Survival After Earthquake Disaster

[chieflittlehorse]

I'm trying to think of a list of things I would want to have after a big earthquake strikes, like the one they had in Chile.

So far I'm not prepared so was wondering if our keypicking community can come up with our own list of items of essentials.

Off the top of my head I can think of:

My Essentials:
A solid plastic trash container with wheels (to store my items)
Flashlights with extra batteries
Portable radio with extra batteries
Portable water
Gas Wrench - to shut off gas
Canned Food - Corn, Gabanzo Beans, Kidney Beans, Olives, Tuna, Kipper Snacks, etc.
Dry Food - Beef Jerky, Rice, Lentil Beans, etc

Non-Essentials:
Deck of Cards, a good reading book, etc.

Any other ideas...

please share

[GWiens2001]

Very important thing missing...

CLEAN, potable water. (or is that what you meant by portable?)

Also:

Basic medical supplies including
*Bandages (sizes from small band-aids to large compression)
*Latex (or nitrile) gloves
*Alcohol (methyl, not ethyl)
*sutures (or at least curved needles and fishing line)

Some method of water purification
Some form of knife with which you are comfortable (not just for defence
Duct tape
Roll of plastic bags
Fire-starting materials (lighters, matches)
Two-way radios with batteries

And most important of all... A plan agreed upon by the whole family for how and where to meet in case of emergency.

Gordon

[xeo]

We all know things never go as expected, and you can't plan for every situation. For the scenario of an Earthquake, you're going to be stuck in an area for an unknown amount of time. Your food will run out. But, you want enough food and water to last you 3 days when rationed. You want a big strong knife, something to shield your mouth from debris, preferably a painter's mask. Something to shield your eyes, high quality tactical goggles. A good tactical flashlight LED will serve you very well, with plenty of extra batteries. You'll also want a backpack to carry shit in. Fuck your personal belongings at this point. You'll likely end up with a large group of people somewhere waiting for the government to deliver supplies. You need to (A) defend yourself (B) keep an eye on your personal items (C) stay clean. Chances are someone else will probably have a radio with them but having one of your own isn't a bad idea. There are far too many variables to account for everything, but I think food, water, a knife, a backpack, breathing mask, eye shielding, some Swedish firesteel, a tactical flashlight and some kind of small hand-crank radio are the absolute bare-bones essentials.

[Wizer]

I´m not a survivalist, but like to hike and fish out there in the wild.
Big knives are cool, and if you know how to use them, they are great for close combat. But if you have to survive against elements, a big knife is just a burden.
A knife shoud be handy for little tasks and cleaning fish. If you need a bigger blade then a small axe is your choise to go with your pocket knife. In urban areas after -say earthquake you may need to clear fallen trees, break doors etc. In forest you need fire wood and shealter, both of these tasks are a job for an axe.
Walking with a backpack for a week makes you cut down every gram of weight from your eguipment. Same goes with food. All should be dried. Its easy to dry ground beef yourself.
...just my 10 cents..

[Squelchtone]

The Center For Disease Control (CDC) had a very good campaign a few years ago helping folks prepare for a zombie apocalypse. The whole point was that if you are ready for a zombie apocalypse, you're ready for any disaster. Here is that page: http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatter ... pocalypse/

If I were to be stuck in rubble after an earthquake, I would want a Fox 40 whistle around my neck, so I would have a better chance of being found by people digging above. Maybe a photo of someone you care about to keep your morale up, and if you're in an earthquake prone area, I'd keep a pack of jerky in my pocket, and small bottles of water in each room of the house, so if you were stuck in a room or collapse, maybe you'd be lucky enough to reach for a bottle of water, since you'll probably be trapped for hours if not a few days. I also keep my phone on my person at all times, I have friends who come home and put their keys and phone on the counter, if the building fell down around you, having phone in pocket can help, even if all circuits are initially busy, overloaded, or even down, eventually the phone could be used as a flashlight, to receive a call from concerned family member, or to call, text, or email for help.

