Category Archives: Emergency Preparedness

SNAP Challenge 2015: Day 3

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I have to admit that this year’s SNAP Challenge is proving to be a bit more challenging than last year, since I’m relying this year on food that is suitable for long-term storage (or, to put it another way, the so-called “non-perishable” items that people are asked to donate to food banks).  My menu is about the same as last year, but I don’t have any bread, hot dogs, sausage, or hamburger.  The overall cost is about the same, but the substitutes aren’t quite as good.  In particular, the canned meat is starting to get old.

For breakfast this morning, I had pancakes and some of the Armour Treet.icon  For lunch and supper, I made chili, using some of the Treet, one can of Chili beans, and one can of tomatoes.  I’ve been grazing on the peanut butter cookies, so I made another batch.  (I forgot to flatten them with a fork, but they taste OK.)  Both are shown above.icon  I had one biscuit for lunch, but I’m starting to tire of them, so I had cookies with my chili for supper.

 

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SNAP Challenge 2015: Day 2

Tonight's Supper.

Tonight’s Supper.

Day 2 of the SNAP Challenge was again uneventful.  I’m subsisting this week on less than $31.50 in groceries, and I’m concentrating on items that are easily storable.

After my initial failure with pancake syrup, I tried again last night and was somewhat more successful.  Since I don’t have any brown sugar to work with, I used two parts sugar and one part water and let it simmer until it was the right consistency.  Last year, my syrup was too watery, so I tried simmering it longer, taking care not to set off the smoke alarm as happened a couple of nights ago.  I still don’t have the knack, since it was excessively crystallized.  But I managed to get enough for my pancakes this morning, and for a couple more meals.

For lunch, I finished the tuna salad from yesterday, and had a couple of biscuits.

Supper consisted of the experimental pigs in blankets shown above.  I simply made the biscuit dough, wrapped it around the remaining Vienna Sausagesicon, and baked for about 15 minutes.  I also made one package of the Ramen noodles.  I washed it down with windshield washer fluid–er, I mean blue Kool-Aid.

With the exception of a couple of pats of margarine that I put on the pancakes, everything I consumed today is suitable for long-term storage.

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SNAP Challenge 2015 Day 0: Cooking

I plan to start the seven-day SNAP challenge tomorrow.  I did the shopping yesterday.  I spent a total of $26.99 on groceries that should last me the week.  Most people who take the SNAP challenge seem to go hungry since they don’t think about their basic caloric needs, which for most people is in the ballpark of 2000 calories per day.

Most of my caloric needs are taken care of with $4.94 of my purchase money, in the form of the following, which make up a total of 17,510 calories, more than enough for seven days:  Five pounds of flouricon , four pounds of sugaricon, and 16 ounces of  cooking oilicon.  Those items are not, by themselves, particularly edible.  Therefore, my mission for today was to change some of those ingredients, along with a few others, into actual food.  Since this process takes about the same amount of time regardless of the quantity, I made enough for the next few days and put them in the freezer.

20150117_200705I started by making the pancakes shown here.  They are now in the freezer and can quickly be warmed up in the toaster or microwave for a fast breakfast or snack.  I used the same recipe as last year, except I used cooking oil instead of margarine, in keeping with my theme this year of using ingredients that can be stored for emergency use.

And since my use of storage food items precludes the luxury of 20150117_203434-1having bread, I’ll be relying more on the pancakes and biscuits.  I also made my first batch of biscuits, which are shown here.  I again used the same recipe as last year, but used cooking oil in place of the sausage grease or margarine that I used previously.

I also made a batch of peanut butter cookies.  The downfall of many SNAP challenge participants seems to be the lack of snack items.  The 18 cookies I baked should tide me over between meals for the next couple of days.  I used the same recipe as last year, but since I had more peanut butter to work with this year, I was slightly more generous.  I went ahead and used the margarine for these cookies, although I think the cooking oil would have worked just as well.

