Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Lately I've read a couple articles about the need to have a disaster supply kit on hand in case something really bad happens. You know, critical stuff like a whistle, aluminum foil, pencils, and a map of the area and compass.
The problem is, 99% of the time the "disaster" amounts to a bit of inconvenience until the Walmart reopens the next day, or FEMA relief supplies show up a few days after that. And in the other 1% of the time, a building has fallen on your head, or you live in Bhopal, in which case your disaster supplies are conveniently within reach of your corpse.
Not to mention the fact that the vast majority of people will never be in a disaster in the first place. So a widespread policy of stockpiling useless items seems to me to be a waste of resources.
But for the sake of argument, I would like to present my disaster supply kit, designed for the intermediate scenario where some catastrophic event causes the temporary or permanent breakdown of law and order and societal functioning, but does not actually kill you.
An example of this would be some kind of super virus that infects and brings down the google and wikipedia data centers, removing humanity's ability to access all knowledge, aside from the no longer vital and rapidly outdated content of the US Weekly on your coffee table.
During the widespread panic, looting, starvation, and death that would ensue, I believe the following items would be useful:
The problem is, 99% of the time the "disaster" amounts to a bit of inconvenience until the Walmart reopens the next day, or FEMA relief supplies show up a few days after that. And in the other 1% of the time, a building has fallen on your head, or you live in Bhopal, in which case your disaster supplies are conveniently within reach of your corpse.
Not to mention the fact that the vast majority of people will never be in a disaster in the first place. So a widespread policy of stockpiling useless items seems to me to be a waste of resources.
But for the sake of argument, I would like to present my disaster supply kit, designed for the intermediate scenario where some catastrophic event causes the temporary or permanent breakdown of law and order and societal functioning, but does not actually kill you.
An example of this would be some kind of super virus that infects and brings down the google and wikipedia data centers, removing humanity's ability to access all knowledge, aside from the no longer vital and rapidly outdated content of the US Weekly on your coffee table.
During the widespread panic, looting, starvation, and death that would ensue, I believe the following items would be useful:
- A rifle and ammunition, for self-protection and eventually hunting for food.
- A NIOSH N95-N100 rated particulate respirator, for protection against infectious diseases that either caused, or resulted from the given calamity.
- An ample supply of offline, paper-based pornography. Remember, in a disaster, the internet and even your electricity may fail.
- Several months supply of canned food. If you don't have this or run out, you can alternatively use the first item in the list to obtain it.
- A water filtration unit with spare filters.
- A fire starting kit.
- Optional: According to most social networking profiles' "about me" section, very few can live without their iPod. These people will want to include an iPod hand-crank charger in the kit.
