WROL scenarios mean the breakdown of society as we know it and if that happens personal security will be a high priority. In a WROL scenario, cover your windows from the inside with dark material, such as black trash bags or dark blankets or sheets. A week or 2 into WROL and people will be looking to take advantage of those with supplies. Blacking out your windows keeps others from seeing movement or lights (flashlights, candles, etc.) which indicate your presence.
Strew trash, furniture, debris and even feces on your lawn and porches to make your house appear as if it has already been looted and difficult to ingress.
Have stocks of ready to eat food to minimize cooking smells.
Be well armed. People regress when their lives are on the line and will be deadliest in WROL scenario. Read more in Chapter 7 Firearms & Security.
Stock up on toilet paper, alcohol, cigarettes and any medications, these will have value in WROL. Offering a cigarette or a drink could shift foe to friend.
Only keep pantry supplies that you can afford to lose to looters with you or in your home. Keep the remainder of your supplies in various caches that only you know their whereabouts.
One way to hide valuables in your home is to make those valuables look and smell as unattractive as possible. Place old clothes, trash and towels in piles on top of your stashes, then urinate and defecate on them – NO ONE will dig through a pile of crap just to see what might be there.
This theory works for people too. If you feel the need to, make yourself less of a target by smelling and looking bad. Urine, feces and alcohol on your clothes will keep others at bay.
Making rudimentary armor from household items will give you an advantage in hand to hand combat and serves as a good place to keep a blade. Bracers around your forearms made from several layers of cardboard or a phone book and duct tape. Slide butter knives in between the layers will fortify the bracers. Grieves are primitive shin guards and can be made the same as bracers.
Place crushed glass on the floor by your windows and doors of your domicile to create noise if someone walks through. It is not an alarm, but an alert, so you can ambush them instead of vice versa. Setting alarms, such as bells or glass jars above your doors will indicate to the trespasser that someone is present.
Place clothing against the bottom of your door. If it has been shifted or moved, it will indicate that someone has been there or is still there. Tape a strand of hair or strip of paper across the seam of windows and doors, so that if broken will show you someone has entered. Whether you choose to alarm upon entry or silently alert after the fact depends on whether you want to deter, confront or evade.
1. Always disinfect water when you can. Boiling is the most effective way to purify water. Boiling water will kill ALL biological contaminants, but will not remove chemicals, toxins, heavy metals or radioactivity. If you boil saltwater, the steam created is fresh water and if you boil all the water out, you are left with salt. Salt is important in all climates to maintain adequate electrolyte levels. To help replace electrolytes, add a small pinch of salt back into a liter of distilled water. If you need to boil water and you do not have a fireproof container, fill a container, such as a 5-gallon bucket, about halfway with water. Line the container bottom with small rocks (do not use sticks unless you are certain they are non-toxic and not poisonous) to protect the container from melting, and then add hot rocks from your fire into the container until the water bubbles and boils. Filter through a cloth or the above-mentioned filtration system to remove debris.
2. Iodine tincture 2% kills all biological contaminants except Cryptosporidium which comes from deer, goats, cows, sheep and elk. Pregnant women, children and those allergic to seafood should avoid this water purification method. Add 8-10 drops of iodine per liter of water and wait about 20 minutes.
3. Average household bleach containing 5% – 6% sodium hypochlorite disinfects water. Add bleach according to the chart below and wait 20 – 30 minutes before drinking. Bleach has a shelf life of no more than 1 year after its expiration date so rotating your stock is important. In an event that creates long term supply demands, it will most likely be an item that is initially available but over time become in high demand.
. High Turbidity
Volume of Water to be Treated
Bleach Solution to Add
1 quart/1 liter
5 drops
1/2 gallon/2 quarts/2 liters
10 drops
1 gallon
1/4 teaspoon
5 gallons
1 teaspoon
10 gallons
2 teaspoons
Fig. 5-1 Bleach to Water Treatment
The chart above is for water that has high turbidity, such as muddy pond water or puddles. If the water you are disinfecting is clear to begin with, these amounts can be reduced in half.
4. Potassium permanganate (a.k.a. Condy’s Crystals or KMNO4) disinfects bacteria from water. Add 3 – 4 crystals per liter of water and let sit for 2 hours. You want the water to be light pink which indicates enough potassium permanganate has been added to disinfect.
There are hundreds of water purification methods readily available on the market, whether tablet form, purification pumps or purification straws. Using iodine, bleach or potassium permanganate are recommended because they serve multiple purposes and are compact, easy to store methods. Knowing what surplus water supply you will be using can narrow your method. Be advised that due to the use of pesticides, mismanagement of industrial waste, boating accidents and other environmental hazards, many large bodies of water in the United States and abroad, such as Lake Michigan, the Mississippi River and the Potomac River are riddled with non-biological toxins that are not easily removed without specialized filtering systems. In some cases it is impossible to remove heavy metals/toxins to a safe drinking level, however if it is the only water available and you are on the verge of death from dehydration, you may want to drink it and deal with the toxicity concerns after you are rescued or out of the emergency situation.