[rai]

In almost any kind of disaster the best thing to have ready are some bottles of water, drinking washing wounds and many more uses
If your lost in the woods and need firewood, look for standing deadwood, deadwood on the ground is damp and won't burn, also use birch bark as tinder for fires, it burns like gasoline.
any sharp knife is ancient and mature technology, use it for shaveing bits of kindling for a fire, cut through animal skin and flesh, scale the fish,
cut rope so many things, and fire, remember bic lighters have a gas lever that sticks out so in a pocket that is jammed with things this will press that lever and let all the gas out, a lighter with the piezo electric striker has a harder push to let the gas out but the striker is less long term reliable than the flint and wheel type
In the old days people would bank ashes on the coals to slow the fire down and preserve it, they would even put coals in a covered pan banked in ashes and carry the fire with them when the moved a ways. Staying warm in the woods find shelter from the wind and collect all the moss you can find especially dead dry moss, its soft and insulates better than any other available materials unless you can take down a bison and make a robe of his fur like plains indians did, but finding bison when you want a blanket is probably a thing of the past never to be useful again

[Josephus]

I´m not a survivalist, but like to hike and fish out there in the wild.
Big knives are cool, and if you know how to use them, they are great for close combat. But if you have to survive against elements, a big knife is just a burden.
A knife shoud be handy for little tasks and cleaning fish. If you need a bigger blade then a small axe is your choise to go with your pocket knife. In urban areas after -say earthquake you may need to clear fallen trees, break doors etc. In forest you need fire wood and shealter, both of these tasks are a job for an axe.
Walking with a backpack for a week makes you cut down every gram of weight from your eguipment. Same goes with food. All should be dried. Its easy to dry ground beef yourself.
...just my 10 cents..

Pretty much, yeah. Bold added for emphasis. I think I have mentioned that I like doing the whole wilderness backpacking thing. After the first trip out people tend to start stripping down all the stuff they didn't use or could do without in a hurry. It is kinda like the people that buy hundred-piece pick sets only to never use 90 of them. Once you start applying the tools you realize your expectations are way off. For people that have several years of experience carrying everything they need to survive un-aided in varying conditions they start doing seemingly unintuitive things like not bothering with a radio, spare batteries, use a two-inch pocket knife, value pliers highly, a tiny saw is worth it's weight in gold in bad conditions (though a hatchet and a nice Mora is more fun), debating whether or not to ditch the flint product du jour. I'll explain some of the reasoning. It is not that those items are not good to have, it is just an opportunity cost thing. If you have limited space, budget, or weight limits, there are better options. After seemingly being all negative about this stuff I'll be productive and add to the list of important things.

What good is a radio going to do for you if you are on your own anyway? Either the news will be helpful and right next to you or it will be worthless and far away.
If electricity is gone your body adjusts to solar time very fast, often waking up at sunset and becoming very lethargic at twilight. Flashlights just become something you have to not fall in your own piss at night.
Longer knives are better for batoning, but if you need to do that then you should have an axe instead anyway. Finesse tasks are more common and cutting yourself is far worse than having to pick up more sticks.
Pliers save you from so much grief, it is shocking how easily most things can be torn apart with a pair. It saves from being burned on things and are wonderful for repairing equipment and sometimes yourself.
Saws weigh less and take less energy than any other wood cutting implement. Chopping is silly by comparison. They do have drawbacks though. Metal wedges (axes, knives, etc) have more utility functions.
It is hard to break a couple cigarette lighters. Real hard. The piezo ones usually work when wet, and still can make sparks when worn down. Flint is a serious pain to use in anything but ideal conditions. Good tinder is hard to find and if you keep some on hand, then that is just more effort and weight over adding yet another lighter or pack of waterproof matches to the kit.

