disaster

Midland Weather Radio: Just in Time for Storm Season

Midland Weather Radio: Staying ahead of storm season

The month of September is National Preparedness month and right on cue Hurricane Dorian has decided to pummel the Atlantic Coast. This wakeup call from mother nature has grabbed people attention on the local and national news media. This series of events shows us in real time the value of preparedness and having the correct gear at the right time. What better time than now to cast a light on our latest piece of disaster preparedness gear, the Midland ER310 Weather Radio. This little bright red radio is easy to use and packed full of features that are relevant to any weather-related event that you might encounter anywhere in the United States.

Simple and Effective

In any emergency situation communications are usually the first thing to degrade to the point of being unreliable. In a storm-related event, communications about changing conditions could make the difference between placing yourself and your loved ones in harm’s way or on the path to safety. The Midland ER310 Weather Radio offers simplicity and reliability in a small highly portable package that you can leave on the counter at home or toss in your Go Bag if you have to leave your location in a hurry. It’s design minimizes moving parts and extra features and focuses on whats import and what works.

Never Run out of Power

The problem with power grids is that for the most part they susceptible to things like floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, ice storms or hurricanes. Because they are subject to these forces of nature they often time go offline for hours or days at a time during disasters. That makes operating and charging things like cell phones, radios and other electronic equipment almost impossible. The folks at Midland took notice of that and made the model ER-310 Weather Radio able to be powered by three different sources of power. Adding a built-in resiliency factor to anyone who has one in their possession. This unit can be powered off of six AA-sized batteries, one 2600 mAh lithium-ion battery, a hand crank dynamo or the top mounted solar panel.

Let’s take a look at exactly what exactly the team at Midland packed into this surprisingly small and lightweight weather radio and we will explain why I am so excited about this unit and why I can’t stop recommending it to my friends and family as soon as they ask about preparedness.

Specifications

Brand: Midland

Model: ER-310

Power Source:

AA Battery (six total)
Lithium Ion Rechargeable (one total)
Solar Panel
Hand crank

Dimensions:

Length: 9.61″
Height: 6.85″
Thickness: 2.95″
Weight: 1.46 lbs

Channels:

AM/FM
7 NOAA/National Weather Service automated weather alert channels

Other Features:

1400 lux LED light
SOS flashing beacon
Ultrasonic dog whistle
USB capable smart phone/tablet charger charging port
One year warranty
32 Hour run time when fully charged

MSRP: $69.99 at Midland.Com

Why You Should Own One

Why should you own a Midland ER-310 Weather Radio? because I’m betting that if you are reading this in the United States that if you stop and think about it you certainly face one or more natural hazards that could greatly impact your life. You might live near a seismic fault line or a floodplain and not even know it. Mother nature doesn’t usually give a ton of warning about when she is going to unleash her fury. If its weather-related usually the forecasters at the National Weather Service have been up all night tracking the rain, wind, ice or whatever storm or weather event you are facing and have the NWS automated forecast broadcasts up and running.

What that means is that all you have to do regardless of if you have electricity or not is reach over and push two buttons and you will have a real-time accurate report of the conditions. When I say accurate I mean down to the conditions of the prevailing winds, barometric pressure changes, temperatures and when the last update was done. It also gives you the most current forecasts for your local area out to 72 hours. All information that may seem mundane on a normal day, but become vital during storms if you don’t think so just ask someone who has lived through tornado season in North Texas or the Great Plains

The Midlands ER-310 can be found online for between $60-80 and in the grand scheme of things is a great value and makes a perfect accessory for your Go Bag, recreational vehicle or your car. The utilitarian nature of the radio allows the user the flexibility of not just listening to the radio or weather updates but lets them recharge other devices via the external USB plug located on the side of the unit. So when everyone is out of cell phone battery and the power if off for days you can plug your phone into the Midland ER-310 and place it in a sunny spot and very slowly recharge your battery.

Prepping Thoughts

We want to hear from our readers who are avid preppers, what do you think of the Midland ER-310? Are you currently running a weather radio or base station as part of your bug out set up or is it even something you have considered? Many times communications are overlooked in the world of preparedness, but with the Midland ER-310, it doesn’t have to be any longer. Small, portable, and several ways to supply power all at an affordable price point. What’s not to like?

