The Madison Organization
Formally Austins Corner
My mission is to be prepared for the most probable and most severe natural and man-made disasters while staying adaptable, practical, and affordable.
This page contains information from my website www.survival411.org
First, we need to look at the fundamentals of survival.
3 Minutes without Air
I am not talking about suffocation. I am talking about protecting your lungs. Breathing smoke from a house or building fire doesn't happen very often, but the severity of the consciousness of breathing that smoke for just three minutes can kill you slowly over many years.
Before Coivd, I recommended carrying an n95 mask, because they are cheap, lightweight, small, and cover the most important survival need. Even if you have your shot, it's still smart to keep an extra mask in your backpack or purse.
3 Hours without Shelter
When I say shelter, I mean the ability to protect yourself from harsh weather by controlling your temperature. Staying warm in the cold or staying cool in the heat is the point. A Shelter is anything that helps you maintain your body temperature.
The right clothes are your first line of defense of the harsh elements and count as shelter.
3 Days without Water
On average, we need 1 Gallon of Water a Day. When calculating how much water to store for your family, plan for one gallon of water per person per day. Add one gallon a day if they are sick or pregnant. Store a lot of water but be sure you use it and replace it.
Store some unscented bleach just for treating contaminated water. You can plan on filling up your bathtubs for water, but don't count on it. Store enough water for everyone in your house for three days, then add more.
30 Days without Food
Store what you eat and eat what you store. With any survival food, whether it's canned, dehydrated, or you have a few boxes of MRE's or something similar, you need to keep your body used to what you store, so it doesn't have a bad reaction when you depend on it.
Start to buy a little extra of the food you like to eat that keeps well for a few months. Like with water, start out by trying to keep 3 days of food supplies for your family separate from the normal food and rotate it once a month. The same applies to pets with storing extra food and water.
Secondly, we need to understand Risk.
The Survival 3's above determine severity or consequence. Next, we need to think about the likelihood of something happening. For that, we will use a Risk Matrix.
This video was created by Ranil Appuhamy
Here is a simple one like the one in the video. They can get bigger but are still based on something this simple.
Using the Risk Matrix
This will be unique to you based on where you live, how many people you are preparing for, how easy it is for you to leave if you need to, and other factors. To start, you can list how often in the past ten years the below natural disasters happened in the last year. Then make a list of 10 years.
Natural Disasters in the US and the greatest risk.
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Drought & Heatwaves
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Winter Stormes
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Hurricane
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Flooding
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Wildfires
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Thunderstorm / Tornado
To use the Risk Matrix, think of something you want to prepare for, and determine which of the Survival 3's would be affected the most, then rate how bad it would be if it happened on a scale of 1 to 5. Then, thinking of how likely it is to happen on a scale from 1 to 5, you can rank the scenarios according to what you need to prepare for.
The last step is deciding how prepared you want to be.
Knowing what you are at most significant risk for is essential, but we usually have two options when responding to a threat, staying put or leaving.
So we can "Bug In" or "Bug Out," as they say. We will either be told to evacuate an area or shelter in place.
Bugging In: Most likely and least severe.
Bugging Out: Least likely and most severe.
So we will use that as the basis for our severity and likelihood to make our risk matrix.
Bugging In
More Likely
Bugging Out
More Severe
