by Joshua Piven
TO TREAT HYPOTHERMIA AND TO REWARM
1. Rewarm slowly in a tub of lukewarm water (105° to 110°F), with extremities hanging out of the tub.
In hypothermia cases, cold blood pools in the extremities. If you rewarm them with the rest of the body, as blood vessels dilate, cold blood rushes back toward the heart and can trigger ventricular fibrillation and a heart attack.
2. Do not massage extremities.
3. If warm water is not available, seek a nearby shelter.
Build a fire inside—a small fire can be made in a snow cave without causing significant melting.
4. Give the victim sugar water, sweets, tea, glucose tablets, or other high-energy, warming foods to restore energy.
Be Aware
• Rewarming through body contact can be dangerous to a single person attempting to warm another—too much body heat may be lost in trying to rewarm the victim, resulting in two people with hypothermia. Use two people if available. Zip two sleeping bags together and put one person on either side of the victim. Keep everyone talking to help spot or prevent loss of consciousness.
HOW TO SURVIVE A TRIP OVER A WATERFALL
1. Take a deep breath just before going over the edge.
You probably will not have much control while you are in the air, and the water may be deep.
2. Go over the falls feet first.
The biggest danger in going over a falls is hitting your head on something underwater and being knocked unconscious. Even feet first there is a risk of broken limbs. Squeeze your feet together and remain vertical.
3. Jump out and away from the edge of the falls just before you go over.
You want to avoid hitting rocks directly at the bottom of the falls.
4. Put your arms around your head to protect it.
5. Start swimming immediately upon hitting the water, even before you surface.
Swimming will slow your descent.
6. Swim downstream, away from the falls.
It is essential that you avoid being trapped behind the waterfall or on the rocks underneath.
HOW TO SURVIVE A VOLCANIC ERUPTION
1. Watch out for falling rocks, trees, and debris.
If you are caught amid falling debris, roll into a ball to protect your head. If you are trapped near a stream, watch out for mudflows. (Mudflows are mudslides caused by a large volume of melted snow or ice combined with rocks, dirt, and other debris.) Move up slope, especially if you hear the roar of a mudflow.
2. If you are in the path of lava, try to get out of its path in any way possible.
You will not be able to outrun the lava, so do not try to race it downhill. If you are near a depression or valley that might divert the flow from you, try to get to the safe side.
3. Move indoors as soon as possible.
If you are already inside, stay there and move to a higher floor, if possible. Close all doors and windows, and move any cars or machinery indoors, if there is time.
4. Do not sit or lie on the floor or ground.
It is possible to be overcome by volcanic fumes. The most dangerous gas is carbon dioxide: It does not have a strong odor, and it is denser than air, so it collects near the ground.
5. Evacuate the area, but only if authorities tell you to do so.
Your best chance of survival is to use a car to drive to a safer area, but even a car may not be fast enough to outpace a lava flow. Some flows travel at 100 to 200 miles per hour. Since volcanic ash can quickly clog the radiator and engine of your car, avoid driving except to evacuate.
Be Aware
Volcanoes can cause all kinds of secondary damage, including mudslides, earthquakes, tidal waves, and dangerous acid rain. If you will be spending time in a volcanic region, have the following emergency supplies at hand:
• Flashlight with extra batteries
• First-aid kit
• Emergency food and water
• Non-electric can opener
• Essential medicines
• Dust masks
• Sturdy shoes
• Goggles
• Portable oxygen tank
CHAPTER 5
FOOD AND SHELTER
HOW TO SURVIVE A HIGH-RISE HOTEL FIRE
Always treat a hotel fire alarm seriously, and exit following hotel procedure. If the fire is nearby, use the following procedure.
1. Feel your hotel room doorknob with the back of your hand.
If the doorknob is hot to the touch, go to step 2 and then skip to step 5. If it is not hot, follow the steps in order.
2. Partially fill the bathtub with cold water.
Soak towels, washcloths, bedsheets, and blankets in the water. If the water is off, use water from the toilet tank. Put a wet washcloth over your mouth and nose and a wet sheet or towel over your head.
3. Open the door.
4. If the hallway is smoke-filled, get as low as possible—one to two feet above the floor.
Make your way to an emergency exit. Never use the elevator.
5. If the door or doorknob is hot, do not open the door.
Wedge wet towels in the crack under the door to keep smoke out.
6. Try calling the front desk or rooms on other floors to check on conditions in other areas.
7. Turn off fans and air conditioners that could draw smoke into the room, and open the window slightly.
If the fire is on a floor below you, smoke may enter the room through the window, so keep the opening narrow. If the fire is not below you, open the window a third or halfway.
8. Make a tent of wet towels and sheets at the window.
Do not build the tent if smoke is billowing into the room. Hold or attach one side of the towel or sheet to the window and allow the other side to fall behind you, so you are protected from smoke and are breathing outside air. The towels should help to cool the air and make it easier to breathe.
9. Signal rescue personnel with a white towel or a flashlight.
Wait for rescue.
