We continue our series on winter emergency preparedness by covering procedures that should be followed if you find yourself trapped in your car during a blizzard. A blizzard is a severe winter storm with heavy snow and high winds, creating very low visibility and lasting several hours to several days.

Before the temperatures drop and the snow starts to fall, make time to properly prepare your vehicles for winter driving. Check the level of antifreeze in each car. The mixture should be about 50/50 antifreeze to water. Install new wiper blades and fill the windshield washer reservoir. Check the oil level and the charge on the battery. You should have good, all-weather tires or studded tires on your car, along with a set of traction chains on hand.

Pack a survival kit for your car that includes high calorie snack food, water and other supplies that will help you endure if trapped. See a complete list here. If you do get stuck in your car during a blizzard, follow these rules:

• Do not panic. Remain calm and remember that you prepared for this.
• Stay in your car unless you see help within 100 yards of your vehicle. It is too easy to become disoriented and lost in the snow.
• Attach a bright flag to your antenna to let others know that you need help.
• Keep your survival kit in the passenger compartment of your car, in case the trunk is inaccessible.
• Occasionally run the engine to keep warm. Turn the heater on, and use the dome light to attract attention. Ensure that the tailpipe stays unobstructed to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning. Open a window slightly, down wind, for fresh air.
• Stay dry. Wet clothes will make it more difficult to keep warm.
• If there is more than one person in the car, huddle together for warmth. Take turns sleeping so that one of you can turn on the car and watch for help.
• Stay hydrated and snack on high calorie food to keep boosting your metabolism.
• Move your arms and legs to keep blood circulating.

Watch for signs of frostbite and hypothermia. Frostbite symptoms include a loss of feeling and a white or pale appearance of the skin. Fingers, toes, ears and your nose are the most susceptible. Hypothermia is when the body’s temperature drops below 90 degrees. Uncontrollable shivering, slow speech, and drowsiness are all signs of hypothermia.

If either of these conditions are suspected, warm the person slowly, starting with the trunk of the body. Use your own body heat, blankets, newspapers, floor mats or anything else that is available to cover the person. Do not give them drinks that contain caffeine or alcohol, as these hasten the body’s cooling. Seek medical attention as soon as possible.

If you do have to travel in winter weather, be sure to communicate your trip plan to friends and family. Let them know when you plan to arrive at your destination and which roads you will drive. That way they know when and where to look for you if you don’t show up. Make sure you have a full tank of gas, whether the distance requires it or not, and a fully charged cell phone, along with a car charger.

Foresight and emergency preparedness are key to surviving hostile winter weather, so don’t put it off another day.

-Gary Jenkins-

Gary Jenkins is a father and husband living in Oregon who is a wildlife rehabilitation and outdoor adventure enthusiast.

There are several scenarios in which you might find yourself relying on your emergency preparedness skills during the winter months. Whether you get lost during a hunting expedition, your car dies, you misjudge how long your hike will take, or you get in a bug out situation, keeping warm and protected from the elements is essential to surviving until help arrives.

The three priorities that must be addressed before nightfall are finding a water source, building a fire, and creating a shelter. If there is snow on the ground, your water problem is handled and you should have fire-making materials in your gear. Learning how to construct an emergency shelter using natural resources should certainly be a part of your emergency preparedness planning.

Carry survival basics if venturing into the wilderness in winter. This includes water, emergency food, a 50 gallon drum liner bag, two mylar and foil blankets, paracord, fire-making supplies, a candle and waterproof matches, signaling whistle, metal cup and a brightly colored bandana. Some of these supplies will be helpful in constructing a shelter.

Deciding Where and How to Position Your Shelter

If it is snowing or nightfall is approaching, building a simple design is better than structures like a quinzhee or igloo which require greater physical exertion and more time. Conserve as much energy as possible to help maintain your body heat. Find a spot for your shelter that is somewhat level and is not in the path of a potential avalanche. Look overhead for any deadfall dangers from trees. Some features to consider for the shelter are making it small to hold in body heat but big enough for you to fit in and roll over without touching the sides. Face the entry away from the wind as this will aid in heat retention.

