisher it is only rated to put out a wood and natural fuels fire with a base of 1 square foot in the hands of an “average person” (the ratings are listed at ~60% of the actual carrying capacity, on the presumption that the average person will waste a significant portion failing to Pull Aim Squeeze Swipe (PASS) effectively).  If you must leave for even a minute to obtain the fire extinguisher most likely you will be too late to be effective.

If you have any doubts about “wasting” a fire extinguisher by putting one in each bedroom and the hallway, and essentially any and every room,  just youtube a video of a couch or a bed fire.  Most of the items we have today are made with a significant amount of petroleum in them.  A plastic table puts out the same BTUs when it burns as around 10 gallons of gasoline, and a large CRT monitor’s case can be the equivalent of almost 5 gallons.

Okay, so the SHTF and the whole room is on fire. Fortunately for you modern construction buys you a little time.  Your house is certainly going to be the worse for the wear, and depending on how many holes you have punched through it for doors, electrical sockets, light switches etc, your time will vary, but each piece of drywall a fire must pass through should take approximately 5 min.  Now today, I absolutely recommend leaving your house and calling 911 in the event of a fire, big or small.  However, in a future where that is not possible, and your life depends on that structure, and I stress this point, because fighting a fire with improvised gear and training puts lives at risk, then here are my recommendations.
Have at least 2 teams of 2 designated as the fire squad, this way you can always have one pair available when needed.  Lay in at least 4 sets of firefighter turnouts (if possible, they are expensive), or in a pinch lay in the heaviest and tightest woven wool jackets and pants available at your local Goodwill (don’t be afraid to do this over a period of time because you need true quality ones).  Additionally invest in at least (and I stress this as a minimum) 4, 3-cuft canisters of spare air, this size is approximately the size of a mans forearm, and weighs only a few pounds.   An SCBA (a typical firefighting breathing apparatus) is safer, because of its Positive pressure airflow system (if you crack the mask air comes rushing out of the hole, to keep any smoke from rushing in), but is logistically unrealistic even for the most well off, and the minimum weight for an SCBA rig is 30 lbs, which is simply not something you need to be adding when you’re already having the fight of your life.  The spare air design is fairly simple and basic, it’s a canister with a built in gauge regulator and mouthpiece, in the event of capsizing your kayak and getting stuck headfirst underwater or running out of air diving it is designed to give you the extra breaths needed to save your life.  This size gives ~57 breaths on the surface but keep your lips tight on it, you want to breathe the air in the canister, not the smoke in the room.  You will also need a properly installed hose (as discussed in “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It”), heat resistant goggles a wool balaclava, thick welders or barbequers gloves, and thick heavy boots without a steel shank (leather or durable black rubber can work here)  you will have less than 1 minute to gather and put these supplies on, so keep them in 1 spot, never ever move them, and practice just in case.  You will also need an axe, hatchet, heavy duty hammer, pry bar or basically anything to tear open a wall, but you should already have all, if not one of those tools for many other purposes around the house.

Enter with a 1.5-2 inch pressurized hoseline with firefighter tip (at least 50PSI to keep the flow of water coming out fast enough) and stay low, it can be more than 100 degrees cooler on the floor of a burning building than at 6’ so keep your head down, never be taller than a crouch.  Always keep one hand on the hoseline, always, since it is dark, noisy and if you lose your hoseline, you lose the only guaranteed way in and out of the environment you just entered.  As soon as you see smoke, begin breathing from your canned air( modern firefighters everywhere except require breathing before entering the building except for sky scrapers, but in this situation the risk of running out of air before the operation is done outweighs the extremely small risk of carbon monoxide contamination without other signs of combustion in room), and counting your breath (or time if you can resist the urge to breath faster with the panic 57 breaths should last ~5 min, but start leaving at 3 at the latest).  Attack the fire with a relatively narrow stream (firefighter tips will give everything from pure fog to a nearly perfect jet of water, stay somewhere between jet and 1’ wide at base of fire or you will find yourself moving a lot of hot smoke and ash around the room and right into your face).  Hit the fire hard at its base, you cant put out the flames you see in the air, it is the burning material at the bottom you need to be concerned about.  Once you have the fire “knocked back” as they call it, or basically what appears to be dying off, you need to open some windows to get airflow through the room, and you need to start tearing apart the walls.  It is critically important that you find any fire that has escaped into the wall and extinguish it before it has a chance to grow somewhere else.   Again, I hope no one ever has to fight their own home fire, it will be a tough situation, but in TEOTWAWKI, your life depends on your well stocked retreat, and in my opinion at least, it is worth risking my life to protect the safety and security of my friends and family. 