I also prepared two other items, or at least tried to do so.  Envelopes of Kool-Aidicon cost 20 cents, considerably less than the pre-sweetened variety.   It’s easier to prepare it by the glass, so I made my own pre-sweetened Kool-Aid by adding one envelope to a cup of sugar.  My first failure so far was with pancake syrup.  I mixed two parts sugar and one part water (equal parts of white and brown sugar work better, but I don’t have brown sugar) and left them to simmer on the stove.  I was reminded of this when the smoke detector went off, since I neglected to keep an eye on it.  Perhaps I’ll try again tonight, but I’ll probably just clean up the mess and leave my syrup making for another day.  In any event, I lost one cup of sugar, which was burnt to a crisp rather than delivering any food value.  But last year, I had more than a pound of sugar left at the end of the SNAP challenge, so I won’t go hungry as a result of my carelessness.

 

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SNAP Challenge 2015: Testing Storage Food

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As I did in 2013, I will once again be taking the SNAP Challenge, starting in the next couple of days.  I explained it in more detail when I originally took it, but the general idea is to subsist for seven days on $31.50 in food, which represents the average amount received by recipients of the SNAP program, formerly known as Food Stamps.

There seem to be two categories of people who take the challenge.  The first group is made up of those who view the challenge as being extraordinarily trivial.  Occasionally, one of them will announce that he or she is participating and go out and buy $31.50 worth of food.  They often put little thought into what they buy, and they usually aren’t heard of after a few days.  This is probably due to the fact that they failed.

The other group of people usually make it through the full seven days, but only after enduring a great deal of suffering.  Like the other group, they usually make poor buying decisions by buying apparently “healthy” but expensive food.  They usually suffer through the seven days, but are hungry most of the time.

I’m in the middle group.  Last year, I discovered that the challenge was not trivial.  But I also discovered that with a little bit of planning, I could eat quite well over the course of the seven days.  This year, I’m doing it again, but with a new twist.  One of the focuses of this blog is emergency preparedness, and I learned last year that the challenge also taught lessons for disaster planning.

On my website, I have a number of pages discussing emergency food storage.  Since I don’t own any camouflage clothing, I’m not much of a “survivalist.”  But even for those who are not contemplating a complete apocalypse, I believe that it is important to make preparations to be reasonably self-sufficient in emergencies.  And having a reasonable amount of food in the house is one important preparation.  In most cases, this “emergency food” is just part of the groceries we would normally buy.  Therefore, the SNAP challenge is a good way to test these emergency supplies.  Last year, my SNAP purchases included quite a few refrigerated items, such as hot dogs and ground beef. These would not be a good choice for emergency storage.  This year, I made a point to store items that are similar to the kinds of things that can be stored for an emergency.

This is not a perfect test, because I also needed to stay under the $31.50 budget.  Some of the storage food I would normally buy comes in larger quantities.  Therefore, I have made a few substitutions:

I did buy six fresh eggs, which should stay in the refrigerator (although it’s relatively safe to store eggs at room temperature for a few days).  For emergency storage, I would recommend Honeyville powdered eggs. Despite any bad reputation that powdered eggs might have, the Honeyville eggs are actually excellent, and indistinguishable from fresh eggs in cooking or baking. They can even be used for scrambled eggs, which taste almost as good as normal eggs. In a real emergency, I would use the Honeyville eggs. But for purposes of this test, they would be out of my budget. A large can costs almost $20. While they are economical, the can is much more than I need for one week. Therefore, I’m substituting fresh eggs, which cost me $1 for a half dozen.

I also purchased a pound of margarine.  Margarine will keep outside of the refrigerator, but not for long-term use.  In an actual emergency, there are other options.  One option is canned butter (ghee), which is fairly expensive. Another more economical option is Honeyville Powdered Butter, which I have not actually tried, but seems to have excellent reviews.  Another surprisingly good option is Butter Flavor Crisco, which can be stored.  Last year, I didn’t purchase any cooking oil. This time, to help allay any concerns that I’m “cheating”, I did purchase vegetable oil, which I’ll use for most cooking. Therefore, my use of the margarine should be farily minimal.

