Ultimate Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook

by David Borgenicht

  Use a whistle, wave a white T-shirt or another piece of clothing, or shout to make your presence known. Continue to call for help until you are rescued or the waters recede.

  WARNING!

  If time permits, quickly gather these supplies and place them in a plastic bag: fashlight with spare batteries; battery-operated radio; first-aid kit; rope; whistle; gallon of water; granola bars, or other nonperishable, high-carbohydrate foodstuffs; essential medications. Take them with you when you leave your house.

  Do not eat or drink any foods that have been touched by foodwaters. The packaging may harbor dangerous germs or chemicals.

  When reentering a flooded building, wear boots and waders, and watch for snakes.

  Pump out flooded basements gradually (approximately one-third of the water per day) to avoid sudden structural damage.

  Have the property checked by a qualified structural engineer before moving back in.

  On Foot

  Find a flotation device.

  Put on a life jacket, inflate a pool toy, or grab a foam (not down or cotton) sofa cushion. Wood floats, but a large piece of furniture may be unwieldy and difficult to carry.

  Run.

  Get to high ground or a high floor of a multistory building immediately. Avoid low-lying areas such as spillways, areas near storm drains, and creeks and riverbanks. Before crossing flooded open areas and streets, watch for floating objects (trees, cars, appliances) that might knock you down.

  Check shallow water.

  If the water is less than six inches deep and not moving quickly, you should be able to walk quickly or run. The water level may rise quickly, however, and fast-moving water can knock you down. Prepare to move fast.

  Move to the roof.

  If you are trapped by rising, fast-moving water and cannot get to higher ground, get on the roof of a two- or three-story house. Avoid the first and second floors, as these may become inundated quickly.

  HOW TO SURVIVE A TORNADO

  1 Be inside.

  Do not go outside during a tornado; if you are outside when the warning is sounded, go indoors as quickly as possible, even if you do not yet see the approaching funnel.

  2 Close the windows.

  High winds can toss debris in through any open windows or doors in the home.

  3 Move away from the window.

  After they have been securely closed, stay clear of windows to avoid shattered glass.

  4 Go farther into the home’s interior.

  Stay in a room close to the center of the house, putting as many walls and doors between you and the outside as possible. Stand in a stairway or bathroom.

  5 Go below ground.

  If the home or building you are in has a basement, tornado shelter, or garage level, head there and stay there till the all clear has been sounded.

  6 Walk carefully.

  When surveying the damage done during the tornado, watch for post-storm hazards such as flooding, collapsed or collapsing buildings, and downed trees.

  Lie down flat in a ditch or ravine if you cannot get inside during a tornado.

  WARNING!

  Those living in tornado-prone areas should have a plan.

  If you are outdoors when the tornado strikes and cannot get inside, lie down fat in a ditch or ravine and put your hands over your head.

  When your house is struck by a tornado, turn off the utilities, and if you smell gas or anything burning, leave the house immediately.

  If you are in a vehicle when the tornado strikes, drive at a 90-degree angle away from the storm, and never seek shelter under a highway overpass.

  Never drive in a tornado. If you are in your car when a tornado approaches, exit your car and lie down on your stomach in a ditch or low-lying area, and cover your face and head with your arms.

  Tornados kill between 50 and 60 people in the United States every year.

  HOW TO DRIVE IN A HURRICANE

  Roll up the windows.

  Turn on your high beams.

  Do not drive next to or behind buses and trucks.

  A strong gust of wind can topple a large vehicle over onto your car. Slow down to allow heavy vehicles such as busses and trucks to get ahead and past you. Do not drive behind buses and trucks, as their tires will kick up large amounts of water from the roadway and send it back onto your windshield.

  Weigh down the car.

  Fill the trunk of your car with heavy objects such as bricks, lumber, appliances, or debris for ballast, to keep the wind from grabbing and flinging the car.

  Reduce your speed.

  Drive at 10 miles per hour or less, keeping alert for flying debris and other cars that have stopped or stalled and are blocking the roadway.

  Apply the brakes as little as possible.

  In a heavy downpour, there is a significant chance of hydroplaning as water builds up between your wheels and the road. Slow down by taking your foot off the gas rather than applying the brake, and watch for deep puddles.

  Note protected and unprotected areas, and adjust your speed accordingly.

  You will be sheltered from the wind when driving in protected areas, such as tunnels. When emerging from the protected area, remember to slow down again.

  Drive in the middle lane.

  Water will pool more in the outer lanes of the roadway.

  Be alert for standing water.

  If you cannot see the roadway at the bottom of an area covered by water, do not drive into it. Turn around and find another route. Even if it looks like the water is shallow, there may be hidden pits; water of six inches or higher can cause damage and/or stall your car.

  Be alert for flash floods.

