Being prepared.

Firstly let me just say that life is good and it's a great point in time to be alive. Lots of positive things are happening in the world and people are becoming more "aware".

This is thanks largely to easily accessible information available on the internet. These days we personally tend to rely less on the corporate media and look to the net to find out the real news behind the news.

But no matter how good we believe things are, you never really know what's around the corner.

In many ways we live in uncertain times.

We have some volatile political leaders in our world today, plus the threat or perceived threat of global warming bringing extremes in weather, whether it be man made or by some natural cycle of events. Terrorism or the threat of terrorism.....be it State controlled terrorism or political/religious extremist cells add to the list of "uncertainties" that we now face.

Really I could write several posts about how the western countries, particularly the USA, UK and France (along with other NATO countries) by their actions overseas have made their own countries targets for extremists mainly because of their foreign policy and their attitude toward non-white or non-christian countries.....but I'll leave that for another time.

Brexit has brought uncertainty both politically and economically in Europe and there is a knock on affect for the rest of the world.

Jobs are not always as secure as we hope they will be and for some there are also worries about health and general well being.

Here in New Zealand we can also throw in the possibilities of earthquakes and volcanic activity - and therefore Tsunami too - NZ isn't called the "Shaky Isles" for nothing.

I am updating this post on Feb 4th which is the day after the anniversary of the Feb 3rd 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake which killed 256 people at the time and many more afterwards due to disease, illness and injuries received.

The 1931 quake measured 7.8 on the Richter Scale which is similar in strength to the recent one in Kaikura.

My main concerns, along with the south island's Alpine Fault line is the Hikurangi subduction zone - a fault that runs along the East Coast where the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates collide.

A shift on this fault line could produce a mega-quake of anything between 8.4 and 9 on the Richter Scale which would completely cripple the central/lower north island......and add the risk of a large Tsunami for all coastal areas.

I don't want to sound all doom and gloom because I do genuinely believe that it is still a great time to be alive and there are positive things happening out there in the world too.

BUT this blog post isn't about the good things, it's about doing what we can to prepare for the adversities that life can throw at us from time to time.

I'm not talking about Doomsday or Alien attacks or Zombies or any of that nonsense. What I am talking about are real things that can have a negative affect on us as an individual like ill health, redundancy and falling into debt. But also there are things that can affect a whole community, region or country such as a natural disaster - extreme weather conditions, floods, earth quakes etc.

We've just seen over the last week a whole catalogue of weather phenomenon, particularly on New Zealand's south island. We had fire AND flood in Dunedin, zero degrees and snow on the passes, yet in the nearest large town/city...Christchurch was cooking in temperatures well into the mid 30's. The recent cyclone took out power to several towns, downed trees in their thousands and caused landslips which trapped hundreds of motorists across the country.

In TV interviews with those motorists left stranded by these weather events, they all seemed to blame the authorities for the discomfort and fear that they felt on becoming stranded in the middle of nowhere without food, water or shelter. BUT with a little forethought they could have been equipped to handle this.

The experts predict more extreme weather over the coming years. So do we as individuals do something proactive to help to soften the blow when adversity happens or do we just throw our arms in the air, shake our heads and blame the government?

Recently my wife, myself, my brother and sister-in-law were driving back from Taupo and out of the blue, without any warning, my Ute's engine began to overheat, smoke and cut out. Fortunately we were almost back in Napier, but we could have been out in the middle of nowhere.

We were prepared. We had in the back of the Ute extra coolant for the radiator, supplies of oil for the engine, a 20 litre container of diesel, fire extinguishers (plural - see photo below),

tow ropes and jumper cables, a power cell for jump starting the engine without use of another vehicle, a large first aid kit, two pair of work gloves.....plus a locker containing tarps, rope, bungy cords, tent pegs, a 4 person dome tent, sleeping mats, camping stove and butane cartridges, a billy can and mugs, tea and coffee bags, a small quantity of food, 20 litres of drinking water, assorted tools, change of clothes, wet weather gear etc etc.

(photo above - left to right back row - large box containing camping/cooking gear and assorted tools, Yellow cube containing power charger, engine oil, coolant, tow ropes/jumper cables, wrecking bar. Front row - 20 litres diesel in yellow container, tool kit/socket set, WD40, extra ropes and toolbox on right contains extensive first aid kit.)

If we had been stranded without assistance for a few days we would have coped. Lizzie is sometimes amused at some of the "preps" I have, but was very glad I had the fire extinguishers and other gear at our disposal when we needed them.

As it was, we didn't need to use all of the above, but we did need some of the items in order to limp home.

Look at it like taking out insurance. You may never make a insurance claim, but its better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

While it's important not to get swept away with negativity about such things and some folk would rather sweep them under the carpet and ignore them all together rather than think about them - If you prepare and take a few simple steps to help cushion the blow of such events, they don't seem so threatening.

