This guest post is courtesy of Joe Perko, Director of Field Services at Rapid Refile is a recognized leader in document restoration and recovery, vacuum-freeze drying, mold remediation and flood restoration services for businesses and individuals.
Avoid Document Restoration Needs: How to Prepare
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 and peaks between the months of August and September. About 10 named storms occur each season, with an average of two or three becoming major hurricanes.
How to Prepare for Hurricane Season
In addition to affecting coastlines, hurricanes and tropical storms can affect communities that are hundreds of miles inland. Hurricanes can bring winds exceeding 155 miles per hour, as well as microbursts (straight-line winds that shoot air downward), tornadoes, storm surges, floods and extensive damage. Flying debris and floods are often the most deadly, expensive and destructive results of hurricanes, especially when the storms move slowly through an area. Since it’s difficult to predict what the next hurricane season has in store, being prepared can help you stay safe and recover faster.
Before the hurricane season begins:
Make an emergency plan for your family and/or business. In this plan, include the location of a safe meeting place, important phone numbers, the location of community hurricane shelters and a map of emergency evacuation routes. Additionally, make a plan to recover and get back on your feet after the storm passes.
Prepare an emergency kit. This kit should include a radio, drinking water, food, clothes, blankets, medications, flashlight, pet supplies (if appropriate) and copies of important paperwork.
Know your area. Identify the areas of your community that are most likely to flood to determine the risk to your property.
Review your insurance policy. Sometimes insurance policies don’t cover water damage to homes and buildings. Review your insurance policy with your agent, even if you rent, to make sure you have enough coverage against wind and water damage.
Purchase materials to protect your home. If you don’t have hurricane or storm shutters for your windows, you’ll need to cover them with 5/8-inch marine plywood.
Manicure your landscape. Keep trees and shrubs around your home trimmed so they resist the wind better.
Scan important documents. These documents can include contracts, deeds to buildings, titles for vehicles, photographs, historical pieces, books, medical records and so on. A document restoration service can give you advice about saving important documents.
Restoring Wet Documents
Restoring wet documents after a hurricane or storm can be difficult to do on your own, especially if the weather is humid and there is a loss of power. One of the best ways to recover your wet documents is with the help of a document restoration service that uses vacuum-freeze drying techniques. This method includes the use of a chamber that blast-freezes wet documents and vaporizes the ice using precise pressure and temperature controls to prevent further damage. Vacuum-freeze drying is the ideal, highest-quality method to salvage wet books, photos, specialty or fragile papers and large volumes of books and paper.
It’s a well-known idea in the prepper community that you cannot survive alone. Some folks may want to ignore this and try to get everything they could ever need, but prepping is not just about stuff. No single person can ever be totally self-sufficient – There will always be something you do not have the resources, skill or time to make. Heck even if you could, who will guard you when you sleep, shower, or well…
I think nothing is better preparedness than organizing your community for disaster. It is not easy, and you can’t do it fast, but it is worth every bit of time you spend to do it.
I like to say (which gets me strange or knowing looks depending on who I say it to) – “You cannot shoot everybody”. To me a good plan takes into consideration your neighbors, to get others near you to prep and plan for their own disaster needs. It turns neighbors into allies rather than enemies. It gives you someone to work with and makes a community.
The problem (as I see it) is that while all sorts of government and non-government agencies preach disaster preparedness a similar amount (sometimes under the same czar) or agencies post bulletins telling people to look out for people that prep. If you just tell everyone you’re a prepper you will most likely get invited to less neighborhood cookouts than more.
My attempt to try to organize my community is by going slowly and trying to organize a government sponsored group. That way if it takes off I can slowly build trust in the community, gauge capabilities, and eventually approach the likeminded for a more comprehensive plan.
DHS has a program through Citizen Corps called Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). A CERT team is a group of volunteers that receive free training in emergency response. They take classes on basic disaster response, light search and rescue, first aid, firefighting, and other needed response activities. The idea is that in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, CERT members grab their gear, meet up, and rapidly assess the needs of the immediate community. They can then report back to the local emergency management agency a list of needs and hazards thereby making response faster and more efficient.
Because it is government sponsored and relatively well known it is a lot less “threatening” to non-preppers. I imagine going door to door talking about bobs, SHTF, WROL, and storing ammo would not be well received in most areas. Going door to door talking about an enhanced neighborhood watch sponsored by FEMA to make sure nobody is left to fend for themselves after a flood or tornado is much less “non pc”.
