The fourth day of a 72 hour evacuation, things don't appear quite right here.

    On the fourth day of this hypothetical evacuation event we have realized that it is going to extend to another week. We fond out a major earthquake has occurred in the city, all infrastructure is down, the highways are jammed with broken down cars and trucks. People are walking the freeways to escape the lack of food, water and other supplies, the water ran out 3 days ago, the food right after that. It is a dire situation, one that few people were totally prepared for, luckily we were, but not to the level we thought we were.

    Today is the day to go through the refrigerator and dispose of all the food that has thawed and gotten warm. Any food items that are suspect must be disposed of as well. The freezer must be inspected as well, if the food is still frozen it is safe, if it is thawed it has been compromised and must be disposed of as well. We have eaten the food in the refrigerator and kitchen cabinets, the 72 hour kits food supply is still intact.
    It's also the day to take an inventory of all of the supplies we do have on hand, flashlights, battery's, hand tools and all the survival equipment we have amassed over the past years. Now is the time to set up for a long term event, no one will be here to help for at least one week. There will be a lot of speculation and guess work due to communications being down and the only news is by word of mouth and the crank radio. We do have cell phone service off and on, however we are the only people with a solar charger putting it in much demand. The neighbors that remain charge their phones with our charger,  they are using our equipment to boil river water, we are making huge pots of watery soup from any food we can find. It was all working well sharing as long as people had food in their pantry, we are now running low and even though we rationed for the first week we will be opening the long term supplies soon. FEMA on communicating during a disaster link here.

All the supplies I need. Wow. 

    Many of the neighbors will have left by boat or walking, some returned with news of the damage, some we will never see again. We have formed into a "tribe" of sorts, everyone is now contributing to survival. In a few days we will be out of propane for the stoves, we will have to use wood fires to boil water. We will assign wood cutters and water boilers, both will be constant chores. We will send people on searches for wild asparagus, fruit and other wild foods to supplement the emergency sets we have. We may end up with as many as 100 chickens and ducks that were abandoned, I think eggs and roasted poultry will be sustainable. We will start to plan for an event without end.
    More people will be leaving as the road is cleared, there may be no where to go if prior plans were not made. People will also be coming, getting away from the city, they came here once a few years ago and remembered it may be a safe place to be. They will come with nothing, your supplies will be stressed, they want water. I'm not sure if I would be able to refuse them, it depends on how many there are and what their needs are. The local government structure is beginning to fail it's beginning to look like there will be no relief for weeks. The freeze dried one year supply of food has been opened, we will begin rationing immediately.
     We will start to plan for a community garden after the third week with help and utilities still an unknown distance away. It will take 1 1/2 acre to plant enough potatoes to feed 6 people over the winter of 5 months, a 5 acre garden may be in line. Long term planning is started, seeds collected and all the stuff needed to farm will be gathered.

Lot's of potatoes, lots. 

     The 72 hour evacuation ended up being 3 weeks, we are now looking forward to an extended event. The next blog will deal with it.
     Thanks for reading, I'd like to hear your comments, discussions and advice. It's an  interesting exercise to go through "what would I do in this situation?" It's serious and it has the potential of being real. But a survival kit, have it ready and be prepared for a 6 month event.
jimandkate  emergencykitsplus.com