It is weird how these things play out. Only way to be certain what works and doesn't for you and in your area is to actually do it. Only then will understanding and skill come. Anyway, enough with warnings and caveats. One thing that is shockingly missing on the lists so far, but eluded to is a water filter. Not a brita, I mean a serious 0.3 micron or better one. Katadyns are the most popular by far for a reason, they are tough, easy to maintain, and most importantly have paper filtering elements. I have used ceramics but they take so much effort and crack so easily, destroying your safety. The plataypus gravityworks would be a better bet for shelter-in-place stuff. It doesn't require all the work that pump filters have. Another thing that I cannot stress the usefulness of enough in ay situation: sufficiently thick visqueen. Sheet plastic! Need a shelter? Got one. Need a rain catch? Got one. Need to keep wounds out of the dirt? Here is some ground cover. Want to block dust and dirt out of the house? No problem. Adding to the previous issue of potable water, you can even make a still quite easily with clear plastic. That will get rid of chemicals, something that no consumer water filter can do. Best part is, if you spend ten bucks on visqueen it will be difficult to use it all. Lots of gauze, medical tape, antiseptic, scissors that can be used with one hand, and medication to keep dysentery at bay are essential. Nearly all fancy things like triangle bandages, butterfly bandages, and the like can be replaced with gauze and tape. I remember one conversation I had with a pretty rough looking government contractor with an Afghan-tan where he said that the only medical things worth bringing are simple stuff like I listed and a bit of spare rope. He said, "Either the gauze can fix it or the rope can make a tourniquet. If neither can do the job I am screwed anyway." Speaking of which don't forget some rope. Paracord much preferred.

Non-Essentials:
Deck of Cards, a good reading book, etc.

Might not be so non-essential! A book on knot systems and another on identifying and preparing edible plants (if you are comfortable with identification) are incredibly worth it. Even in urban or semi-urban areas it can be helpful. There are several types of weeds in my yard that are all edible in part or whole (not really weeds then eh?). Some of them are even rather sweet greens. Other paper products that are imperative to have are maps and toilet paper. Don't confuse the two ! A map, compass and knowing how to use both are incredibly important. Even if you don't plan to travel, you might still have to. As for the toilet paper I'm sure you can figure out why that is important. Keep spares somewhere high in the house in case of flooding. Trade items are also non-essential that can really be great. Candy that does not go bad or get crushed, little comfort items. Bar soap, again in case of flooding. Some extra blankets or whatever comfort items you can think of. Having those on hand can help your neighbor, illicit community support and can get you items that somehow didn't make it onto the list.

The list can go on and on. I'm sure others will add plenty of things too. Surprisingly the one thing that will probably not make it on to the list is a set of picks. I have tried to find a way to shoehorn it into my pack, but there just is no plausible situation where they could be useful. Oh well. If you want to dive in the deep end of this material there are many books and guides. Most are full of shit though. I didn't find any of it in Les Stroud's book 'Survive!' which makes it de facto the best. Just caveat emptor. Try stuff out before relying on it.

Sorry for the huge amount of text. It is just the beginning of the season so this stuff goes through my head every year. Oh and the Backpacker magazine gear guide is just around the corner. Highly recommend it.

[rerun12]

Remember the rule of 3:
3 minutes without air, 3 days without water,3 weeks without food = death. These are obvious priorities. Anything else you carry should be determined by your skill sets, your plan of escape and your moral center. As much as I despise needless violence a reliable concealed firearm would be a wise investment if sudden disaster/chaos/anarchy/whathaveyou is something you are looking to prepare for. And if you do decide to purchase a firearm take as many classes as you can on how to use it, clean it, fire it ect..and practice often with it. It is frightening to think that only a few months without electricity and gasoline would lead to complete anarchy, but it likely would. Surround yourself with honorable, strong, trustworthy, caring people and life becomes much easier and worth fighting for. Also keep in mind that despite what many would have you think, we're all family, brothers and sisters, regardless of race or backround or whatever other divisive words those in power throw at us to keep us at odds with one another.

Knowing your environment is of paramount importance. That and what everyone else said. Also, train yourself to enjoy the moment...it's limitless

[jupiter11d7]

My Essentials:
A solid plastic trash container with wheels (to store my items)
Flashlights with extra batteries
Portable radio with extra batteries
Portable water
Gas Wrench - to shut off gas
Canned Food - Corn, Gabanzo Beans, Kidney Beans, Olives, Tuna, Kipper Snacks, etc.
Dry Food - Beef Jerky, Rice, Lentil Beans, etc

