When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes

by Cody Lundin

  I created built-in cooling tubes in my house in the hope that they would suffice as refrigeration. Due to a design flaw, I was wrong, but they're still great places to store food at a cooler temperature than the rest of the house. Try what my grandmother did for cooling with water and burlap. Or consider the following method: An African potter devised a homemade cooler by using two unglazed clay pots, one larger than the other. He put the smaller pot into the larger pot and filled the void between the two with wet sand. Both of these devices are built upon the principles you already know about: conduction, convection, and evaporation.

  Compost

  Unless things get over-the-top hardcore, there will be items on the dinner plate that you will want to get rid of. Vegetable and fruit scraps, eggshells, and many other food wastes can be composted. And while gardeners will cringe, for our purposes compost the meat scraps as well. Men in garbage trucks might not appear for a while so plan ahead about dealing with your waste products. If you don't already have a compost pit in the backyard, make one. Mine consists of free wooden pallets screwed together into a square. You can also cut the bottom out of an existing garbage can with a lid, throw a screen in the bottom, set it on the bare ground, and pitch food directly into it. Quickie compost areas can be nothing more than a hand-dug pit, identical to a latrine for going to the bathroom, or you can simply throw food scraps into the poop pit.

  After food scraps are added to your compost pile, cover it with earth to shield it from critters. If your compost area is protected with a fence or some other means, you won't have to use as much earth (thus you'll have to dig new holes less often) to cover the table scraps to keep Fido from digging up the goods. When the contents come to within a foot of the surface, fill in the hole completely. Like the sanitation latrine, a mound of dirt is left on top to level out by itself as the garbage underneath decomposes and settles. It will be a great place to plant a garden when the emergency is over. If used only for kitchen scraps, compost pits can be located fairly close to the kitchen.

  The art of composting is fairly involved and can take many forms. Compost piles can generate heat that inactivates all bad pathogens, or they can be propagated with red worms to eat the contents, thereby producing pathogen-free yet yummy worm castings that plants adore. I have heard of some compost piles getting so hot that they burst into flames. Although this is rare, don't have the pile next to the house.

  If you're an apartment dweller, treat your food scraps the same way you do your poop and pee (according to the sanitation chapter) until something better comes along. Believe me, food scraps will smell and look almost as nasty as poop after a few days in hot weather so don't casually throw them into the corner of your room. Human waste and food waste are both major pest magnets.

  Grey Water

  Every household produces grey water and black water. Grey water is produced from the kitchen sink or the washing machine, black water from the toilet. Pathetically, Arizona just recently legalized grey-water systems for watering plants and trees around homes. As usual, human nature waits until things get bad instead of looking ahead at preventing the cause of a pending shortage. Better late then never, guys; we were all using grey water to water our plants anyway.

  Large plants and trees will aggressively gobble up the nutrients available in grey water. If you water your vegetation, you'll need to consider things such as not adding toxic stuff to your wash water. Use biodegradable soaps and rotate grey water onto different plants to let them rest between soakings.

  If you don't plan on adding grey water to plants (and why not?), it should not be thrown into the compost or pit latrines in quantity, as it will water down the organisms that break down the contents. Grey water can start to smell if no plants are present to utilize the water so plan on digging a separate hole just for grey water. The size of the hole will depend upon how much water gets tossed in and how well the ground "perks" or soaks up the liquid. Start with a two- by two-foot hole and make it bigger if necessary. This grey water "sump," as it's called, can be located next to the kitchen compost pile.

  Food Preparation, Serving, and Handling

  Be mindful that preparing food is a serious responsibility. The preparer has the power and opportunity to get the entire family sick. The food-prep person should be meticulous about personal sanitation and should have thoroughly washed his or her hands before commencing to prepare or serve any and all food items. An adequate wash station for hands, which both cook and patron should use, should accompany all kitchens. Tables or other objects should be used to keep food preparation off the ground and should be covered when not in use. After each meal, wash the surfaces with soapy water, rinse, rinse them again with bleach water, and then allow them to air dry in the sun. Keep the food preparation table(s) free of personal items at all times.

