Learning from the Earthquake in Nepal

It seems like it was only yesterday that I was writing about the Calbuco volcano eruption. It seems like it was only yesterday because it pretty much was! Calbuco is still throwing thousands of tons of ash into the atmosphere.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that killed over 4.000 people hit Nepal this last Saturday. There have also been fatalities in the Himalayas as an avalanche flattened part of the Everest Base Camp. Nepal is a poor country and is struggling in its disaster response effort. People are digging out the victims themselves, the wounded are being treated on the streets and tents given that hospitals have been overwhelmed. There’s a lack of food, water and fuel. The spread of diseases is a growing concern as the sanitary conditions worsen. For thousands of people there’s nowhere to go given that their homes have been completely destroyed.

As we try to learn from this latest disaster, a few thoughts come to mind:

*Avoid earthquake and disaster prone areas in general, especially countries that aren’t prepared for them. This should be obvious enough although many times you don’t have much of a choice. This has been the worst earthquake in Nepal in the last 80 years… 80 years isn’t that much time. I feel the same way about Chile and New Zealand. Being located in the Ring of Fire means earthquakes are something you’ll have to live with. For millions, these places are home and they simply don’t want to live anywhere else. Millions of others can’t leave even if they wanted to. Having said that, if you do have a choice or if you can live elsewhere, it’s a good idea to do so and although you can’t live your life in constant fear because that simply isn’t living, do take it into account when planning your next vacation. Maybe it’s because I lived in South America most of my life, but I just don’t see the need to go to poor, developing nations to have a good time. Actually, it’s kind of the other way around.

*Drop. Cover. Hold. Drop down to the floor. This is the first thing to do given that an earthquake is likely to make you fall. Once on the grown, try reaching a safe location nearby, such as under a sturdy table, or next to low lying furniture that isn’t likely to fall over such as couches or next to an interior wall. Cover your head and back of your neck, these are your most critical body areas and may be hit by debris and falling objects. Hold your position until the shaking stops. This advice can be life-saving and is indeed accurate for places like New Zealand, Los Angeles and other parts of the developed world where buildings are made to withstand earthquakes.

*Don’t run outside. You’re safer indoors. The front of buildings contains an important amount of glass, steel and other materials which may fall on you and cause severe injuries as you exit the building. Falling trees, posts, signs and power cables may injure you as well.

*Careful about the “Triangle of Life” theory. This theory recommends people not to take the Drop, cover and hold standard approach, instead recommending to take shelter next to solid items, which in theory will provide pockets of space as the building collapses. Research from most reputed agencies and governments strongly disagrees with the “Triangle of Life” theory. It is only during pancake-type collapse of the structures, with one level falling on top of the other, that some success can be found with this approach. Even then, the exact object and its load bearing capability is extremely difficult to figure out during the ongoing disaster. Most deaths are caused by falling objects rather than collapsed structures during earthquakes that take place in modern buildings such as the ones found in developed countries.

*While Drop. Cover. Hold. is without a doubt the best approach and the “triangle of Life” Theory is indeed highly controversial, it is true that old masonry buildings and other rudimentary constructions typical of third world countries can and often do fail catastrophically during earthquakes. If caught inside such a building, your chances of making it out alive are drastically reduced. If the exit is within reach you want to escape from it as quickly as possible, keeping in mind that the entire front of the building may fall over you as it collapses. In some cases, survivors have managed to make it out alive by either reaching or finding themselves on the top floor of the building, reducing the amount of debris that falls over them and making it less likely to be crushed. Survivors have said they “fell” along with the building, managing to survive by being left on top of the rubble rather than under it.

* Katmandu has been impacted the worst by the earthquake, but its also where rescue efforts are being concentrated the most. Small towns and villages, many destroyed completely by the earthquake, are receiving little or no help. Many have been cut off from the outside world because of affected roads and bridges.

*Have a bug out plan. If there’s one thing most serious disasters have in common, is that when you can’t stay in the affected area you better have somewhere else to go. It is important to prepare and be ready. Some people don’t like being labeled as “survivalists”, but I think it’s much better than being labeled “refugee”.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

Cooking With Expired Food

Did some bread with +1 year expired Self-raising flour and expired olive oil. Turned out quite well! The bread tasted great, so did the olive oil. It even raised pretty nicely for being about 18 months past expiration date.
The recpie is pretty simple and easy to follow. Makes a for a nice, healthy meal! :)

FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

Armageddon Down South: Learning from the Calbuco Volcano Eruption in South America

It’s the break of dawn but the sun is not coming out in Bariloche. “Its like living inside a cloud” says a local resident. The volcanic ash covers everything. The stench of sulfur is overwhelming.


