5 Lifesaving Items for Emergencies

Seemingly every year about winter time, preparedness sites focus on life saving items to keep on your nightstand, or items you should keep near you at night. And it makes sense, as many emergencies can occur in winter time, including ice and snow storms, fires and break-ins. So here’s our take on the age-old question.

Source of Light can be a LifeSaving Item (Flashlight/Headlamp)

Emergencies can come at any hour. but not being able to see during the emergency makes things all that much more dangerous, not to mention scary. Keeping a flashlight handy can save your life or at least make you much safer.

There are several approaches to having light sources available. Personally I suggest keeping a high lumen handheld flashlight like this one.

These types in particular allow you to focus the beam very far away or broaden the focus to light up an entire room, or even a backyard.

Many of these models of flashlights have safety loops you can wrap around your wrist when using them. And that loop can be used to hang the light close to your bedside.

In addition, it’s highly recommended you consider including a headlamp that can be used to free up your hands in a disaster situation.

Imagine needing to quickly grab items, like bug out bags, or weapons, and having to fumble around with a flashlight while doing so. Using a headlamp allows you to avoid this exact scenario. Be careful to try a few different types. Some can be pretty heavy and not very effective for long term use.

Another aspect of headlamps that can be important, not necessarily in emergency situations, is the ability to change the amount of light and even applying a red filter. Changing the amount of light allows you to save on battery life. And, of course, the red light is better for keeping your eyes’ natural night vision.

Cell Phone or Mobile Device

There is no doubt, the cell phone is one of the best tools we can have available to us in emergency situations. Emergency services can be called. Quick information lookups can be made – for instance in the case of poisoning.

Of course if your light sources above are just out of reach, you can still use most cell phones these days to light up an area as needed.

Most modern smartphones also have cameras, many of very high quality. Of course that means you can take pictures of damages done during storms or accidents, or get quick snapshots of criminals while in the act if you deem it safe to do so.

We’ll talk about it a bit more below, but don’t forget to plug that phone into its charger each night. Nothing more frustrating or dangerous to get into a challenging situation, just to realize your phone has only got 6 percent power remaining.

Power Supply for Any Electronic LifeSaving Item

We’ve alluded to it already. It becomes very important to keep all your electronics properly charged. You’re doing nothing else with them overnight, so plug them in to be better prepared.

One caveat here, keep in mind some electronic devices (primarily flashlights) still use the older style NiMH batteries, which will eventually lose their charge capacity. So if you do have that style, it might be important to put them on more of a schedule of allowing the device battery to run completely dead occasionally. And then completely recharge it.

If your device uses standard batteries such as AA or AAA, then consider adding a little case to carry it along with a few backup batteries.

Finally, consider having a small power pack, like this Mophie power station.

These can be used to charge your phone, and if you happen to have a rechargeable headlamp or flashlight, it can be used there too. These are so important to have available in everyday life and in possible emergency scenarios.

Security Device/ Self Defense Items

For security, if you’re a second amendment advocate, you likely already have a weapon of choice. And it should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, get trained and regularly practice shooting with your platform.

It may seem the natural choice is to go with a smaller package to “keep in your nightstand”. However, do some research and consider the possibility that a shotgun or pistol caliber carbine might be better suited for your personal needs. I won’t go too much in depth in this guide on the advantages and disadvantages of each. Just know that there are many options and considerations must be given for each. I’ll say It again, get trained on your platform, and practice.

If you’re not much of a firearms fan, there are many options you can still use to protect yourself and your family. Consider non- lethal items such as:

Fast-Strike Tactical Whip

https://www.faststrikedefense.com/fast-strike-whip

Sabre Pepper Gel Canisters

https://www.sabrered.com/pepper-spray-and-personal-safety-products

And it may seem drastic, but keeping a large knife (like a hunting knife or machete in its sheath) can be a great deterrent if someone sees you wielding it. Again, just be knowledgeable on how to use it. And willing to use it if the time comes. If you don’t think that’s your style, then stick to the other non-lethals.

Last but not least, it’s great to have a dog! Dogs can be our best friends. They can go on runs with us to keep us healthy. They can show you kindness and distract you when you’re feeling low. But throughout history, domesticated dogs have also been used as protection from danger.

It is true that even just having a smaller dog able to bark a warning when danger is near is a great first line of defense. But it becomes even more important to have a well trained dog that knows you and your family. A dog can be treated as part of a family, but don’t skip out on proper training for the main commands.