Building the Shelter

1. Prepare the ground. Dig out the snow in a 3 foot by 8 foot rectangle. Clear it all the way to the ground if possible because bare earth will radiate some warmth.
2. Find two poles at least five feet in length. Lay the poles side by side and tie them together about a quarter of the way from one end. Splay them apart to form an “X” and this will form the frame for the opening. The top of the opening should be about waist high.
3. Locate a pole that is at least 8 or 9 feet in length for the ridge pole. Strap one end of the pole into the top of the “X” with the other end resting on the ground, forming a long tripod. Other options include finding a tree with a “Y” to lay the long pole in, using a fallen log or boulder as a base.
4. Gather sticks to form the “ribs” of the shelter and place them 10 to 12 inches apart down each side of the ridge pole, resting one end on the pole and sticking the other end into the ground. These sticks should not protrude too far above the main pole.
5. Place a mylar blanket from your emergency preparedness kit over the framework with the shiny side facing in to reflect heat. Then layer evergreen boughs, leaves or other vegetation over the blanket.
6. Spread a thick layer of vegetation or evergreen boughs over the ground in the shelter for insulation. The more coverage the better.
7. Snow is an excellent insulator, and the next step is to cover the entire outside of the shelter with a thick layer of snow, building it up to a depth of at least 12 inches.
8. Fill the 50 gallon bag with snow and fit it in the opening of the shelter to seal it from the elements. In lieu of a bag, use boughs or your pack to close off the opening.

Keeping Warm

Your well insulated sanctuary will hold in your body heat, but you can add more warmth by lighting the candle, which has some inherent risks. You might opt for placing rocks that have been heated by the fire inside the shelter before sealing yourself in.

Remember that your goal is to be rescued. Your shelter will be camouflaged, especially if the snow continues to fall. The snow will muffle outside noises, making it difficult to hear people calling out. Tie the bright bandana to a stick and place it on top of the structure to alert rescue personnel to your location. Consider hanging other belongings in nearby trees to help mark your whereabouts.

There is no substitution for emergency preparedness. Study and practice building this shelter so that you are ready for survival if you ever find yourself stranded in winter conditions.

– Gary Jenkins is a father and husband living in Oregon who is a wildlife rehabilitation and outdoor adventure enthusiast.

After learning a skill, a process, a task or anything else for that matter it’s a good idea to occasionally have a refresher course on the basics, and emergency preparedness planning is no different.

Because emergencies and disasters can happen any place and any time it’s important to be ready in a moments notice. As someone who thinks about emergency preparedness a lot I feel pretty confident suggesting that the last thing we want to happen when a difficult situation presents itself is to be standing there unprepared and not knowing what to do. With that said, here’s a quick breakdown of the fundamentals.

When looking at this list, just remember that every topic and every bullet point is a subject of its own. In other words, go through the information in this blog and those of our partner sites and you’ll find a lot of detailed tips and useful suggestions for every one of these areas.

Family Planning

• Develop evacuation plans

• Identify meeting areas (If separated getting our of the house or if you’re not together during an emergency)

• Have a friend or family member out of the area that can act as a point of contact for everyone

• Program emergency phone numbers into cell phones and keep a list at the house.

• Ensure proper working condition of smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms.

• Have everyone in the family know how to turn off the mains for water, gas and power.

• Have copies of important documents ready to go with you (insurance papers, deeds, etc.)

Create, Stock (restock) and Store Emergency Preparedness Kits

• Assemble Grab and Go survival kits for your home and one for each car.

• Have the kit include water, freeze dried food, tools, flares, batteries and related supplies, a first aid kit and extra clothing and bedding. Three days worth of supplies minimum.

• Sanitation supplies, soap toilet paper, hygiene items, etc.

• If you have small children remember to include formula, bottles, medications, diapers, etc.

•Don’t forget about your pets. Food, toys, bones.