The Seventy2 Survival Pack: Real World Experience

All you have to do is watch the news for a few minutes to be reminded that disaster and chaos can happen anywhere and at anytime. Most experts say that the first 72 hours after the event are the most critical, where food, water and shelter will be in high demand and short supply. The team at The Uncharted Supply Company took this to heart when they designed their Seventy2 Survival System Backpack. This 48-liter pack holds all a person needs to survive the 72 hours.

The fact I’m writing this just 24 hours after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked my home here in Alaska, I put the Seventy2 pack to use immediately let me know very quickly that this pack is no joke when it comes to a 72-hour essentials pack. We always get to test the gear we get but it’s not usually during what would become a federally declared natural disaster.

What the Pack is and What it Isn’t

Defining emergency packs can be a tricky business, and a lot of that comes with expectation management. So we thought the best thing would be to start out with trying to define what this pack is intended for and what it is not intended for. This pack is not a pack that you would use for 72 hours in a combat zone or a World War Z style pandemic. It’s not meant to be a molle filled ramboesque pack for sentry duty or defense contractors. This pack is almost ideally suited to be kept in your office or in your car as a part of a get home bag.

The team at Uncharted Supply Company really looked into building this pack and wanted to make sure it was full of gear that would work and for the most part they really got it right. Let’s take a closer look at what they did right and what I think they can put a little more work into.

Good Points:

The 48-liter shell is waterproof and blends well into urban settings.
Seams glued and won’t leak anytime in the near future
Supply insert containing eight pouches worth of gear works very well
Instructions and tips are color coded and broke into four easy to comprehend areas: Shelter, Medical, Food, and Other Useful Info
Everything fits easily into well-labeled pouches
Gear that actually works in the real world. The gloves, hat, water filtration by Sawyer and weather radio are all excellent quality
Simple Design

Points for Improvement:

Straps on 48L shell good use some beefing up
Entrenching tool isn’t up to moderate use. This is the only piece of the kit that I thought should be replaced.

Detailed List of Contents of The Uncharted Supply Company Seventy 2:

Electronics:

Weather Radio
LED Flashlight

Air & Vision:

Safety Goggles
RZ M5 Filtration Mask

Food & Water:

Datrex Rations
Sawyer Water Filter with 2 Liter Pouch
44 oz Nalgene Water Bottle

Illumination:

LED Flashlight
Waterproof Matches
Glowsticks
Magnesium Fire Starter

First Aid:

First Aid Kit
Splint
Sunscreen
Anti bacterial Wipes

Tools:

Multitool
Duct Tape
Paracord -100 Ft
Entrenching Tool
Fixed Blade Knife

Warmth:

Lined Latex Gloves (Hi Viz Yellow)
Knit Hat
Hand Warmers
Mylar Space Blanket
Mylar Survival Tent

Real World Performance 30 November 2018

8:29 AM Alaska Time I found myself being thrown around my garage and my house by a solid 7.2 magnitude earthquake with a series of 5.0-5.9 aftershocks in the first hour I was awake. One of the first things I grabbed after my latern and a rifle was this pack. I dropped it on the kitchen table and told my wife to crack it open and see what was in it. That was my baptism of fire with The Uncharted Supply Company and their products. So how did it work?

The pack works very well for the right user group, a group I would say that has little to no experience with preparedness in general terms. The few shortcomings that I listed above would not stop me from recommending a person who is just looking for a grab and go survival bag. A person who wants a level of preparedness but is unwilling or incapable of wanting to put much time into the process.

This bag has a little bit of everything in it and the components, for the most part, are high quality and will satisfy most users needs. I would recommend replacing the entrenching tool and replacing it with a better model or perhaps leave it out and add another piece of gear. Not everyone will need to dig a defensive fighting position or a cat hole so the E-Tool isn’t a necessity for most users. A flashlight upgrade might also be something to consider, I prefer a little larger flashlight than what comes with the Seventy 2 kit.

The Seventy2 Survival Kit is currently on sale for $275.00 on The Unchartered Supply Company website. This price has recently been marked down from the regular retail price of $349.99. The company’s website also includes a listing to replacement components and other gear that the company offers allowing you to customize your own pack if you get the urge. Check out this video to get a better idea of what the Seventy 2 can do for your preparedness needs.

Preparing for disaster? Here are 5 unusual things that’ll help keep your car running in an emergency

In any prolonged survival situation involving a vehicle, the most important things to look for aren’t speed or even ground clearance — the first things you should consider are reliability and ease of repair and maintenance. After all, even the most badass of vehicles tend to lose their appeal when you can’t change a flat or find a replacement alternator when yours goes bad.