10. If the air in the room is getting worse, breathing becomes difficult, and no rescue is forthcoming, try to kick through the wall into the adjacent room.
Closets are the best locations to try to break through. Sit on the floor of the closet, and knock on the wall until you hear a hollow sound. (Wall studs are normally spaced 16 inches apart.) Use both feet to kick through both surfaces of drywall. You may survive by using this as a breathing hole, or you may need to continue breaching the wall until you can escape into the next room.
11. If you cannot breach the wall, go to a window and look at the outside of the building.
If the rooms have balconies that are close together, consider climbing to another balcony on the same floor. If there are no neighboring balconies, you can tie bedsheets together and climb to a balcony directly beneath yours. Use square knots (the first step in tying your shoes, done twice) and lower yourself one floor only. Consider this option only as a last resort, and only do it if you are attempting to escape an immediate danger or to reach rescue personnel.
Be Aware
• Ladders on fire trucks usually reach only to the seventh floor of a high-rise building. Consider booking a room below this level.
• Poolside or courtyard rooms are likely to be inaccessible to ladder trucks, even if they are below the seventh floor. Consider staying in a streetside room.
• Upon check-in, make sure the hotel has smoke detectors and fire sprinklers.
• Count the doors between your room and the nearest fire exit. This will help you get out safely if smoke reduces visibility.
• Keep your room key where it can be found in the dark.
• Never jump from a height of more than two floors or you risk death.
HOW TO FIND WATER ON A DESERTED ISLAND
1. Collect rainwater in whatever container is handy.
A bowl, plate, or helmet will work—so will a life raft and stretched clothing. In very dry environments, condensation forms on surfaces overnight. Use a
tarp or other fabric—shaped as a bowl—to collect water.
2. Collect dew.
Tie rags or tufts of fine grass to your ankles and walk in grass or foliage at sunrise. The dew will gather on the material, which can then be wrung out into a container.
3. Head for the mountains.
An island that appears barren on the coast may have a green, mountainous interior, which is an indication of freshwater streams and creeks. Find these by following trails of vegetation. Do not waste too much energy hiking or moving long distances unless you are relatively certain you will find water (meaning that the lush greenery is not far away).
4. Catch fish.
The area around a fish’s eyes contains drinkable liquid, as do fish spines (except shark spines). Suck the eyes, and break the vertebra of the spine apart and suck the liquid from them. Fish flesh also contains drinkable water—but fish are high in protein, and protein digestion requires additional water, so you are better off squeezing raw fish in clothing or a tarp to extract water.
5. Look for bird droppings.
In arid climates, bird droppings around a crack in a rock may indicate a water source. (Birds often congregate around cracks where water collects.) Stuff a cloth into the crack, then wring it out into a container or your mouth.
6. Locate banana and plantain trees.
Cut down the tree, leaving a stump about one foot high. Scoop out the center of the stump, so the hollow is bowl shaped. The roots will continually refill the stump with water for about four days. The first three fillings will be bitter, but subsequent fillings will be less so. Cover the stump to keep out insects.
Be Aware
• Seawater is generally not safe to drink; its high salt content can cause kidney failure. Moreover, two quarts of body fluid are required to rid the body of the waste in one quart of seawater. As a last resort, you can drink less than 32 ounces of seawater per day; while not healthy, it may keep you alive.
• Rainwater collected in a container is generally safe to drink, provided the container is clean and the water does not stand; any standing water is capable of breeding bacteria.
HOW TO PURIFY WATER
There are four ways to obtain safe drinking water in the wilderness: filtration, chemical treatment, boiling, and distillation.
FILTRATION
Filter water from all sources in the wild—mountain stream, spring, river, lake, or pond.
1. Find or make your filter.
Coffee filters, paper towels, ordinary typing paper, or even your clothing can serve as filters (the more tightly woven, the better). You can also make an effective filter by filling a sock with alternating layers of crushed charcoal, small crushed rocks, and sand.
2. Pour the water through a filter.
Do this several times to clean out impurities.
Be Aware
• Filtration will only remove some of the water’s impurities. It will not kill bacteria or other microorganisms. The best procedure is to filter water first, then treat it with chemicals or boil it.
CHEMICAL TREATMENT
1. Add two drops of household bleach for each quart of water.
Use three drops if the water is extremely cold or cloudy.
Or
Use one iodine tablet or five drops of drugstore iodine (2 percent) per quart of water.
2. Mix the water and bleach or iodine, and let it sit for at least one hour.
The chemicals will kill microorganisms; the longer the water sits, the purer it will be. Leaving the water overnight is the safest course of action.
DISTILLATION
A solar still uses the heat of the sun to evaporate water trapped in the ground and funnels it into a container for drinking. To build a solar still:
1. Dig a hole about a foot deep, and wide enough to hold your container.
2. Place a clean container at the center of the hole.
3. Cover the hole with a piece of plastic.
A tarp or a section of a garbage bag works well as a cover.
