yhokz101

DISASTER DON’TS

1. Don’t Panic! Panic causes a massive number of avoidable casualties. Breathe! Think! Act! You can panic later. During an event… you do not have that luxury! You need your wits about you and however scary the event may be, if you panic you go into sheep mode. Many casualties are caused during the flight from the initial event. Do not be caught in a crowd that is in panic, if you lose your footing you may not get back up. Think first and then act. Do not flee a building during a serious event, flying glass and debris cause casualties during the destructive phase of the event. Use you survivor instinct to retreat to the place of least perceived threat within the building, a room with few objects that can fall or fly! Seek out places where heavy furniture such as beds or sofas can protect you. Stay calm! After the event, leave the building if it is safe to do so! You really should… always have a whistle with you, every single one of you!!! And here is why, if you do have a really, really bad day and the structure you are in, trap’s you, this, will be a tiny tin item you would really, really want!

2. Don’t pack candles. We live in wood frame homes. Some people, on a real bad day, will have a drink (or two) Candles + Drink + Wood = NOT GOOD!Remember, candles are mini fire’s, it does not take much to turn them in to fully involved fires! Buy the mini LED lights, they use the smallest of batteries and they last a long time, if you do fall asleep with it burning… it will not claim your home, or more!

3. Don’t drink tap water without boiling it! Water borne illness kills as many victims as the main event! If the water you want to drink does not come from a sealed bottle then treat it as if it’s contaminated, filter it, boil it and then use water purification tablets on it! If that sounds extreme then try this on for size, in the history of global disasters, water borne illness has claimed as many lives as the main events did! At a very minimum BOIL BOIL BOIL!

4. Don’t re-enter damaged buildings! Secondary events bring down weakened buildings! You go back in for a wallet and you may lose more than the $100 you saved. So OK, someone you love is in the building… but if you do go in and try to get them out… and the building shifts… how are you going to get someone to get both of you out? It will be hard but you HAVE to remember that going back inside can turn horribly wrong very quickly!

5. Don’t assume the disaster will only strike when you are home and close to your supplies! If you do not have a disaster plan that goes everywhere you go then quite simply… You do not have a plan! Put a kit in the trunk of your car and remember that most of us spend a big chunk of time away from our homes! Disasters can strike at any time of the day or night. They follow no specific time pattern. Be ready wherever you are. If your kit is at home and an event strikes, roads may be damaged or so busy that it takes you days to get home.

6. Don’t point flares at helicopters, if pilots see civilians pointing flares at them, they go and rescue other people who have no flares. But seriously, flares are good in certain situations and most of them are extreme, adrift at sea or trapped on a mountain. But in an urban environment they can and will, cause secondary fires! Secondary fires put further stress on rescue and relief agencies and will tie up valuable resources! Road flares are equally as dangerous and in places can lead to wild fires. Use Flashing LED lights or light sticks, remember to buy a reflective high visibility vest too, remember, clearly lighting a broken down vehicle is great… if you remember to illuminate the occupants as well. DAY & NIGHT… the first thing you do if your vehicle dies on a road…? Hit the HAZARD lights! (This last nugget of info… many people will ignore)

7. Don’t assume the gas and power is off! Until you can prove otherwise treat a badly damaged building as a potential bomb! We are talking about buildings that have suffered obvious and severe structural damage of course, but when that IS the case beware! Gases can start to pool in low lying areas and be potentially lethal! Stay clear of any building that has suffered substantial damage until someone can first check for the presence of gases.

8. Don’t sit idle! Do anything you can to start improving your situation and start now. If you sit idle you will become despondent and stop problem solving! Get busy! Your mental well being will be the first casualty, stay busy and stay focused on improving your lot, once you are out of danger you will have plenty of time to dwell on what happened but if you are still in the “hot zone” you cannot afford to sit and focus on the losses you and your community have suffered. Guard your mental well being as if it were one of your children. Depression sets in fast and it is debilitating!!!

9. Don’t buy a pre-packed disaster kit! They are a collection of cheap and nasty items that are over-priced and of little REAL use on a bad day! Make your own kit and rule number one is to make it PERSONAL! Any medications you require are the first things that go into that kit. Making a kit is easy and its cheap, many of the items you need are probably in your own home. Make a kit and keep it in your car! Call us, we can teach you how to make a kit that cannot be bought!

10. Don’t give up! Help will arrive, if may take a while but it will arrive. Google “Shackleton and his book South” Google another book, “Touching The Void” Both tales are legends of survival lore because they remind us how much a true survivor can endure. Go read the best survival book ever written, Lofty Wisemans SAS survival handbook. If you can’t do a course with us you can still read from the RIGHT sources! The first thing you pack into a disaster kit is the attitude of a survivor, don’t forget that

Courtesy of: http://basecamp-expeditions.com/