So what I did was approach the County Emergency Management Director and ask him for support. He told me he thought it was a great idea, but that he has tried it before and did not get a good turnout for the classes.
I then made a flier with the information, what CERT was, that it was free, that it did not take a lot of time, and the benefits. I printed out 100 flyers and over a weekend my wife drove me around to drop them off. I was surprised at the friendliness of my neighbors, I received a very positive response in all but two homes – one was too busy, and the other very haughtily told me she did not think anything could happen, that the government would help if it did, and she did not want to waste her time (I told the wife to remember her – she gets no help if something does happen).
So I passed the fliers out – Part one – hopefully I will get a response. If not, I will continue working in the yard and being a role model for “urban homesteading” and “sustainable living”, if a disaster ever strikes maybe enough will remember my attempt to organize which may give me some credibility toward a response after the fact. Obviously that is not as good as having a local group pre-disaster, but its better than nothing.
I was careful not to mention prepping in my CERT conversations; I am less worried about OPSEC than someone like Mr. Rawles from survivalblog. That is because of my firearm classes who I am and what I am doing is on the internet, but I feel like most who read my articles would be the type to join a CERT team, so I don’t worry about them. However, I did not want to talk about my preps to those that live down the street, as I would not want them to get the idea to take what is mine (Unlike Dilbert, I have no protein bars), if they try, I cannot shoot everybody – They may get me in a rush, but I can turn a head or 30 into canoes…
I am not a Biblical Scholar, Pastor, Priest, or Reverend. But I do want to understand what God wants me to do, and besides prayer, reading his word is the best way to do this. Some of you are not Christians, and that is your choice – the purpose of this article is not to offend you, but to explain my understanding of a Biblical controversy over the prophecy of the Rapture and why I believe it will come during the Great Tribulation and not before it.
I feel the need to post this because in some discussions with other Christians I have been told they don’t feel the need to prepare because they will be raptured away before the Tribulation, and they wouldn’t need anything. That ignores all the other possible scenarios where prepping would come in handy, but discussing that is another article. It also ignores another thought of mine- that prepping is insurance, you may never need it – but you have it there for peace of mind.
The idea of Post vs. Pre Tribulation Rapture isn’t a deal breaker – I believe that if you’re Saved, you go to heaven with either belief – so if I am wrong on this, someone who wasn’t raptured gets a little more food. Basically I made some else’s life better. If I am right, then I made my life better – win win…
I don’t post many religious articles because I know that I do not have a perfect understanding, and I don’t want to lead someone in the wrong direction, but my faith is a large part about who I am. The name “Shepherd School” is based on the idea that those who are given gifts are expected to use them for the greater good – People with strength need to use it to protect those that are weaker. I see signs that our world is falling into chaos – that’s not new, but the rate of the growth of evil is becoming faster and faster. I don’t know if the Antichrist is on earth or not – But I do know that if we do not reverse (not slow down, not compromise, not simply stop) the growth of evil, then we will be judged sooner rather than later.
First off, let me categorically state I have no idea when the Rapture or Great Tribulation will occur – The Bible clearly says no human knows the date. Anyone on earth that tells you it will happen on a specific date is lying. (they may not KNOW they are lying, or mean to lie – but and untruth is still untrue no matter the intent)
If you take the Biblical references to Jesus coming “Like a thief in the night” to mean he will come before the tribulations then I am not mad at you. The fact that you have an opinion on the issue means we have more in common than those that don’t know or care.
Regarding His return, Jesus told His disciples:
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of Heaven, but My Father only. …Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, which if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:36, 40-44).
It doesn’t mean it will be quiet and swift like a thief, but that it will be unexpected. You will either be prepared or not – you cannot wait until the last minute and then get ready – You need to be ready for His return at all times.
Jesus told His disciples: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29-31).
The apostle Paul further explains that the Antichrist will already be in power and “sitting in the temple of God” when the Rapture happens, and we know from other passages that this happens after the Antichrist breaks the “holy covenant,” which triggers the Great Tribulation:
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [Jesus’ return] will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin [the Antichrist] is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
Both the prophecies in the books of Daniel and Revelation state that the saints—all those who have been born again—will be around during the Tribulation, because the Antichrist will war against them. In fact, several passages are even very specific about the length of this period.
