First and foremost, before you buy or prepare anything, you MUST have a first-aid kit. Without one, you can find yourself in plenty of trouble even with minor scrapes. Infection is a nasty word, and a nasty thing to have in any injury. A minor scrape untreated in an unclean environment can turn deadly in a matter of days. Sepsis, a bacterial infection which has spread to the blood, will kill you if left untreated. It spreads from organ to organ shutting them down along the way. A minor scrap you may get that becomes infected will only get worse if your white blood cells cannot fight it off. It will cause you severe pain, nasty discharges, and eventually lowering your blood pressure enough to bring you into a state of shock.
What if this was you in that situation? If only you would have had a first-aid kit with a few essential items, right? Exactly.
Basic Items you should have in your First-Aid Kit:
-Bandages (of all different shapes and sizes)
-Ace Wraps or Sticky Wraps
-Sterile Dressings (Packaged Gauze)
-NSAIDS (Tylenol, Aspirin, Ibuprofen, etc..)
-Hydrogen Peroxide
-Rubbing Alcohol
-Sharp Clothing Scissors
-Sterile Tweezers
-Triple anti-biotic ointment (Neosporin, Bacitracin, etc…)
-Antiseptic cleansing wipes
-Burn cream packs
-Butterfly Bandages
-VINYL Gloves (Vinyl due to possible Latex reactions)
-Sterile Cotton tip applicators
Even if you have no idea what any of this stuff is when it is needed, it’s not very hard to figure out. Just remember to CLEAN the wound (to get all those nasties out), and bandage the wound (to prevent the nasties from getting in). If you remember those 2 things, then you should be ok. At least for a while anyway.
First-aid kits can be pieced together and designed from scratch, or bought as an entire kit. The latter is by far the easiest if you have no first-aid experience. Some great places to buy first-aid kits online are:
www.firstaidkitbags.com
www.FirstAid-Supply.com
www.1staidsupplies.com
It’s also not hard to research basic first-aid on Google, and print a few pages to throw into your kit as well.
The next item you will want to have is a flashlight. This is absolutely dire in a no-power situation. Having multiple flashlights throughout your house and car like I do, is a huge plus but if you can only afford one, then at least get the one. A flashlight helps you navigate not only your own house, but outside as well. If you have to leave on foot (more on that in a different segment) then you will need this fine tool to guide you through wherever you need to be guided through in the dark.
In the house, candles are a great way for continuous light illumination but a bright beam from a flashlight can help you with any type of work you need to do where bright light is required. Actually, candles are a great preparation for no-power situations, simply for the fact that you can save tons of battery energy when you burn candles. If you keep candles, which you should, always remember to pack waterproof matches in a safe location.
Flashlights can also be used as a self-defense weapon. Regardless of the shape or size, a flashlight will always be hard and rigid. That characteristic alone is great to have when defending yourself. There are also flashlights on the market that have such a bright beam that they have a stunning affect on a human attacker. A bright enough flashing strobe will debilitate an attacker for a few seconds turning a defensive situation into an offensive situation. A great manufacturer of self-defense flashlights is Surefire (http://www.surefire.com). They not only make bright debilitating strobes, but they also make lights with sharpened beveled edges. Now, surefire is one of the best manufacturers on the market so expect to pay a pretty penny for these outstanding lights.
Another item that is essential is an all-weather emergency radio. There are tons of these in the disaster preparation market. Simply put, any emergency radio will do. All radios built for emergencies have a weather report option and a lot of them have a crank option. A crank lets you turn a crank to charge the internal battery leaving you with more batteries for that flashlight you’re going to buy. In any emergency situation, reports and updates will always be given over the radio (Unless zombies or invaders have killed everyone but you, then your screwed). Being in the know will help you plan more efficiently and effectively.
The last item on our basic essentials list is BATTERIES. STOCK STOCK STOCK AND STOCK. Always have batteries readily available. If your radio needs 9 volts, then stock a bunch of 9 volts. If your flashlight takes D’s, stock a bunch of D’s. You don’t want to be caught in Zombieland at 3am when it’s so dark you can’t see your hand in front of your face now do you?
In my next blog, we will discuss specific situations and how to prepare for them.
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