Outdoor Life Prepare for Anything Survival Manual (55 page)

Since earthquakes are so unpredictable, you never know when one’s about to hit. So the best way to prepare is the same as for other disasters. Stock up on food, water, and medical supplies. Make sure to locate the safest place in your home to ride out a quake, and at your office, too, in case you’re on the job when disaster strikes.

FIRST CHOICE
Get to a place outside where nothing can fall on you.

SECOND CHOICE
Get under structurally reinforced areas like doorways (one you know is secure) or near load-bearing walls.

THIRD CHOICE
Get next to a heavy table, desk, or large piece of furniture to deflect anything that might fall around you.

FOURTH CHOICE
Get in an interior room with no windows.

FIFTH CHOICE
Get in a closet in the center of the structure.

These last two options are dicey, as you can get buried with few paths of escape. But they beat getting crushed to death.Your best bet is to be outside, safely away from tall trees and buildings.

We’d been expecting the hurricane to touch down any day now, and forecasts put it in the middle of the night.

It was time to hunker down in the interior rooms. We could feel the walls moving, and the house screamed all night.

It wasn’t long before the wreckage drew looters.

We were as ready as we were going to be. We had our supplies and gear, plus axes and flares to avoid getting trapped in the attic.

But there was no telling if the roof_or the house_would hold, and we could hear it groaning under the assault from Mother Nature.

I grabbed an old shotgun to scare them off. It was completely unusable, but they didn’t know that.

By morning, it was over. The house was one of the few still standing. Two huge trees had fallen in my backyard_the wind had been so loud I hadn’t even heard the crash.

Now the real adventure began_sharing supplies and helping out our neighbors.

TEOTWAWKI (The End of the World as We Know It) certainly sounds ominous and un-survivable. But if we look back into history, we can see that many “worlds” have ended, only to give rise to a different culture or civilization—not without growing pains, but with plenty of survivors. The fall of Rome, two World Wars, the Crusades, and many other historical events have been game changers, ending some lives and changing the survivors’ lifestyles immensely. Could the modern world suffer from a similar kind of collapse? Here are some ways it could happen.

SOCIAL COLLAPSE
Sometimes people just can’t see eye to eye. Civil wars, religious conflicts, and class wars have taken countless lives over the centuries and affected entire continents. On a smaller scale, race riots, gang wars, and rioting have immobilized entire cities. When civility is lost between neighbors, societies have a hard time continuing as normal.

GOVERNMENT COLLAPSE
Throughout recorded history, many governments have fallen apart due to a variety of stressors. When a government system fails to be sustainable or fails its people one too many times, leaders can topple.

ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
Zimbabwe’s economy collapsed in 2008 due to hyperinflation, among other factors. Argentina’s economy fell apart a few years before that when the country defaulted on international loans. The economic bubble popped for many in America in 2008, leading to a recession—a downturn that reminded old-timers of the Great Depression some 80 years earlier.

The ideal lifestyle after a currency collapse is one that doesn’t require money. But few folks today have the skills and the land to be completely self-reliant. In the event that a currency fails, bartering goods and services can fill the void until a new monetary system is established (see item 298). So you’ll want to be the one with the possessions and skill sets that would be valuable in a time without money. You’ll also want to conceal the location of these things—and guard them with your life.

In the crime-ridden aftermath of a collapse, being surrounded by like-minded individuals with complementary skills could be your best plan of action. Living in close proximity to each other could offer great advantages to all of you. Try to make friends with folks who bring these skill sets to the table.

A government collapsing on its own is a fairly rare event in history. More often, you see piecemeal changes occur over time. Unless you’re planning to take the throne yourself, the best advice during a government collapse is to get as far away as possible. It may take years for a stable society to emerge from the chaos after coups, assassinations, invasions, and the like. If you cannot flee, or refuse to become a refugee, you’d better get on board with your new leadership if you wish to survive.

The two biggest threats during a social, government, or economic collapse are violence and an inability to provide for your basic needs. The issue of violent crime is by far the most dangerous by-product of unrest and an ever-present reality during instances of community meltdown. The rates of murder, theft, arson, rape, and home invasion have always increased in these scenarios. Regardless of the type of collapse, take the steps to protect yourself, your friends, and your family.

HIDE YOUR WEALTH
Your wealth may come in the form of money, water, food, ammunition, animals, or any other kind of desired commodity. Don’t flaunt it, and don’t let anyone outside your circle know what you have or where it is—even before a collapse.

GET ARMED
An armed person is a lot more daunting to a predator. Firearms, knives, machetes, axes, or even a baseball bat can help to protect you and yours.

GET TRAINING
A tool for self-defense is good, but the training to go with it is great. Find a local business that offers self-defense training with different weapons. Train regularly, and make sure that your family members have some skills as well. You can even take lessons from former police officers for a stiff dose of reality and an insight into the criminal minds they have faced.

HAVE A PLAN
Devising plans within plans may keep you up a little longer at night, but isn’t that better than going to sleep with your head in the sand? Believe in the old adage, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”