5. Charcoal can be used to filter unwanted flavor and smell from water. Add charcoal to water when you boil it or pour water through a charcoal filter. This can be made by putting charcoal in a sock or piece of cloth and pouring the water through it and into a container. Making a larger water filtration system is easy. This method does not purify all contaminants from water, but it will reduce biological and chemical toxins and remove odors. Gather three or four 5-gallon buckets. Punch small holes in the bottom of 3 of the buckets. Half fill each bucket as follows. The top one gets gravel. The next gets sand. The bottom of the last bucket gets a piece of fabric or non-toxic plant fibers and then crushed charcoal from a fire. Add a fine layer of sand at the bottom of this bucket too if feasible. Stack the buckets one on top of the other, top – gravel, middle – sand and bottom – charcoal. Pour water into the top bucket and let it filter through. It won’t come out clear at first, so run the water through it repeatedly. It will eventually run clear. Again, this will not kill or remove all pathogens. If you only have one container, you can layer the gravel, sand and charcoal in that container and allow to run through into a catchment device.
6. Transpiration devices can be made by using a plastic bag (no need to be clear) and filling them with non-toxic non-poisonous vegetation, Fill the bag with green leaves, grass or other plant material such as roots, blow up the bag to add lots of air, tie of the bag and leave in the sun. This won’t work so well in cold climates. In warm climates, the heat from the sealed bag will cause the plant material to evaporate moisture. If your plant material was nontoxic/non-poisonous you will reclaim a small amount of water that has been evaporated from the plant material in the bag. This process will not yield much water, but a little water is better than none.
7. A distillation device can be made for both salt and fresh water, by using a clear plastic water bottle, you can create a solar distillation device. In an even circle, cut the bottom 3rd off of the clear plastic water bottle. Take top 2/3rds portion of the bottle and make a 2 inch fold to the inside of the bottle. Fill up the 1/3 cutoff bottom with saltwater. Place the 2/3 top of the bottle over the bottom 1/3. Bury your bottle distiller in direct sun about 1 inch into the sand. The saltwater will evaporate and collect on the top 2/3rds portion of the bottle and potable water will run down the inside the top portion of the bottle into the portion you folded inside and up. To get the clean, distilled water out, unscrew the top and pour out into another vessel. This will provide you with a few teaspoons of water. For this method to be successful create multiple distillation devices. Fortunately (and unfortunately) you should have no problems finding plastic water bottles scattered on the beach, along roadsides or just about anywhere.
Situational Awareness – An excerpt from the upcoming New Book “Women’s Self Reliance & Emergency Preparedness”
Situational Awareness is the practice of being aware of your environment and the situation you are in at all times. This is not a paranoid, hyper awareness but a little forethought and contemplation about your surroundings. Take some time out and think about where you are live, your neighbors and town. Think about where you go, what the environment is like, what the weather will be and the potential for it to fluctuate? What environment do you find yourself in most? What are the potential hazards of where you are going to be?
Being aware of your surroundings and knowing what your options are in your surroundings is being situational aware.
This is not just about walking down the street and looking around you through mundane, everyday eyes, but its about looking beyond what you accept as daily, normal and only applicable to you. Look into what is really happening right around you and in front of you. Our world is getting smaller, through the vast amount of technological advancements and lightning speed communication. The entire world is your world and what happens in it affects you. Be aware of the world in which you live in; be aware of its strengths and weaknesses. Be aware of its condition and how it impacts your species, your country, your state, your town, your friends, your family and your life. This concept spans the entirety of our lives, from recognizing the facts that you live in a city with 15 million other people within 15 miles of you and the recognition that the grocery stores get food shipped to them. It is grown and produced far away from where you are. Be aware of the political climate, the economic indicators, the weather, the crime rate. Situational awareness requires us to look at life on many levels and in connection with the bigger whole of our world.
It also asks us to look closely at what we have and how we can best utilize what we have at our disposal. One true trait of being self reliant and a survivor is training your self to see opportunity in everyday situations and materials.
Mental Exercise – Imagine an emergency has occurred where you are on Manhattan Island and the grocery stores have been empty for a day or 2 and the bridges are blocked by abandoned cars or by the National Guard. What makes the most sense for your survival? Should you bug out or bug in? Are you going to wait for someone to bring relief and goods? Think about the shear logistics of supplying food and water to 1.6 million people with the power out. Evaluate the risks associated with being in the middle of an emergency in a city. Many 911 survivors and witnesses will tell you that all of Manhattan was in complete chaos.
Exodus not likely. Just being aware of this reality, is crucial to your survival. Preparation is key when there is a limited amount of supplies available at any given time in proximity to you.
GeminiSurvival 