Medical Notes

The most important medical item that I feel that has not been fully covered in SurvivalBlog is advanced medications, and how to obtain them.  It is remarkably simple if you are a trustworthy person and have a good relationship with your family physician. There are many items that are critical to have, which today require prescriptions to obtain.  This either means looting in the perfect place when SHTF, stocking them ahead of time, or doing without. 

The easiest and least deceitful way is to talk with your doctor about your planning, and to ask them if they would be willing to write the required prescriptions.  Have a list, and be prepared to explain exactly why you would want each one, and swear up and down that you will not abuse it, this method may still fail, and may ruin your relationship with your Dr.  but you may luck out and he may be willing to make some or all of your needed prescriptions. If not… well… there are reasons doctors see as more fit than “I’m preparing for the end of the world”

Antibiotics:
 There are several methods to get antibiotics stockpiled for someday to come, but you must do this fairly regularly since, even though they will last longer than their 1 year marked shelf life, they do not last forever.   Talk to your doctor about a trip to Mexico, or other are notorious for bad water (in my case it was Belize), and ask if they can set you up with a precautionary prescription to take with you.  You will get a 10 day supply per person (each custom dosed, so only adults can switch, or similarly sized children, please don’t give an adult dose to a child even in TEOTWAWKI) of one of the strongest and least commonly resisted antibiotics we have today, it does however have annoying side effects (you will sunburn easily, and feel horrible) but personally I’d rather survive pneumonia, then sunbathe for two weeks.

Another method for obtaining quick packs of antibiotics, which have less side effects, only require a few pills typically, and might keep longer (because they come in foil sealed packets rather than an open air bottle) is to lie more directly (but it is very important to only use these antibiotics come TEOTWAWKI… modern medicine already uses antibiotics too often, increasing their frivolous use because you “felt like you had a cold” will only make more problems).  The next time you have a good congested nose, make an appointment with your Dr.  Tell him about your greenish yellow mucus discharge, productive cough, and severe sinus pressure with pain on touch, and he will most likely prescribe you a course of antibiotics and some Sudafed for your “sinus infection”.

Clotting factors:
Now your body has multiple, extremely complicated systems for clotting which are quite frankly amazing, but sometimes not enough.  In the event of a TEOTWAWKI +1 gunshot wound, you’re going to need something to help you clot, you could use the packaged Quick-clot or its equivalent, but these are messy and require being cleaned out surgically before healing can begin.  The best option in my opinion is a Chitin based bandage, these come in band-aid size to 4×4 and larger, but 2×2 is the most versatile.  But anything larger than Band-Aid sized requires a prescription.  My recommendation is to talk with a doctor about extended backpacking trips or hunting trips, and express concern that a severe wound received on the trail would prove fatal before making it back to society.  These bandages are relatively harmless, and have been quickly making their way from military only, to Military and EMS, to prescription, to OTC for Band-Aid size, so in a few more years the 2 x 2s may even be OTC as well, however in the mean time, the doctor will most likely be accommodating on that option.

Pain medication:
If you are going to have to repair a Gunshot Wound (GSW) Advil will simply not cut it.  Even if you are able to restrain your patient, the trauma of experiencing that kind of pain greatly reduces survival rate.  Even something as simple as a Tylenol narcotic mix, commonly prescribed for minor back pain or post surgical pain, will do wonders for reducing the strain during that trying time.  This one will be much harder to obtain.  One option is to horde all your left over medication, noting the size of the person for whom it was prescribed at the time it was prescribed on the bottle. (you can give doses for smaller people to bigger people easily with pain medication, however you should carefully think about anything that involves giving a larger person’s dose to a smaller person).  Another option here is to obtain veterinarian quality pain medications, they are not appropriate for human consumption under normal circumstances, and may be almost as hard to obtain as human, but it is another route you can take.  Take extra caution with certain vet medications, ketamine, for ex is an extremely powerful hallucinogenic in many adults, however kids can take it quite safely (in the appropriate doses).  One final option, that could be a last resort is illegal street medications, heroin acts extremely similarly in the body to morphine (one of the most common heavy pain killers).  The largest problem with relying on street medications is impurity (often cut with things that are actually quite hard on your body, and wear on your heart valves in long term use), inability to know dosage concentration (because it’s a street drug, no dealers going to list 15mg heroin/mL dose on the side of his little syringe), and obviously the fact that its illegal.