Eye Glasses/ Reading Glasses

Speaking from a position of years of experience, don’t forget the glasses. Yes there are many who are not afflicted by near or far-sighted struggles. But, if you’re coming from anywhere near the GenX perspective, reading glasses become so important to a normal way of life. Definitely consider getting the Multi-focus lenses as well. They are great for everyday use.

So, just trust us, this is important to somebody out there!

LifeSaving Honorable Mentions

fire extinguisher – at the very least, have several positioned purposefully throughout the house and know how to use them
vehicle keys – at the very least, know where your keys are at all times. Have a default place where they are kept and always leave them there
wallet/purse – same as keys. Have a specific location preferably the same as your keys, and always keep them there
Shoes – it seems silly to say, but think of a scenario in which a breakin or storm happens, with broken glass and you’ve got to move fast in the dark. You will want to be able to move quickly without fear of cutting your feet
And just for the long-locks ladies out there, possibly a hair-band. In emergencies having those beautiful locks tied up and out of your face will allow you to function much more smoothly

Thanks for joining us on this one. But we’d really love to hear your feedback to help us grow and communicate new ideas to the audience.

Until next time, this is @genxtalkin signing off…

February 25, 2022February 28, 2022

GenXTalkin Powerful Answers to 5 Common Preparedness Questions

I’m trying something new today with our blog. Most of you know by now, Ed is out galivanting around the world allowing us to live vicariously through him… thank you Wilksie!

Ed’s alluded to a few upcoming items he’s got to talk about and reports from the field. I’m excited to see what he’s got for us!

Until then, I wanted to capture five of some of the more common questions we hear in the preparedness community, and answer them from my humble perspective.

So, let’s get started, shall we?

Why did you get into preparedness?

I was unknowingly being instructed in the ways of preparedness by both my mom and dad for most of my childhood. My dad lived out being prepared on a day to day basis, and it was very impactful living through multiple recessions and very little money.

If you want to hear more about my parents, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing them in some earlier podcast episodes, when I was on a recent trip to the four corners area. You can find them here:

Link to Dorie Marshall Episode

https://podcast.genxtalkin.com/1819710/9636621-gxt-i-ep07-dorie-marshall

Link to Brooks Marshall Episode Pt 1

https://podcast.genxtalkin.com/1819710/9923054-gxt-i-ep08a-brooks-marshall-pt-1

Linke to Brooks Marshall Episode Pt 2

https://podcast.genxtalkin.com/1819710/9998293-gxt-i-ep08a-brooks-marshall-pt-2

When I left home, I ran into many scenarios in which being prepared would have been better, but I was not, and I suffered the consequences.

I’ve been robbed a couple of times while traveling.
I’ve been scammed by a three card Monty player.
I’ve been stuck in the cold, overnight, broken down vehicle, in sub-zero weather with very little heat or shelter.
And the lessons I’ve learned through those and so many more are what drive me today to be better prepared

As for preparedness itself, for me it all Started out as kind of a fun thing. Zombies, apocalyptic living, how would I survive, and so on. Of course, Y2K came with all those fears.

And then, there was this period we lived in a townhome community and ours was one of the only ones on the block that had a fireplace. Across the street there was this nice little family with mom and dad and two very small children. Weather was forecast to be in the single digits during a snowstorm and the power had been out for about a day and a half. And I remember going over there and offering for them to come stay with us if they started getting too cold. That was kind of an eye opener in that even in “normal” times, individuals and families could be hit with difficult choices.

I really just started doing my own prepping of sorts. And eventually my wife jumped on the bandwagon. We’ve been going strong with it for a couple of decades now at least.

What movies/shows or books influenced your preparedness planning most?

Preparedness Movies

There’s so many movies and books. 28 days later. That was actually one of my favorite and Still is one of my favorite, zombies movies with Cillian Murphy. The fact that it showed how quickly (28 days) things went to complete hell was impactful.

28 Days Later Movie - Zomie Apocalypse Preparedness — 28 Days Later Movie – Zomie Apocalypse Preparedness

World War Z. Again, very short timeline. And the way they portrayed a massive apocalyptic event that was impressive. I will say that the book was much better because it portrayed multiple scenes from a zombie apocalypse. The book itself is absolutely fantastic!