Regular maintenance will likely become even more important after a large-scale disaster, as you push your vehicle harder for longer and are forced to make compromises like using dirtier sources of fuel. A clog in a $5 fuel filter can leave a million dollar vehicle permanently planted where it is unless you have the resources and skills required to swap in a good one.

Whether we’re talking about post-apocalyptic survival or just evacuating from the scene of a local calamity, having an emergency set of tools (and coinciding know how) in your vehicle could mean the difference between having a ride and being forced to continue on foot. Some things can’t be repaired in the field, but the right tools could also help you get another vehicle you come across running (I’m not going to go into how to steal a car but suffice to say I’ve gotten barn cars started with the tools listed below before).

Aside from a regular toolkit (I recommend a half-inch drive rather than 3/8 for leverage’s sake) with a full complement of standard and metric sockets, and the rest of the usual emergency vehicle gear (jack, flashlight, tire iron, etc) here are a few tools you may not have thought of, but that deserves a place in your car’s emergency kit.

A Spool of Wire

Although most modern vehicles have complicated electrical systems governed by one or more onboard computers, you’d be surprised how much you can get accomplished simply by grounding a circuit and running a lead to the positive terminal of your battery. A failed driver’s side power window switch, for instance, can render all the windows in your car immobile (all switches run through a primary in many applications) so the only way to get your windows back UP may be to run that lead. In older model vehicles, you can circumvent a number of steps when diagnosing a fuel issue simply by running a lead from the battery directly to the fuel pump (it’s important to include an in-line switch or to remove the lead when the engine isn’t running to prevent burning out the fuel pump motor).

Understanding that most of the electronics in your vehicle operate via a simple mechanism (power on or power off) means that in an emergency, you can hack up some temporary fixes using little more than a spool of wire and some electrical tape. I also recommend carrying a test light to help you ensure current is moving properly when diagnosing electrical issues.

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An Impact Driver

Even under the best of circumstances, a seized screw or bolt can make common repairs or maintenance a big problem. In an emergency, a stripped screw or bolt could be all it takes to leave you stranded — but an impact driver can turn the tides in your favor. These tools usually have a 3/8 or 1/2 inch drive at one end, and a flat striking surface on the other. Place the impact socket or screwdriver bit on one end and place it on the stuck fastener securely – then smash the hell out of the other side with a hammer or rock. The impact forces the bit onto/into the fastener as it rotates, breaking bolts and screws loose while avoiding stripping them.

For less than $15 bucks, you won’t find a more versatile or valuable tool when working on vehicles that may be a bit long in the tooth (or that just exist in the Northeast where winters wreak havoc on the vehicle’s undercarriage).

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A sturdy pipe

As I mentioned above, I recommend carrying a half-inch drive socket and breaker bar in your vehicle’s toolkit — they occupy more space than a traditional 3/8 drive, but I’ve always appreciated the extra leverage I can exert via the heavier hardware. Just like with the impact driver, a good pipe can mean the difference between breaking something loose or not — sliding the pipe over the handle of a wrench can help increase the length of your lever, thus increasing the force you can exert. Be aware that using that much muscle may well break a bolt that’s seized in place, but that isn’t always a bad thing. A cross threaded lug nut could make it nearly impossible to get your wheel off when changing a flat, and while breaking a cross threaded lug stud may not be the best case scenario, your vehicle will have no trouble getting you home with the 4 remaining studs (on a 5 lug vehicle). The same principle applies to cars with only four lug studs, though spirited driving on only three lug nuts isn’t recommended but then how often is surviving about keeping things within the “recommended” parameters?”

The same pipe can also serve as a hammer for striking your impact driver or for leverage when trying to shift the engine within the limits of its rubber motor mounts to reach something deeper in your engine bay. Trying to swap rotors but they’re seized on? Bash it with a pipe. Car starter not working properly? Believe it or not, banging on it a few times with a pipe might do the trick as well.

Tire pressure gauge

A tire pressure gauge comes in handy any time you’re filling your tires up with air, but that’s not actually the value it provides in a survival situation. Driving on low traction surfaces like snow or mud can mean having to take your time to cover terrain, but if you find your vehicle struggling to maintain traction, letting some of the air out of your tires can actually make a big difference. If your car’s tires are rated for a maximum of 41 PSI, try dropping 10-15 pound of air pressure from your drive tires to increase the tire’s footprint on the ground, and as a result, adding a bit of traction. This method won’t get you un-stuck (you’ll still need kitty litter or sand and a shovel for that) but it can hopefully help you avoid getting stuck in the first place.