Those of us who pay attention to market and industry trends relating to food storage and preparedness typically have to go beyond the usual conversations offered up by mainstream media for a more comprehensive variety of information. But we don’t mind, in fact, we’re used to a little extra effort.

Through my own broadened search for more insight and perspective into the world of food storage I’ve discovered that there is still a disproportionate number of people who would like us to believe that the idea of a food crisis is some kind of crazy conspiracy theory. Now I don’t mean to sound the alarm here, but I do want to keep this fresh on the minds of all our prepper friends out there.

So to stay on top of what I consider to be a worrisome trend, the idea to write today’s post is based on a recent earnings report from General Mills. As one of the largest food producers in the world with some of the most recognizable brands, the company announced that earnings rose 51% in their fiscal fourth quarter. Good news for a great American company and its share holders. Unfortunately, they also expect the cost of their ingredients to increase by about 11% in fiscal year 2012. Not so great news for consumers.

Sadly, the trend has been heading in this direction for some time now, and the scope of an announcement like this seems to put it in perspective for a lot of people who would otherwise be fine to ignore the looming effects of inflated food prices in a struggling global economy. But the chances are good you’ve already felt the pain in the checkout line of your local grocery store, and the Consumer Price Index is still suggesting that the price of all food will increase this year on an average of 3-4%–the highest rate in roughly 25 years.

The idea that our systems of food production and distribution are reliable and secure has become a questionable notion. As announcements similar to this one from General Mills continue to rattle the food industry and impact our financial markets, as well as the decisions we make as consumers, the ramifications of inflated prices will undoubtedly have a heavy toll on everyday living for many families.

We will continue to monitor the changes and implications of announcements like this, as they will have significant impact not only the food storage industry and those who support it, but people everywhere.

As always, be sure and browse through the pages of this blog and check back often for updates as we continue to provide useful tips, recommendations and information on how to make food storage work for you in these challenging times.

Why does Glenn Beck promote food storage?  Why does he have gold commercials on his program as well?  Are these really radical concepts?  What is so radical about food storage?  I have food storage, you should too.  It isn’t because we want the world to end and after it all goes up in smoke, we can pull out our gourmet freeze dried food storage and during our meal laugh at all of the carnage and destruction around us and say, “Ha ha, told you so… and I get a feast while the rest of you suffer.”  No, that is not it.  Food storage is to prepare for the “just in case”.  There are some things that as people we really believe in strongly, and we say we hope we are wrong, and we really do want to be wrong.  There are other things that we really believe in and we say we hope we are wrong, but we are still conflicted inside because we have an emotional attachment to our argument where we really cannot conceive of actually being wrong in any way, shape, or form.  I think Glenn Beck really does want to be wrong about needing food storage, and I want to be wrong about ever needing food storage, because that could possibly mean that there may at some point in the future come a time where we cannot access speedily and conveniently (like we do now) whatever groceries we want whenever we want.  And I or anyone else would have to be stupid to want for that to happen.  So in this case, I don’t have an emotional attachment, and I don’t think Glenn Beck does either, about having to be right about needing food storage.

I hope people get it — I hope that they understand and that they get food storage just in case they ever need it, and for whatever reason.  It is not very fun to speculate why food storage would be needed, let your individual imagination and inspiration help you to understand why it may be a necessity.  I’m not here to paint gruesome doomsday pictures or suggest awful scenarios to scare you into buying food storage.  In fact this is very much a common sense issue.  Nobody should be coerced into buying food storage, they should each decide to get it on their own accord and feel good about their own decisions.  The strange thing is that many won’t consider food storage because food, the material which sustains our very lives, is just taken for granted.  But shouldn’t the very thing that sustains our lives have a pretty high priority, and shouldn’t we have plenty of it (more than necessary for the moment, in fact)?  If we were going to battle we wouldn’t take for granted having enough (or adequate) arms and ammunition, because we know that without them we would be ill prepared to save our own lives and/or conquer the enemy.  Yet, it is considered radical and extreme (by extremists themselves, I guess?) that anybody should want to have an adequate supply of food storage.  Silly, why would you want to store food, something that could come in handy to what… save your life?