4. Place sticks or stones around the edges of the plastic so that it is flush with the ground and air cannot escape.
5. Poke a ¼-inch to ½-inch hole in the center of the tarp and place a small stone next to the hole, so the tarp looks like a funnel.
Make sure the hole is above, but not touching, the top of the container.
6. Wait.
The heat from the sun will cause water in the ground to evaporate, condense on the plastic, and drip into the container. While your solar still will not produce much liquid (less than one cup), the water is safe to drink immediately. The process can take anywhere from several hours to a full day to produce water, depending on the water in the ground and the strength of the sun.
BOILING
Boil water for at least one minute, plus one minute of boiling time for each 1,000 feet above sea level.
If fuel is abundant, boil water for 10 minutes before drinking it. The longer the water boils, the more microorganisms that are killed. Beyond 10 minutes, however, no further purification occurs. Be sure to let the water cool before drinking it.
HOW TO BUILD A SHELTER IN THE SNOW
BUILDING A SNOW TRENCH
1. Map out a trench so that the opening is at a right angle to the prevailing wind.
You need to find a space large enough so that the width and length are just a bit longer and taller than your body when lying down. You need only a minimal depth to maintain a cozy space for body heat conservation.
2. Dig the trench with a wider, flatter opening on one end for your head, using whatever tools you have or can create.
A cooking pan or long, flat piece of wood works well as an entrenching tool.
3. Cover the top of the trench with layers of branches, then a tarp, plastic sheeting, or whatever is available, then a thin layer of snow.
A “door” can be made using a backpack, blocks of snow, or whatever materials provide some ventilation and yet block the heat-robbing effects of the wind.
BUILDING A SNOW CAVE
1. Find a large snowdrift or snowbank on a slope.
Plan your cave with the opening at a right angle to the prevailing wind.
2. Dig a narrow tunnel into the slope (toward the back of the slope) and slightly upward.
Create a cavern big enough to lie in without touching the sides, roof, or ends.
3. Make the ceiling slightly dome-shaped.
A flat ceiling has no strength and will in most cases collapse before you are finished digging. The roof should be at least 12 inches thick. If you can see blue-green light (from filtered sunlight) through the top, the roof is too thin.
4. Put a small vent hole in the roof.
The hole will provide fresh air and a vent for a candle, if you are going to use one. Do not add any heat source larger than a small candle. Excessive heat will cause the ceiling to soften, drip, and weaken.
BUILDING A QUIN-ZHEE
If snow depth is minimal and you have a lot of time and energy, build a Quin-Zhee. A Quin-Zhee is a snow shelter that was developed by the Athabascan Indians, who lived mainly in Canada and Alaska.
1. Pile up a very large mound of packed snow.
The pile needs to be big enough for you to sit or lie down comfortably inside when it is hollowed out.
2. Wait an hour for the snow to consolidate.
3. Dig in and build a snow cave.
Be Aware
• A preferable alternative to building a snow shelter is a man-made structure or vehicle. If none is available, search for anything that will help protect your body from heat loss. Caves, downed timber, or rock outcroppings can help protect you from the elements.
• If you cannot stay dry in the process of building a snow shelter, or you cannot get dry after you have built it, do not build it! Moving enough snow to create a shelter big enough for even just one person is hard work, and any contact of your skin or clothing with snow while digging will amplify your body’s heat losses.
• When
building a shelter, the oldest snow will be the easiest to work with, since it consolidates over time.
• Snow is an excellent insulating and sound-absorbing material. From within a snow shelter, you will be unlikely to hear a search party or aircraft. You may want to make a signal above ground that can be noticed by a search party (a tarp, the word “help” or “SOS” spelled out in wood).
• In any shelter, use whatever you can find to keep yourself off the ground or snow. If pine boughs or similar soft, natural materials can be found, layer them a foot or more high, since the weight of your body will compress them considerably.
• When you are inside, the warmth from your body and your exhaled warm air will keep your shelter somewhat comfortable.
HOW TO SURVIVE A TSUNAMI
A tsunami (from the Japanese word meaning “harbor wave”) is a series of traveling ocean waves of extremely long length generated by geological disturbances such as earthquakes, underwater volcanic eruptions, and landslides. They can form hundreds or even thousands of miles away. The waves have been known to range from 50 to 100 feet in height. (Tsunamis are often mistakenly referred to as tidal waves, but they are not the same thing. Tsunamis are not related to the gravitational forces which cause tides and, therefore, tidal waves.)
1. If you are near the ocean, be aware of the warning signs of an approaching tsunami:
• Rise or fall in sea level
• Shaking ground
• Loud, sustained roar
2. If you are on a boat in a small harbor and you have sufficient warning of an approaching tsunami, move it quickly.
Your first choice should be to dock and reach high ground. Your second choice is to take your boat far into open water, away from shore where it might be thrown into the dock or the land. Tsunamis cause damage when they move from deeper to more shallow waters; the waves back up against one another at the shallow shelf. Often tsunamis are not even felt in deep water.