Insulation, what to use for a emergency kit.

One of most impotent things to keep you alive are clothing and other form of insulation like a blanket of sleeping bag. Proper closing can in extreme conditions mean the difference between life and dead. In our modern world the primary role of clothing; protecting you from the environment, is of less important. There are heated cars and buildings everywhere. A lot of people cloth them self's fashionable, but not necessarily practical.

There are many article on the internet about outdoor clothing. This is a very good place to start when you are setting up clothing for your emergency preparedness. The basics are a three layer system:
- Under layer to wick away moisture from the skin
- Insulation to keep warm
- Wind proof and water proof/resistant layer to keep the weather out

There is however a important difference with the outdoors. For emergency kits, you need clothing that can be stored compacted for long periods of time and preferable durable enough to be used in less than optimal conditions.

There isn't much difference between outdoor under layers and emergency clothing. Insulation layer is a different story. With a move to ever lighter and smaller equipment, synthetic fiber or down filled jackets have been appearing as a insulating layer, replacing the traditional wool or fleece. In a preparedness point of view this lighter and smaller alternative to wool and fleece is not a solution. Emergency equipment is generally stored in kits or containers for years. This means equipment is compressed for longer periods of time. Synthetic or down require the fibers to loft to create insulation. Compressing them for long periods of time will reduce there lofting ability and making them less insulating (we are talking years on end here). Compressing fiber insulation for the first time, will cause the most reduction in loft. The compression after that are still harmful in the long term, but not as bad as the first time. If you are planning to replace them every few years, than you could use fiber based insulation. Not compressing them is also a option when space is not a issue. Wool and fleece do not compress well, but they do retain there insulating value in long term storage. They are also generally a lot more hard wearing than the insulating or down filled jackets (these generally have super thin and light outer shells).

I would also recommend fleece over wool. Fleece is much cheaper, lighter and dries out far quicker. Wool itches, stays wet for long periods of time and make you smell like a wet dog. Wool does however protects against spark, while fleece doesn't.

For the outer layer, the ultralight exteriors (Pac-lites, etc) are to vulnerable. Choose a stronger version, preferable with reinforcements on hard wearing locations. Thicker, more durable outer layers generally don't breath as well, so choose one with ventilation zips to get moisture out.

The problem with the insulating jackets not only apply to clothing, but also to sleeping bags and blankets. Synthetic and down sleeping bags are also not suitable for long term compressed storage. So use fleece or wool blankets, unless you want to replace the bag every few years. One other note, if sleeping bags are store in a reasonable accessible location (compressed or not), they will probably be abused and used a moving blankets. Things need to be moved in warehouses and moving blankets can be hard to find...

Keysafes

Need to leave keys out for somebody else or can't carry the key with you? Everybody know the usual hiding place;  under the doormat, behind a plant, in the bumper, on a car tire, etc. Obviously not the most safe methods.

So what do we do when we need to leave a key at a door or car without having the keys stolen? One method of safely leaving a key for somebody else is a keysafe with a number lock.

Keysafes are available in different sizes and shapes. There are versions which are design to bolt on to a structure and those that look like a giant padlock, allowing you the secure the keysafe to a object. There is a obvious risk that people see such keysafes and attack them for the keys. So hide them can't hurt.

Padlock style keysafe.

A keylock design to be mounted on a wall/object

First aid kit expiration date

In the past first aid kits did not had any expiration dates on them. Then with government regulations, liability issues and commercial reasons first aid items started to receive expiration dates. These dates have important functions, but can also be misunderstood. 

Medication

Some medication can be highly sensitive to age or storage conditions, but many are not. Interesting tests are done by the US military: http://www.defense.gov/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=44979

One important note, a quote from Army Maj. Marc Caouette, a pharmacy consultant assigned at the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency at Fort Detrick, Md. said. “The worst possible place you can keep any medications is in a wet, hot environment. It’s the worst area to maintain stability. A cool, dry place is best to store drugs.”

Bandages and other first aid items
Does gauze, dressings, tape, space blankets and other first aid items expire? if the packaging is still intact the items inside the package should be still sterile. However the items inside can degrade over time. The glue on tape can degrade and loose there stickiness or turn in to a goo. Elastic bandages can lose their elastic properties. Space blankets can start to stick and you will rip it in to piece when you try to fold the blanket out. These are also effected by the storage conditions. First aid equipment stored at a dry cool dark place at home or in a car exposed to extreme temperature swings have effects on your equipment.