Events such as the Christchurch and Kaikura earthquakes, the Fukushima disaster and Hurricane Katrina have demonstrated to me that sometimes governments and local authorities are not able to respond as quickly or efficiently as they are expected by the citizens in the disaster zones, when these extreme phenomena occur. We need to accept the responsibility to be able to take care of ourselves for days or even weeks until help ultimately arrives....if it arrives at all.

Supply, communication and transport lines get severed, there could be no power, no food on supermarket shelves, fuel shortages, no water coming through your taps.

Recent surveys show that most people typically have no more than a few days worth of food in their freezer, fridge or larder. Some have no other water available except for their mains water supply. After 3 days they have to resort to begging or looting. Society breaks down and people do things that they wouldn't normally do in order to feed themselves and their families.

Supermarkets operate on a "just in time" supply line which means that they only store on site about 3 days of product and are being continuously re-supplied by trucks throughout the week. Should a disaster occur where those supply lines are no longer functioning and you yourself have only a few days worth of food in your home......where are you going to go and what lengths will you be prepared to go to - to prevent your family from going hungry?

For me personally - my wife and I had a change of lifestyle whereby we are now living on about 20% of the income that we had just over a year ago....when we were both in full time employment.

We now get less per week than retired couples receive on the NZ pension....and we are not on any kind of benefit or government scheme. But because we were prepared for this, we actually live quite comfortably. And our lifestyle choices also help in preparing or "prepping" generally.

We have dug up most of our unproductive front and back lawn and replaced it with gardens in which we grow most of our vegetable, nut and fruit needs. In winter we need to buy more than we produce, but spring summer and autumn are very productive and we are able to freeze, dehydrate, preserve or bottle extra product.

We have also been buying a few extra items of canned foods and dried goods. This doesn't have to be a major purchase, even one or two extra cans of soup, or a bag of rice, put away in a cupboard each week adds up over time.

Debt reduction is the main thing to master. Before we had our lifestyle change and still had a good income, we increased our mortgage payments to pay it off faster. Live to your income - get rid of the credit cards. Debt is a killer, if you can reduce it or better still get rid of it completely, all the better. If you can't pay cash for something - don't buy it.

Using cash only is a very powerful, empowering thing. I read recently that VISA are pushing the governments of the world toward a cashless society and have put forward suggestions to cut back cash transactions to a minimum, to get rid of high denomination bank notes and to make it illegal to make any payment to government or local government accounts except by electronic means. In this way they gradually gain more control of our finances and therefore more control over us.

When we use credit cards to buy things we don't have the same experience as handing over hard cash. We lose control of our spending and get ourselves deeper into debt and therefore more indebted to the banks and financial institutions. The credit card is never empty...it's too easy what with paywave and the like to let things get out of control.....intended budgets go out the window....so you spend until you hit your limit and find yourself with a debt you can't afford to pay off and then they hit you with huge percentages of interest and you sink even deeper. Where as, once there's no cash in your pocket you know you can't afford whatever item it was you were going to buy.....so you don't buy it.

We are fortunate that our wood burner fire has a wetback which heats our water, so in wintertime when the fire is burning most days, we switch off the electric immersion heater to save power and still have hot water for a nice deep bath. We rarely use the TV except for watching DVD's, and turn off lights in rooms that we are not using. We're replacing the 80 and 100 watt standard bulbs with 9 or 10 watt LED's. Every little helps to keep the power bill to a minimum.

Now the daily supply charge part of the power bill is bigger than the power used part. Crazy! Eventually solar power will be the way we will go to become completely off grid as far as electricity is concerned. Solar panels are already quite affordable, but the batteries for storage are still just out of our reach financially.

We have cut back on spending. We have a firm budget that we stick to rigidly (except for rare moments of weakness or unexpected events like a car blowing a cylinder head!). The other week we were down to our last $1.80 in our food budget but we managed. We buy what is needed, not what is wanted - there is a difference. BUT we don't buy processed foods and stick to our organic or free range principles. The quality of our food is high. It's important not to scrimp on the thing we rely on for our health and well-being.

We have a jar in which we put any spare change and this is used for treats such as a trip to the movies once in a while. But we don't feel hard done by. It's our choice of lifestyle and there are a lot of things we can do for free in the area to entertain and amuse ourselves instead of spending money.

We have some beautiful parks and beaches here in Hawke's Bay. Plus walking and cycle trails - all free of charge. Our library service is second to none and has CD's and DVD's as well as books to borrow.

When diesel is at a special low price I fill up extra jerry cans and use this supply when the price of fuel is high, otherwise I keep these jerry cans in reserve in case of emergency.

If there is a massive storm or other foreseeable disaster approaching and we have to hit the road and get out of the area quickly, we don't have to join the throngs of people at the local service stations trying to fill up their cars at the last minute. We can throw some supplies in the ute and caravan and get on the road in a matter of minutes.