I would go with a good backpack over the trash container with wheels. You are going to want to keep it light, as the extra weight will only take up more precious energy. Also especially in an earthquake situation the ground, roads, sidewalks, etc will be very uneven and broken. There will be obsticles to climb over and tight spaces to fit through. So the wheels won't be much help and the bulkiness and added weight of the trash container will only slow you down and hinder movement.
Go with an LED flashlight. They tend to be brighter and they are much more efficient. The batteries for these lights are small and they last a long time, chances are you wouldn't need any replacements.
You can get very lightweight portable radios that are powered by turning a small hand crank. This would also eliminate the need for extra batteries.
The water you bring with you will go pretty quick, even with rationing it. You will want some way to purify water. There are plenty of options and styles of filters that would work well. Purification tablets would be good too.
The gas wrench could be used as a weapon in a pinch, but after an earthquake I feel like a lot of underground gas lines will be ruptured so unless you can shut it off at the source there will still be dangers from gas leaks. I guess this could be useful if you plan to stay in a building that managed to stay intact.
I would go with some MREs over canned food. Saves space, less weight. Things with high carb content would be good to keep your energy up.

As far as other ideas
1. A good pair of boots - I like the Rocky S2V boots. They are breathable, comfortable, and best of all waterproof.
2. A multi tool - these are really handy. Pliers, knife, can opener, screwdriver, bottle opener etc all in one. They are small, light weight, and can be very useful.
3. A good knife - something comfortable and functional. Not too big or too small.
4. Maybe some waterproof matches as a back up for a lighter?
5. Basic first aid kit
6. A wire saw - very useful, compact, and can replace heavier things like saws/hatchets
7. Tatical gloves could come in handy
8. A reasonable firearm would be a good idea too. After a disaster there is plenty of chaos, especially in urban areas. Be prepaired to defend your life and those you care about. The main part of that preparation is to know how to use that weapon safely and accurately.

[GWiens2001]

I´m not a survivalist, but like to hike and fish out there in the wild.
Big knives are cool, and if you know how to use them, they are great for close combat. But if you have to survive against elements, a big knife is just a burden.
A knife shoud be handy for little tasks and cleaning fish. If you need a bigger blade then a small axe is your choise to go with your pocket knife. In urban areas after -say earthquake you may need to clear fallen trees, break doors etc. In forest you need fire wood and shealter, both of these tasks are a job for an axe.
Walking with a backpack for a week makes you cut down every gram of weight from your eguipment. Same goes with food. All should be dried. Its easy to dry ground beef yourself.
...just my 10 cents..

Pretty much, yeah. Bold added for emphasis. I think I have mentioned that I like doing the whole wilderness backpacking thing. After the first trip out people tend to start stripping down all the stuff they didn't use or could do without in a hurry. It is kinda like the people that buy hundred-piece pick sets only to never use 90 of them. Once you start applying the tools you realize your expectations are way off. For people that have several years of experience carrying everything they need to survive un-aided in varying conditions they start doing seemingly unintuitive things like not bothering with a radio, spare batteries, use a two-inch pocket knife, value pliers highly, a tiny saw is worth it's weight in gold in bad conditions (though a hatchet and a nice Mora is more fun), debating whether or not to ditch the flint product du jour. I'll explain some of the reasoning. It is not that those items are not good to have, it is just an opportunity cost thing. If you have limited space, budget, or weight limits, there are better options. After seemingly being all negative about this stuff I'll be productive and add to the list of important things.

What good is a radio going to do for you if you are on your own anyway? Either the news will be helpful and right next to you or it will be worthless and far away.
If electricity is gone your body adjusts to solar time very fast, often waking up at sunset and becoming very lethargic at twilight. Flashlights just become something you have to not fall in your own piss at night.
Longer knives are better for batoning, but if you need to do that then you should have an axe instead anyway. Finesse tasks are more common and cutting yourself is far worse than having to pick up more sticks.
Pliers save you from so much grief, it is shocking how easily most things can be torn apart with a pair. It saves from being burned on things and are wonderful for repairing equipment and sometimes yourself.
Saws weigh less and take less energy than any other wood cutting implement. Chopping is silly by comparison. They do have drawbacks though. Metal wedges (axes, knives, etc) have more utility functions.
It is hard to break a couple cigarette lighters. Real hard. The piezo ones usually work when wet, and still can make sparks when worn down. Flint is a serious pain to use in anything but ideal conditions. Good tinder is hard to find and if you keep some on hand, then that is just more effort and weight over adding yet another lighter or pack of waterproof matches to the kit.