Movie – https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/world-war-z

Book – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8908.World_War_Z

And then I remember back in the 90s, there was a movie called Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman. Wow that was an impactful, epidemic type of movie. And the thing that was powerful about that one as well is how the government could come in and essentially enveloped this town and try to block people from getting in and out of the town. People in general would attempt to fight back and do what they thought was right.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/outbreak

Of course, so much talk has gone on about The Walking Dead over the past number of years. I would say earlier seasons, maybe up to season four were very good, but after that it kind of got a little weird. But same type of scene from 28 days later where the guy wakes up and finds that the world has completely changed.

Preparedness Books

As far as books go, there’s the old standby One Second After by William Forstchen. That is a very powerful book, primarily because the author himself is a historian and he has connections with government. And it was actually a bit of a sad story. He was part of this Commission that was tasked with finding out what would happen if an EMP were to hit the United States and how in what ways it might affect the US most. When his Commission was getting ready to approach Congress with their report, 911 happened. And so it all was forgotten. The only way he was able to present that information to the public was in a fictional novel. The result was One Second After. Absolutely fantastic book! And not just all doom and gloom. There’s a lot of successful things they did as a community

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4922079-one-second-after

Of course, Going Home, by A. American is a fantastic book for “get home safe” type of scenarios. This is more of a EMP type of scenario, but a fantastic book and the series goes on after the first book. I still love the first one the most.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17085384-going-home

And then there’s the Survivalist series with the Mason Raines character by Arthur Bradley. That’s an excellent book and book series. It explains how a US Marshall might respond. And not only how the goodness of a US Marshall might change the world, but also how certain evil might make the world worse. It also puts on display how you can fight back against evil in really successful ways.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18828336-frontier-justice

There’s companion gardening books and homesteading books that of course shouldn’t be overlooked to gain knowledge.

So, reading as much as you can about being prepared is absolutely recommended.

Shelter in Place or Bug Out?

This completely depends on the scenario. In our area, there is a potential, very unlikely, but a potential of nuclear attack or other nuclear type of threat. That said, the thought of sheltering in place might not be the best approach to protecting yourself and family. If it is known that a life altering event is approaching and the best bet would be to leave and leave quickly than bugout.

To Bug Out also typically implies, with haste! Hence the bug out bag to get out as quickly as possible. But this term bug out, doesn’t mean the same thing to different people. To bug out to some may mean, being instructed to do so by government agencies, like FEMA, to move yourselves and family to a government provided shelter.

However, for those who have planned and prepared ahead of time, to bug out may simply mean moving yourself to the next phase in your preparedness plan. Maybe you quickly move to your first bug out location, like another family member outside the affected area.

I suspect there are very few reasons why a person would leave the safety of their home to move to an unknown scenario, like a government shelter. When they could just as easily protect themselves within their known home and area.

A great thought heading into your planning is to have a decision-making tree that says if X+Y happens, then leave. But until that point, shelter in place and implement next steps in your plans. By the way, this can and should be a part of your everyday prepping as well. For instance, it’s much more likely for an area to be hit with a freezing storm or hurricane, causing power outage, than a nuclear attack.

But the same logic remains true. If X+Y happens, for instance, if power is lost in your local area due to a recent weather event, and all indications are it will be out for 3-4 days. Decide if it would be best to wait it out with generators, solar power, and cooking over a fire. Or if it would be better to “bug out” to a local hotel. Keeping in mind pets and other family specific cases.

If faced with an active shooter-type situation, would it be better to run and hide, or attack the shooter?

One thing I think we could all agree to is that nobody really knows what they are going to do when faced with this type of event, until they are there! Something that can help a person to understand their own potential in situations, is to train for them and place themselves into very similar situations.

Seek out training from local law enforcement
read books about real life scenarios
try to become more familiar with the real scenarios and how they shake out.

This may help you keep a sound mind when faced with potentially disturbing events.

There are several ways survival experts recommend responding to active assailants. By now many have already heard of the “Run-Hide-Fight” response.

“Run-Hide-Fight” response - Active Shooter Preparedness — “Run-Hide-Fight” response – Active Shooter Preparedness

First you run – to keep yourself alive
Next you hide – to make sure the assailant can’t see you
If all else fails, then you fight – to hopefully protect yourself and give yourself a fighting chance to survive until the end of the event.

But I would submit to the listeners some additional thoughts. My wife and I recently went to an active assailant presentation, and they changed it up a bit with some very good logic.

The main trouble with the “Run-Hide-Fight” philosophy is it puts into the mind of the person experiencing the trauma, from the very beginning, that they are a victim! So, the person’s mentality is already coming from a position of fear and possible death. I must RUN, I must HIDE! And then magically, somehow, they are next supposed to remove all that fear and then… start to fight!

