12% for irrigation
7% for raising livestock (not including animal feed)
5% for crop drying
5% for pesticide production
8% miscellaneous7
These estimates don"t include the energy used in packaging, refrigeration, transportation to retail outlets, and cooking.
At the same time, the vast majority of Americans have gotten further and further away from their food sources. Many Americans have never been to a real farm. End result of all this-some depressing facts about Americans and food: * 1% of the U.S. population grows all of the food for all Americans.8 * Most Americans know essentially nothing about where the food they eat every day comes from, and they don "t want to know. All they know is it"s cheap, it"s as close as their local store, and it"s there in enormous quant.i.ties.
* Nothing is stored for very long in a supermarket, but then, with just-in-time inventory, n.o.body stores anything. Grain is produced and stored in the Midwest and shipped daily to the rest of the United States.
* Again, the lion"s share of grain produced in the United States comes from a concentrated part of the Midwest-Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas-and moved to the coasts, where two-thirds of Americans live, by only two railroads. The bulk of the food we eat comes from grain. Half of what a meat animal is raised on is grain so when you eat meat you are really eating grain, primarily corn. The grain our food animals eat is not produced where the cows and pigs are located.
* The system we have now is a huge contrast to what the United States did up until the 1980s. At one time, up to a year"s worth of grain was stored in elevators around the country. But now, very little is stored. We produce what we consume each year. So what"s plan B if something goes wrong? There is no plan B.
This disconnect between modern American life and our food source will likely prove deadly in a real energy crisis or another emergency that disrupts our national transportation system or food supply.
Heck, in order for riots to break out the whole food supply doesn"t have to be wiped out. It just has to be threatened sufficiently. And if heavily armed Americans start to panic about food, there won"t be enough police and National Guard to hold the line between order and chaos.
How to Prepare. The devastating potential of a food shortage is why having your own food storage is so important. For more on that, see Chapter 4. Long-term food storage is daunting, so start with building up just a week"s supply of food and water for everyone in your household. If even a week is too big of a task for you to tackle, just work on gathering three days" supply of food. If you have three days" worth of food in emergency storage, plus whatever you have in your cupboard, you"ll be way ahead of most of the semi - conscious land mammals on your block.
I also recommend you grow a garden; we"ll cover that in Chapter 8. Most U.S. gardens are only 100 square feet in size. That"s not enough to feed your family, but it is plenty enough to make your emergency rations palatable as you wait for normal life-or whatever comes next-to be restored.
These disasters that I"ve outlined here may still seem a little esoteric. You might be thinking, civilized people don"t really have to worry about living through a societal collapse, do they? In the next chapter, we"ll look at a couple of real -life stories of people who did just that-in the societal chaos of post-Katrina New Orleans and the economic and civil chaos of Argentina.
The Least You Can Do * Learn and follow the basic fire safety precautions explained in this chapter.
* Keep fire extinguishers in your bedroom and kitchen.
* Make sure you have working smoke detectors for every floor of the house.
* Buy flood insurance coverage and stay alert during stormy weather.
* Stock up on extra food now, before an emergency strikes.
CHAPTER 2.
The Quick and the Dead-and the Survivors If you have a major disaster involving hundreds of thousands, or in this case millions of people, whether it be a natural disaster or an act of terrorism, the first 72 hours are going to be totally chaotic no matter what you plan to do.
-Senator Warren Rudman, on Hurricane Katrina You can learn a lot from people who have been through WTSHTF. And yes, it can happen to you! In this chapter, you"ll read about how a man saw society fall apart in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina-and had to struggle to save his dogs and escape from a government run detention camp. His experience has valuable lessons for all of us. Also, we"ll take a look at how a journalist in Argentina coped with that country"s s...o...b..lling economic, currency, and social crisis, and what he learned from it all.
Hurricane Katrina-Then Everything Went to h.e.l.l
"During Katrina, I saw the total breakdown of civilization," Katrina survivor Michael Homan told me. "I"ve seen it before in war zones in my travels, but never here-it was terrifying."
In 2005, a hurricane named Katrina sideswiped Florida, killing nine people, before heading on to the Gulf of Mexico. I live in Florida but can barely remember Katrina, because her impact in Florida didn"t hold a candle to the storms in 2004 that shook us from floor to rafters: storms including Ivan, Charlie, Frances, and Jean.
By the time Katrina got through with New Orleans and the surrounding areas, it wasn"t just the story of a storm. It became a story of government breakdown, detention camps, food shortages, looters, vigilantes, and more.
