Table Of ContentPREPPING 101
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PREPPING
101 40 STEPS YOU
CAN TAKE TO
BE PREPARED
Protect Your Family
Prepare for Weather
Disasters
Be Ready and
Resilient when
Emergencies
Arise
KATHY
HARRISON
ß
Storey Publishing
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The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.
EDITED BY Carleen Madigan and Lisa Hiley
ART DIRECTION AND BOOK DESIGN BY Carolyn Eckert
TEXT PRODUCTION BY Erin Dawson
INDEXED BY Christine R. Lindemer, Boston Road Communications
COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY Mars Vilaubi, except © JamesBrey/iStock.com, back, b.l.; © REKINC1980/iStock.com,
back, b.r.
INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHY BY Mars Vilaubi, with exceptions and additions listed on page 175
ILLUSTRATIONS BY Ilona Sherratt, pages 26, 43, 90–91 and 127
© 2018 by Kathy Harrison
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be repro- Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
duced without written permission from the publisher,
except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages Names: Harrison, Kathy, author.
or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate Title: Prepping 101 : 40 steps you can take to be
credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, prepared : protect your family, prepare for
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form weather disasters, and be ready and resilient
or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopy- when emergencies arise / Kathy Harrison.
ing, recording, or other — without written permission Other titles: Prepping one-o-one | Prepping one
from the publisher. hundred one
The information in this book is true and complete Description: North Adams, MA : Storey Publishing,
to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations [2018] | Includes bibliographical references
are made without guarantee on the part of the author and index.
or Storey Publishing. The author and publisher dis- Identifiers: LCCN 2017061053 (print)
claim any liability in connection with the use of this | LCCN 2018000476 (ebook)
information. | ISBN 9781612129587 (ebook)
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Printed in the United States by Versa Press
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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TO BRUCE
For convincing me I could
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CONTENTS
Introduction 8
Create a Assess Calculate Plan for
Preparedness Your Your Water Long-Term
Binder Lighting Needs Water Usage
Needs
18 22
14
10
Design
Calculate a Food Store Food Build a
Your Food Storage for the First-Aid
Needs Program Long Term Kit
32 40
28 36
Build a Stock Up Check Prepare
Basic on Batteries Your Your Home
Tool Kit Car
47 55
44 50
Review Your Protect Talk to Prepare
Financial Your Your Kids Your Pets
Preparedness Electronics
64 68
59 62
Keep Take Care of Shop for Buy in
Communication Your Head, the Bulk
Open Hands, and Feet Best Buys
82
71 75 78
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Grow a Learn to Learn Plan
Little Preserve to Cook a Day of
Garden Food in a Crisis Emergency
Meals
85 92 96
102
Keep Your How to Keep Pests Connect
Food Safe Handle at Bay with Your
Garbage Community
108 115
111 118
Plan for Cope Deal with Manage Your
Entertainment with Personal Laundry
and Celebration Sanitation Hygiene
132
122
126 130
Think Create a Keep Keep
about Safe Room Warm Cool
Security
139 142 146
136
Make an Survival The Well- Ready, Set,
Evacuation Hacks Prepared Practice!
Plan Bookcase
153 160
149 156
Afterword: What If Resources Recommended Metric Index 169
It Lasts Longer? 162 164 Reading 166 Conversions 168
Introduction
HAVE YOU EVER IMAGINED how you catastrophe overload. It’s easy to become
would manage if tomorrow you woke to find overwhelmed and demoralized by just how
the power out, supermarkets shuttered, fragile our systems are. Still, there are hope-
and gas stations closed until further notice? ful signs on the horizon. More communities
Would you be ready to tackle day-to-day are organizing resiliency groups and invest-
activities? Could you feed your family and ing in their common spaces. Solar panels dot
keep them warm? Are you prepared? the landscape in increasing numbers and,
after a long period of decline, volunteerism
Families dealing with crisis is nothing new. is rising again. Food initiatives like com-
In fact, it has been the norm throughout his- munity gardens and community-supported
tory. My grandmother fed and clothed her agriculture (CSA) farms are popping up in
family during the difficult years of the Great urban areas as people address the problem
Depression. With a young family and a hus- of food deserts. Taking family preparedness
band serving overseas, my mother coped with to a community level bodes well for all of us.
rationing during World War II. In my lifetime, Personally, I am grateful that I don’t have
I’ve watched as terrorism became a house- to do this alone. Prepared communities are
hold word and the Great Recession robbed connected communities, and prepared
people I knew of their homes and livelihoods. families are connected families.
These days political turmoil is on the rise, the
climate is changing faster than most people I completely understand the desire to think
expected, and global debt threatens financial about something else. Some days I refuse
markets around the world. The U.S. Centers to watch the news. Instead, I drink tea, pull
for Disease Control reports that international weeds, walk in the woods, or take a nap. But
travel makes a global pandemic a near because I have seen the future, my desire to
certainty. Cyberwarfare is our new reality. escape doesn’t last long. George W. Bush’s
famous words to the FEMA director who
One of the downsides to our easy access was largely believed to have mishandled the
to news and information is a kind of aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, “Brownie,
8
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“I’m not suggesting that you build a bunker . . .”
you’re doing a heck of a job,” have become a of your family. You won’t be a wilderness
catchphrase for the inability of governmental survival expert after reading this book. I can’t
and private agencies to deal with a crisis of teach you to field-dress a deer or perform
such proportions. It’s my job to prepare now an emergency appendectomy.
to ensure my family is protected.
But I do suggest that you spend some time
Television programs that depict people thinking about your home and community
interested in preparing for difficult times systems and assessing how you can make
as delusional, gun-toting, bunker-dwelling them more resilient should you have to live
paranoiacs have gone a long way toward through an extended power outage or be
stopping much sober, reflective conversation unable to leave your home due to a security
about what a family resiliency plan should crisis. The action items I suggest offer con-
look like. My goal is to forge ahead and have crete steps to check off as well as ways to
that conversation, no matter how uncom- cope in an emergency situation. You will have
fortable it may be. I am not asking you to things to buy, things to make, and things to
prepare for the end of the world as we know learn. The process won’t take over your life
it, but the skills and the mind-set you’ll learn and may even enhance it as you build confi-
are transferable from the short run to the dence about your ability to meet your family’s
long run. The water filter you build with your needs during a crisis.
child as a science fair project will work if you
need clean water, and the solar oven will Will you use everything you learn here?
cook a meal in the absence of electricity (and Maybe not, but I am sure of one thing: After
the presence of sunlight). any unexpected event, you will never hear
anyone say, “Gee, I wish I hadn’t been so well
I’m not suggesting that you build a bunker prepared.”
(I’m not really a bunker kind of girl) or cash
in the college fund to purchase a year’s
supply of freeze-dried food for every member
9
INTRODUCTION
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