IV supplies: 
These will be useful for hydration during an emergency operation, during rehydration for a potential refugee you pick up, or for administering the aforementioned pain medications.
Again if reasoning and pleading with your doctor fails, and you can’t simply borrow some supplies from work or a friend, the easiest way to obtain these is through your vet.  Cats commonly experience kidney failure during the end of their lives, aggressive treatment plans involve giving IV bags to families and having them administer 200-500 mL of Lactated ringers IV solution subcutaneous to their kitty every day.  If you care about your cat and they are experiencing kidney failure, please do not short the prescribed dose, instead change tubing slightly less often than they recommend, and once a month or so, claim to have screwed up and wasted a bag, the vet will happily sell you an extra one while you stockpile needles tubing and IV bags in your retreat.  IV fluids won’t keep forever, but if stored in a cool dark place, they can last years past their expiration date, if I needed one in TEOTWAWKI my rule of thumb would be to check the fluid itself, If it’s still clear with no punctures in the bag or cloudiness or flakes (which would be signs of bacterial growth) I would give it a go.

Letter Re: A Little Insight on Diesel Engines

JWR,
I can’t wait to read the sequels to your novel. I’m writing on the topic of pre-electronic ignition diesel trucks — preferably a 1998 model year or older Dodge with the 5.9 Cummins engine.

Having serviced and rebuilt several of these engines I am familiar with the design, and it is certainly my favorite. I won’t go into much detail on the 24-valve engine because they may not be of use in the event of an EMP, or a grid-down collapse where diagnostics cannot be performed. (For reference, there is the 12 valve- ’89-’98 5.9 Manual (non computer/electronic) Cummins Engine with 12 valves, 6 intake and 6 exhaust, and the 24 valve- ’99-’08 computer controlled 5.9 Cummins Engine, having 24 valves,12 intake and 12 exhaust.)

First let’s look at the difference in some of the engines that Cummins made for Dodge in the ’89-’98 time table. ’89-’93 12-valve 5.9 Cummins engines came with a rotary style fuel pump known as the “VE” pump. This small pump is considered undesirable by most performance/horsepower seekers because you are limited to how far you can “turn it up” These pre-’94 engines will also accept the ’94-’98 Bosch style fuel pump, which I highly recommend. Just know what you are doing if you change one, or contact your local diesel repair shop and have it done. Timing is key, get it one tooth off and it won’t run!

The ’94-’98 engines are the most popular, mainly because they already have the Bosch-style fuel pump. These fuel pumps can be “tweaked” (by a knowledgeable service person) to almost unheard-of pressures. Considering that a stock pump will take 10 to 15 lbs. of fuel pressure from the lift pump and increase it to almost 4,000 lbs. for maximum atomization in the cylinder, you really need to know what you are doing doing before messing with the pump. I recommend a 10 to 15% increase above stock settings for the “sweet spot” for power and fuel economy. Much more than that and you start getting into exhaust gas temps that could melt your turbo or blow a head gasket. I’ve seen a lot of guys also use a trick of blocking the waste gate on the turbo for more power. However this almost always ends with a blown head gasket and in a TEOTWAWKI situation this would be detrimental.

Regarding bio-diesel: From what I’ve seen, bio-diesel is better than petroleum-based diesel in both lubrication of fuel systems and horsepower and fuel economy. But it is slightly acidic. It is murder on rubber, I’ve talked to several people who’ve replaced fuel lines because it “ate” the rubber lining and continually clogs up the fuel filter. I would recommend solid steel lines for all diesel engines whether you are running petroleum based fuel or french fry grease.

Things to look for when buying a truck with a 5.9 12 valve Cummins engine: These little engines are notorious for leaking oil. Most diesel engines with miles on them will. But don’t worry about that, it is a diamond in the rough. 12-valves have a knack for vibrating the bolts on the front gear cover and oil pan loose. I’ve had guys bring them to me, thinking that their front main seal was leaking, and all we had to do was re-torque the front cover and oil pan to stop the leak. Sometimes however, new gaskets are needed. That can get quite expensive, because you have to remove almost the entire front of the engine to do it. Also, look for a pinhole to a 1/4-inch hole in the front cover, just to the right of the oil filler tube. Some of the engines have a pin in the camshaft that works loose and will wear a hole in the front cover, causing an oil leak. Eventually, the pin can fall into the gears behind the cover, and really mess things up. I believe this was re-called by the factory, so many have been corrected. If not, make sure you get this fixed, leaking oil or not. Also, with it running, inspect all 6 injectors. If any are leaking fuel replace them! This can cause your cylinder to “wash out” and will cause a blown head gasket along with scoring of the cylinder walls, meaning an overhaul! If you catch it in time, this is not a big deal at all, just don’t let it go for an extended period.