  In large families or group settings, for better management of potential sanitation breaches, one person should serve the entire family or group. The server should have the person hold their personal bowl near the edge but not touching or directly over the serving container. This avoids food running down the potentially contaminated sides of the dish and back into the serving container. Some outdoor kitchens use a plastic funnel with the bottom cut out to facilitate getting food into narrow containers. Foods should be served in a manner that the serving equipment NEVER touches the individuals' eating bowl or plate.

  Keep serving containers covered when not in use and keep the serving utensil in a separate container other than the food pot, as organisms can travel down the handle into the pot to multiply. When taste-testing food for seasoning, drop a sample into a personal bowl to avoid contaminating the serving utensil. Prepared foods, raw or cooked, should be served and eaten promptly.

  Preppin' and Cookin' the Critter: How to Eat

  Your Trapped Rats and Mice

  If you've followed the advice on trapping rodents given in the Familiar yet Fantastic Food chapter, or if you're a natural hunter, I'm assuming you have fresh meat for the grill. Congratulations!

  As a general rule, check your traps in the morning and evening, or whenever you feel the need to do so. Rodents that have lain dead in a trap all night long will still be OK to eat, even in hot climates, so don't weeny out and think it's been sitting too long to be edible. If you heed the advice given in the first sentence of this paragraph, rotting rodents won't be a problem.

  I rarely see fleas on the rats and mice I trap. In truth, at closer glance they are very clean and beautiful creatures. Part of this is because the body has cooled off and the fleas have split. Still, I have watched rodents be caught and, upon inspection of the still warm body, didn't find any fleas. Other small critters such as ground squirrels, tree squirrels, and cottontail rabbits might be literally crawling with fleas and ticks. You can put the body in a zipper-lock bag until it's butchering time if you wish, or let the body cool naturally, away from your living area.

  CAUTION! Small rodents can be carriers of hantavirus or bubonic plague, especially in the Southwest. Use caution and common sense when processing rodents by wearing rubber gloves if you have them, or at least avoiding contact with the cuts or abrasions on your body with the body fluids from the animal. If these two diseases are prominent in your area, process the animal in an area with plenty of ventilation and sunlight and do your best to cut out, contain, and safely dispose of all feces and urine (bladder). Plague is transmitted by infected fleas. In known plague areas, I sometimes throw the body of the dead animal—fur and all—into a waiting fire to kill all suspected fleas. Plague will sicken the animal itself and it will eventually die. The problem is that you're not going to witness its sickly behavior before it dies in your trap. Look any animal over carefully before processing it. Does it look like hell, or does it look normal and healthy, even though it's dead? Mice and rats should look pretty good, plump with shiny, clean coats. All animals that look to the contrary should be discarded in a safe place away from curious pets and children. You should also inspect the internal organ
s to look for discolored spots, worms, or other oddities that just don't seem right. East Coasters should watch out for ticks and Lyme disease. In a healthy rodent, proper cooking will destroy anything that's unsafe for consumption.

  If the rodent body checks out healthy upon your inspection, it's time to clean it. I have kept unprocessed rodents in the refrigerator for up to three days before finally cleaning and eating them. Regardless of this, eat them as soon as you can. If you're eating rodents and still have the use of a grid-powered refrigerator, it makes me wonder about you.

  Mice Are Nice

  Mice can be put directly onto the coals of a fire whole. You can use other heat sources as well but the coals of a fireplace, woodstove, or campfire work great. You can skin them first, but it's a hassle. The heat from the coals will singe off the fur, but it will take some rubbing with a stick and a few attempts turning as necessary to get off all the hair. Singed hair would make a T-bone taste awful so do a good job. If after the singeing process you think skinning is easier, be my guest. The skin will peel right off after precooking in the coals.

