Every house a survival shelter
Is your home a shelter?
The modern home is no survival shelter. It’s true that we’re comfortable in them, for now. But when the lifelines of electricity and water go off, we quickly find that our homes don’t meet some of the most basic things that human shelter requires.
Throughout ages of human settlement, people built homes in special locations: where water was easy to reach, where waste water could flow away, and where some source of heat fuel could be found and burned.
The advantages of easy water access, heat sources and waste deposit are what make human habitations feasible. The average suburban home has none of those advantages if the grid goes down. It can shed rain, and that’s about it. The location of our homes usually isn’t near a source of water. You can’t walk outside and dip up a pot to boil, or go wash your hands after cutting up meat. Most houses don’t have a functional fireplace or wood-burning device. You can’t build a fire on the floor or in the sink to keep warm by, or to cook food. There is no stream to bathe in, and the toilet backs up into an insufferable disaster once the water feed stops working. Nothing about the modern home could possibly work if you transported that home back in time over a hundred years or so.
I believe that in the event of a global disaster, the majority of suburban houses would be uninhabited, their occupants living in brush shelters down by the river. Because brush shelters would become more practically useful.
The following product suggestions are a good starting point for affordably equipping your home to withstand a disaster or power outage. With as little as four buckets, filled with supplies and stacked in the corner of your garage, you can elevate your house into a refuge that can power your family through a month of grid disruption.
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This water filtration system can provide your family with clean drinking water, anywhere, anytime. You can throw water from any ditch into the bag, and guarantee that drinkable water is coming out the hose. It’s the most compact and cheapest filter I use, and it can filter hundreds of gallons of pond water.
A simple gas burner can provide you with a way to cook and boil water without relying on electricity. Make sure your fuel can is always full.
Water filtration system for long-term water filtration usage. This filter is the best, most usable set-up, but it’s a bit pricier than the Sawyer filter.
Fill a few of these buckets with your emergency supplies. They’re completely sealed, so that even if you house foods, your food and equipment is not compromised.
The work is done for you, just put this bucket in a corner of your garage and your emergency food supply is ready to go.
The work is done for you, just put this bucket in a corner of your garage and your emergency food supply is ready to go.
Throw these in your airtight bucket of dry food to prevent food spoilage.
When normal communications are down from a grid disruption or an EMP blast, a Ham Radio will still work. You need to make sure you are programmed to use the lame frequencies as your loved ones, and use legal frequencies as well. List of legal frequencies, and programming instructions coming soon.
A headlamp with extra batteries is an essential when the power goes off. Make sure it’s in spot where you can lay your hands on it in the dark. Inside the very top of your most accessible supply bucket, is a good place.
Headlamps with rechargeable batteries should be avoided, in favor of AAA batteries with an extra set of batteries always on hand.
These candles are great for emergency light, lighting your gas burner stove, and for starting those stubborn fires that won’t light with a single match. Put two of these candles in each bucket, alongside a box of matches.
Fully Stocked Trauma Kit for Gunshot, Bleeding, Major Wound Care.
This kit is more major injuries like gunshot wounds, stabs, and the like. If you use this kit as your emergency kit, you need to add the small things like bandaids, 4x4 bandages, and betadine.
This is a very basic kit, mostly for little injuries like cuts and scrapes. If you use this kit as your emergency supply, you need to add a tourniquet, betadine, bleedstop powder, and an Israeli bandage.