Another item to look for is the fuel pump. The older VE pump is round and is located on the driver’s side of the engine, just above the power steering pump. It can be identified by the fuel lines running out the back of it to the injectors. (The proper term is spray nozzles but I call them injectors). The newer Bosch style pumps are approx. 12 to 14 inches long and are about 8 inches tall. They are located in the same place as the VE pump and have 6 fuel lines running out of the top of the pump going to each injector.

Another point I’d like to make is about black smoke. I know that some think black smoke is cool. But in fact, the smoke is black because the engine is exhausting un-burnt fuel when the valve opens. This is a result of turning up the pump or reprogramming your CPU, but not attending to anything else. Everyone knows that to have fire, you need fuel, oxygen, and spark. Diesels get their spark from the compression of atomized fuel and air, too much fuel (and not enough air) can result in an incomplete burn. If you feed it more, it has to breathe better, by both intake and exhaust, to maximize your efforts. Otherwise you are just losing fuel and money out the exhaust pipe. That is why I only recommend a 10 to 15% increase. That’s the happy place, without having to worry about opening up the lungs.

For all you who have other makes of trucks, there is hope. Whether you have gas or diesel engines now, there is a place that sells installation kits to put a 5.9 Cummins into your truck. I have no affiliation with these guys, and there are other kits available, but I like the one sold at FordCummins.com. They will even sell you an engine, but I think they are a bit pricey on them. But, I can do the rebuild myself so I am partial.

These Cummins engines can be found all over, in school buses, medium sized delivery and dump trucks, generators (mostly the trailer-mounted ones that the highway department uses), sandblasters (same as the generators), and I believe that all manufacturers used this engine in their larger trucks, but only Dodge used them in pickups.

It’s an amazing little engine and has a long life if maintained properly, I personally own one with just under 700,000 miles on it! I did have to rebuild it at 475,000 because of the “washed out” cylinder that I told you about earlier. Had I caught that in time, I may not have even have had to rebuild it.

I’m no expert, and just thought I’d add my two cents. I’m certain that I’ve missed a few things and may not be 100% correct on some, but I know that the pool of SurvivalBlog readers could add to where I’ve fallen short.

God Bless, – Gary in Kentucky

Economics and Investing:

H.H. sent this: European Central Banks Halt Gold Sales

Jeff E. was the first of several readers to send this: Banks Keep Failing, No End in Sight

From G.G.: Banks Keep Failing, No End in Sight

U.S. Economy “Close to a destructive tipping point” Glenn Hubbard Says. (Thanks to John G. for the link.)

Merry recommended a Mike Maloney lecture video.

Items from The Economatrix:

Cold Hard Reality Hits Oregon

Supply Squeeze of Physical Gold and Silver May Be Heating Up

The Currency Crisis of 2010-2011

A Hazard of Buying Bond Funds Now

A Red Alert Threat To The Regime

Sour Economic Mood in Living Room and Board Room

Recession Rips at US Marriages, Expands Income Gap

Odds ‘n Sods:

Ten signs that the U.S. is Losing it Influence in the Western Hemisphere. (A hat tip to Paul W. for the link.)

   o o o

More Celebrities Than Ever Are Carrying Firearms. The blatant favoritism in permit issuance is a scandal that has never been fully exposed. New York City has had a long succession of Teflon-coated mayors. The gun permit scandal doesn’t stick where it should!

   o o o

Bird Flu Simmers. (Thanks to Ken J. for the link.)

   o o o

J.H. sent this article from the Guardian: Campaign to save Pavlovsk seed bank from being turned over to housing developers. (As one of the commentators added: Technically, it is a field gene bank, not a seed bank.)

 

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Most people prefer to believe their leaders are just and fair even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because most people don’t want to admit they don’t have the courage to do anything about it. Most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all.” – Michael Rivero

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 30 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Letter Re: The Survival Mindset–Becoming Part of the Social Ecosystem

Hello James:
In many ways, communities behave like biological organisms. They respond to foreign invaders like our bodies respond to the flu virus. They respond to “us” like our bodies respond to “us”. They may not actively nourish teeth, hair or fingernails, but they do not reject them either.

One key aspect to creating community is to be visible before the balloon goes up.

I run for exercise. I tend to wear the same kinds of outfit every time I run: a swim trunks and a brown tie-dyed shirt. My runs extend 8 miles out. Some Sundays I run home from church (8 miles). A couple of days a year I run home from work (12 miles). Most runs are a circular route or an out-and-back that stays within 4.5 miles of home.

