A practical guide on how to survive a pandemic and other likely catastrophes that may follow.
The time is now to know and understand how to survive a pandemic. As surreal as it is to see the word everyday in our news sources, it is our reality. You might feel that you are a bit late to the game when it comes to preparedness, but it is never too late to prepare because things can always become worse at any time.
How to Survive a Pandemic - Prepare for the chaos of the future, not the chaos of today.
Things might already be bad. Perhaps a sickness is spreading and people are dying. Unfortunately, a pandemic is historically just the tip of the iceberg. You can expect the economy to slow down or even shut down completely! Quarantines are put in place. People won’t be able to work and as a result can’t pay their bills. Restaurants may close. Supermarkets may have restrictions and slim pickings. Toilet paper will be the first panic buy. People will become frustrated, angry, and desperate. This leads to riots, social unrest, and ultimately societal collapse. Imagine the atrocities you’d be able to justify doing in order to save your family from dying of starvation. Now, imagine everyone else is just as desperate. This is bad!
How to Survive a Pandemic - Stay away from Humans
Like most of all our other problems in life, humans are often the main cause. If it is determined that the virus is passed from human to human transmission, then it really couldn’t get more simple - Stay away from people. It might be pessimistic to say, but people suck. It only takes one selfish sick person to jeopardize the health of others by not self-quarantining. I don’t know about you, but I know a lot of selfish and inconsiderate humans. Trust no one and keep close tabs on your immediate family and who they interact with. Don’t shake hands or get too close to anyone. Wear N95 masks if you must leave the safety of your house. Only N95 are appropriate. Surgical masks or even worse, cloth masks, cannot filter out viruses. Constantly wash your hands and sanitize anything you're about to touch before and after you touch it.
How to Survive a Pandemic - Sanitation
One of the first items to be sold out is hand sanitizer. That’s okay. Just regular hand soap is way better for your microbiome anyways. Wash your hands as often as possible and try to never touch your face. If you’re in a pinch and really want to make your own hand sanitizer gel you can buy rubbing alcohol and aloe vera gel and mix them together. Aloe vera should still be easily accessible for awhile, but rubbing alcohol will need to be procured rather quickly.
As mentioned earlier, people typically panic purchase toilet paper first. If you can find some, sure buy an appropriate amount. However, there are some other really good options when it comes to toilet paper substitutes. First, you can buy a bidet / bidet hose from Amazon that attaches to your current toilet. You wouldn’t believe how well it actually works! The next option is something called “family cloths” which many homesteaders currently utilize. This is the same concept the very common “washable diapers” on the market today. Basically, they are dedicated cloths used to wipe your bum. Each family member has their own color of cloths. They get laundered just like reusable diapers. I have a stash of family cloths because I occasionally run out of toilet paper in normal everyday life. Similarly, you can just use old shredded fabric that you intend to throw out if you are weird about washing and reusing family cloths.
How to Survive a Pandemic - Health is your greatest asset
One of the most important things you can do in life is to improve upon your Immune system. You get a good immune system by living an active lifestyle, working out, and eating HEALTHY food. A common mentality that we all have, especially when a juicy hamburger and fries are offered to us, is that we’ll just start being healthy “tomorrow.”
I want you to imagine “tomorrow” as a world full of chaos where every day you fight for your survival. By then, it is already too late. Listen, no one is where they wish they were right now in terms of health, but please use every day you currently have without absolute chaos to workout and eat better. No matter how fit we are, we all will suffer a major hit to our health so the healthier you become now, the less the impact it will have on you.
Nutrition is very important to our health. We have a plethora of delicious tasting (but unhealthy) foods at our fingertips today, but it is important to remember that sacrificing delicious unhealthy food now will severely decrease suffering later. A good motto to remember when fighting temptations is “Purpose over Pleasure.” Every fast food meal you decide to pass on just may add on weeks to your life. I’d say that’s worth it!
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How to Survive a Pandemic - Food
“About 98% of our produce is grown by just 2% of the population.”
About 98% of our produce is grown by just 2% of the population. Additionally, that produce is often trucked for hundreds of miles before it even reaches your local grocery store. This frail system is referred to as “just-in-time” delivery. If there was a national food shortage or something were to affect the national trucking industry, most of the shelves at the foods store wouldn’t be restocked. What this all comes down to is to stop depending on others for your sustenance. There are a few things you can do to better prepare for a food shortage. Get to know your local farmers and develop a know-like-and trust relationship with them. Support them now by buying their produce. If disaster strikes that relationship could be responsible for feeding your family. Similarly, try to buy and eat local food. This is as easy as going to local farmer’s markets and getting to know local vendors.