Tools
While shears, tweezers and other tools generally stay useful for a long time. They are cheap and when they are dirty, especially when contaminated with blood or other body fluids are best considered to be disposable. I personally don't believe in really expensive shears, since they get dirty or get lost all the time.

Which stove for emergency preparedness.

'What is the best stove should I get for a emergency?' There is not a ultimate stove for emergency preparedness, simply because each type of stove has its advantage and disadvantages and the circumstance dictate which one is most suitable.  There are many types of stoves and what there (dis)advantages are:

-          Large propane stoves

-          Small (backpacking) butane/propane stoves

-          Liquid fuel stoves

-          Solid fuel (esbit, hexamine, etc) stoves

-          Woodstoves

Large propane stoves

Propane is commonly used (rural locations, BBQ, etc), relatively cheap, simple, effective in cold temperature and easy to use. However propane tanks are very heavy and bulky. The smallest tank is the 1lbs propane tank which is quite heavy to carry. These are ideal for emergency cooking and heating at home, but not when you need to carry them.

Small (backpacking) butane/propane stoves

These stove are simple, small, light and easy to use, ideal if you have to carry them. Due to their relative small burner head, you will need small (camping)  pots and pans. Butane/propane mixture do have limitations. The fuel canisters can be not store in hot temperature, so there are not suitable to be stored in a car in the heat. The butane in these fuel canisters turn liquid when the temperature is close to freezing point. When a canister is used, the temperature will drop even more. Part of the canister will not be used when you are using a stove in the cold. This cold temperature problem can be solved if you have a stove with remove canisters connector and a preheat coil. These stoves can be used with the canisters upside down, which allows to propane to push out liquid butane to the burner. Warning, check the manual if this is possible! Stoves without a pre-heat coil will flare up if the canister is turned upside down.  These are ideal for emergency kits which should be mobile, but not used/stored in very high or low temperature.

Liquid fuel stoves

These stoves are more complicated and more expensive than other stoves.  However then are small and usable in the cold. Some can be simmer, some can not. Some can only burn white gas or only petroleum. Others are multifuel and can burn almost all liquid fuels. Note: Rubber O-rings in these stove are either for petroleum based fuels or alcohol fuels, never for both. Aluminium fuel bottle are very strong, but the rubber o-rings can degrade and fail after a few years. Some fuels can be stored longer then others. These stoves are ideal when liquid fuels are widely available or when you have to use them in cold temperatures. Light and small versions are available for smaller emergency kits.

Solid Fuel
These stoves are very simple, usually made from bend sheet metal. The stove can easily be replaced with a makeshift potholder. They burn fuel tablets, which are relatively expensive, little output and give little control. A windscreen is essential to get it work properly. However the stoves are very cheap, so the initial costs are very low. One big advantage is the stability of the fuel, they will work in all temperatures and storing the fuel tabs in extreme temperatures posses little problems or dangers. These are great for small and/or budget survival kits. Due to there stability in storage very suitable for car kits. (Do NOT use in the car)

Wood stoves
Wood stoves comes in all sizes you can think of. There advantage; if there is dry wood nearby, you can use them as fuel. With wood stoves you need to make sure you also have dry wood. Just having a wood stove and no dry wood to burn can be a big problem. A lot of people only carry the stove, which is a big problem when there is no proper fuel available. If you carry these stoves, also carry some fuel for it.
   

Google crisis response

I like off the shelf software solutions for emergency's. Preferably with interfaces which look like software everybody is already using on a day to day basis. Making your own specialist software packages usually means very high costs, lots of time and usually a new interface to get used to. It also requires lots of bandwidth and server capacity to cope with huge increases of internet traffic, which is expensive to buy and maintain and usually overloaded when a real disaster strikes. Large company's who have lots of servers and bandwidth capacity at various locations can respond quickly to these demands.  That's why i'm very happy with solutions like Google Crisisresponce.

The Google tool in action for the Typhone Yolanda: http://www.google.org/crisisresponse/2013-yolanda/index.html (Person finder tool, donation options and maps)

Good article about why products fail

A good article about why products fail: http://www.wired.com/design/2012/10/ff-why-products-fail/all/

I personally prefer to use overbuild items for emergency use, but the fact in life is that you sometimes need a short life cycle item to get a job done. My experience is that many people have the wrong expectation of a certain piece of equipment. Expensive or higher quality does not mean more durable.