I like to run my routes in both directions. Inertia makes it easy to run the same route the same way each time. But there are major dividends to mixing it up. You will be amazed at what you see when you travel a favorite path in reverse. In fact, one of the prime rules to avoid getting lost is to keep looking back because things look totally different when viewed from the other direction.

You will see berry patches, fruit trees, prime trapping spots, hop vines, out-buildings, open water, salvageable junk that you never knew was there.

Another advantage of traveling different routes and favorite routes in reverse is that you will see people and people will see you.

An iconic event in my life is the day after a tornado went down our driveway and leveled four of our outbuildings, including a full-sized, hip-roofed barn. The day after the tornado was marked by 60-mph winds. Directly downwind of our shredded barns was the house of an 80 year-old couple. I spent the day latching hold of sheet metal roofing, and attempting to anchor it down.

Finally, I ran out of places to stash the 18” by 10’ long razor blades that the wind kept trying to launch downrange. I called a local salvage yard.

“Nope. I am full. I cannot take any more metal.”

“Wait a sec. Where did you say you live? What did you say your name is?”

“Come by in an hour. I will make some room”

Danny stacked a couple of car bodies on top of an adjacent double stack to make room. After laying down a couple of truck loads of roofing metal he anchored it down with the car bodies.

He explained to me: “People look down on people in the salvage business. It took me a minute to figure out who you were. You and your wife wave at me when you are out walking… like you are glad to see me. Heck, you even waved me down once and asked me about what kind of softball bat to get your daughter. You let me know that my opinion carried weight with you. That may not be a big deal to a lot of people. But it is a big deal to me. Out here, treating people with respect counts for something.”

It was never my expectation that I would gain something by treating Danny with respect. My basic outlook on life is that all pedestrians should treat those piloting 6,000-lb. machines with respect.

Another seminal story from my life was when our daughter took our family down to the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans as a graduated senior from high school. Our family tradition is to go on a ‘senior class trip’ with our family. The graduated senior plans a family trip that is in alignment with our family values. Instead of spending thousands of dollars sending an almost-adult on an unsupervised trip where they will be subjected to much temptation to do things not in alignment with our family values, we put a like amount in an account and let the almost-adult plan a trip. Our daughter chose post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans and rebuilding/refurbishing housing. I cannot remember when I have been more proud of my daughter.

She made reservations in a hotel on the North side of the Ninth Ward. I remember chatting with the clerk at the front desk. New Orleans can be a very tough town. He (a Caucasian) could walk at-will….but only because he was local and he was known. Even so, he had a limited corridor where he felt safe (known) traveling and he had a limited time horizon of when he was part of the local ecosystem. He had no words strong enough to explain the stupidity of non-natives going into pedestrian mode in that neighborhood. I believed him.

Another character from my life was Carol E. She was in her 50s when I was in my mid-teens. She had lived the life of an adventurer. She had hiked in Tibet. She had rafted the headwaters of the Ganges. She had hitchhiked and ridden trains across Europe.

As a doddering 55 year old, she regularly crisscrossed three counties in central Michigan. She was a fixture. She knew where the water-cress grew. She knew where the young bucks threw their returnable beverage containers. The dogs barked at her, but only to say “Hello”.

We came into her orbit because we lived a scant four miles from her home and we had apple trees. She very politely asked my dad if he minded her eating one from the ground when her travels took her by our place. Of course he did not mind, being of the opinion he would rather give a gift and gain another neighbor who felt protective of us than to say “No” and gain ill-will (and she might take them anyway).

I learned a fair amount from her as the apple season progressed from the Jerseymac apples, to the Gala, the Liberty, Jonafree, Northern Spy and finally, Gold Rush.

The take-home is that she had right-of-passage nearly everywhere within 15 miles of her home because she exercised and maintained it. She was a familiar, and therefore accepted, member of the local social ecosystem. – Joe H.

Letter Re: Aviation-Style Checklists for Survival, by Andy W.

In the 1940s, the accident rate among aircraft in the United States was horrendous, especially for small private aircraft. Many lives were lost and airplanes mangled due to often preventable causes. By the mid-1950s, the accident rates had dropped by 30-50%, depending on what numbers you look at. What happened to make such a dramatic change? The answer is the prevalent use of checklists for all phases of flight. Every aircraft today, from a tiny Cessna to a giant airliner, has checklist for every procedure from preflight inspection to securing the aircraft after parking.

Checklists are important for a few reasons. The first is human nature and complacency. If you do something often, it goes into muscle memory and you don’t really have to think about it anymore. As a result, you might start to take shortcuts. How many times have you gotten in your car and realized that the radio was turned up way too loud, or the air conditioning left blasting from the previous hot afternoon? It’s because your complacency in driving let you forget these minor details of configuring your car. You don’t really need a checklist for driving, because most of these minor changes don’t have any impact on safety and are more annoying than anything else. However, forgetting to set the flaps or change fuel tanks on an airplane can have dire safety consequences, and so good pilots use checklists on every single flight.

