Superstorm, Hurricane Sandy Should Serve As A Wakeup Call And Warning To Many “Bushcraft/Survival” Experts; Also To Those Students Who Were Planning For Their Next Survival "Adventure".

 DO YOU REALLY WISH TO BE NUMBERED AMONG THE SURVIVORS?

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO SURVIVE A MAJOR DISASTER? THEN GET REAL. GO BACK TO THE WAYS OF YOUR GREAT GRANDPARENTS.

THEN HOME CANNING IS NOT A WASTE OF TIME.

MANY OF THE MODERN “BUSHCRAFT/SURVIVAL COURSES AND THE MACHO GAMES ARE.

FOR MOST OF US, SURVIVAL WILL BE VERY SERIOUS STUFF-A MATER OF LIFE OR DEATH. SURVIVAL WILL NOT, EVER, BE A MILITARY EXERCISE, OR  VIDEO GAME OR REALITY ADVENTURE TV SOAP OPERA.

The methods and skills as used by your grandfather, grandmother, and great grandparents, in helping to ensure their everyday survival are still the very best bet, if you wish to survive a major disaster in today's modern  technically advanced but none too health or survival savvy world. 

Major disasters still happen and will continue to happen, on an ever increasing scale, somewhere in the world. Are you, if one hit your neighbourhood, next month, next week, tomorrow, in the very next minute?

As is true of any disaster, when an earthquake  flood, forest fire, hurricane, landslide/mudslide, tornado etch strikes, many of the necessities of life are suddenly-instantly gone. Electricity is almost always the first to go—natural gas the first to be turned off for safety reasons, if the lines didn't already break. Water lines break and those that don't may soon be filled with water that is not safe to drink. Streets are suddenly not passable or at least not safe for vehicles. Vehicles are trapped by garage doors that can’t open. If your vehicle is assessable and you can or dare venture out, the streetlights and traffic signals won't be working—there will be general panic-- leaving you in great danger at every intersection. When, and if, you do reach a store, they can only accept cash (modern cash registers run only on electricity). You dare not start driving any distance, since you will not be able to get gas-the pumps run on electricity. Your home will get colder and colder, because there isn't any heat and of course, there will be no light.

YOUR FROZEN AND/OR REFRIGERATED FOODS WILL ALL BEGIN TO SPOIL; YOUR CANNED OR OTHERWISE PRESERVED PRODUCTS WILL NOT. ALSO ALWAYS REMEMBER,THAT WHILE DRIED PACKAGED FOODS DO OFFER MANY ADVANTAGES IN A SURVIVAL SITUATION; THEY ALSO PRESENT ONE SERIOUS PROBLEM IN THAT THEY REQUIRE THE ADDITION OF LIQUID (WATER) EITHER WHEN COOKING OR WHEN EATING--IF YOU ARE ALREADY LIVING ON SHORT WATER RATION, THEY WILL CAUSE FURTHER DEHYDRATION.

None of this is easy to cope with, especially if you are unprepared but you'll still want to SURVIVE and survive with as few ill effects and as little inconvenience as possible. For the long term effects, you need to prepare like you would if you were leaving home to explore, or pioneer a new and remote area far from the conveniences, amenities support systems, and supply lines you are used to relying on. For the short-term effects, you need to think:

FIRST AID—WHAT IS NEEDED? WHAT IS NEEDED FIRST?

Hurricane Sandy May Turn the Tide on Climate Change

“Our climate is changing,” writes Mayor Bloomberg. “And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be — given this week’s devastation — should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action.”

Though New York and New Jersey bore the brunt of Sandy’s destruction, at its peak, the storm reached 1,000 miles across, killed more than 100 people in 10 states, knocked out power to 8.5 million homes and businesses and cancelled nearly 20,000 flights. Damage has been estimated $50 billion, making Sandy the second most expensive storm in U.S. history, behind Hurricane Katrina.

Sandy killed 69 people in the Caribbean before turning north and hammering the U.S. Eastern Seaboard on Monday with 80 mile-per-hour (130-kph) winds and a record surge of seawater that swallowed Oceanside communities in New Jersey and New York, and flooded streets and subway tunnels in New York City.

Hurricane Sandy housing crisis: Superstorm displaces 40,000 New Yorkers

“People are in homes that are uninhabitable,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said alongside Bloomberg at a news conference. “People don’t like to leave their home, but the reality is going to be in the temperature

© Al (Alex Alexander)D Girvan 2012, All rights reserved