Can you imagine a world without sugar? Do you realize sugar is heavily grown overseas and shipped to the states? Without the Just-in-time system, it wouldn’t take long for sugar shortages to occur. Your best source for sugar will be honey as it is renewable and has an indefinite shelf life. Farmer’s markets always have at least one apiary (bee farmer) who sells his/her local honey. This is who you want to befriend!
Better yet, learn how to grow your own food, learn how to keep your own bees, learn how to keep your own livestock such as chickens and meat rabbits. Becoming self-sufficient is very rewarding. It can also save your life! Additionally, you can empower yourself by learning how to wildcraft and forage for wild edibles. Most people I speak with are absolutely flabbergasted when they discover just how nutrient dense their common backyard “weeds” are. For example, purslane , a common edible and delicious “weed”, contains the most omega-3 fatty acids known of any plant! This unconventional food source will be plentiful and overlooked by 99% of the population so it really behooves you to pick up this traditional skill set!
Another self-sufficient skill set that is crucial to learn whether you buy, grow, or forage your own food is food preservation. Many of us experience harsh winters that put a complete halt on growing food. This is why you need to plan ahead by preserving food now for those bleak winter months. Download my free e-book on all the off-grid food preservation techniques here.
How to Survive a Pandemic - Water
Without water - you die. In order to survive a pandemic, hygiene and cleanliness is one of the first preventative measures to not getting sick. This includes washing your hands on a pretty consistent basis with fresh clean water.
As you may have witnessed first hand from other disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes, bottled water is one of the first items to disappear from the grocery stores during a crisis. How much water do you currently have stored now? The typical suggested amount is a minimum of one gallon of water per person a day.
One thing is for certain, we should be mindful that one day our water tap may not work. During a wide spread power outage during a disaster, you only have a day or two of working taps before your town’s gravity fed water tower runs dry. Without electricity to run the pump to refill it with fresh clean water, the water tower remains empty.
If the power goes out - for whatever reason - we ought to take advantage of this small window of opportunity by filling up as many containers as we can before the taps potentially run dry. Use RubberMaid totes, your bathtub and even large garbage cans (lined with contractor sized bags). I personally have a box of these collapsible 5-gallon emergency water storage bags. They take up virtually no room when in storage, but can quickly be filled up and easily transported since they only contain 5.3 gallons of water in each bag. They are insanely durable too! Watch this torture test I put them through!
It is also a good idea to have multiple water filtration devices for backups. If you have well water, do you have a manual hand pump? Let me tell you, it is HARD WORK to hand pump, but it might be the only way to get the well out. Also, depending on how far away your water source is away from your house, there will be a lot of carrying of water from the source to your shelter and/or to the garden where your food crops are growing. This is why it is a great idea to have great access to quality water from the get go.
One source of water that is available to everyone at varying times and quantities is rain. Simply redirect your gutter downspouts into rain barrels and/or water tanks. The higher your rain water tank is off the ground, the more natural water pressure from gravity there is to move the water.. That could be a lifesaver considering how much time and energy it would be necessary to move water otherwise.
How to Survive a Pandemic - Protection
Depending on how bad things get, you may need to start considering safety and security. The old saying holds true: there is safety in numbers. You’ll need someone to keep watch while others are sleeping Underscores Importance of having a larger team. 5-10 people offering security for each other. Very hard to survive as a group of 2-4. Security divided between day and night shifts. Sufficiently larger groups can be have dedicated people on watch without eating into resources of the group. Some people need to focus on other areas such as growing food, preserving food, fortification, supply allocation, etc. during the day. Rotations during the night will allow everyone to get much needed sleep.
How to Survive a Pandemic - Summary
In summary, a national pandemic sounds pretty terrifying. In reality, it may be just the tip of the iceberg. A pandemic can easily snowball into an even more serious crisis including economic collapse and societal breakdown. Your number one goal is to keep you and your loved ones isolated and away from potentially contagious people. Always practice safe hygiene and constantly clean surfaces and hands.
It would behoove you to have several months of food and water stocked up just in case. This would preclude you from having to risk your health in order to restock your supplies in the middle of a pandemic. No matter what the level of social decay is, from pandemic to full out societal unrest, the bottom line is simple. Stay away from (and decrease your dependency on) other humans. Also, learn how to protect yourself from them - both in terms of sickness and physical safety. Humans are allegedly the smartest animal on this planet, yet they are certainly the most dangerous too!
The best survival advice I could ever provide is to start learning how to be self-reliant with the skillsets of our forefathers. Do you know how to identify wild edible plants? Do you know how to grow food? Do you know how to save seed for next year? Do you know how to hunt or raise livestock? Do you know how to process the meat? Do you know how to regulate your body temperature by building a fire or a shelter? Do you know how to treat your own injuries with wild medicines? Ultimately, the less dependence you have on the grid and/or other people, the better!