Volcanic Ash in Bariloche, Argentina.

Calbuco erupted last night in Chile, sending tons of ash, rock and lava into the night sky. Six hours later it erupted again even stronger than the first time. Since then, literally all hell broke loose. Chile is on “Red Alert” and has established a 20 km exclusion zone around the volcano. Hundreds have been evacuated. The western winds send the ash across the border into Argentina, affecting the towns in the vicinity.

100 km from the volcano, the city of Bariloche is on full alert. There’s no schools, people are told to stay indoors, ration water and avoid rushing to stores for supplies. People are asked to ration fuel and minimize its use, saving it for emergency and rescue vehicles. Flights to the area have been canceled. There are already concerns regarding the contamination of surface water sources. Volcanic ash is also known to clog intake structures, cause abrasion damage to pumps and block pipes, interrupting the supply of water.

The ash is expected to reach as far as Buenos Aires. During the eruption of Puyehue in 2011 I got to experience first-hand what it’s like to wake up one day and see everything covered with grey volcanic ash. It soon becomes hard to breathe. You throat itches and it stings your eyes. You’re basically breathing in small pieces of glass. I can’t imagine what those people are going through right now.

 
What we can learn from this:
*You need respirators and eye protection. Most people just try to get by with simple facemasks, but authorities advice people with respiratory complications to get better quality respirators. In some parts respirators are distributed by local authorities but there’s not enough for everyone and soon people have to buy their own, if they find them. Common single layer fabric facemasks can go for ten times their previous market value.
Proper full face respirators (like full face 3M 7162) such as the ones often recommended here are all but priceless in such a scenario. Even better, get a respirator that uses a NATO 40mm NBC canister.
*Water. Remember what we always say about water: it’s the most overlooked supply. Have a good water filter but also store enough water as well! Already in some parts of Bariloche, a gallon of water is going for 8 Usd, about 80 pesos. Keep in mind, we’re talking about a region known for its massive forests and lakes, think Alaska, yet that’s the going price for water in a region where just two days ago you could just go and pick as much as you wanted from the nearest pristine lake. All this changes immediately when volcanic ash starts falling and you can no longer drink the water around you.
*Food, fuel and other essential supplies. The basics we always talk about come into play here as well. As the volcano erupts, everyone rushes to the stores to stock up, just like it happens with storms and hurricanes. Have your supplies ahead of time.
*A Bariloche resident explains “We learned from the last volcano eruption. Now we know how heavy accumulated volcanic ash can be, so we make sure to remove it from the roofs. Last time many roofs collapsed because of the weight of the ash”. Many people have now sealed their homes with tape and protected their vehicles in preparation.

Car stuck in Chile

*Cars can be severely damaged by volcanic ash. Air filters must be inspected and replaced with care so as to stop any ash from going into the engine. Windows can be easily scratched by the ash, same goes for the paint of the vehicle. With reduced visibility, its advised to stay put if possible. The fine, hard ash does a number on all mechanic parts of the vehicle eroding any moving parts it gets in between.
*You need a Bug Out Plan. Its hard to explain how difficult life can be when you no longer have the privilege of breathing in fresh air. For most people, leaving the affected area until conditions improve is a good idea. For some people, that move may be permanent. During the 2011 Puyehue eruption, many farmers lost all their crops to the ash. Plants died, animals starved. The surface water was contaminated, the grass was covered in ash. Sheep would destroy their teeth, eroded by the glass-like volcanic ash. Yet again, another example as of why you just can’t live in your Bug Out Location and how disasters often make no distinction between urban and rural areas, indiscriminately affecting both.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

The drought in California keeps getting worse

The drought in California keeps getting worse and its small rural towns such as East Porterville that are affected the most.
As wells continue to fail, with 996 already reported, many residents of East Porterville depend almost exclusively on bottled water for getting by.
Contrary to popular belief, small towns and farms are not always as self-reliant as some think they are. In fact, many times it’s the lack of infrastructure and investment that triggers the problems in the first place, while larger cities with more resources and more people to provide for fare better:

Porterville was developed with a municipal water system hooked to a deep, industrial-grade well. Residents of Porterville depend on groundwater as much as their neighbors to the east, but because the larger city has infrastructure to pump from a deep aqueduct, taps in Porterville haven’t gone dry.
The lack of public infrastructure in East Porterville is part of what makes the “disaster” so difficult to mitigate: to get federal cash, a disaster must impact public infrastructure. In East Porterville, it’s largely impoverished farm workers bearing the brunt of the drought.
“This is a kind of the-poor-get-poorer situation,” said Lockman. “It really is just like after a hurricane, and you still have a roof over your head but you can’t flush the toilet, you don’t have water.”
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/20/east-porterville-california-drought-bottled-water-showers-toilets

FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

What’s the best Passport and why should you have One (or two)

I have often explained that having a passport is mandatory documentation for anyone interested in survival and preparedness. The reasons why you should have a passport are many. Even if you don’t plan on traveling, it’s the best form of ID world wide and an excellent additional ID if you lose your driver’s license. Many times, potential employers will ask you to have one for business travel. You may end up losing a great job opportunity if you don’t have one. Even in your existing line of work you may need to travel unexpectedly for closing a deal, talking with a potential client or going to seminars, all of which you may lose if you can’t travel at short notice. Maybe it’s not even yourself that is traveling. Maybe you’re retired or just don’t like traveling abroad, but your children do. What if they suffer an accident or get sick while abroad and you can’t travel to help them?

Two is one and one is none
If having one passport is a great idea, having two is even better. Having two passports opens up a world of opportunities. In my case it allowed me to emigrate to Europe and enjoy the advantages of doing so as an European citizen.
One way in which the power of a passport is measured is by how many countries you can travel to without a visa. In this aspect, the United States of America and United Kingdom passports are the best ones to have, giving you access to 147 countries. This is followed by France, South Korea and Germany with 145, then Sweden and Italy with 144. http://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php
Of course, access to a country without a visa is just one aspect. The South Korean passport may have four more countries than the one from Portugal, but clearly the Portuguese Passport has the advantage of allowing you to reside anywhere in the European Union as any other citizen, making it a far more desirable passport.
The country of origin of the issued passport is also important. Powerful countries don’t always provide the most benefits, especially in this time and age. For example, opening a foreign bank account with an American passport is very difficult given how much information the American government ends up demanding from the bank if doing so. It’s just not worth the trouble in the eyes of most banks, at least not for ordinary American citizens. Then you have to take into account the reputation and foreign policy of the country. Currently, in many parts of the world, there’s an anti-American sentiment that may work against you. During terrorist attacks, Americans and British citizens may be killed immediately while others are allowed to live. This happened during the 2008 attacks in Mumbai. Since the American and British government “does not negotiate with terrorists”, there’s a good chance you’ll end up killed immediately, or end up brutally executed. On the other hand, countries such as Spain and Italy, they will pay for your release and have stated so publicly on several occasions. In 2012, Mariasandra Mariani tried to explain her al-Qaeda captors that held her in the north of Mali that her family didn’t have money to pay. Her kidnapers told her to relax, that Italy “always pays”.

Italian Citizen Sergio Cicala and his wife Philomene Kabore, kidnapped in 2009 in Mauritania. They were held captive for five months before being released.

Some will argue that paying only makes things worse because it finances terrorism or it even makes you more likely to be kidnapped. So far evidence shows that foreigners are equally targeted, and it’s only after the actual kidnap takes place that their faith is decided. As for what’s morally right… guess being in an orange jumpsuit with your head about to be detached from your body puts things into perspective.

 

Spanish Citizena Albert Vilalta, Alicia Gámez and Roque Pascual kidnapped in Mauritania in 2010. They were released 268 days later.

France has more of an “unofficial” stance, but they are known to pay as well. Depending on the passport, you may not even be taken captive. This will of course depend on the country’s foreign policy stance in regards to the group that has taken you captive or the country where you happen to find yourself in trouble.
Some of the more humble countries that aren’t seen neither as a world power nor as a threat may be even more advantageous. In 1995, and while detained by Croatia special police, a group of Argentine and French UN delegates noticed a sudden, friendly change by their captors once they noticed the Argentine flag worn by one of the men. “Argentino!” he cried out one of the Croatian fighters, while at the same time pointing at the markings on the Argentine made FM FAL rifle he carried.

Getting a second passport
Getting a second passport may not be as hard as you may think. In some cases, it may cost very little money if you have the right paperwork and enough patience. In my book “Bugging Out and Relocating” I explain several ways in which you can get one. In general, having money makes things easier as many countries either sell passports directly in exchange for donations or provide one after a significant investment is made in the country. If you don’t have several hundred thousand dollars sitting around though, one of the best ways to get a second citizenship is by taking a closer look at your family tree. If you have grandparents that came from certain European countries, such as Italy, Poland, Germany and Ireland, you have a good chance of getting a EU passport.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.