“I was watching; and the [Antichrist] was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days [God] came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. … He [the Antichrist] shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time [three and a half years]” (Daniel 7:21-22, 25).
It’s clear that the Great Tribulation is going to be a trying time, but God will help us come through it victoriously. Concerning that time, Daniel writes:
“The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. And those of the people who understand shall instruct many” (Daniel 11:32-33).
During the Great Tribulation many people will turn to the Lord, as those who know God and understand what’s happening will manifest great powers and win to God’s eternal kingdom many of those who are disaffected with the Antichrist and his regime. The Tribulation trumpets will signal judgments on the wicked—not the just, who will be under God’s seal of protection during this time.
“These [the great multitude standing before the throne of God and Jesus] are the ones who come out of the Great Tribulation” (Revelation7:14).
The multitude came out of the Tribulation, they were there during it. God will deliver His own OUT of trouble, not from it!
This is what I believe and why I believe it, and I have asked to be forgiven of my sins and be saved. This is my Golden Preparation. Precept #1 – no matter what else happens I am assured of going to Heaven. All my other preps are to make sure I don’t suffer any more than I have to, and because God calls upon men to take care of their families.
I welcome discussion on this, like I said at the beginning of the article there are competing Christian doctrine on this subject, and several Biblical passages that when taken alone seem to strengthen one argument over another – it is only though honest and open study of the entire Bible that you get the entire picture.
I have something weighing on my mind; it’s probably a rant, so I am going to give fair warning. If you read this site, you may have (if not then I’m not doing a good job of expressing myself) noticed I am a rather conservative Christian. So far warning, if you don’t want to hear my opinion on the current direction of the American culture then don’t click the “read more” link below, and wait a day or so to read my next how to article. Otherwise please enjoy part two of a three part series.
Words have meanings, and when having discussions about thorny issues, I think it is vital to agree on the proper definitions. Let me give you an example; When a convict says, “I got 14 years for accessory to armed robbery, it’s not my fault I was at the wrong place at the wrong time” you define that to mean he is saying he is innocent of the crime, when he just might be saying that the he shouldn’t have been home when the cops arrived.
I titled this post as “Tolerance” because I want to express my understanding of what progressives mean when they use this term. I feel this is needed because the progressive dictionary is much more flexible in meaning than the conservative one. Anyone that disagrees with that statement should tell me what the definition of “is” is.
In the last article I talked about judgment, and how I believe each adult is responsible for their own actions, and how we should not try to enforce out will upon others. Today’s article will go into detail about what I see is the reasoning that a segment of our population feels the need to do just that.
I am of the belief that not everybody holds the same opinions as I do, and I respect that. I came to my beliefs based upon observation, education, and life experiences – what I believe works for me. I am rational enough to understand that if different people have different life experiences then the resulting belief systems may not be the same.
I think this is a source of American strength; Tolerance is part of the reason we can improvise, adapt, and overcome. Why we thrive on adversity – because we can learn from each other, and have a rational discourse.
When I use the word tolerance I prefer to define it as “a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one’s own.” Coupled the idea that one should not judge others – it means that I am pretty accepting of other’s beliefs without compromising my own. That does not mean I believe the practices and opinions of others are right or even healthy, just that I don’t see it as my business to force my opinions on others.
However, I am also starting to see the meaning of the word tolerance becoming twisted. The permissive portion has become over strengthened and fair has been weakened. Somehow tolerance has a new meaning that means any behavior besides the traditional American Christian viewpoint is acceptable, but the conservative viewpoint is no longer tolerated.
I find this to be rather interesting, as that this viewpoint is still the majority opinion of this country, and the freedom to bring about the change in the meaning of tolerance stems from the tolerance of the typical American conservative.
When it boils down to it, the Christian Conservatives I have met are good people, they want little kids to go to sleep in warm beds and full bellies. They want them to go to good schools and grow up to have good jobs.
The typical liberal I know are also good people, they too want kids to be safe and grow up to
So, since this is, at the heart of it, a gun blog I will illustrate another way.
I believe I have a right and a duty to protect my family from harm. I believe that God endowed me with certain rights that cannot be righteously taken away. One of those rights is to possess and carry firearms to protect those rights.
