GUEST POST from Don – Pompeii’s Survivors

POMPEII’s SURVIVORS

Historians have found hundreds of records which detail those who survived the great disaster.  No.  None who stayed in Pompeii or nearby towns to experience the destruction in person survived, but some people who trusted their guts when the earthquakes and tremors began did survive.  They took horses and carts, money and other valuable items.  Or they sailed away on ships.  The survivors left EARLY.

Interesting!  So, having an ESCAPE PLAN and using it EARLY works…

It still does.

This is what we are going to do…now that I know how to plan.

We made plans for retirement.  It was a long, difficult plan.  But we did it.
We made a disability and death plan (Will, POA, etc).  It has taken a year to accomplish most of the items on the lists, including who will own the china cabinet and where to bury my ashes.

So, what would be the problem with making an emergency plan?  It takes a series of lists and knowing where everything important is.  It takes having a bit of emergency foods and drink.  It takes having the equivalent of a tank of gas (which will get us two states away) and a bit of cash money on hand (not too much and stored in an unlikely spot).  Do we need a weapon?  Probably not, but will get one if necessary once we have evaluated the situation.  Probably need a tent for roughing it and matches for a campfire and a bucket for … essentials.  A change of clothes, some soaps and some line.  I haven’t made my lists yet … so much is still unclear.  One thing I don’t want to do is carry something that is only dead weight.  My pet brick, for example.

When we had kids living at home we had an established “meet up” place.  Looking back we should have done much more and we should have practiced.  It turned out poorly once.  I had a medical emergency, drove myself to the ER.  Was kept there for a long time.  No spare key, no emergency phone number.  Teen daughter was left without a safe place to go after work.  Who could have guessed that my wife would be out of town three states away on the day of the emergency?  We found out that day that we could not count on someone we had thought of as a friend.  

That’s the one thing that almost every emergency plan fails to cover: the need for a friend.  Any plan which relies solely on self-sufficiency is a bad plan.  I have read so many articles from he-men who think that they will survive because they have the most powerful gun on the planet and know how to hunt.  Even the most powerful man has to sleep and or take a break to go potty.  Who’s going to protect the family when their savior is in the outhouse when they are attacked?

Medicine is important, too.  They dole that out in 30 or 90 day allotments, with no extras for emergencies.  We are discussing this at our house … how to make sure there’s an extra week or two of essential meds.  

I recently read a survivor article which said that eating wild game will help you survive for only so long, that you need lots of FATS and OILS to survive for a long time.  I don’t know anyone with a bug-out bag that includes a half gallon of cooking oil.  So, bacon is actually a survival food?

One other concept is that which comes from dogs.  Strangely, dogs and Australian dingoes don’t interbreed.  You won’t find a dingo mutt.  Dogs, on the other hand, will breed with anything which is willing including your leg.  A “get out of Dodge” plan should be more flexible than the “Dingo event” plan.  I don’t mean that you should be willing to mate with anything with 2 legs.  I mean your plan should be flexible and adaptable to changing situations.

It is very important to not get cocky just because you know a thing or two about survival.  Jim Cobb, owner of Disaster Prep Consultants says that arrogance will get you killed in the outdoors.  No one should overestimate their skills or underestimate the power of weather.  He tells people to leave their egos at home.

And if you don’t know a thing or two, you should read up on and practice those things you want as skills.  Build a few survival shelters.  Start a few fires when it is rainy.  Learn how to stay warm with dry leaves.  Have a plan for a few scenarios.  When Vesuvius threatens to blow you will have a chance to bug out before everyone else clogs your escape route.

So, plans will come from answering “what if” questions:
What if the power goes off … how to cook?
What if the power goes off … and it is winter?  Or summer?
What if there is local unrest … where to go?
What if there is widespread unrest?
What if the problem is major … affecting the entire state or nation?

It all boils down to food, water, warmth, housing, transportation, and safety.   Yet of greater importance is preparedness.  Having a plan is not the same as being prepared.

There is also the realization that anything lasting more than a month or anything bigger than one’s own region is probably going to mean great deprivation.  The question is “should we stay or should we go”?  That decision needs to be made early.  

Finally, being prepared means that there are lists and provisions prepackaged and ready to go so you take with you only what you need.  500 pounds of food, water and gear is great if you can drive there, but you can’t carry that in your backpack.

Be ready to go EARLY.  

[PLEASE NOTE that Don is always open to discussing the thoughts and opinions he shares here and welcomes comments as shared in the comment section. He doesn’t use other social media platforms and won’t see whatever you’d like to share with him if you post it elsewhere.
ALSO, Don is always open to offer his thoughts on various topics. If you have a specific request, you can let him know in a comment; he reads – and replies to – them all. ~ Sherry]

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