Water supply can be compromised in any number of situations so a supply of drinking water is one of the first things you need to secure.

(photo above - 23 litre water container with spout - from Mitre 10 and a 20 litre water container.)

20 litre water canisters are available at many stores such as Mitre 10. Buy a couple at least and keep them filled with fresh water. Check/change them every few months to ensure an emergency supply is available to you....just in case. We ourselves have about 150 litres of fresh water stored.

In addition to this we recently installed a rain water collection system (which gives us about 1500 extra litres of stored water), primarily for using to water our gardens in times of drought when hosepipe bans are imposed, but this can just as easily, with a little treatment (boiling and / or adding a few drops of bleach), be used as drinking water in an emergency situation. We intend to increase our rainwater storage capacity when finances allow.

Here in Havelock North not long back the water supply was contaminated by e-coli and five and a half thousand people went down with stomach bugs. I believe that there were also three deaths related to this.

Bottled water soon disappeared from the shelves of the supermarket. This was just one small localised event but served to demonstrate how supplies can vanish quickly and how we need to have our own supplies stashed away.

The power supply can go out for days as per the recent storms here or even weeks in the case of earthquake. Do you have emergency lighting, torches (and batteries), candles, oil lamps, a generator or solar or wind power on site? K-Mart and the Warehouse stock a wind-up LED lantern for around $20. Easy to use and are not a fire risk if they get knocked over - a much better choice than candles.

How about communications? OK most of us these days have cell phones but if the power goes down, cell phone towers only have about 4 hours of back up battery power before they fail - and do you have the means to recharge your phone anyway?

(above photo - 20watt solar panel for charging phones, pads and laptops. Lifestraw drinking tube through which to filter water).

There are a number of portable, foldable solar panels available for under $100 which are good enough to charge cell phones, tablets and laptops.....or can be used to charge up rechargeable batteries.

But if the towers are down and your cell phone is useless, do you have any other communications devices? Hand held UHF radios are available at electrical outlets and some big box stores. The range is limited to a few kilometres, but can be used to keep in touch with family members who may need to go out and about to locate further supplies locally.

(Above photo - 2 x UHF walkie-talkies with charging unit plus wind-up portable emergency radio)

Other alternatives could be the likes of CB radios for cars for slightly longer local distances, or short wave transceivers which can be used for world wide communication (for which you'll need an operators licence).

At the very least try to have either a battery, wind up or solar powered transistor radio so you can listen for any official announcements or news of what's happening during whatever event you are surviving through, if the power supply does go down..

Do you or any of your family members take prescription medication? If so do you have an extra supply of that medication to see you through a few weeks if supply lines are compromised? Something else to consider in place of the medication.....is there a natural alternative that could be used? (Consult your medical professional or herbalist). OR is there something in your diet that could be changed to make medication unnecessary?

Do your own research now before the event. I would advise that at the minimum a basic first aid kit be accessible both in your home and car.

We had a very recent situation where my own first aid kit was found wanting. My wife tripped up whilst carrying a platter and glass container into the kitchen resulting in a deep laceration in her fore-arm. Fortunately this was not a "grid down" situation and we could make use of the local health centre to get her stitched up (8 stitches and 2 steri-strips).

(Photos below, Lizzie getting her wound cleaned and stitched by the nurse with Dr supervising and 2nd photo of the wound stitched and dressed with sterile dressing.)

However if there had been a major earthquake, for example, we may have had to fend for ourselves and without a suture kit the outcome would not have been so rosy.

Lesson learned.

In an emergency, if you and your family have to evacuate.....leave your home.....do you have a grab and go emergency bag (also known as a bug out bag or BOB) prepared and accessible with spare clothes, something to shelter you from the elements and emergency rations to see you through a couple of days?

(Above photo - my own emergency go bag - containing change of clothes, water bottle, cooking equipment, tarp shelter etc. complete with Eastwing Tomahawk axe/breaching tool).

If you are away from home at the time of the disaster do you have the means and supplies with you at work or in your vehicle to enable you to get home (a get home bag - GHB)?

Do you and your family have an emergency plan in case you are separated at the time of the disaster/event?

Do you have a plan for what steps to take should you awake to find your home is on fire? Do you have an escape route and meeting point.....are your family aware......are fire extinguishers accessible.....do you have smoke alarms.......have you checked their batteries recently?

You should also have copies of any legal documents/I.D papers such as driver licence, passports and birth certificates in your go-bag.

Another thing to consider is this.....Once you take the first step and start to build up a supply of food, water and emergency gear......how do you protect it from those who have not prepared and who turn into looters after a couple of days? I may do another post on this at a later date.

There are lots of things to consider but its better to think about them now and put something in place - just in case - rather than leave things to chance.

This is by no means a definitive article on possible emergencies or what to do in an emergency.....it's simply meant to make you think and to start a discussion.

But please remember, for the main part, Life is Good.

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