My shopping list for the challenge does include a couple of items that have fairly long shelf lives, but not what one might consider “long term.” I have one package of tortillas, and one bag of tortilla chips. Both of these have an expiration date a few months out, so it’s not unreasonable to believe that they would be in a normal cupboard in time of emergency.

Finally, as I did last year, the main staple of my diet will be my five-pound bag of self-rising flouricon. The bag I just purchased has an expiration date of December 2015, meaning that it can be stored for almost a year. For actual emergency storage, I would recommend normal flour, since the “self-rising” flour is nothing more than normal flour with baking powder already added. But for the SNAP challenge, the self-rising flour is easier on the budget. The smallest can of baking powder, which would last months, was over a dollar. For emergency use, it would be better to purchase regular flour along with a can or two of baking powder.

My focus on shelf-stable food means two big changes from last year’s challenge. First of all, I used two pounds of bread last year, and I don’t have the same luxury this year. But I had flour left over last year, so I’ll need to use the flour to make a substitute. Last year, I did have meat, in the form of hamburger, hot dogs, and sausages. This year, I’ll need to get by on canned meats. That will make things more challenging.

Finally, I should say a word about milk. I’ll be using shelf-stable milkicon. It’s always available at the dollar store for a dollar a quart, it has a shelf life of about a year, and it tastes just like any other milk. It’s a good choice for emergency storage, although since most of my uses are for cooking, powdered milk would be adequate. More information is available on my milk page.

As I did last year, I’ll spend a few hours the day before the challenge begins preparing some food.  I’ll eat well during my week, but it does require advance preparation.  And it’s more efficient to do most of the preparation all at once.

Today, I purchased the food shown above.  My total expenditure was $26.99.  I bought all of the food at either Walmart or Dollar Tree.  The complete shopping list is shown below, along with the prices I paid.  You can click on the links to see the exact items I purchased.  (In a few cases, I couldn’t find the same brand online, in which case the link goes to an identical product of a different brand or size.)

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Fallout Shelter Occupancy Experiment, 1964

ChicagoFalloutShelterTestFifty years ago today, January 12, 1964, 26 Chicago-area volunteers, most of them in their 50’s and 60’s, were locked in the basement of the Lombard Village Hall as part of a fallout shelter test. Under the scenario, a nuclear bomb had detonated in Keokuk, Iowa, and the prevailing winds were delivering the fallout over the Chicago area. The test was covered by that day’s Chicago Tribune, from which this photo was taken.

After settling into a routine and singing the National Anthem while facing a 48-star flag found in the basement, the group played a game to get acquainted. A Catholic priest served as a medic, and treated a man found to have entered the shelter with an overdose of radioactivity. The group eagerly lined up for their first meal of survival crackers, but after tasting them, the enthusiasm for the second meal was clearly dampened. One prudent woman brought with her a thermos of coffee, undoubtedly to the great envy of other participants.

The group elected an advisory council, and various jobs were assigned. In charge of handing out the rations was a 54 year old man who had previously served as an air raid warden during World War 2 in Mannheim, Germany. The veteran of Allied air raids opined that he knew how important it was to be prepared.

The only contact that the group had with the outside world was in the form of simulated radio broadcasts, in which they were informed that retaliatory strikes had been carried out.

The Priest/Medic was to say Mass on Sunday morning, and shortly thereafter, the experiment was to come to an end.  The next day’s paper reported on the volunteers’ emergence from the shelter.  It also reported that the latecomer’s condition proved fatal.  Interestingly, while the priest was serving a medical officer, a chiropractor was serving as religious officer.  The priest summoned the chiropractor to administer last rites to the unfortunate gentleman.

