Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Diesel for SHTF: 5 Big Advantages

Hi Fernando,
I re-read one of your blog posts (Surviving Argentina) where you were very pleased with your diesel Honda.  You said that diesel is cheaper and available in all gas stations where you live.  I'm in the U.S. and I understand only about half of all gas stations have diesel and I have observed prices vary and may be more expensive.  In a SHTF scenario, would you still recommend us in the U.S. to drive a diesel engine vehicle given all the positives but in SHTF will be even harder to find diesel.
Thanks
cheers,
Dan
....

My diesel Honda CRV, manual 6 speed transmission.
Hello Dan,
Indeed, here in Europe, every single gas station has both diesel and gasoline at the pump, one right next to the other (yes, you gotta be careful)

Diesel has several advantages.

1&2)Cost and efficiency. At times it’s even cheaper per gallon than gasoline, but what’s even more important, it’s a lot more efficient. This means you do more miles on the same money, a lot more (50% more) and also important for SHTF, you cover more distance per gallon. What I mean is its cheaper as a daily driver due to price but if SHTF and you need to cover miles, you’ll cover a lot more of them on the same number of gallons in your tank. These two are key advantages.

3)Diesel is also a LOT safer. A lit match thrown in a puddle of diesel will extinguish itself, unlike gasoline which is downright explosive. Remember Paul Walker and that terrible death in a burning inferno…

4)Torque. Diesel has almost twice as much torque. This means it crawls uphill a lot easier, deals better with off road, pulls a trailer better, you can push stranded or blocking cars better too. Last year I was caught in fast flowing flood waters while going uphill. Having had a similar CRV in gasoline I can say the difference was big.

A car that got caught and dragged by the current that same day.

5)Diesel has more “compatibility”. By this I mean its found in different places “hidden” and its available in unexpected places.  Airplanes use diesel, Jet A fuel. Heating oil? tinted diesel. In farms you’re likely to find diesel for tractors.
Finally, diesel stores much better. It will hold for many years in a well sealed container. Even in less than ideal ones diesel is more forgiving.

Disadvantages? Its not as common in USA. During recent storm disasters in Texas and Florida gasoline was resupplied much faster than diesel. In other cases it has been reported that diesel was still available when gasoline was sold out, so I suppose it’s a toss disaster-wise. Cars are more expensive too and mechanics that know their way around diesel in USA are not as common.
Still, with an older reliable car, diesel is still hard to beat as a SHTF car.
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”

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Murdered in the Amazon: When Survival Fantasy meets Survival Reality



Emma Kelty, a former headteacher from London, was  murdered during a solo kayaking trip in the Amazon jungle.

Ms Kelty had posted frequent updates on her journey in northern Brazil on Facebook.
‘In or near Coari (100km away) I will have my boat stolen and I will be killed too. Nice,’ she wrote, joking about the danger she faced.

You see, this is what many people in developed countries don’t understand. Even in our community, many preppers don’t understand this either: The difference between fantasy and reality. A little tip people. When someone in the Amazon jungle is out there to kill you and steal from you, you take it seriously. You don’t assume its some empty threat and carry on.

For example, if you have half a dozen guns and over a thousand rounds of ammo “for when SHTF” and you don’t have body armor, then my friend you’re living in a fantasy world. No one shoots a thousand rounds of ammo at an enemy without getting returning fire. Heck, if you empty a full mag its probably because you’re in a fight for your life too.
Bug out bag with snares “for trapping” but no cash? Nope, not realistic.

This woman had lived a sheltered life. She had gone on adventures in the 3rd world before, she hadn’t lived in them though. For her it was living out what she otherwise saw in Discovery Channel. She saw the amazing jungle (and it is amazing) but she didn’t see the drug smugglers, slavers, pirates, the illegal gold miners, the jungle natives that have a VERY different concept of right and wrong. Not to mention the dangerous animals and diseases.
The danger in these places is extremely real. They are places of amazing beauty and fantastic people too, but also very dangerous.

I don’t mean to insult the memory of this poor woman. In fact I congratulate the courage to go live life in her own terms. But these are the kind of mistakes you only get to make once in those parts of the world. They don’t care about political correctness. They don’t care if you mean them no harm. All they care about is that they have someone to steal from, rape and kill, and some of the most brutal people will do all three without a second thought.
In preparation for this dangerous trip, Emma Kelty had taken self defense classes in London. She wanted to learn to fight and “disarm” potential attackers.