So, the presenter challenged that approach with a new one.

“Avoid-Deny-Defend”

Simple adjustments to the words, but these are ACTIVE in their engagement with the assailant.

To RUN, in a person’s mind, means to RUN AWAY! But to “Avoid” means to actively understand from where the danger is coming. Then avoid that danger with the most logical approach. It may mean moving closer to the danger to move to the next step.
To HIDE also can imply, to cower, again prompting more of a fear reflex. But to “Deny”, can prompt a person to continually deny the attacker access to the area in which the resistance is located.
And to FIGHT implies this is your last chance effort to life – to fight like hell! But if your mindset is already one of positive, “I will get out of this danger safely”, then the natural course of thinking is to be defending yourself from harm.

Finally, if your mindset is actively engaged with the assailant or other danger, it naturally causes you to think and observe much better than if you were to simply RUN, HIDE or FIGHT! So that, after the event is concluded and you are safe, you can then TELL. You can inform authorities of what occurred with confidence. Your mental response is no longer “I’ve been a victim and will forever be negatively affected by this trauma”. But you’ve done your part to protect yourself and protect others through a difficult event.

What would be some means of preparedness communication in a post-apocalyptic world?

One of the biggest questions is how bad of a “post-apocalypse” world we are talking about here. If it’s full on mad-max or EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) type of world, that’s one thing, but if it’s an economic collapse, then the world might be affected in a totally different way.

Most thoughtful scenarios for what could one day become the “new normal” apocalyptic world are those that would happen over time.

Economic collapse
running out of fuel
adverse government takeover

These are more like “frog in hot water” events, and theoretically, persons, families, communities could prepare better ahead of time.

Begin to come closer together as a unit (family or community).
Begin recognizing existing HAM radio users and CB or walkie-talkie options that might be available within the area.
Establish codes that can be used between known group members to ensure messages are clear and reach the intended persons.
Establish ahead of time a means to power said devices, whether they be solar, wind, or other, this will be important for ongoing communications.

If the scenario is more EMP or CME (coronal mass ejection) type of event, there would be a more immediate result, and very little planning could have occurred. This could make things much more difficult, but still doable. First, consider planning and establishing a small faraday cage for EMP events. No need for massive bunker or house-sized locations for this type of protection. But understand EMP and CME enough to understand what devices could be affected and protect those devices.

For instance, although some speculate it is ALL electronic components within ALL newer vehicles that are susceptible to EMP, this is not likely the case (based upon testing that’s been done). There are certain components (perhaps a starter) that could be affected. So, if a backup of that unit itself is housed in a faraday enclosure, then the component itself only needs to be replaced and the vehicle is back up and running.

The reality is people have been communicating throughout time with images left for passers-by, or smoke signals, all the way to tying two cans together and 5G. There will always be ways to communicate, it will just require a bit of ingenuity.

It’s been fun answering these questions. It’s always helpful to exercise our minds to think through preparedness scenarios. If you get a chance to look us up on social media @genxtalkin, we’d love for people to comment their own thoughts. Our Youtube channel is also a great place to do this. If you get a chance, check us out and drop is a subscribe there.

For now, I’ll leave you to one last thought to always be preparing to respond well and recover faster.

Until next time, this is @genxtalkin, signing off!

September 10, 2021

Making A Plan – National Preparedness Month

Hey there all you GenXers. In honor of National Preparedness Month, I wanted to share with you some thoughts on one of the biggest parts of being prepared – Making A Plan…

But first, before I really launch into it, I wanted to start with a special thanks to our listeners and viewers. We’ve hit more than 500 downloads of our podcast in about one month! That’s a pretty incredible feat! And we wouldn’t be here without you, our loyal audience. Thank you and thank you!

For those who haven’t already done so, consider subscribing at:

podcast.genxtalkin.com

With all that said, onto the blog of the day… It is National Preparedness Month, and that mainly means we focus on two things, making a plan and creating a go bag. We’ve spent some time in a couple of past episodes talking about the different types of bags; edc, go-bag and bug out bags, and the get home safe bag. And for sure we’ll dig deeper into these in future episodes.

For today we’re focusing on the first half, making a plan.

I think one of the important concepts around making a plan is first to realize it’s never just one plan at all! There can be…

Fire escape plan – the most popular preparedness-related search on Google
Shelter In place plan – Wanna keep it all in the homestead
Evacuation route planning – don’t forget the backup routes
Water collection plan – Most important survival topic aside from the air we breath
Communications plan – How can we talk to each other, and where can we meet
Financial plan – got your budget planned out

This I’m sure is one of the reasons it can take a while to make a plan – when you consider… all the plans.