For another fallout shelter occupancy experiment, see my earlier post.

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1965 Emergency Crystal Set from Boys’ Life

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In an earlier post, we looked at a one-transistor CONELRAD receiver featured in Boys’ Life magazine in 1956.  And today, we look at a simpler variation on the same theme, this time from 50 years ago this month, in Boys’ Life magazine January 1965.

Once again, the Scout’s obligation to Be Prepared is inspiration for this electronic construction article.  It’s a basic crystal set, but the focus is on being prepared, under the title EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS.

A terrified family, clad in pajamas, is apparently confronting rising flood waters. The text warns that “in an emergency, communication is important and communications preparedness should be a part of your ‘family alert’ plan.” It goes on to warn that if electric power is out, a crystal set may be the only way to keep in touch with latest news, disaster reports, and emergency instructions.

The page details how to build the radio using a galena detector with either a safety pin or piece of coiled wire. It acknowledges that a germanium diode can also be used but “isn’t as much fun” because it lacks the thrill of finding a sensitive spot on the crystal.

No author is listed, and the construction details are a bit lacking in detail. (In particular, no mention is made that the insulation has to be removed from the top of the coil in order to contact the slider.)

If you were a Scout 50 years ago, you were prepared. And a flood was nothing. You needed the additional thrill of finding the sweet spot on the crystal.

All of the parts for this set are readily obtainable.  If you’re having trouble finding any, you can find them on my crystal set parts page.



1956 Boys’ Life CONELRAD Receiver

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In the mid-1950’s, a transistor radio was an expensive luxury. This presented a problem for an impecunious Boy Scout who wanted to Be Prepared for anything. In the words of Boys’ Life magazine for January 1956, “in case of enemy attack, it is assumed that power lines will be down, and battery-operated radios would be a necessity. But batteries wear out. So what you need for Conelrad service is a receiver that doesn’t use B batteries, yet will produce a usable signal when needed.”

The article pointed out that a crystal set might be pressed into service, but wouldn’t produce very loud signals. Fortunately, Boys’ Life had a solution to the problem, in the form of this one transistor set that was well within the construction abilities and budget of a Scout. The set shown here would run on two penlight cells with clear headphone volume for well over a thousand hours. And in a dire emergency, since the set consisted of a crystal detector with one-transistor audio amplifier, the article gave instructions on how to bypass the amplifier and simply use it as a crystal set with reduced volume.

The set is build on a board, with instructions to mount it in a cigar box (painted black, according to the directions), which left ample room for storing the antenna wire, ground lead, and headphones. Since the set was designed for CONELRAD use, the article instructed to find the local broadcast stations closest to 640 and 1240 on the dial, tune them in, and then mark the dial position for future emergency use.

The circuit calls for a FS2500A transistor, which is a general purpose NPN transistor, apparently manufactured by Bogue, also known Germanium Products Corporation.  (See the substitution guide in the 1957 RCA Transistors and Semiconductor Diodes.)

The article was reprinted for a number of years in the Boys’ Life Radio and Signaling reprint booklet. Occasionally, the “Hobby Hows” column of Boys’ Life would answer a letter from a Scout asking where to find the plans for the receiver, who was directed to the reprint booklet. Therefore, I suspect more than a few scouts built one of these receivers, and I’m sure they were put to good use for entertainment purposes. The builders of these sets were undoubtedly the first kids on their block to own a transistor radio. Fortunately, none ever had to be used for the intended purpose of tuning in to CONELRAD alerts.

The author of the article was Howard G. McEntee, W2SI. McEntee was the author of the Radio Control Handbook, published by Gernsback Publications in 1955 and updated over the years.



