I had some really great responses and comments to a recent post, Are You Prepared?, and thought I'd follow up with a little more friendly advice. I don't want to ponder on the subject but with the advent of what has happened in Haiti and my 25 years of disaster response experience I just wanted to pass a little more information along to my AR friends, associates and members.
The following link and graphic is a company that I started doing business with after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. I have never been anything more than a customer but they have been in business for many years and have a good reputation in the survival industry.
http://www.quakekare.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=20
I had a 3 day survival kit in all of my vehicles at all times as well as at least 3 gallons of water, a first aid kit and a sleeping bag. You'd be surprised just how little room it takes in the trunk of your car or the back of your truck. You never know when you could become stranded somewhere.
I remember being stuck on Interstate 15 coming back from Vegas in August once when I was in my 20's. We had no water or food and I had very little sleep in Vagas after a 3 day bachelor party for my best friend. There we were stuck for almost 8 hours in the midst of one of the biggest pile ups in the history of Vegas to LA traffic; thirsty, hungry, tired and even sick (hung over). It just gave me an inkling of what it must be like to be seriously injured and have no food, water or hope of any help for possibly days. That was a turning point in my life and it didn't even take a disaster to bring it about. One never knows when disaster or even an emergency that ties us up for hours will impact our lives.
In another more humorous incident, my oldest son, Chad, who was about 6 years old at the time and I were stranded for 3 hours on Highway 78 only a few miles from home due to someone standing on an overpass with a rile shooting at passing cars. We were just returning home from an Indian Guides overnighter and did happen to have some water and a few left overs.
But the story gets better or worse depending on your perspective. My son made the mistake of opening the ice chest only to find a few left over bottles of Corona still on ice. Well, obviously I wasn't drinking but that didn't stop my son from grabbing the 4 left over bottles and proceeding down the line of stopped cars selling them for $5 each. He had already sold 3 before I realized what he was doing and grabbed him. Whew! That could have been a huge disaster if Child Protective Services would have been nearby. The good news is he has since become a very successful entrepreneur and not in the beer biz. He's one-upped his Dad and become a General Contractor building high end custom homes instead of following him into the Manufactured Home biz. I couldn't help tossing that story into the ring. Hope I didn't offend all you Dudley Do Rights. But stuff happens.
If you are traveling with your family, especially young children, you owe it to them to take a few pro active measures and travel with at least a 3 day survival kit, extra water and first aid kit.
When I first arrived in Northridge about 7 days after the Earthquake I literally slept in my car in the middle of January for about 3 days whence I found a collapsed and abandoned trailer to sleep in for a few days until I found a motel 30 miles away from the zone. Thank God I had a sleeping bag.
PREPARE! PREPARE! PREPARE! You won't be sorry and it doesn't take more than a few minutes to put a survival kit together for you and your family.
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