Being prepared to cook your meals and pasteurize your drinking water indefinitely  without electricity or gas can make a vital difference after a hurricane or other disaster.

As soon as the sun starts to shine again, you can begin leading a semi normal life with solar power.  The parabolic solar collector/cooker, which can reach a temperature approaching 300 degrees Fahrenheit (~150 C), can cook food, and heat and distill water.  As long as the sun shines, you do not need to worry about not having access to fossil fuels for those tasks without resorting to cutting down trees, breaking up furniture, or hunting buffalo chips. 

Our parabolic solar cooker is lightweight, compact, inexpensive and easily assembled.  If you think the supply of fossil fuels is unreliable now, think of the impact natural and unnatural disasters could have on it.  It does not require batteries.  It is safe and reliable.

You don't have to wait for a disaster to use it.  No technical training is required.  It can be easily disassembled and repacked.  It has no harmful bi-products or noxious fumes and contains nothing dangerous. The cooker does not require an open flame, and is pet and child safe.  It is Environmentally friendly and will not harm the ozone layer! 

Using this product can assist with conservation of other fuels.  The less fossil fuels you use for food preparation and water purification today, the more you can conserve for other purposes tomorrow.

---

The Do-it-yourself Suburban Disaster Survival Kit:

The Ten Essentials:  An Annotated List

By far, the best known outdoor equipment list is the so called list of Ten Essentials.  The list was first suggested in the 1930s in an article which appeared in the newsletter of the Mountaineers, a Seattle-based outdoor club.  Since then it has been reprinted in various forms and is used often by outdoor educators as a teaching tool.

The original ten items, along with helpful notes, are listed below.  Even though the Ten Essentials list is revered by many in the outdoor field, it shouldn't be taken as gospel.  It is a good starting point, but you should add to the list depending on circumstances:  where you are going and what you will be doing.  Suggestions for additional items are included at the end of the list.  

---

This is a compact kit that can be carried in the car, on the boat, or in a pack for hunting, hiking, exploring, etc.  Most of the contents will fit in a one-pound coffee can which doubles as a pot for melting snow and device with which to dig an emergency snow shelter. (However, if you can carry it, include a small shovel.  It is far, far better than trying to use a coffee can.)  You should be aware that if this kit is carried while on hiking or hunting trips, you still need to carry the other Ten Essentials not included below.

Keep three points in mind when putting together a survival kit.  First, make it small enough that you'll actually carry it and not leave it home.  Second, use the list as a guide and customize it to your needs.  For instance, if you are allergic to insect bites, bring the appropriate medicine, or carry appropriate wrap if you have knee problems.

Thirdly, bring enough to enable you to spend at least one night out.  It is usually the first 6 hours that determine whether you'll be able to survive an emergency.  If you can make it through the first night, then your chances are good that you can make it a few more nights if necessary.

General Items

Cell Phone
Flashlight (Hand Crank or Solar Powered)
Braided nylon rope (25ft.)
Mirror
Matches (2 boxes)
Fire Starter - Disposable Butane Lighter
Poncho (bright orange to attract attention)
Toilet paper
Candle (wrapped in aluminum foil)
Paper and Felt Tip Pen
Fishing line, hooks, split shot leads
Knife
Whistle
Money (2 nickels, 2 dimes, 2 quarters, $20 bill:  helpful for making phone call or paying for gas if broken down along highway)
Garbage Bags (2 large size bags)
Bright orange surveyor's tape

Repair Kit

Sewing kit
Dental floss (It's strong and useful as thread for sewing, or a fishing line or for lashing branches for improvised shelters.)
Safety pins
Wire (bailing wire)

First Aid Kit

Moleskin
Sterile pads (2 x 2 and 4 x 4)
Sterile Gauze
Neosporin
Bandaids
Aspirin
First Aid Tape
Prescriptions Medications
Dr.'s Contact Info

Nourishment

Honey Packages (available in small foil packages available at convenience stores)
Instant Soup or tea (a couple packages)

Optional

Folding saw
Compass (learn how to use)
Hard Candy

Carrying container

Coffee Can (1 lb size) or nylon stuff bag
 

All contents except the plastic bags and the optional items will fit in a 1 lb coffee can.  (Or you can flat "Spam" cans or oval-shaped containers available at outdoor stores.)  The plastic bags can be affixed to the outside of the can with a rubber band.  To keep things from rattling in the can, wad up some wax paper and stuff it around the items.  The wax paper stays dry and also doubles as a fire starter.  To save weight the contents can be placed in a stuff bag and a metal cup can be used instead of the coffee can.
 

[END]
 

2/13/98.  Compiled by Allan Priddy

6/28/06   Adapted by  Greg Pettengill

---