The second reason checklists are important is stress. When your airplane’s engine is on fire and smoke is filling the cockpit is not the time to be deciding on how to handle that type of emergency. That time is when you (or better yet, the aircraft designer) are calm and not under any stress or time pressure. In those circumstances you are far more likely to make sound, correct decisions than when your heart is hammering and your hands are shaking.

A final great, and often overlooked, reason for checklists is that it gives your mind something to do. Instead of bouncing around, trying to figure out a coherent plan, your brain is given a very linear progression of small tasks to accomplish. This keeps you from getting panicked or freezing up, because all you have to do is follow the list. Your mind won’t have time to ponder how scary or dangerous your situation is, because it’s preoccupied with the checklist tasks.

Checklists for Survival

Survivalism has many of the same aspects as flying does — it’s a potentially dangerous activity that requires specific actions to accomplish successfully, and has very small margins for getting those tasks wrong or out of order. Because of this, I think aviation-style checklists are an excellent resource for survival in a wide variety of circumstances. I do not think that survivalists should use a set of generic set of checklists generated by someone else. You know your circumstances and resources better than anybody; for this reason it’s very important to develop your own checklists that take these into account. A childless couple living in the suburbs will have vastly different checklists than a large family living in the country, and what may work for one may be a sure-fire recipe for failure for another.

So how does an individual or family develop checklists? First, try to be specific about the circumstances where the checklist applies. “Natural Disaster” is too vague for a checklist, but “Forest Fire Near Home” is specific enough to be very helpful in that circumstance. You could also have “at home” and “away from home” checklists, since the response to an EMP (for example) would be much different depending on if you are at home or not when the event happens. You can also reference one checklist from another (i.e. “if condition X, go to Y checklist). This means you’ll end up with a bunch of checklists. If you look at pilot shops (sportys.com and marvgolden.com are a couple online) you can find checklist binders and similar ways to organize your checklists.

Try to lay out your checklists in small chunks that don’t require much thought. Anything that requires decisions should be broken down into sub-tasks as much as possible. The goal is to have all your decisions already made. And order things logically — for example, it makes no sense to put “check fuel level” after “leave home.” Check the fuel first, when you might be in a position to do something about it.

A Sample Checklist

Here’s a sample based on our forest fire example. Don’t criticize it too much, I’m just pulling it off the top of my head!

Forest fire near home:

  1. If heavy smoke is present, wear filter mask or respirator and goggles.
  2. Family in vehicle 1 — send to nearest safe area.
  3. Move vehicle 2 to locate for rapid egress from area.
  4. Turn on outside water spigots.
  5. Using hose, spray water on roof and walls to retard fire damage.

If smoke becomes heavy, or flames are visible, use rapid bugout checklist.

Hopefully this gives folks some ideas on how to use and organize their checklists. The more scenarios you can envision and make checklists for, the easier it will be to have a plan for something when it happens. You might be able to adapt an existing list to an event for which no list exists, but that requires more thought than we’d like to expend under stress. Finally, let me stress this is not a magic wand that will make all things go smoothly, but it does increase your chances of doing to the right thing at the right time, and in my mind that is worth a whole lot.

Economics and Investing:

KAF pointed us to this: On the Secret Committee to Save the Euro, a Dangerous Divide

Mike Williamson sent us this: Slideshow: The Most Taxed States in the U.S.

G.G. suggested: Taleb Says Unawareness of Deficit Risk Has Him `Extremely Bearish’ on U.S.

The latest from Dr. Housing Bubble: Palms Mar Vista correction. From $740,000 to $540,000 and still overpriced. The Westside of L.A. enters an accelerating correction.

Items from The Economatrix:

Why QE2 + QE Lite Mean that the Fed Will Purchase Almost $3 Trillion Treasurys and Set the Stage for the Monetary Endgame

Banks Keep Failing, No End in Sight

The Credit Meltdown and the Shadow Banking System: What Basel III Missed

Recession Not Over, Double-Dip or Worse Coming

Martin Weiss: Three Government Warnings of Financial Fiascos!

Facts About the Deindustrialization of America

Does Silver’s “Smooth Ride” Lead Past $30?