How can anyone possibly think this prepares you in any way to deal with people that live in the jungle, swinging machetes all day, stronger, tougher in every way, not to mention armed?
We need to keep it real folks. Not doing so gets you killed.
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”

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Reply: 7 Things I learned from Hurricane Erma

Fernando
I have been reading your blog for about 3 years now and I thank you very much for your efforts.
I live have lived in Miami and Fort Lauderdale Florida my entire life and I have a lot of family in the Tampa area that have been there for at least 20 years.
There are 2 things that are simply wrong in the post that I wanted to comment on, but my comment doesn't display, so I thought I would email them to you.
1) There hasn't been an earthquake in the Tampa/Pinellas County, FL area since 1931 and likely never. I think the 1931 number I find when I search on the internet is simply when they started writing this stuff down for Florida. We simply don't get earthquakes in Florida. So that part of the post is wrong.
2) This is the more serious point that I hope you relay on your blog. The myth of cracking windows open during a hurricane/tornado is dead wrong. This myth has been debunked and is simply dangerous. You can find the research that Texas Tech did in 1977 easily on the internet about this myth.
The second item is the only reason I am writing you. I just don't want people thinking that this is something you should do in a hurricane as the poster is dead wrong on it and it could result in others doing it in the future.
Have a great day
Regards
Chet
....
Hello Chet, thanks for your email. Mark had some great points and I really do apreciate it. That piece of advice did sound a bit odd. For what its worth, Snopes also says its a flase myth.  http://www.snopes.com/science/hurricane.asp
Still, I do appreacite everyone imput, especially those hard earned lessons and after action reports.
Take care everyone and thanks!
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”

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

7 Things I learned from Hurricane Erma

Dear Fernando,

I live in a condo on the Pinellas County peninsula, west from Tampa across the bay. I have endured three tropical storms and an earth quake since moving here 11 years ago. This was the first storm I had been preparing for since reading your blog. There is no replacement for actual storm conditions to test preparedness so here is what I learned.

1. Do NOT believe the Weather Channel

    They ALWAYS exaggerate their predictions to sow fear and terror. Knowing that once the hurricane hit dry land its force would diminish, so I rode the storm out at my condo unit with no fear and knowing I was prepared. So by the time it hit Tampa it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm. Still fierce and dangerous but no 100 mph winds and no storm surge to flood us. Note; I live 50 ft. above sea level and am not in a flood zone.

Which leads me to the following…

2. Do NOT buy the Crane CC Solar Observer for your emergency radio

    They must have a great copy writer because they sound like the be all end all of portable emergency weather radios. I bought this used for the NOAA Weather broadcasts and solar power and crank power extras and found it almost totally useless! 7 separate channels to find a local broadcast of current NOAA weather info and all I could get was an indiscernible murmur! The AM/FM radio was fair, the solar cells useless in cloud cover and I used the flash light mostly to conserve my iPhone battery as its light was far brighter. I need to do further research on what would be useful in this situation when I’m toally out of power.
    As a side note, I got ALL my storm and weather info from a web site; VentuSky.com. I saw this on a friends cell phone and dialed it in immediately before the storm. It gave me a visual and number read-out by location of wind speed, storm track, temp, waves and just about anything else climate wise. This site really refutes Weather Channel in up-to-the-minute weather data and I use it almost daily. I saw and confirmed my understanding that the storm would die down as it got onto land and decided to stay put and not evacuate.

3. ALWAYS leave some windows open, even a crack, during a Hurricane or Tropical Storm

    This I learned from being an Insurance Adjuster in the aftermath of Hurricane Iniki in Hawaii in 1992. Many homes had roofs totally blown off into the neighboring yards due to keeping all the doors and windows shut. The storm is a low pressure weather phenomena and locking up a building tight creates a high pressure in the dwelling. The roof can’t hold the pressure and it pops off. I am on the bottom floor so I told my upstairs neighbors to kept their kitchen door window open a bit and one of the back bedrooms open a bit. Our building had no problems, but one of the other buildings had the roof blown off and onto the cars parked in front.

4. Just because you had power during the worst of the storm, don’t expect it to be on after
    I had power all through the storm and up until late the next morning Monday the 11th. I am assuming the power company had all the power turned off then to check all the lines before resuming power. Then we got power back in 24 hours but all the other units and surrounding homes and business didn’t get power back until Friday the 15th. I was told that since our building was on a main road that power came on to all the street lights, homes and business first before other areas.
    And it follows that …

5. … with power down, don’t drive at night unless you have to.