Thank you Glenn Beck for being a voice of warning about food storage, about gold, about political concerns.  Unless you are hiding beneath a rock, it isn’t hard to conceptualize that there may be need of these things, and that our world is changing at an ever-increasing rate of speed.  Food storage is anything but radical or extreme.

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Emergency Food: Your Saving Grace

Emergency food storage is not about fear mongering or scare tactics. It’s about emergency preparedness. You are preparing in advance so chaos and scarcity won’t ensue should a real emergency occur. But, these are the days wherein things that are right are called wrong, things that are wrong are called right, and the political spin doctors are working overtime. No wonder emergency food storage may be seen by some (who hang on every word of the mainstream media) as being “extreme”. When you live in a country that has a deficit of over $14 trillion, has over $75 trillion in unfunded liabilities, whose real unemployment is over 20 percent (Shadowstats.com), and where gold is over $1,200 denominated in the country’s currency, how would anybody with a little horse sense construe having some emergency food storage as being extreme? Unless they just don’t interpret the above figures as extreme!?

Common sense has become a very uncommon commodity. When bills more than a thousand pages long that are not even read have passage through Congress even considered, this is a huge red flag, and should give rise to concern and action on the part of individuals for protection. What more important action could we take to preserve our lives and freedoms than to protect ourselves from gross departure of our sacred constitutional principles by being self reliant and obtaining for ourselves and our families an emergency food storage supply to take car of our survival needs, and to secure our financial situation with constitutional money (gold and silver)? Common sense dictates: if you don’t take care of yourself, why should anyone else? What’s more – the future is uncertain – to beware and to prepare is nothing else if not logical.

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Food Storage: Is it Only for The Apocalypse and Armageddon?
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There is a wealth of knowledge about emergency preparedness in books, videos, classes, conferences, government sponsored organizations, private organizations, and other media outlets. The trick is to find the simplest, most straightforward basics of emergency preparedness in one place. What is needed is a family preparedness handbook that is extremely well organized, informative, and user-friendly. What is available is exactly that! James Talmage Stevens, author of Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook has recently revised his emergency preparedness book with 260 additional pages of new information, charts, tables, and recipes. James’s mantra is “keep it super simple”. So, although James’s wildly popular, best emergency preparedness book on the market is packed with so much information– everything from food storage to fuel storage to financial preparedness to the organization of critical documents to self reliant living to supplementation, and emergency action plans, James’s best emergency preparedness book (over 760,000 copies sold, and in its 11th addition!)– sticks to its title, mission, and purpose of Making the Best of Basics. Quite frankly, the best of anything is basic and easy to understand, especially in the case of emergency preparedness! If emergency preparedness is made to be too complicated an issue, it is abandoned by most people (and causes a whole lot more deaths!). Indeed, James understands this principle because his creation of the best emergency preparedness book available takes a reader from kindergarten to college in regards to family preparedness.

A quick glance through the Table of Contents of Making the Best of Basics should convince the reader that James really is serious about his “basic” premise– to keep things simple! Among his chapter headings you will find the likes of “Basics of Whole Wheat Cookery”, “Basics of Honey Use”, “Basics or In-Home Drying– Dehydrating Fruits and Vegetables”, “Basics of Dairy Products from Powdered Milk”, “Basics of Battling Stress”, “Basics of Supplementation”, and on and on– everything is basically basic! The recipes are even basic (I’m game for that!). That’s why I’m tooting James Talmage Steven’s horn for him, and calling it the best emergency preparedness book, because he lays it all out– all of the important emergency preparedness considerations and information is covered a baby step at a time. You have lists of the necessaries, and you can take on emergency preparedness with confidence by utilizing his charts, checklists, and tables. You can photocopy the checklists and use his emergency preparedness handbook as a workbook, becoming an active participant, much like you are taking a class, but at your own leisure (but don’t wait too long!). Not only that, but James is a storyteller. He illustrates practical application of what he teaches through his fun little parables and makes it easier and less laborious reading material. Just be careful that you not enjoy the best emergency preparedness book out there so much so that you don’t get around to doing anything but reading it! Prepare to flourish, not flounder!