On Sat.u.r.day, August 27th, 2005, the citizens of Louisiana knew that Katrina would stomp their way. The low-lying parishes south of New Orleans ordered mandatory evacuations. But even though she was a Category 3, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin only called for a voluntary evacuation.
By Sunday, Katrina strengthened into a Category 5, and Mayor Nagin made the evacuation mandatory. Still, many people in New Orleans didn"t evacuate.
For many, staying put was a matter of money-they barely sc.r.a.ped by as it was and didn"t have the cash to get out of the way. Others flat-out refused to evacuate because of what happened a year earlier, when they fled the path of Hurricane Ivan. The roads from New Orleans to Baton Rouge became clogged; a trip that normally takes 90 minutes took as long as 10 to 12 hours. People went hungry, ran out of gas, and worse just trying to get out of town. And then Ivan didn"t live up to the fears. So, for many, the evacuation process had proved to be worse than the storm.
In the wee hours of Monday, August 29, 2005, as Katrina approached, strong winds were lashing New Orleans. The storm made its landfall at 6:10 A.M. as a Category 3 storm.
By 8:14 A.M., officials knew the city was in trouble-a levee breached at the Industrial Ca.n.a.l. By 9 A.M., there were six to eight feet of water in the lower ninth ward. By 11 A.M., the water was more than 10 feet deep in many places. At the same time, more levee breaches were confirmed. And by then, people were already drowning by the hundreds.
And That Brings Us to Michael Homan"s Story . . .
Mr. Homan still lives in New Orleans about 20 miles from the Louisiana coast. At the time of the storm, his family was in Mississippi, but he decided to ride out the storm with his dogs. His house took some damage-the high wind blew so hard that the first-floor walls ended up permanently askew. In the morning, he walked around outside and talked to his neighbors, and it seemed the worst was over. Five hours later, foot-deep flood waters had invaded his home. Over the next 36 hours, the water kept rising. By Tuesday evening there was eight feet of water in the street, and the ground floor of Mr. Homan"s house was under three feet of water.
Faced with a flood and lacking a boat, Homan swam around the neighborhood, splashing through water containing G.o.d knows what, to his office at the nearby university. After a few days, he and his dogs. .h.i.tched a ride with some rescuers in an airboat.
"I was very worried because I had heard that they were not letting people evacuate with their animals. But these guys said that had changed," Homan told me. So, he put his computer in his backpack and headed off with his dogs on an airboat.
"Towards dusk on Friday I arrived at I-10 and Banks Street, not far from my house," Homan says. "There they packed all of us pet owners from Mid City into a cargo truck and drove us away. They promised they would take us to Baton Rouge, and from there it would be relatively easy for me to get a cab or bus and meet the family in Jackson [Mississippi]. But then everything went to h.e.l.l."
Rather than going to Baton Rouge, Homan"s rescuers locked the truck and drove the evacuees to the refugee camp on I-10 and Causeway. There, the truck was unlocked, and the evacuees were ordered out. Anyone who refused to get out of the truck was forced off. The van drove away quickly and the driver appeared to be "terrified," according to Mr. Homan.
So now, Mr. Homan and his dogs were in the midst of 20,000 people. And they weren"t refugees-they were detainees. He estimated that 98% of them were African Americans and some of the most impoverished people in the state. n.o.body knew how to get out of the camp. There were supposed to be hundreds of buses picking them up to get them out of the area, but people told Mr. Homan they had been there five days, and that on that day only three buses had shown up.
"I saw murdered bodies, and elderly people who had died because they had been left in the sun with no water for such a long time. I"ve traveled quite a bit, and I have never seen the despair and tragedy that I saw at this refugee camp. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen in my life."
Officials were going around the camp, confiscating people"s pets. That"s when Mr. Homan knew he had to try to escape. "I could never have told my children that I gave up the dogs to save myself, " he said.
Mr. Homan knew that the closest anyone was allowed to come to the camp was the town of LaPlace, 30 miles away. He knew a girl in the camp from his neighborhood, Robin, was trying to save her cat. They met up with an oil-rig worker named Carlos who also wanted to try to get to LaPlace. In the wee hours of the morning, the band of three humans, two dogs, and one cat snuck out of the perimeter.