Gold is the Final Refuge Against Universal Currency Debasement

Once 1-oz Gold = One Year’s Wage; 1-oz Silver = One Month’s Wage

Gold: Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD)

Recession Not Over: Double-Dip Recession or Worse is Coming

Odds ‘n Sods:

Dirk W. sent us this news story: The New Resource Wars: What if China Stops Exporting Rare Elements?

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The Heat Wave that Changed American History. (Thanks to “T-Moo” for the link.)

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Safecastle’s big sale ends tomorrow–Thursday, Sept. 30th. This is their last 25% off sale on Mountain House canned storage foods for 2010, with some free bonus items, depending on the size of your order. Safecastle also resumed stocking real canned butter, from Holland. Don’t miss out!

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EliteT sent this from CNN: Why is ‘food security’ sparking unrest?

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Bill M. in New York flagged this: Who is watching you? Nine Industries that know your every move.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“War has taught me that each one of us contains every ingredient of the human recipe. By varying measure we are all cowards and brave men, thieves and honest men, selfish and selfless men, malingerers and champions, weasels and lions. The only question is how much of each attribute we allow- or force – to dominate our being.” – Eric L. Haney, Command Sergeant Major US Army, from his book “Inside Delta Force“

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 30 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Dirty Medicine, Part 2, by J.V. in Tacoma, Washington

Welcome to the second installment of Dirty Medicine.  Today we are going to be discussing something that will be beneficial on a few different levels.  It can help you stop uncontrolled bleeding, prevent infection, and repair skin.  That’s right, we are going to talk about sutures, also called stitches, today.

Starting off we are going to need to define what materials will be needed, both for practice and for real life situations.  The most obvious item needed is going to be some sort of suture material.  Suture materials come in various thread compositions as well as sizes.  Something like Chromic Gut (cat Gut) or Polyglycolic Acid is best used for inside the body or mouth as these dissolve after a week or so.  Polypropylene or Ethicon would be better served for skin closer or for tying off a bleeder.

My preferred site for obtaining suture materials is EmergencyEssentials.com. They have a fairly narrow range of products supply, but their prices are extremely reasonable.  I would recommend getting one or two of their Surgical Kits.  This will have everything you need to get started.  If that is not your cup of tea and you want to just buy your own stuff separately and design your kit(s) for certain scenarios/situations be sure that you get at a minimum some sutures.  I like to use a set of needle drivers, however in a pinch a Gerber or other similar multi-tool could work.  Another thing would be to get some scalpel blades to trim the skin up around the edge of the cut or incision, again a regular knife could work, but I prefer to have all the proper tools.  Some surgical scissors (I prefer the stainless steel variety, but there are some decent ones that are plastic). 

Now for the fun part!  Go to your local butcher (or your hog house) and acquire a pig foot for every member that will be practicing sutures (this number should be everyone in the family/group).  With the pigs foot thawed, i.e. not frozen, and soft like it was just cut off, make a cut anywhere in the foot/ankle region with a knife or scalpel.  Pig’s skin is a pretty close representation of human skin so it will give you a good idea of what it feels like to actually perform sutures.

At this point gather up all of your suturing supplies/suture kit and take a close look at the cut you just made in the foot.  Hopefully you used a sharp knife and the cut has straight edges and is a cut and not a “tear”.  If it does appear to be torn then take your surgical scalpel or whatever type of blade you will be using with your surgical kit and cut some of the skin off along the wound so that the edges of the wound are straight.  Now, opening up your sutures you will notice that the thread will be attached to the needle, just grab the needle away from the point with your needle drivers and lift out.  All of the thread will come out with it.  When holding the needle drivers with the needle in them, you want to use an “under-handed motion” to insert the sutures into the skin.  This means that the needle drivers should be in your dominant hand with the pointed (pliers-like) part pointing towards your non-dominant hand.  The needle should be held so it points away from the body with the pointed needle tip.

Most wounds will look similar to a “V” if looked at from the side, with the tops of the “v” being the sides of the skin and the “trough” of the “v” being the cut itself.  To suture you must place the needle in the skin from the side of the cut a little ways (usually a couple of millimeters will work; you just want to make sure it is far enough back to not tear through the skin when it is tightened).  Place the needle in the skin and angle it so it will cross the “v” about ¾ of the way down towards the point, then come out the other side of the “v”.  Once you see the needle break the skin you will want to let go of the back end of the needle and grab the tip and pull the thread through until there is only an inch to half-inch long tail on the other side of the wound. 

