Preparing to Survive E-Book

Chris McNab

• Herausgeber: Amber Books Ltd
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 300

Beschreibung

What are you going to do if the water supply stops? Or if there’s no food on sale any more? If there’s no electricity? Or if law and order breaks down? Will you manage? Would you make the right decisions? Are you ready for this? SAS And Elite Forces Guide: Preparing To Survive teaches you all the skills and offers you all the tips and information you may need if things really go wrong. Preppers are people who have decided to take their safety into their own hands in learning to live off the land, digging the own wells, providing their own power and defending themselves. In the wake of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina their numbers are growing and there is increasing media coverage of this phenomenon. SAS And Elite Forces Guide: Preparing To Survive begins with the possible catastrophe scenarios such as environmental disasters, wars and terrorism. Chapter by chapter, the book looks at the areas you need to prepare: your home, what you need if you have to take flight, pre-preparing food for a crisis, finding clean water, maintaining your health, defending yourself, and creating power supplies. With tips and techniques from survival experts, this book shows you what to do not only in the moments and hours after disaster has struck, but also in the weeks, months and years that follow. With more than 300 easy-to-follow artworks and handy pull-out lists of key information, SAS And Elite Forces Guide: Preparing To Survive is the definitive long term survival guide for when help isn’t on its way. If disaster strikes, you’ll be ready.

Leseprobe

www.amberbooks.co.uk

PREPARING TOSURVIVE

CHRIS MCNAB

This digital edition first published in 2012

Published by

Amber Books Ltd

United House

North Road

London N7 9DP

United Kingdom

Website: www.amberbooks.co.uk

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Twitter: @amberbooks

Copyright © 2012 Amber Books Ltd

ISBN: 978 1 909160 40 8

ILLUSTRATIONS

Tony Randell

All rights reserved. With the exception of quoting brief passages for the purpose of review no part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission from the publisher. The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without any guarantee on the part of the author or publisher, who also disclaim any liability incurred in connection with the use of this data or specific details.

CONTENTS

1. Facing Catastrophe

2. Survival in the Home

3. Survival Outdoors

4. Food and Drink

5. Defending Yourself

6. Medicine and Hygiene

Appendices

Index

No matter how protected our lives might appear in modern society, threats from man-made and natural disasters remain very real. Preparation is the key to surviving them, should they occur.

1

Catastrophe can strike when you least expect it to, whether it be a flood, tsunami, hurricane, tornado or pandemic.

Facing Catastrophe

The morgues were packed almost to the ceiling with bodies stacked one on top of another. The morticians worked day and night. You could never turn around without seeing a big red truck loaded with caskets for the train station so bodies could be sent home. We didn’t have the time to treat them. We didn’t take temperatures; we didn’t even have time to take blood pressure. We would give them a little hot whisky toddy; that’s about all we had time to do.

These chilling memories come from one Josie Brown, a US Navy nurse who worked at the Naval Hospital in Great Lakes, Illinois, in 1918. She was not describing a battlefield hospital of World War I – for that conflict had just drawn to a close. Instead, she was witnessing the effects of one of the most lethal pandemics ever to hit humankind – the Spanish Flu of 1918–19. In these two terrible years, possibly 6 per cent of the world’s entire population died (up to 100 million people, depending on estimates), and 30 per cent succumbed to infection. (The pattern in individual countries could be much worse – in Western Samoa 90 per cent of the population was infected.) Coming on the heels of a global conflict that had already killed more than 15 million people, Spanish Flu was an unparalleled trauma.

The Spanish Flu pandemic of those years is a stark reminder that humanity, even today, is vulnerable to sudden catastrophe. A quick glance through history tells us, in sobering fashion, that disaster – local, regional, national and, less commonly, global – is a fairly regular visitor, whether it’s earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, war or disease. Yet even in the most dreadful calamities, fatalities tend to affect a minority of the population. This is a cause for hope – humankind as a whole has proved impressively resilient, not least because of our large brain capacity and problem-solving abilities. But for those who do survive the 30-second shake of an earthquake, or who isolate themselves from a diseased population, the challenges to wellbeing and long-term survival can be profound.