It is weird how these things play out. Only way to be certain what works and doesn't for you and in your area is to actually do it. Only then will understanding and skill come. Anyway, enough with warnings and caveats. One thing that is shockingly missing on the lists so far, but eluded to is a water filter. Not a brita, I mean a serious 0.3 micron or better one. Katadyns are the most popular by far for a reason, they are tough, easy to maintain, and most importantly have paper filtering elements. I have used ceramics but they take so much effort and crack so easily, destroying your safety. The plataypus gravityworks would be a better bet for shelter-in-place stuff. It doesn't require all the work that pump filters have. Another thing that I cannot stress the usefulness of enough in ay situation: sufficiently thick visqueen. Sheet plastic! Need a shelter? Got one. Need a rain catch? Got one. Need to keep wounds out of the dirt? Here is some ground cover. Want to block dust and dirt out of the house? No problem. Adding to the previous issue of potable water, you can even make a still quite easily with clear plastic. That will get rid of chemicals, something that no consumer water filter can do. Best part is, if you spend ten bucks on visqueen it will be difficult to use it all. Lots of gauze, medical tape, antiseptic, scissors that can be used with one hand, and medication to keep dysentery at bay are essential. Nearly all fancy things like triangle bandages, butterfly bandages, and the like can be replaced with gauze and tape. I remember one conversation I had with a pretty rough looking government contractor with an Afghan-tan where he said that the only medical things worth bringing are simple stuff like I listed and a bit of spare rope. He said, "Either the gauze can fix it or the rope can make a tourniquet. If neither can do the job I am screwed anyway." Speaking of which don't forget some rope. Paracord much preferred.

Non-Essentials:
Deck of Cards, a good reading book, etc.

Might not be so non-essential! A book on knot systems and another on identifying and preparing edible plants (if you are comfortable with identification) are incredibly worth it. Even in urban or semi-urban areas it can be helpful. There are several types of weeds in my yard that are all edible in part or whole (not really weeds then eh?). Some of them are even rather sweet greens. Other paper products that are imperative to have are maps and toilet paper. Don't confuse the two ! A map, compass and knowing how to use both are incredibly important. Even if you don't plan to travel, you might still have to. As for the toilet paper I'm sure you can figure out why that is important. Keep spares somewhere high in the house in case of flooding. Trade items are also non-essential that can really be great. Candy that does not go bad or get crushed, little comfort items. Bar soap, again in case of flooding. Some extra blankets or whatever comfort items you can think of. Having those on hand can help your neighbor, illicit community support and can get you items that somehow didn't make it onto the list.

The list can go on and on. I'm sure others will add plenty of things too. Surprisingly the one thing that will probably not make it on to the list is a set of picks. I have tried to find a way to shoehorn it into my pack, but there just is no plausible situation where they could be useful. Oh well. If you want to dive in the deep end of this material there are many books and guides. Most are full of shit though. I didn't find any of it in Les Stroud's book 'Survive!' which makes it de facto the best. Just caveat emptor. Try stuff out before relying on it.

Sorry for the huge amount of text. It is just the beginning of the season so this stuff goes through my head every year. Oh and the Backpacker magazine gear guide is just around the corner. Highly recommend it.

Did mention some method of water purification, and the roll of plastic bags is for the same uses as your visqueen plastic roll. It can also be used to waterproof things in the rain, or hold water.

Agree with much of what you said, though for home use weight is less of an issue. But always have a BOB (Bug-Out-Bag) or G-and-G (Grab and Go) bag with just the essentials.

For home use, two way handheld radios are good when conducting searches for missing family members or friends ("I found him on such-and-such road, meet me back a home" or "She just got home, come on back"). Saves a lot of wasted time and effort.

Agree about flashlights being of limited value. After dark, you should likely stay put. For those who might say that it is for traveling at night if the area is hostile, then do you really want to signal every hostile person your location by using a light in the dark? They can be useful for signaling at night, and you can reduce the ability of others to locate you by using a hood and a red lens.