  As the hair is being singed, the mouse will start to bloat up from the heat. Take this opportunity to scrape lightly at its abdominal cavity with something or gently tear it open with your fingers. At this time, most of the guts should begin to pop out of the opening you created. Near the end of the intestines, you will clearly see mouse turds heading toward the anus. Get rid of all this stuff, but the heart, lungs, and almost everything else up near the head and middle of the body is good eating. Once the mouse has been gutted and the hair singed, it's time to cook it on the coals. I like to cook them until they're between crispy and chewy, turning as necessary. Don't undercook them, but don't turn them into a piece of charcoal either from overcooking.

  By the time you're ready to eat the mouse, it won't look like one. The tail and legs will have burned away and the body will resemble a blackened hotdog-like object. There are three bites to a mouse, the middle and rear being the best (in my opinion), so the next task is to jockey for position regarding who gets what bite. The head isn't bad, but eat it hot, as mouse brains suck when they're cold.

  Rat. . .the Other, Other White Meat

  I love the taste of packrat. It has a delightful, slightly nutty flavor that's neither too subtle nor too overpowering. The Yavapai Indians from my area called packrat mahlgah and considered it a delicacy; in the past, young Yavapais cooked and crushed it up so older, toothless relatives could savor the flavor.

  I've never had Norway rats, most common in big cities, but I would treat them much the same way as far as preparing and cooking. You'll want to skin rats and do cool things with their hides. Once skinned, the rat should be gutted, although you can gut the rat before you skin it if you wish. Process this animal in much the same way as you would a larger, big game animal. Open up the abdominal cavity with a knife or sharp object and pull out the guts. The internal organs can be eaten like you did with the mouse. Keep in mind the meat is raw in this case so use caution and keep things as sanitary as possible when cleaning. The rat can also be thrown onto the coals whole like the mouse but it doesn't work as well, as it's a much bigger animal. If you land a Norway rat the size of a house cat, definitely skin and gut it first before cooking.

  Once the animal is gutted, wash it off with clean water. If water is scarce, this step can be skipped. The skinned, gutted, and cleaned rat can then be spread out flat and put on coals or grilled on the barbeque. Turn as necessary and cook it like chicken. Yummy. . .then eat the meat right off the bones and don't forget about the internal organs. In cases of extreme need, the entire cooked animal can be pounded up Yavapai-style, bones and all, to extract the most amount of nutrition possible.

  Recipes: From My Kitchen to Yours with Love

  No survival book is complete without at least a few recipes. The following dishes allow you the flexibility to entertain like a star whether the disaster just happened or has been dragging on for weeks. Enjoy!

  "The Week After" Rat-A-Touille

  Yield: 4 servings (serving size 1 1/2 cup)

  1 tablespoon olive oil

  1 to 4 rats, skinned and boned

  2 medium-size zucchini, unpeeled and thinly sliced

  1 small eggplant, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes

  1 medium green pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces

  1 medium onion, thinly sliced

  ½ pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

  1 can (16 ounces) whole tomatoes, cut up

  1 ½ teaspoon crushed dried basil

  1 clove garlic, minced

  1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

  Black pepper to taste

  Heat oil in large nonstick skillet. Add rat meat and saute about 3 minutes, or until lightly browned. Add eggplant, zucchini, onion, green pepper, and mushrooms. Cook about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes, basil, garlic, parsley, and pepper; stir and continue cooking about 5 to 10 minutes, or until rat is cooked and tender. Serve over rice.

  Survival Rat-A-Touille

  Yield: 4 servings (serving size depends upon amount of initial ingredients)

  1 tablespoon olive oil (or whatever oil isn't rancid)

  1 to 4 rats, skinned (gut, but save organs, dry out bones to pound and add for nutrition)

  2 cans mixed vegetables

  1 can corn

  1 cup dandelions or other edible greens you have in your yard (beware of those previously doused with weed killer)

  1 can (8 or 16 ounces) mushroom pieces (optional)

  1 can (16 ounce) whole tomatoes, cut up (optional)

  1 ½ teaspoon dried basil, crushed (or whatever herbs you have left that you think will work)

  Black pepper and onion and garlic powder to taste

  Heat oil in large nonstick pot with lid suitable for later putting in hay box. Add rat meat and organs and saute about 3 minutes, or until lightly browned. Add canned vegetables and mushroom pieces if available. Use juice in can to save water. Cook about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add canned tomatoes, dandelions, garlic and onion powder, basil, and pepper; stir and continue cooking about 5 minutes. Put in hay box for 1 to 2 hours, or until rat is cooked and tender. Reheat for a few minutes and serve over rice if you have any left.