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Duct Tape

You can fix anything with enough duct tape — but if you’re just trying to keep a car running long enough to get you out-of-town, it can really be a lifesaver. A vacuum leak on any of the lines leading into your Mass Air Flow Sensor or cylinder head could wreak havoc on your car’s performance or even kill the engine completely. Identifying the leak and sealing it with duct tape could get your vehicle moving again. The same can be said for leaking fuel lines in a pinch, though gasoline has a nasty habit of eating its way through temporary fixes of that sort. Duct tape won’t make your vehicle reliable but it might keep it running for long enough to get you to safety.

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Feature image courtesy of Flickr

When DIY is your only option: The Voodoo Tactical Minor Surgery Kit

For many of us, it’s our worst nightmare: someone in your group has a serious injury and you’re in an environment or situation that doesn’t permit a quick trip to the hospital. Maybe you’re in a foreign country you’re not supposed to be in, maybe you’re on the trail thirty miles from your vehicle — whatever the reason, blood is flowing and it’s going to take more than gauze, pressure, and a call to 911 to stop it.

That set of circumstances may be a worst case scenario, but that’s what self reliance is all about: preparing for the worst so you can do your best. That’s what the faux-military “Minor Surgery” kit from Voodoo Tactical offers: the fundamental components of a field surgical kit you’d need to handle the sort of emergencies that are usually destined for the emergency room.

As a U.S. Marine, I received precious little medical training over the years. I can recite the life-saving steps (and execute them), triage victims, and do my best to stabilize them until help arrives — but I’m certainly no combat medic. Unfortunately, I’ve been left with no choice but to serve in a similar capacity once or twice. Medicine, like math, is widely considered to be beyond the mental purview of lugs like me — but fortunately I’ve been blessed with a mother and spouse with a breadth of experience in emergency medicine. I’ve never been more popular around my house than when I unveiled the tools included in this kit. Medical professionals are a weird type.

The kit includes a 6” wound probe; 3-1/2” stitch scissors; 3-1/2” tweezers; 5-1/2” bandage scissors; 5” straight and curved forceps; a #3 scalpel handle with disposable blade; pupil flashlight with mm gauge; alcohol pads; antiseptic towelettes; some 5/0 monofilament; and a gram of antibiotic ointment. In other words, it’s got everything you need to clean and stitch a serious wound, as well as everything you’ll need to remove those stitches after the requisite ten or so days of healing.

In terms of survival, stopping blood loss is so important it comes in as the second of the basic life saving steps – just behind clearing the airway and starting the breathing. That means a wound that’s serious enough to need stitches can’t be ignored due to a lack of equipment. At just 7”x5”x2.5” this kit (enclosed in an included canvas pouch) weighs next to nothing and can slide right into your bag, backpack, or vehicle kit. It’s the sort of peace of mind you might stash away and forget all about… that is, until it’s exactly what you need to survive.

I’ve had great success using this kit to treat some more minor injuries as well, such as removing wood splinters from beneath my fingernails (after 7 surgeries, I still consider that to be the worst kind of pain) and it really came in handy when my wife needed to pull a small metal sliver out of my eye… wear your eye protection when grinding knives, kids.

All told, this kit may be intended for “minor” surgery, but the tools included will serve a major purpose in any long-term survival situation. Some things can’t be fixed with neosporin and athletic tape. In serious situations, not even a handful of Motrin and a bottle of water will do it (sorry Navy Corpsman). If you ever find yourself having such a bad day, you can’t do much better than having this kit on you along with a good quality IFAK.

Remember, if you need stitches or any other kind of minor surgery, your best bet is your local hospital. If you don’t have quick access to a hospital, any medical professional is still a better option than the DIY approach… but if you’re serious about surviving the worst, then this kit is perfect for when DIY is the only option left.

These kits are now all sold out, but you can get your own with a subscription to the Crate Club!

Get your wings to go: Surveillance footage shows KFC exploding

When it comes to being prepared, a lot of us always have two competing voices in our heads: one that’s constantly warning us about impending danger, and another that’s constantly dismissing those dangers as the products of our own paranoia. This threat-assessment schizophrenia is a product of our environment, of course — the United States is an overwhelming safe place to live, and as a result, we’re fortunate enough not to live our own worst case scenarios on a day to day basis.