Gordon

[MBI]

I think the biggest thing people underestimate when making emergency preparations is the need for water. Even people who do store water, don't store nearly enough to last though any major crisis.

I was living in Mexico City in 1985 when an 8.1 earthquake hit. Here is a little background information to show how we made it through the disaster.

Grocery stores weren't supplied quite as consistently as people are used to in the US, so we tried to keep at least a month's worth of food in the pantry, both for emergencies and to get us through the inconvenience of the foods we usually ate not being available when we happened to go shopping.

At the best of times in that city, the tap water was undrinkable as it's contaminated with human waste. They dig one trench under the streets to lay pipes and they put the concrete water and sewer pipes right next to each other in the same hole. Any leakage at seams or cracks in the pipes and the sewage mingles with the drinking water. The water may LOOK clean, but under a microscope it's a bacterial minefield. The city utilities were very unreliable. Regular blackouts and brownouts in the electrical power, and the water would shut off for hours at a time on a regular basis for... whatever reason, or else the pressure would be so low as to be useless.

In response, apartment buildings and homes were usually built to help compensate for that. Most residential structures have a massive tank on the roof, holding hundreds or thousands of gallons. The one on the roof of our home was about 4 feet tall, wide and deep. However many gallons that is, I don't know. There was also a sediment trap at the bottom of the tank to help make sure that the water that comes out of the tap is at least clear, if not drinkable. It has a float valve in the tank like in a toilet, so whenever the water level dropped at all, the float would turn on a valve to allow municipal water to flow into the tank to keep it topped off. The building's water pressure was supplied by gravity from the roof tank, not from the city water supply. You could use this water for washing, but it needed to be boiled to drink it. Then under each residential structure, there was a massive cistern of water that went under the entire building, instead of a basement. All water runoff from the roof, porches and your yard all went down into drains that emptied into the cistern. There was also a large sediment trap in the cistern so the water would look mostly clear, but also not be potable. In the event that your roof tank went empty and there was no municipal water to fill it, a pump would fill your roof tank from the cistern under the building. That was basically a 12v sump pump that ran off a car battery in emergencies.

After the earthquake, so many of those leaky water and sewer pipes broke that even in the very few areas that still had running water, the contamination was so bad that the water was brown.

I was in one of the areas that had no water at all. According to the news, the Red Cross came in after about 3 days with these massive tanker trucks of water, but in a city of millions that won't go very far. It was a token effort. I never saw a single one of them. Municipal water wasn't restored for over a month. We lived on the runoff water from our cistern for that entire time. Some areas were without water for a lot longer than that.

So, if I was going to make any one single recommendation for anyone preparing for a major natural disaster, it would be to store at MINIMUM of thirty gallons per person in your home, giving you roughly one month of drinking/cooking water. If you're able to though, store sixty gallons per person as that would give you a little extra water for hygiene. I'd also keep a bunch of coffee filters (for prefiltering sediment from water before purification), and a bunch of dry chlorine powder for treating water in case you need to go even longer than your stored water will last and you're lucky enough to be able to find a secondary source, which in a city can be a bit of a gamble.

Officially, that earthquake killed around 10K if I remember right, but since most of the population was undocumented the local estimates were that the death toll within the city was closer to 40 or 50K. Once the roads were cleared of debris and you were able to drive around the city again, you'd see some buildings standing, but next door would be nothing but a pile of rubble where an apartment building formerly stood. After about three days, when they were no longer pulling any living survivors out of the rubble, they just brought out the bulldozers and started bulldozing entire structures into the pit that was formerly the cistern for that building. Didn't usually even bother looking for bodies at that point, basically the deceased were just interred in the rubble where the buildings fell. There was just too much destruction to be able to handle a methodical search for human remains. For a year afterward, the bulldozers were still running all day long, clearing rubble piles. There were an awful lot of vacant lots in that city it was all over.

[Deadlock]

Jesus. Scary story.

[rai]

Wow, what a story MBI, I just love that fact that there are some really interesting people on this site. I once had a novia, who had been through that but I never heard much about it except that the thought of it made her nervous.

[rerun12]

Thank you for sharing that MBI, glad you made it out alright.