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Our civilization is quite advanced, making it even that much more important to prepare for any number of things that could go awry, and calling upon the use of something as simple as food storage. See, when any system gets so far advanced and inclined towards such high levels of technological specialization in so many varied facets, it becomes increasingly more susceptible to a breakdown or interruption, because when just one part of the whole becomes dysfunctional it creates a domino effect throughout. Just as happened with the housing market. And to make an analogy most can appreciate, how helpless do you feel when your car gadgetry malfunctions? When you car windows won’t roll up nor down with just the click of a button, do you sometimes long for the manual window-roller-uppers?

Although not caused by a defect in the normal “man”-aged workings of society, we can see how a “change” in the status quo will cause mass chaos, as witnessed by a series of big hurricanes a few years back. What happens? Many basic essentials are the first to fly off the store shelves, and this surely includes food. Food storage, water storage, 72 hour kits, and other emergency supplies collected far in advance could prevent this mad rush to a grocery store—only to find that crowds of people made it there before you did, leaving very little left of the significant items for you to purchase. Remember, this is not an apocalyptic event, just nature taking its course. Recall also the pictures on television those people who waited until the last minute before evacuating and being stranded on freeways for hours at a time because of overtaxed capacity. If you are going to get out of Dodge, do it before everyone else decides to!

In his book, “Making the Best of Basics,” author James Talmage Stevens speaks of an in-home food storage convenience store. Aside from disastrous situations, how nice would it be to never “run out” of an ingredient needed for a recipe, not having to run to the neighbors for an item to complete the mix? What if you should forget that you have no more diapers in the home and your baby has a bout of diarrhea? Even if the store is close, it’s nice to have a backup supply.

We have learned in recent years that the unexpected can and does happen. “Nobody saw it coming!” was the common refrain in response to the economic crisis. In times of volatility and uncertainty, could there be a trucker’s strike, or exceedingly high gas prices that cause a disruption in the supply chain delivering food to the marketplace? This and many other unforeseen scenarios could happen, thus bringing to the forefront the need for food storage and emergency supplies. With the advanced JIT (Just-In-Time) concept of inventories, it is said that grocery store shelves could be emptied in 3 days or less. But, if you have an in-home food storage convenience store as part of your wise and prudent emergency preparedness efforts, you’re not among those who panic. We’re not talking about Armageddon or the Apocalypse here. We’re just talking about good, old-fashioned common sense.

Food really can go missing from grocery storage shelves as attested to by even recent articles found here and here. Got food storage?

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Okay. As far as similarities, both types of food are great for long-term storage and are almost identical as far as shelf life (about 25 years). Also, both need to be kept in similar temperature, humidity, and oxygen conditions.

However, the similarities between the two types of food end there. From that point on, there are three major differences between freeze-dried food and dehydrated food:

First of all, I want to make it very clear that my species did not climb to the top of the food chain so that we could become vegetarians. I like meat. Maybe you do, too. So for me, I need to have meat that tastes good in my home food storage. Well, the meat, as you will see, is very, very different between the dehydrated and freeze-dried types of food storage.

See, dehydrated food doesn’t have any seasoning or additional ingredients added to it when it is made. In fact, most dehydrated foods are just a single ingredient and that’s it. Whether it is fruit or meat, it is just that one item. This is a huge problem for a meat-eater like me because what this means is that a dehydrated piece of meat is just that. A piece of meat. Nothing added to make it taste good or to make it enjoyable. Therefore, if you want any seasoning or anything like that, you need to add it in later.

On the other hand, freeze-dried food does have seasoning and additional ingredients already added in. So when it comes to meat, seasoning and added ingredients have already been added in! That makes eating meat and other items oh so tasty.