Over time, we grow to listen to the dismissive part of our brain as it tells us not to sweat packing that med-kit for a trip to the park, not to throw an extra pair of socks in your bag for a short hike, and not to worry about the aggressive guy at the bar that keeps giving you the side eye. It all worked out fine last time; it’s sure to work out fine again.

But then the KFC down the street frieken explodes, like this one in Eden, North Carolina this week.

So far there have been no reported injuries or deaths tied to this incident, but it serves as a great reminder that despite our safe environment, bad things can still happen. While it’s possible that this explosion occurred as a result of some nefarious act, it’s also possible that it was nothing more than a good old fashioned accident — in either case, if you and your family were nearby when it went up and someone you loved got hurt, you’d be glad you had that IFAK in your trunk.

Being prepared isn’t about being paranoid, it’s just about taking small steps in advance to make things easier if ever the worst were to occur. Keep what you might need nearby, trust your gut, and don’t let complacency win out.

And maybe avoid KFCs after dark for a while… just until they figure out what happened to this one.

Feature image captured from included YouTube video

The US government website that tells you how to survive everything from active shooters to inbound nukes

Our modern world certainly isn’t short on threats — from lone wolf terror attacks to state level threats like a nuclear North Korea to worry about on the global scale and good old-fashioned home invasions and murders to stress over on the local front, it can feel like there’s never been more to prepare for if you’re the type of person that prides themselves on being prepared, but there’s one handy government website that might be able to help.

Ready.gov has been around since 2003, offering an extensive list of potential emergencies you and your family may face and offering guidance on things you can do before hand, during, and after such a catastrophe to improve your chances at survival. The threats addressed on the site range from day to day concerns like a house fire all the way up to disasters with global ramifications like tsunamis, pandemics, and even space weather. When visiting the site, you can click on any of these disaster scenarios on the right-hand side of the screen to learn about the nature of the threat posed and how best to mitigate it.

Lots of the information offered on Ready.gov, of course, comes off a bit like common sense — but that’s the real value of spending a few hours on a site like this. If you’re interested in becoming an expert in one specific type of threat you feel is impending (sort of like the novelty awarded to each lunatic featured on “Doomsday Preppers”) you may want to seek out some peer-reviewed papers on that specific topic, but if you’re interested in ensuring you and your family are prepared for a broad variety of potential disasters, Ready.gov offers an invaluable crash course in multiple possibilities and in reasonable, pragmatic solutions to problems most tend not to consider.

For instance, concerns about active shooter situations are among the most prominent in the minds of most Americans these days, but often, even articles aimed at preparing your such an event focus only on what to do while the shooter is active. In order to survive these scenarios however, it makes sense to put some thought into how you’ll respond immediately following the attack — e.g. getting yourself to safety without presenting yourself as a threat to law enforcement on the scene. Ready.gov, for instance, offers a list of suggestions that include keeping your hands visible and understanding that law enforcement likely won’t be able to address your first aid needs until they have confirmed that the situation has been resolved and the shooter is either dead or in custody.

At the end of each breakdown, the site even offers a list of downloadable PDFs that you can review if you’re looking for some more in-depth information about that particular type of life threatening situation.

For those who haven’t spent much time working to actively mitigate threats professionally or personally, Ready.gov can be a great way to spin yourself up on thinking strategically, improving your situational awareness to counter things like normalcy bias, and give you a bit of background knowledge as to what you should do if the worst should occur. However, there’s a real value to this sort of research for those with experience in the preparedness realm as well. There’s a reason we use so many checklists in the military, and it’s not (always) because our command elements don’t trust us to do our jobs well — it’s because stress can have unusual effects on our ability to address challenges, and a checklist is a great way to ensure you stay organized and on task when adrenaline starts pumping.

Complacency can kill in a combat zone, but it can also truly hinder your ability to prepare for a disaster. There’s no such thing as a bullet proof plan — so refreshing yourself on what to do in a widespread power outage, hurricane or nuclear disaster could help you to identify areas of your preparation efforts you’ve previously omitted. Training doesn’t stop when you become a member of SEAL Team 6 or Delta, nor should your active engagement with preparedness just because you think you’ve got your angles covered.

If you’re just starting to think about putting together a basic survival kit for your house, Ready.gov even offers you a packing list to get started and suggests places to keep your kit inside your house for ready access to the equipment you need. Again, I (and the commenters here on SOFREP) could likely provide you with a limitless number of extra things you may want to consider including in your own kit, but Ready.gov can certainly help you get started.

Preppers may often be seen as silly in the media, but there’s nothing silly about being prepared.

Image courtesy of Flickr