Flooding? Be Ready To Bug Out!
As I write this the water is dribbling in through my basement foundation. Water covers a good portion of the floor as it slowly flows toward the floor drain. Not a flood but truly an annoyance, one that I have experienced many times in different houses.
Floods are one of the few disasters where you get some warning before it happens. You may have a day or you may see the waters rising up towards your door a foot at a time but seldom does it happen in the span of a few minutes. This makes it one of the disasters that you can be ready for when you know it is happening.
For those times when a basement is just leaking water over the floor you can take a few precautions.
Wooden or plastic pallets are great for storing those boxes of goodies you have that you just don’t want to part with. Pallets will keep your things safe until the water reaches about 4 inches deep.
If you have shelving, make sure that the first shelf is at least a few inches off the floor. Scrap wood is good for putting under boxes or anything else just to keep it off a floor & you just can’t beat those plastic containers when it comes to keeping your stuff dry.
But when the Levee Breaks you better be ready to grab your stuff & get out of Dodge! I keep most of my stored canned goods in milk crates. Each crate will hold about 16 cans of food and it’s easy enough to see what is in them & to check the dates for rotation of your cans. You can easily lift & stack them in your vehicle.
I also keep a couple of big totes with an assortment of foods & goods in them. These have what you need to make several balanced meals, snacks, spices, a bar of soap, some matches and the most important thing, toilet paper, because what goes in must come out!! These are put together with the idea that you might be cooking over a fire, so figure out meals that only need to be heated or boiled in a small pot. Make sure to have some water for cooking those dehydrated type foods or they will be almost worthless until you get water. You might even want to put in a box of ammunition just in case you might need it.
Have your Bug Out Bags ready to go and don’t forget a medical bag with plenty of everyday meds like painkillers & some Pepto as well as some trauma type stuff for any nasty injuries. If you don’t have too much medical knowledge you can throw in a book to help you out but it would be best to learn some medical skills, even plain old First Aid. I have an Army First Aid medical kit which is the same size as a standard first aid kit. I augmented it with some antibiotic bandages, some meds & a glow stick, then put it in a small canvas bag with a strap.
When you have to get out in a real hurry, being able to grab two prepared totes of food, some bottled water, your Bug Out Bags & a medical kit will at least give you enough supplies to survive for several days time.
Remember folks, food and water are essential for survival in any disaster. You can do without a lot of things but “a mans got to eat” as they say and water is even more important.
Article by Ben (Capt) Cook ( captcook999@gmail.com )