This is the first major difference between the two types of food. Even though dehydrated food can range from everything from rice to pancake mix to Ramen noodles, you need to make sure you have some ingredients to add to them once they are hydrated. Otherwise they are quite insipid and tasteless. Freeze-dried food, on the other hand, contains lots of different ingredients and some fantastic seasonings. So, you just heat it up and eat it and mmmmmmmmmm. Remarkable.

The second big different between the two types of food is that although both freeze-dried food and dehydrated food just need water and heat, the prep time varies greatly. Freeze-dried foods are usually quicker to prepare than dehydrated foods. The times can vary anywhere from as little as 15 minutes to one hour depending on what it is you are cooking, but, as a general rule, the dehydrated food takes longer to prepare than the freeze-dried food. Note: If you have a pressure cooker on hand you can cut the prep time down considerably on both types of food. Pressure cookers will save you a ton of time and energy regardless of which type of home food storage you have.

Finally, the third difference between the two types of food is that freeze-dried food is usually a full meal that contains multiple items. Think “TV Dinner” or even “Meals on Wheels” when you think freeze-dried food. Unlike dehydrated foods, freeze-dried foods are meals that are completely ready to eat once they are heated up and water has been added. Again, dehydrated food is usually just a single ingredient. You will need to mix them with other items or season them or they won’t taste that great.

Now, does this mean freeze-dried food is better than dehydrated food? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Well, actually, yes.

But before you start thinking freeze-dried food is some Bastian of Morality and dehydrated food is one step below plankton pee, it should be noted that dehydrated food takes freeze-dried food behind the woodshed every day of the week when it comes to price. Dehydrated food is way cheaper. Way cheaper. Dehydrated food also usually makes more food than freeze-dried food per serving—again, this adds to the value and price ratio advantage.

So, a quick recap here: Freeze-dried food tastes better, is ready to eat sooner, and has a wider variety of food once prepared. Dehydrated food does not taste as good, takes longer to prepare, and is just that one item when you prepare it. However, dehydrated food is much, much cheaper than freeze-dried food.

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Who doesn’t drive nowadays? Okay, I’m not talking about your infant or toddler. And I’m not talking about your aging parents or grandparents. But most people in our civilized society that have the means (and many can afford at least a beater car) use a car as a means of transportation. Think about how much time you actually spend in your car. It may not be 1/3 of your life like it is with sleeping, but especially if you have any significant commuting to and from work, you spend a lot of time in your car. Do you maintain your car perfectly with every scheduled routine maintenance? If you are like most people, you probably at least make sure the oil gets changed regularly, but what about everything else?

Using the words of a teenager: “So, like, you have this all nice stereo system in your car, and, like, you spent all that money for a cool thing, but, like, you don’t have nothing in case you got– like stuck somewhere?” So what if you are who the teenager is talking about? Oh, well, you have a cell phone, so you are taken care of! Maybe not… Why chance it? Isn’t it nice to know that should you be in a situation you had not expected, that you had the foresight to protect against these types of scenarios? And what about your driving children? Your teenage children drive you crazy, but they also drive a car and you love them. So if there was anything that you could do to ensure their safety you would probably do it, right?

An emergency car kit is a wonderful resource. You have smoke alarms in your home. You probably have a fire extinguisher, too, or should have. But what do you have in the trunk of your car, besides junk? You really should have a lifesaver back there. Come on now, get with the program– have an emergency car kit, at least for the peace of mind. What if you never use it? Well then, Hallelujah! But if you should need it, and you don’t have one, you’ll kick yourself and probably swear, and feel really rotten. But more importantly, you’ll be endangered! Emergency preparedness is not all about doom and gloom. In fact, it is just the opposite. In a sense it’s taking control now of what you can’t control later. Everyone would be on board with this idea if they could see that in their future it would be needed. But being as most of us cannot see the future, we have this thing we call emergency preparedness, and it sets us up for success for the obstacles that life puts in our way instead of failure.

Got Emergency Car Kit?

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