Mr. Homan"s next big worry was the armed looters he knew were operating outside the camp. But he said that his group was so bizarre that they weren"t stopped by police or the looters or shot by the vigilantes trying to stop the looters. They found a shopping cart in which to carry the cat, and walked and walked until, Homan recalls, his feet were b.l.o.o.d.y, the dogs were exhausted, and he was ready to give up.
But then-finally-something went right. The travelers found a neighborhood that still had power. A gas station there was closed, but Robin found a broken window to climb through. She charged her cell phone enough to call her uncle. He was retired from the Mississippi government and so able to talk his way through one checkpoint after another and pick up the three people, two dogs, and even the darned cat. Within a few hours, Mr. Homan was reunited with his wife and children, who were waiting for him at the Jackson Airport.
Mr. Homan writes that he saw acts of heroism and compa.s.sion after the storm:The world clearly has plenty of empathy and compa.s.sion left. I saw people slide down ropes out of helicopters to rescue people from rooftops. I saw my neighbors break into grocery stores, fill up their boats with supplies, and row through neighborhoods distributing food and water to those in need. And as I drove 1,000 miles north to escape the carnage, I saw convoy after convoy of people and supplies heading south to help. They are their brother"s keeper, and I am so thankful for their support. Maybe there is hope for the world after all.
But he also writes:I also learned that catastrophes such as this bring out not only the very best in people, but also the worst. I have witnessed and experienced some pretty awful things . . . I saw dozens of dead bodies floating in toxic waters. I heard about invalid elderly humans dying in attics and hospitals believing that the world did not care as they gradually ran out of medication and oxygen while the politicians gave press conferences about how well Democrats and Republicans were cooperating. I saw sick babies and paraplegics living for five days outside in 100 degree weather, while gangs of armed youths roamed, raped, and terrorized in filthy refugee camps of 20,000 of society"s most afflicted and abandoned. These poor people were placed in ma.s.sive outdoor "security" pens for as many as 6 days, and many of them died. This incredibly large group of people desperately needed food, water and transportation out of New Orleans. The immediate federal response for relief was so incredibly inept it left many of us to wonder if the lack of support was deliberate. This gross inaction while so many people suffered and died occurred in the world"s richest country, and it makes me so angry with the government . . . families grieved over death and misery and desperately searched for missing loved ones. I saw drug addicts take over parts of the city and terrorize, and heard that they shot nurses in the back of the head to steal pharmaceuticals to ease their drug withdrawals. And despite what you might read in the news, this wasn "t a case of everyone working together to save lives. Officials from neighboring more affluent parishes [counties] than Orleans said that citizens of New Orleans were not welcome in their parishes because they only had enough supplies for their own.1
The Themes We" ll Explore
I excerpt Mr. Homan"s gripping narrative because it shows many areas that we"re going to cover in this book:1. Large groups of people need food and water. In New Orleans, the storm blew through on Monday. On Tuesday, the looting began, and on Wednesday, it started in earnest. The TV cameras focused on idiots and opportunists stealing clothing and television sets from waterlogged stores, but according to Mr. Homan, "I saw my neighbors break into grocery stores, fill up their boats with supplies, and row through neighborhoods distributing food and water to those in need." There were also many people like those interviewed in an a.s.sociated Press story:"A man walked down Ca.n.a.l Street with a pallet of food on his head. His wife, who refused to give her name, insisted they weren"t stealing from the nearby Winn-Dixie supermarket. "It"s about survival right now," she said as she held a plastic bag full of purloined items. "We got to feed our children. I"ve got eight grandchildren to feed."2 Some of the salvaging/looting took place in full view of National Guard trucks and police cruisers. But in other instances, people were shot while trying to take food out of stores. You know, it would really suck to live through one of the nation"s worst disasters and then get toe-tagged for trying to feed your family.
Examples like this are why you need to have your own food stockpile. (See Chapter 7.) 2. Medication runs out. It"s illegal to give more than a 30-day supply of many drugs (basically, because neither our government nor our doctors want you to be in charge of your own health). In this book, we"ll look at alternatives if your quality of life-or maybe your life itself-depends on getting a prescription filled. (See Chapter 10.) 3. You may have to live for days in 100-degree weather. Or you may have to encounter dire straits in weather so cold that pipes are bursting around you. Your air conditioning and heating shouldn"t have to depend on a power grid. Solar can keep you cool while others swelter and wood can keep you warm while others freeze. (See Chapter 11.) 4. Gangs of armed youths roamed, raped, and terrorized. The nightmare of those who are poor and helpless came true in New Orleans. In this book, we"ll cover home defense and personal defense, too. (See Chapter 11.) 5. The immediate government response can be inept. The Republicans hate government, so it shouldn"t surprise anyone that they bungled the response to Katrina. In the Bush administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) became a place for political appointees and lucky idlers. And sure, FEMA Director Michael Brown urged local fire and rescue departments outside Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi not to send trucks or emergency workers into disaster areas without an explicit request for help from state or local governments. To be fair, though, it "s likely that the aftermath of a disaster like Katrina could overwhelm any government response, at least for a while. Therefore, you shouldn"t relax just because Bush is out of office. There are still risks, and you"ll do much better if you are prepared.