  Many foods, such as grains and dried legumes, require heat to make otherwise indigestible components digestible. There are many options to cook food when conventional methods are no longer available.

  A two- to four-quart cooking pot with lid, eating utensils, paper plates, cups, and towels, heavy-duty aluminum foil, ways to light a fire, a manual can opener, and a camping cook stove with fuel are nice items to have for the preparation and cooking of food after a disaster.

  A can of food can be opened by sanding the top of the lid on an abrasive object such as a cinder block wall.

  Other options for cooking or heating food are charcoal or barbeque grills, candles, woodstoves or fireplaces, campfires, Dutch ovens, pressure cookers, and solar ovens.

  Solar ovens can easily be made with cardboard and an oven cooking bag. Cooking pots that work the best in most solar ovens are dark-colored, shallow, lightweight metal pots.

  Reducing the size of some foods before cooking such as dried beans will allow them to cook quicker, using less water and fuel. Hand-crank grain mills work wonderfully for this purpose.

  Maximizing the efficiency of cooking fuels is important. Choose a good pot with a lid and keep the lid on when cooking. Make a noncombustible skirt out of aluminum foil and place it around the pot to reflect radiation to the sides of the pot. Keep the pot close to and centered over the flame.

  Make sure all fires are well contained. Strong winds can blow embers into dry grass or other fuels and cause wild fires. Six-inch-deep trenches in mineral earth can be dug to contain the fire. Use rocks if you must, bricks or concrete blocks, or metal drums and charcoal grills.

  Extinguish all fires when done. All parts of the fire should be cool to the touch. Think ahead about when you w
ant the fire out and burn small fuel or stop adding it altogether to make the fire easier to put out.

  Hay boxes allow you to save cooking fuel by using the heat of the food within the container after being cooked for a short time. The pot is then put into a superinsulated box to maximize the radiated heat. Insulated cookers can be used anytime, not just after emergencies, to save a tremendous amount of cooking fuel and energy.

  Survival kitchens should be set up with attention to keeping people, pets, and kids out for maximum safety, germ control, and efficiency. They should have areas to dispose of compost and grey water as well.

  Most group dishwashing systems should have multiple containers in which to scrap, wash, rinse, and bleach-dip dishes.

  The easiest way to not rely upon a refrigerator is to not need one. Canned foods of the proper size ensure there will be no leftovers. Prepare only what your family will eat at each meal, unless it's something that doesn't require refrigeration such as bread.

  For better management of potential sanitation breaches when serving food to large families or groups, one person should serve the entire family or group.

  Rats and mice can be easily caught in homemade or commercial traps, checked for health, cleaned, cooked, and eaten.

  19

  FUNDAMENTAL First-AID

  first'–aid' adj. emergency treatment for injury, etc., before regular medical care is available

  —Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary

  There's not a hospital in America that is fully prepared to deal with the effects of a wide-scale disaster in which hundreds if not thousands of people would need urgent care. To staff and equip a medical facility to do so full time would quickly cause bankruptcy under normal operating conditions. In order to combat the guaranteed shortage of health care personnel after a major emergency, there is an effort by some authorities to train civilian volunteers in a quick course on medical needs to ease the burden on regular health professionals. While this is a smart move and would greatly release physicians and nurses from some of the more mundane tasks of patient care, a weekend crash course in disaster medicine can only accomplish so much. Have you ever spent time twiddling your thumbs in a hospital emergency waiting room under normal, calm conditions?