There are places I cannot carry my firearm, and frankly I am uncomfortable without it. All I can think of is that “IF” something happened, without my pistol I really cannot respond to an active shooter situation nearly as effectively as I can with my handgun. This is born out in statistics – when an active shooter situation is stopped by police the average civilians death count is 18, when stopped by an armed citizen it is 2.
I tolerate my feelings of being uncomfortable without my firearm in certain situations because that’s the law, and because part of being part of a larger society is subjugating some measure of individual rights for the common good.
What bothers me is that I know that in the event of a spree killer I am more useful with my gun than without. I know my skill level, and have trained specifically in being able to determine if I should or should not use my pistol to attempt to end a threat. I also know that I am mentally stable enough to act in a reasonable manner. My possession of a gun is only a threat to those looking to harm innocent people.
However, not all Americans like guns; some are uncomfortable with the idea that there are men who are willing to commit violent acts in protection of something greater than themselves. To some, a gun has a soul – that it is an evil implement that has a desire to kill – The mere sight of a gun makes some uncomfortable.
I don’t understand that mindset. I know the true nature of a gun. However, in deference to those that are afraid of a hunk of metal, I am willing to conceal it from their view so that they do not feel uncomfortable.
That’s not good enough for them; somehow, they believe that even though I am willing to compromise to spare their feelings, I should not be able to own a gun. My inability to protect my child, my wife, or myself and my feelings of fear that I would not be able to protect those I love is not important to them as their feelings of discomfort.
It is ludicrous, why does one person’s opinion and feelings more important than another’s? I make a point not to enforce my will on those that disagree with me, and all I ask is that they give me the same respect.
Why is it that certain classes of people believe they have the right to criticize my life choices and attempt to force me to change my perception of the world, while demanding that I do not do the same to them?
I will tell you what I believe is the reason in the next post.
I believe the rules should be applied fairly, and that while we don’t have a perfect system, if we work within the framework of our Constitution we have a very fair system. I believe that those that abuse the system and try to circumvent the rules because “the end justifies the means”, those that wish to force their will upon others are anomalies. I believe conservatives greatly outnumber militant progressives, and that gun owners in particular make up the majority of Americans, and that the vast majority of gun owners are conservatives that believe in our system of government.
If there ever is a time that being conservative is criminal, if guns are outlawed and our Constitution destroyed, if conservatives ever adopted the progressive playbook and adopted the “rules for radicals” We would crush them. That is why I believe they work so hard to demonize us, because they cannot understand why we allow the rules to be twisted against us, and still try to work within the boundaries of the law, and they have night terrors at the thought that one day we may “wake up” and treat them as they treat us.
Car survival kits are specifically designed to provide survival supplies if you are trapped in or become disabled or lost in your vehicle. Automobile emergency kits are not the same as a Survival kit. An automobile kit generally contain flares, jumper cables, spare fuses, etc. They help the car, not you.
Most folks don’t understand why a car kit is important. However, those same people can vividly recall the news reports of a person pinned in their wrecked car for days.
A Truck is Not Always the Best Place for a Kit
Your supplies may be inaccessible in your trunk if you are actually trapped in your vehicle. This depends on you vehicle. For such a scenario, you’d want supplies within reach of the passenger compartment. This may not be a problem for a pickup truck, minivan or SUVs where there is access to the entire vehicle and you or your passengers can reach the supplies.
However, sedans with a separate trunk are trickier. You could be trapped in the driver’s seat and be unable to access your supplies. Although, such scenarios have a very low probability. Most victims are found before they needed life saving supplies.
Although, when it is just my wife and I, I move our kit to the backseat of our sedan. Keeping your car survival kit in the trunk would prove effective for the majority of your scenarios. However, an extended jam could have you wishing for water. Just think about the parking lot known as Interstate 45 from Galveston to Houston any time an evacuation order is given for a hurricane!
Hot Trunks Will Reduce Storage Life
Keep in mind, the storage of food supplies in a hot trunk will shorten the shelf-life of most food products. Refresh them annually. Similarly, certain first aid supplies can become unusable if exposed to long periods of intense heat. Consequently, check your supplies at the end of summer and refresh what is not useful.
While there may not be one right answer for where to keep your emergency kits. Any amount of forethought will do you well in locating your kits. Keep in mind that every area of the country has different hazard considerations. Your car survival kits and storage location should be based upon your higher probability disaster scenarios.