Lockable straps

Securing loads on a vehicle is an essential part of  driving safely. Both for the occupants of the vehicle and everything thing and everybody nearby. However straps are only good in keeping items in/on a vehicle when driving. They do not keep the load safe from theft. Straps can easily be opened and removed and/or cut with a knife.  Locking a load to a car with chains or cables are problematic. They can cause damage to the car or the load.

A very good solution are lockable straps. These are straps with lockable buckles and equipped with nylon straps with steel cables reinforcement. They work just like regular tie down straps, but with a lock. three main brands of these are:

Thule
Kanulock
Yakima

All three brands sell them in pairs and are available in various lengths. The Thule and Yakima uses one steel cable in the middle of the straps, The Kanulocks uses two steel cables, one on each side. Steel cables are generally relatively easy to cut with the right tools. The combination of nylon and cables does make it harder to cut for tools made to only cut steel. So they will not stop the determined thief, but will deter the opportunity thieves. 

Which lock to choose to secure something outside.

The primary goal of a lock is to prevent things from being stolen. Sometimes you can't store something inside and you have to lock it in place outside. This can be a bicycle, generator, pump, etc.

A short list of the most commonly used locks and failure points:

Cable locks
Steel cable is made by twisting lots of steel wire in to a cable. This construction makes is vulnerable:
1: To cut a cable, you do not have to cut the full thickness of the cable. But it is possible to cut the individual wire separately. This allows cables to be defeated by fairly small pliers.
2:  To make cable you need a flexible kind of wire. To make a wire harder to cut you need a hard wire. Flexible and hard are contradictory. So cables are easy to cut with a bolt cutter.

Armored cable locks
Armored cable locks are cable locks with thick steel bushings protecting the cable. This makes it very hard for bolt cutters to cut it. However this design also has weaknesses:
1: There is a certain amount of play in the bushings, to allow the lock to be flexible. However this play is limited. If a long lever is used to twist the lock, the effective length of the bushings and cable will differ, causing the cable to be pulled out of the crimping and the end of the lock.
2: If twisting does not defeat the lock, twisting will expose small gaps between the bushing, allowing the cable to be saw through with a small hacksaw.

U-locks
U-locks are made made of relatively thick steel, making them hard to cut. The stiffness of the U-shape causes problems:
1: These locks do not stand well against torsion forces. If a bicycle is locked to a lantern pole, the entire bike can be used as a lever (by flipping the entire bike) to twist the lock open.

Segment locks
Segment locks are made of pieces of steel plate of tubing riveted together. This has the same problem as the U-locks:
1: These locks can be opened by twisting the lock, with a larger lever.

Chain locks
Chains combine stiffness and flexibility. This makes it hard to be cut by small pliers or to be twisted open. Since there are many kinds of chain locks, so here a list of things to look out for:
1. Chains can be made from regular steel or harden steel. Obviously harden steel is harder to cut.
2. A bolt cutter provide the most cutting power when it's almost closed. So it's best to make the beginning of the cut the hardest. A round shaped chain shackle has a relatively small surface area when a cut is started. A square shaped chain shackle forces a bolt cutter to cut a much bigger surface area a the beginning, making it harder to cut. A minimum thickness of 6 mm would be recommend.
3. If you need a small lock, get a lock with the closing pin covered by the last chain shackle when locked. This way the closing pin it self can not be cut directly.

Secure your load in the car

The end of the summer is approaching. With all the vacation traffic in the highways. You can see how people have packed there cars for vacation. With European cars and gasoline being expensive, people buy small cars. However on holidays they still want to pack a lot of things in there cars. If this is not done properly, they can turn in to dangerous projectiles.

The ADAC (German) has done some interesting tests with badly loaded cars. Even if you can't understand German, the video's are quite clear:

And two more links (I can't seem to add windowed on the page):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WA0JnHMVNQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip497C6UZhk

Recommend blog for rescue personnel

I wrote a blog post about car safety 3 weeks ago. Today i noticed a similar blog post from Ian Dunbar, written from from a different perspective. Ian Dunbar is the Rescue Consultant of Holmatro (manufacture of rescue equipment). I'm recommending consumers to check safety ratings before buying. Ian looks at it from the NCAP influencing manufacture. Obviously both consumer and manufacture choice are related.

Ian's blog is interesting for rescue's. Primary focusing on road traffic accident incident. Fairly basic skills, but useful.