To tie the knot you will need to drop the needle (preferably onto a sterile surface) grab the long end that just came out of the wound with your non-dominant hand and wrap it around the shaft of the needle drivers.  Do this one single wrap for the first time.  Then open the needle drivers slightly and grab the small end of the thread and pull it through the loop you just made in the thread.  Pull this knot tight enough that the skin is aligned and closed, but be careful not to over tighten it to the point that the skin starts to turn up and look like a mountain.  Now do the same thing, this time however wrap the long thread 3 times around the needle drivers. The total amount of times you will want to wrap the thread around and pull it through is 4 times, the first you will do it once, the second will be 3 times, the third will be 2 times, and the last time will be 1 time again.  Now you can cut both the long thread and the tail, as close to the knot as possible.  This completes one suture. 

Congratulations on your first suture, however you are not done yet, now we must continue to do sutures until the entire wound is closed up.  I prefer to start in the middle of the wound and then keep dividing the wound in half, until the skin is completely closed up.  You do not have to put a suture every 2 mm or anything like that, just put sufficient amount that the skin edges are “joined” together and there is no break in the joint.  Just be careful to make sure you do not over tighten the knots.  You want the skin to be lined up, not look like the Rocky Mountains.

The important thing to remember is that sutures must be removed (except for the dissolvable ones that is).  The following is the recommended suture removal time based on what part of the body is sutured.  Face 3-5 days, scalp 7-8 days, chest and extremities 8-10 days, hands and joints 10-14 days, back 12-15 days.

Always make sure prior to wound closure that you debride the area and cleanse it, you wouldn’t want to lock that in the skin forever to cause infection.  Also be sure to check on the closure every day, look for signs that the sutures are ripping the skin, or the wound turning read, any sort of heat coming from the wound, discharges from the wound or bleeding from the wound.  These could all indicate either infection, or improper wound closure.

As always, practice and be prepared. 

Letter Re: “Tomorrow When The War Began” Tops Australian Box Offices

James Wesley:
The movie Tomorrow When The War Began–a Red Dawn-style movie produced and set in Australia–is currently #1 in their box office reports. The story is based on a series of books that has been recommended reading in many middle schools. Currently no one is lined up for distribution rights in America, but after the last few days I’m sure there is a new interest by the money hungry studios.

And the series of books is available on Amazon. Regards, – Justin M.

Course Review: OSP Shooting School, by Michael Z. Williamson

The sport of Sporting Clays involves a variety of size and color clay targets thrown in high arcs, low fast passes, rolled along the ground, and in pairs overhead, which are good simulations of real animal movements. Besides being a good way to tune reflexes, it’s a lot of fun. This is a sport that translates well to both survival hunting and defensive shooting against surprise, moving targets.

I shot trap a couple of times about 20 years ago. Since then, all my shooting has been rifle, pistol or riotgun at pop up or fixed targets. This was effectively a new skill set for me.

Before the class, I received an instructional book and DVD. Both were clear, easy to understand and easy to pay attention to. There is a drill for learning the proper movements with a shotgun, and it was very useful. Upon reaching the course, I already had the basic movement ingrained.

OSP is run by Gil and Vicki Ash, with lots of hands on. Classes are kept small, so there is typically one instructor for each five students or less. By the time I’d finished one station of shooting and gotten ready for the next, I had a coach at my elbow.

Gil gave us background on both the sport, and on the related human reflexes, kinetics, neurology and optics. It was a down to earth discussion, but Gil has consulted with researchers on the science behind these. How to learn is as important as the learning itself. We had a long discussion over muscle memory, coordination, dominant eyes and hands, and related matters.

The premise of their method—and they are both amazing shooters with a lot of competition credentials—is that 3-5 seconds of target travel time is more than enough to locate, point, mount the shotgun and shoot. Think of merging with traffic from an on ramp. The car has to be placed precisely between two others moving at a high rate of speed, but if approached in a relaxed fashion, rather than gassing and braking, it’s a fairly simple task. In this case, one sights and moves with the target, mounts the gun, and shoots. This should be an instinctive, natural movement, without a lot of analysis of point of aim, lead, etc.

The coaching was cheerful, conversational and full of humor and sarcasm, but very precise and insightful. We determined my stock was too short, choke too tight, and that my familiarity with high-sighted military rifles was hindering my shotgun mounting. It took a good part of the day to tweak the new movements, but I noticeably improved, and more importantly, learned the skills I needed for further improvement, and gained an understanding of how to analyze my own shooting. I did indeed find that 3 seconds was plenty of time to spot, mount, shoot, and repeat for the second clay of a double.

Gil and Vicki love shooting, love teaching, and their classes are a lot of fun, as well as being packed with learning. Their rates are very reasonable, available singly or for groups, and they offer excellent rates for groups at your location. – SurvivalBlog Editor at Large Michael Z. Williamson, author of the new science fiction novel Do Unto Others.