  Flash floods occur when there is extremely heavy rainfall over a short period of time. They occur most frequently in low-lying areas, such as narrow canyons and valleys. Do not stay in a flooded car; if your car starts to fill up, get out.

  Avoid driving behind buses and trucks, as their tires will kick up large amounts of water.

  Never touch a vehicle that has come into contact with a live wire. Even when the wire is removed, it may retain a charge.

  HOW TO DEAL WITH A DOWNED POWER LINE

  1 Assume that all power lines, whether sparking or not, are live.

  2 Stay far away from downed lines.

  Current can travel through any conductive material, and water on the ground can provide a “channel” from the power line to you. An electrical shock can also occur when one comes in contact with the charged particles near a high-voltage line; direct contact is not necessary for electrocution to occur. Never touch a vehicle that has come in contact with a live wire—it may still retain a charge.

  3 Do not assume that a nonsparking wire is safe.

  Often, power may be restored by automated equipment, causing a “dead” wire to become dangerous. Stay away from downed lines even if you know they are not electric lines—the line could have come in contact with an electric line when it fell, causing the downed line to be “hot.”

  4 If a person comes into contact with a live wire, use a nonconductive material to separate the person from the electrical source.

  Use a wooden broom handle, a wooden chair, or a dry towel or sheet. Rubber or insulated gloves offer no protection.

  5 Avoid direct contact with the skin of the victim or any conducting material touching it until he or she is disconnected; you may be shocked also.

  6 Check the pulse and begin rescue breathing and CPR if necessary.

  WARNING!

  If you are in a car when a pole or line falls, you are much safer remaining inside a grounded vehicle than being on foot. If the wire falls on the car, do not touch anything—wait for help.

  CAMPING

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  HOW TO ESCAPE FROM A BEAR

  1 Lie still and quiet.

  Documented attacks show that an attack by a mother black bear often ends when the person stops fighting.

  2 Stay where you are, and do not climb a tree to esc
ape a bear.

  Black bears can climb trees quickly and easily and will come after you. The odds are that the bear will leave you alone if you stay put.

  3 If you are lying still and the bear attacks, strike back with anything you can.

  Go for the bear’s eyes or its snout.

  How to Avoid an Attack

  Reduce or eliminate food odors from yourself, your camp, your clothes, and your vehicle.

  Do not sleep in the same clothes you cook in.

  Store food so that bears cannot smell or reach it.

  Do not keep food in your tent—not even a chocolate bar.

  Properly store and bring out all garbage.

  Handle and store pet food with as much care as your own.

  While all bears should be considered dangerous and should be avoided, three types should be regarded as more dangerous than the average bear:

  Females defending cubs

  Bears habituated to human food

  Bears defending a fresh kill

  WARNING!

  Bears can run as fast as horses, uphill or downhill.

  Bears can climb trees, although black bears are better tree climbers than grizzly bears.

  Bears have excellent senses of smell and hearing.

  Bears are extremely strong. They can tear cars apart looking for food.

  Every bear defends a “personal space.” The extent of this space will vary with each bear and each situation; it may be a few meters or a few hundred meters. Intrusion into this space is considered a threat and may provoke an attack.

  Bears habituated to human food.

  Females protecting cubs.

  Bears defending a fresh kill.

  While all bears are dangerous, these three situations render even more of a threat.

  What to Do If You See a Bear

  Make your presence known by talking loudly, clapping, singing, or occasionally calling out. (Some people prefer to wear bells.) Whatever you do, be heard—it does not pay to surprise a bear.

  Keep children close at hand and within sight.

  There is no guaranteed minimum safe distance from a bear: the farther, the better.

  If you are in a car, remain in your vehicle. Do not get out, even for a quick photo. Keep your windows up. Do not impede the bear from crossing the road.

  HOW TO GO TO THE BATHROOM IN THE WOODS

  1 Find an appropriate location.

  Find a location behind a tree or rock for privacy, far from any trail. Stay at least 100 feet from any water source.

  2 Dig a ditch.

  Use a stick to dig a hole one foot deep and two feet wide.

  3 Gather materials.

  Find some soft leaves to use as wipes. Some hikers use pine-cones, dry pine needles, or even a smooth “wiping stone.”

  4 Bury the deposit.

  When you are done, bury everything, including the leaves or other wiping material.

  5 Wash your hands.

  Wet your hands with water from a canteen or use hand sanitizer.

  WARNING!

  When selecting your wiping material, avoid poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac.

  HOW TO RIG UP YOUR FOOD

  1 Tie your food tightly inside plastic bags.

  Plastic bags, securely tied, seal in all odors so the food will be less attractive to bears and raccoons.

  2 Find the right tree limb.

  You want your food to be rigged up at least one foot off the ground and at least one foot horizontally away from the trunk of the tree.