6. Governments may become the enemy. Here"s another interesting fact: The New Orleans suburb of Gretna sealed the Crescent City Connection bridge across the Mississippi River, turning back fleeing flood victims at gunpoint.3 If you take away nothing else from this book, understand that you can "t count on the government-any government-to save your lazy b.u.t.t in an emergency. I believe that in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, the amount of government help will be inverse to the scale of the crisis.
That"s because a real disaster knocks the government for a loop, and it"s busy trying to find its feet in the first few days; saving you becomes secondary. So you need to be prepared to take care of yourself and your loved ones first.
How Long Does a Short Emergency Last?
New Orleans descended into chaos, and the anarchy got worse after darkness. After a few days, the stench of urine, excrement, and garbage was overpowering across the city.4 People were actually forced out of evacuation shelters because of fears of dysentery (which you get from bad or fouled water). Another thing we"ll cover in this book is the importance of a stored water supply and-even better-water purifiers that won"t cost you an arm and a leg. (See Chapter 6.) The Survival Rule of Threes * It takes about three minutes to die without air.
* It takes about three days to die without water.
* It takes about three weeks to die without food.
* It takes about three months to die without hope.
A smart suburban survivalist doesn"t want to get into a situation that threatens any of the above. Try and think your way out of tough situations. Your brain is your best weapon.
A week went by before law and order was restored. That was a very long week for anyone who wasn"t prepared for the worst.
Mr. Homan may have gotten off to a rough start-no supplies and no boat. But put in a tight spot-a detention camp-he did some things very right. He made allies. He and his group came up with a plan to sneak out of camp and get to a town where their families could meet them. They stuck together, and utilized things they found (a grocery cart and a gas station with electric power).
As awful as Mr. Homan"s experience was, it could have been worse. At least 1,836 people lost their lives in the actual hurricane and in the subsequent floods. Some people were never found. Another two million people, like Mr. Homan, were displaced due to the disaster.5 Mr. Homan believes that his city and state are much better prepared to withstand another major disaster. As for preparations he"s making in case of another storm, he says:. . . it"s about information. Before Katrina, I didn"t know who my neighbors were. Now, I know them very well and we"ll look out for each other. Most will evacuate, but not all, and those of us who stay behind will know very well about the people who might need a.s.sistance.
Before every hurricane we"ve always had plenty of food. First, acknowledging power will go out, everyone in the neighborhood donates their perishables. Then, we all have stockpiles of canned goods. Shopping before a hurricane is an amazing adventure. Stores sell out quickly, so you have to plan ahead. These storms and potential disasters certainly are kinder to those with the mental capacity and resources to plan ahead.
For Mr. Homan"s sake, I sure hope so. Even now, after Katrina, many people are dead-set against bugging out. In 2006, a research team from the Harvard School of Public Health interviewed more than 2,000 people living in high-risk hurricane zones in eight states. One fourth of them said they would not leave even if evacuation became mandatory.
Of those surveyed, 68% said they thought their homes were built well enough to ride out a storm. It didn"t matter if the respondents lived in mobile homes, which goes to show that people generally feel safer at home.
The real crisis of law and order lasted about two weeks. The curfews were lifted after about six weeks. It took up to a year for many of the Katrina survivors to get back to some semblance of normalcy, and it took Mr. Homan and his family three years to rebuild their home.
But the bottom line is if you could live through that first two weeks in the city, you probably survived. To me, that"s the encouraging thing about Katrina-civilization melted away, but then it came back.
Of course during that period of anarchy, if you were in Katrina"s flood zone, your home, your job, and the life you knew could all have been swept away or changed forever-by a short-term crisis.
What about when the crisis isn"t short-term? What if, say, your country is the next Argentina?
Argentina-The Crashed Society