    With power down there were no street lights nor traffic signals. In other countries that is standard every-day life but here in the US when you can’t see anything due to pitch black accidents can occur. I had to slow down at intersections as many people ‘assumed’ it was natural to just go through, like they had a green light. The next morning I saw broken glass and plastic at almost every intersection, by then the police had put up temporary stop signs and had traffic officers directing traffic at main intersections.

6. Be smart where you park your car

    Tropical Storms can have 40-50 mph winds with gusts up to 80 mph. That can blow down trees, fences, telephone poles, street lights and communication antenna. I had my car in the condo parking and I somehow lost a head lamp cover! The lamp works fine but is now exposed to the elements. Other condo dwellers are snow birds that come for the Fall-Winter-Spring and leave for summer. They usually have cars wrapped in some canvas and wheels on boards (the summer heat can melt the asphalt and melt the tires and ruin the wheel). Most had the covers were blown off and one under a tree had branches knocking dents in them. The city parking structures were open during the storm and next time that happens is where I’ll keep my vehicle.

7. ALWAYS check your supplies and equipment well before the storm hits

    This goes to most of the above but here is what I did wrong and right.
    As my cell phone battery ran down I tried to charge it with a cigarette lighter charger. IT DIDN’T WORK! It had worked in other cars but Apple can be finicky when it comes to non-standard adaptors.
    My food and water were adequate for a storm like this but I will check if there is anything past its expiration date. I had quart containers of frozen distilled water in my fridge freezer and that kept my perishables quite fresh when the power went off. I would like the 3 months standard you have but with the small space I have getting 90 gallons of water stored will be a challenge.
    I found that the stores and gas stations closed up within 3-6 hours once the state authorities said to evacuate. So once the storm is headed your way you should have already stocked up if you are going to. And we had plenty of warning but I noticed the shelves of water and canned goods went fast a day before the store closed. I shrugged and got what dry food others missed as far as that goes.
    I found I also needed more flash lights. I used to have two small Cree flashes and because they were so small I tended to loose them unless I kept them in my EDC. My near useless radio had at least had some utility.
    Medical supplies, I had enough to get me through but I have a prescription to self catheter 3-4 times a day and if I don’t I can’t control my bladder. I have been slowly increasing my supply every month so that I have 4 weeks in back stock but my target now is   now 3 months. As for anti-bacterial I have one gallon of distilled vinegar and one quart of raw apple cider vinegar. That will kill most pathogens and for the rest I have lots of soap and that with hard scrubbing will handle anything else. I also found small tubes of antibiotic ointment that I carry around in my EDC that has been quite useful.
    The Tampa Bay area is in the sub-topics and one must be aware of that at all times. On top of my regular supplements and cell salts for heat exhaustion I always have some sort of Vitamin C with me for urinary infections . What with cathetering I find that no matter how careful I am cleaning myself before hand, I can sometimes get those urinary infection symptoms and I have found ANY vitamin C taken will clear up symptoms within 30 minutes.

I’m sure some other things will pop up as I get on with my life but I made out Ok and will be better prepared for whatever comes next.
 
Best,
Mark

Thursday, September 14, 2017

EDC: Shoelace caught in an escalator this morning



This morning, right in front of my wife and I, a teen had his loose shoelace caught by the escalator we were on. His mother was next to him and reacted like a champ. Instead of panicking and pulling on the shoe she went immediately for the red button to stop the escalator.
She then pulled on her son’s leg trying to break it free. I gave it a quick pull myself but wasted no more time and just pulled out my Leatherman Charge and cut it. Mom was grateful as if I had saved the kid’s life. She was the one that did the most important part which was stopping the escalator.
But still folks, yet again an example of how important it is to have a cutting tool with you at all times. I’ll never forget a friend of mine from school who got the skin of his leg caught by some heavy machinery… he was lucky to not lose the leg, but the skin was peeled like a banana. The scar was terrible.
This is just a big reminder: carry a knife, better yet, carry this multitool, the Leatherman Charge Tti. I shamelessly promote it because I’ve carried mine for years (nearly two decades now!) and it’s the last tool I’d part with. Almost as good for much less, consider the Leatherman Wave as well.
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”