Before I go into my thoughts on these different plans, I also wanted to share some simple resources for those starting out brand new…

Ready.gov – the base link that provides a simplistic, and yet well organized means to start getting organized in preparedness
Communications plan – a very detailed plan on how a family can start getting all the communications together (collecting Information, ensure everyone has a copy, and talk about it on regular basis)
Family emergency plan – this is part of the Read.gov site, but delves more deeply into preparing for families with kids (younger, as well as older teens).

There are a plethora of sites and videos and podcasts we can all use when making our plan. Many of these sites are so much more informative than these I’ve listed. However, for those first starting out, I recommend this group of sites because it drastically simplifies the process of making a plan and starting out on your preparedness journey. They tend to lean heavily on the government providing solutions to our preparedness problems, but I think that’s because these days, so many people already rely on the government.

Over time, individuals and communities can and should become more self reliant, so they don’t have to rely on the government. That’s part of the reason Ed and I started the podcast, to start building community (virtually), to inform and educate, and even to learn more for ourselves from what others are doing.

Let’s take a look at some of the most basic plans we can make.

Planning to Shelter In Place

For Shelter in place I personally think, and I believe most preparedness-minded people walk this same path, that it’s important to first define what are your greatest threats. If you know what you and your community are most at risk of encountering, then you can more easily prepare to combat them.

In some of our episodes of GenXTalkin – On Being Prepared, we’ve touched briefly on the different types of threat events, but I’d like to clarify these very quickly…

High Impact, High Frequency – traffic jams, reside in or travel through a dangerous area, fires in certain areas, epidemics and disease breakouts, house fires

High Impact, Low Frequency – large weather events, emp, hacking/cyber attack on fuel pipelines, regional attacks, regional wildfires, loss of source of income

Low Impact, High Frequency – traffic jams, vehicle out of gas, pick pockets or mugging (could be higher impact), ran out of food at home

Low Impact, Low Frequency – heat waves, gas prices risen, minimal storm surge

One helpful way to understand realistic threat events in your area is to use the National Risk Index.

This is primarily for natural hazards, but has some additional factors as well. Click on the link and look for the “Explore the Map” option. This will open an interactive map of the US, allowing users to zoom into their respective county. Select a county of interest, and in a side panel, the following options are available:

Risk Index – risk levels relative to the natural hazard threat (hurricane, tornado, volcano…), and compared to other areas of the state and nation.
Expected Annual Loss – based upon property values and potential for risk
Social Vulnerability – how susceptible is the community to the adverse impacts of natural hazards.
Community Resilience – ability for a community to prepare for anticipated natural hazards, adapt to changing conditions, and withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions.

One more important aspect of this Index is one can quickly create a report, similar to this one for Cook Country (Chicago area), which shows these results for your selected county (CAUTION: it may take a while to load in the next tab). This can be a great tool for getting to the main root of what problems may occur for your community. Armed with this information we can get an idea of what itmes we may need to purchase or organize in case the threat event occurs.

Planning to Evacuate or Get Out Quick

The government recommends having a Bugout, or Go Bag in the event you have to get away from home quickly. And most preparedness minded organizations add onto this in saying, within 15 minutes, you should be ready to go with all you need for at least 72 hours, but supplies for one week is even better. Preparing to evacuate can be a scary, and daunting task, and it can take on many forms.

The most popular search on Google, if you look up the keyword preparedness, is related to Fire Safety. So you really should start here. How to prepare self and family in case of fire is very prevalent in the minds of folks in the US. For an individual, it really can be as simple as becoming familiar with escape routes from each room. If you’re at work or school, take a look at the fire escape plan. Just about every building will have one posted in a very public place, because OSHA Standards basically require it for businesses. Know which way you would go if there were a fire alarm, and regularly do a quick review of that path, so you can recognize it, even when you can’t see (due to smoke).

As well, if you travel for work, get in the habit of doing this in hotels, airports and your temporary place of work. Good to at least get a basic idea of layouts.

You will also come to realize that many organizations themselves identify a “Floor Safety Manager”, who is someone very familiar with how to respond in emergencies, and is tasked with regular drills and directing people where to go during those emergencies.