1963 Fallout Shelter Occupancy Experiment

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This diagram shows a prototype blast and fallout shelter constructed in 1961 at the National Naval Medical Center, now known as Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Bethesda, Maryland. It was used in various occupancy studies in which test subjects were housed in the shelter for various lengths of time. However, all of those studies were flawed in one respect: In a real attack, people need to go to the shelter with little if any advance notice or preparation. This condition is very hard to duplicate in a research experiment. It’s necessary to tell people in advance about the experiment in order to get their consent. So in 1963, the Navy came up with a test that would duplicate, as much as possible, the surprise factor inherent in a real emergency situation.

To conduct the test, the Navy recruited Naval Reserve Officers to participate in a seminar, ostensibly to last two weeks, involving lectures and field trips. They were told to bring work clothing, and because there would be extensive field trips, they were told not to bring their families or make plans for social engagements. The seminar would satisfy their two-week training obligation.

34 Officers volunteered, and attended a lecture the first morning. After lunch, they went on their first “field trip,” to the shelter shown here. After a tour, the seminar organizers made a presentation on the necessity of a realistic simulation of emergency occupancy. With no further ado, the group was requested to volunteer to remain in the shelter for an indefinite period. There was “no question that the participants were taken completely by surprise whn they were requested to remain in the shelter. Their faces betrayed a moment of disbelief followed immediately by the cooperative acceptance of an unexpected situation for which Naval officers are trained.”

The officers were informed that continued participation was completely voluntary. Only one officer departed at that time, since he was a University professor who was obligated to write some final examination questions. However, after he wrote his questions and mailed them to his school, he returned to the shelter the same day as a “casualty.”

The participants spent the next several days susbsisting on rations, taking simulated radiation measurements to estimate their departure time, and generally performing the tasks necessary for shelter occupancy. Because most of the officers had an engineering background, they were also tasked with making recommendations for improvements to the shelter.

The report of the experiment is available at the Defense Technical Information Center and contains numerous recommendations from the participants.

The participants’ reactions to the experiment were in four categories, of approximately equal numbers. One group viewed the experience as an interesting challenge and opportunity. Another group reacted with immediate and surprised anger at being “exploited,” even though they were still willing to volunteer. A few bordered on belligerence. Another group was initially unhappy and eventually either withdrew or became minimally cooperative. The natural leaders of the group emerged from those who viewed the experiment as a challenge, as well as among those who initially felt “exploited.”

Rations consisted mostly of survival biscuits, supplemented with tomato soup, peanut butter, and jelly. Coffee was provided, along with sugar and coffee creamer. The average calorie consumption was 1414 calories per day and the men experienced an average weight loss of 1.1 kg.

After 4-1/2 days, the simulated radiation levels had dropped to safe levels, and the confinement in the shelter ended.

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12 Volt Appliances on Sale at Amazon


On my “how to make coffee without electricity” page, I’m sometimes asked whether it’s possible to make coffee (or cook other things) with 12 volts. The answer is a qualified yes. There are cooking appliances that run on 12 volts, and for some applications, they can work extremely well. But there are definite limitations, and you can’t expect 12 volts to provide an exact duplicate of your normal cooking experience. Amazon currently has a number of 12 volt appliances on sale, so now is a good time to look at the possibilities and limitations.

The most important thing to remember about cooking with electricity is that producing heat requires a lot of electricity. Sometimes, people look at their toaster, coffee maker, electric heater, or other device and decide that because it is small, it must not use much electricity. This is not the case. As a general rule, any device that creates heat will use a lot of electricity. Therefore, your coffee maker uses more electricity than your television–a lot more. Your toaster uses more electricity than your computer–a lot more. Anything that produces heat will require a lot of electricity.

This means that, in general, you can’t use a battery to do any type of cooking. There is simply not enough energy in the battery. The battery will go dead.

However, if you have 12 volts available from your running vehicle, then you might have some options. But the vehicle will need to be running. Otherwise, you’re very likely to wind up with a dead battery.

For this reason, you’re usually better off using some sort of combustion to do your cooking, such as a gas stove. I have many options available on my coffee page.