  3 Sling a sack over the limb.

  Put a small rock in one plastic sack to give it some heft, attach it to a five-foot length of rope or heavy twine, and heave it over the limb.

  4 Tie another sack to the other end of the rope.

  Now you should have two sacks dangling down from opposite sides of the limb.

  5 Fill both sacks with food.

  Take the rock from the first sack and fill it instead with half of your food; then fill the other sack with food of equal weight. The two sacks need to be of approximately equal weight in order to counterbalance one another and dangle up out of reach of a bear.

  BE AWARE!

  If you find two branches close enough, you can skip the counterbalance technique and simply string one rope between the branches and dangle your food in one parcel between them.

  Many parks provide cables and crossbars for rigging food, so you will not have to sling it up in a tree.

  You can also purchase a bear-resistant food container that does not need to be hung up. Arrange your campsite in a triangle, with the bearproof canister being both five feet from your sleeping area and five feet from the cooking area.

  Do not store any food at all, even small snack items, inside your tent.

  Improvised Outdoor Shelters

  TYPE OF SHELTER: Dugout shelter

  BASIC CONSTRUCTION: Dig long narrow trench, line with leaves, erect canopy of leaves.

  DRAWBACKS: Digging takes a long time with no tools.

  TYPE OF SHELTER: Poncho tent or poncho lean-to

  BASIC CONSTRUCTION: String poncho between two trees, anchor with stakes.

  DRAWBACKS: Waste of nice poncho.

  TYPE OF SHELTER: Three-pole tepee

  BASIC CONSTRUCTION: Lean three sticks together to make frame, drape with canopy or tenting.

  DRAWBACKS: Requires ax to fell trees.

  TYPE OF SHELTER: One-person tent shelter

  BASIC CONSTRUCTION: String line triangularly from tree to ground, drape with sheet or coat.

  DRAWBACKS: Collapsed by even light snow or heavy rain.

  TYPE OF SHELTER: Swamp bed

  BASIC CONSTRUCTION: Cut poles to make an elevated bed hung on four trees lifted up over the swamp.

  DRAWBACKS: Must be high enough to accommodate shifting mud levels.

  TYPE OF SHELTER: Snow cave

  BASIC CONSTRUCTION: Dig at an angle into a large drif, creating separate spaces for sleeping, cooking.

  DRAWBACKS: Get extremely wet during construction.

  HOW TO FIND YOUR WAY WITHOUT A COMPASS

  Stick and Shadow Method

  What you need:

  An analog watch

  A six-inch stick

  Northern Hemisphere

  1 Place a small stick vertically in the ground so that it casts a shadow.

  2 Place your watch on the ground so that the hour hand is parallel to the shadow of the stick.

  3 Find the point on the watch midway between the hour hand and 1:00.

  If the watch is on daylight saving time—which is during most of the summer—use the point midway between the hour hand and 1:00.

  4 Draw an imaginary line from that point through the center of the watch.

  This imaginary line is a north-south line. The sun will be located toward the south.

  Southern Hemisphere

  Place your watch on the ground so that 1:00 is parallel to the shadow.

  Then find the point midway between the hour hand and 1:00. Draw an imaginary line from the point through the center of the watch. This is the north-south line. The sun will be located toward the north.

  BE AWARE!

  The closer you are to the equator, the less accurate this method is.

  Star Method

  Northern Hemisphere

  Locate the North Star, Polaris.

  The North Star is the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper. Walking toward it means you are walking north. You can use the Big Dipper to find the North Star. A straight imaginary line drawn between the two stars at the end of the Big Dipper’s bowl will point to the North Star. The distance to the North Star is about five times the dis-tance between the two “pointer” stars.

  In the Northern Hemisphere, place your watch on the ground so that the hour hand is parallel to the shadow. In the Southern Hemisphere, place your watch so that 1:00 is parallel to the shadow.

  Southern Hemisphere

  Find the Southern Cross.

  The
Southern Cross is a group of four bright stars in the shape of a cross and tilted to one side. Imagine that the long axis extends in a line five times its actual length. The point where this line ends is south. If you can view the horizon, draw an imaginary line straight down to the ground to create a southern landmark.

  Cloud Method

  Look at the clouds to determine which direction they are moving in.

  Generally, weather moves west to east. While this may not always be true in mountain regions, it is a good rule of thumb and may help orient you.

  Moss Method

  Locate moss.

  Mosses grow in places with lots of shade and water: areas that are cool and moist. On tree trunks, the north sides tend to be more shady and moist than the south sides, and therefore, moss usually grows on the north sides of trees. However, this method is not infallible—in many forests, both sides of a tree can be shady and moist.

  MAKING FIRE

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  HOW TO MAKE A FIRE WITHOUT MATCHES

  What You Will Need

  Knife

  Kindling. Several pieces, varying in size from small to large.