Interesting fact from the September 11, 2001 WTC Attacks. Many lives were saved because a couple of very dedicated safety managers drilled the escape plan so many times over the years. Those safety managers were in the WTC building when the original attack occured in 1993.
– 9/11 – One Day in America

Next, create a fire escape plan at home. This should be two fold. First, ensure everyone knows how to get out of the house very quickly and by multiple pathways. This way if one direction is blocked, they can get out another way without hesitation. It also might be fun one of these days to wake the family up in the middle of the night with very loud music and banging while you’re waving a flashlight around yelling “FIRE! FIRE!, EVERYONE OUT! HURRY!!” ; )

Also consider where your gathering points might be staged. There should be two, one right outside the house (near a tree) and one should be slightly further away, like a neighbor’s front porch. These locations should be clear to anyone visiting as well. Saying something like “gather where the old tire swing used to hang” won’t help visitors understand, whereas “Go to the big tree in the front yard” would work great!

Planning Your Communications

Most important here is understanding how important it is to have proper communications. Without communications, how will we know:

where to meet up
when to meet up
what do we do when the first meet up location fails
What are our next steps
what direction I’m headed
or simply… is my family OK?

Start with the basics for the Communications Plan. First, collect important information such as phone numbers; for each other, for friends and family, for doctors, hospitals, dentists, ob-gyn, etc. Collect information around children’s school (including college), and adult workplace emergency plans. Where will the kids be taken (and how, by bus?) in a time of emergency? Always include out of town contacts to use as go-between during large events, and establish a time to check in at regular intervals.

Adding onto the fire escape plan above, establish meeting places ahead of time for additional purposes.

Indoor – in case of extreme weather, such as tornadoes
In your neighborhood – like the neighbor’s front porch in case you can’t get into your home
Outside your neighborhood – to meet up if you’re not at home during emergencies and cannot cannot get there
Outside your own town or city, or even state or region – for cases in which you cannot get home and you’ve been instructed to evacuate the area

Next up is to share the information with the family. This is super important. Make small laminated sheets for each to hold in a wallet, purse or backpack. Having this information handy will allow each family member to respond well and recover faster.

Consider adding a couple of apps to your smartphone. My wife and I belong to a volunteer organization called CERT (Community Emergency Response Team). These are present in most urban and suburban areas in the US. Many of these groups create their own smartphone apps, but they also have directed us to the following:

AED – which gives a dynamic map for locations of AED (Automated external defibrillators) units – for helping those suffering from heart attack.
PulsePoint – emergency organizations around the country submit their events to this app, providing a service like the old scanners, so you can receive alerts on your phone when different emergencies (utilities, natural disasters, flooding, traffic, etc.) occur in your area.
USNG – a way to locate yourself during emergencies. This can be key for emergency services trying to locate you during a disaster,
CodeRed – Mobile alert service similar to the PulsePoint service above.
311 – Often local counties will have their own version of an app for reporting issues in your area. This is more for community awareness, not necessarily emergencies
ERG2020 – Ever wonder what those different colored diamonds on the back of trucks and shipping containers mean? This is the app to answer those questions. Enter the number on teh diamond, or just browse, and you can see the meaning, potential hazard, what the public should do, and how emergency services should respond if there is an issue with the vehicle.
Compass – Oh yeah! although if you’re properly prepared, you probably already have an analog compass in your Emergency Kit… Why not have the Compass app as well on your phone?

II’ll finish up the communications plan section with two points. One of the problems that often occurs during natural disasters is that cell phone services get “clogged”. Basically your phone calls just can’t get through, because the network is overloaded with people just trying to reach their loved ones. So, start with just texting instead. Texts are much smaller packets, and a couple of quick lines of text can deliver the message and free up the network for more emergency-type uses.

Second, while you have the chance, take a look around your area with your smartphone. Try to find additional locations at which you can connect to the internet via WIFI. I’m talking about those free locations, like hotels and coffee shops that offer them up for their customers. If you’re stuck in the city, and you can move about on foot, get to a location that still has WIFI up and running and you can be better informed during the emergency. Of course, you want to make sure this is actually a free service. Very frustrating when you’re in the midst of an emergency, and you have to enter a credit card, or email information to gain access. Also, a good reason to plan this ahead is you also want the ability to recognize the WIFI network you’re using. This would be a prime situation for hackers to try to capture unwitting users’ private information by “sniffing” or monitoring that WIFI network. Whether emergency or not, you never want to transmit your personal data, unprotected by VPN, across an unknown WIFI network!

Lastly, you should come to realize that preparedness does not stop at the end of National Preparedness Month… Keep going, and remember that “practice makes PROGRESS!”

@genxtalkin