But if you want to cook and you have a running vehicle, then 12 volts might be an option, and you should look into the possibilities on this page. For example, if you are a trucker, your truck is running anyway, and there are 12-volt appliances that you can use to cook while the engine is running. Or if you are on the road all day, you can have a cooker plugged in while you are driving.

On the other hand, if you are an RV’er and your rig has a 12-volt battery, that battery is more than adequate to run the lights for a long period of time. However, it is not nearly big enough to run any of the appliances on this page for other than a very short period of time.

Now that we have that out of the way, we need to talk about another limitation. It will take longer to cook food using 12 volts–a lot longer. The amount of heat produced is proportional to the voltage times the current. This means that if a home appliance produces a certain amount of heat in 1 minute, it will take a 12 volt appliance 10 minutes to produce the same amount of heat. The heat will come, eventually, but it will take longer–a lot longer. So if you want instant gratification, you shouldn’t try to cook with 12 volts. But if you’re willing to put in the food and let it cook while you drive around, then you might be interested in the 12 volt appliances shown on this page. Many of these are currently on sale at Amazon, so if you’re in the market, this is a good time to buy.

The first of these appliances is the RoadPro 12-Volt Portable Stove. In this case, the word “stove” is a misnomer. Strictly speaking, this is a stove, because it’s a device used to heat food. But as you can see, it doesn’t look like a stove. It looks more like a tackle box with a 12 volt plug. It doesn’t look like the stove at home, and it doesn’t have the same function as the stove at home. It will slowly cook food as you drive around. Functionally, it will work more like a crock pot or slow cooker. For what it is, it’s very useful, as long as you understand the limitations. It’s great for having a warm meal while you’re driving. You can put the food inside it in the morning, and you will have a hot lunch after driving around for a few hours. But if you expect to quicly cook a meal for your family while camping, it’s a very poor choice.


If you just want to heat liquids, then the Roadpro Hot Pot is a very economical option. Again, however, you need to understand the limitations. This will not heat nearly as fast as the stove at home. This hot pot will bring 20 ounces of water to a boil in about 35 minutes. Again, if you’re driving around and want to make a hot beverage, this will be great. But remember that once you’ve used the 20 ounces of water, it will take another 35 minutes to make more.

This 12V Frying Pan is small. It can be used to fy one, or maybe two eggs, or perhaps a hamburger. Even though it can be used to fry food, keep in mind that it will take much longer than the stove at home. Of all of the appliances on the page, this seems to be the least practical, since frying food means that someone needs to keep an eye on it, which you probably can’t do while driving. But perhaps for some uses, it might come in handy, and at the current sale price, it’s economical even for occasional use.

This 12 volt Sauce Pan and Popcorn Maker suffers from the same limitations. As noted above, it can really only be used while driving, and it would be difficult for the driver to attend to the popping corn.

Finally, and probably most useful, is this 12-Volt Coffee Maker . It will make 3 cups of coffee, although it might take almost an hour to make the full amount. So if you like brewed coffee, this is a good option. The carafe is made out of metal, so it will endure a certain amount of abuse in the car. For occasional use during power outages, this might be a good option for those who want brewed coffee. You will need to run your car for the time that it takes to make the coffee. If you had to do that every day, it would be a huge waste of gas. But for occasional use, the convenience might outweigh the added expense.



Free Download of 1962 Civil Defense Plan & Shelter Management Handbook

I now have available on my website a complete scan of the 1962 Civil Defense Operational and Survival Plan of the City of St. Paul, Minnesota.  This 104 page document goes into great detail as to how the city planned to survive the aftermath of a nuclear attack.  Of particular interest is the complete handbook for managers of public shelters.  The handbook would give the fallout shelter guidance on all aspects of operating the shelter.  There is some information in this document of practical guidance.  For example, the section on radiological defense contains some useful information.  However, the document’s main interest is as a fascinating historical look at civil defense plans fifty years ago.