To illustrate, let’s stick with the example of a pandemic. One of the benefits of modern science is that we now understand the transmission mechanisms of viral and bacterial illnesses, even if we can’t cure them. Essentially, reductions in human-to-human contact are one of the primary ways, in the short to medium term, to lessen the impact of the disease. In the long term, we have to wait for natural immunity to develop in the human community, or for an emergency vaccination programme to be rolled out. Meanwhile, for the duration of the pandemic, society as we know it either ceases to exist or functions at a level well below that of normal. This does not simply mean severely reduced social interaction, but a fundamental reduction in all the facilities that keep health, hygiene and infrastructure functioning. The US Department of Homeland Security has made detailed studies of predicted effects for future major pandemics. The following list is worth quoting in full, not least because the effects detailed are relevant to almost any type of disaster:

Dramatic worker absenteeism (40 per cent or more) will occur at all levels due to illness, family member care, death, childcare, and ‘worried well’ (otherwise healthy people who avoid the workplace for fear of exposure).

Pandemic disease spread will be rapid and unpredictable, likely precluding shifting personnel, resources, and emergency operations centres to ‘safe’ areas.

Movement restrictions and/or quarantines will disrupt the supply chains and municipal services.

Social distancing requirements will affect business operations, especially when public contact is unavoidable (e.g., retail food) or workers share a common workspace (e.g., plants).

Business closures and furloughs for prolonged periods may cause extensive financial harm or even ruin, increasing demand for social and welfare support.

Lost income and competition for remaining skilled workers and scarce supplies and materials will dramatically affect business response and recovery.

Reduced worker availability among first responders may result in greater risk of social and security disruptions.

Disruptions and failures at essential businesses will cause localized economic and social challenges and may affect other businesses in the sector, region, and, perhaps, the nation.

(Source:www.pandemicflu.gov)

Coping with a Pandemic

Pandemics are arguably the greatest threat faced by mankind. Simple precautions – such as wearing surgical face masks – can go a long way to preventing airborne transference of the disease. Yet by far the best countermeasures are isolating yourself from crowds, and washing hands frequently.

Home Stores

The supplies you keep in your home can be life-savers in the event of a disaster. They range from obvious items such as food and water, through to basic practical tools like flashlights, candles and radios.

This catalogue of problems would come on top of the mortality and injuries sustained during and following the disaster. It takes only a little imagination to get some inkling of what the situation could be like. First, imagine that you have a power cut – the national electricity grid has gone down. Without back-up supply, that means no artificial light, heat, cooking, cooling or freezing facilities; no powered alarm system and no mains-supplied television, radio or communication systems.

A breakdown in fuel distributions means that deliveries of goods to stores are sporadic or cease altogether, so whatever food you have in the cupboards is effectively all you have unless you can find emergency sources. Once that food is used, you have either to find more or begin to starve. Water plants might close down, resulting in a lack of drinking water and the ability to keep clean, both of which carry serious health consequences. Because society is in crisis, law enforcement is stretched to breaking point, so you will have to take temporary responsibility for protecting yourself and your family against others. Against this backdrop, you also have to take care of your own and your family’s health, possibly without the aid of professional medical help.

In short, in a disaster you will have to survive without all the social and infrastructural support you rely on every day. That is the theme of this book.

Natural Disasters

Coping with natural disaster is, unfortunately, part of the human condition, and it is worth spending time getting to understand the threats that we face. The planet we live on is a turbulent, living entity, governed by shifting tectonic plates, an often-violent atmosphere and many other natural phenomena. Consequently, natural disasters are frequent visitors, more so in some parts of the world than others.

Tornadoes

The severity of these disasters is dictated by numerous variables, but the most important is the size of the affected region. Tornadoes, for example, are the planet’s most extreme weather phenomenon, delivering wind speeds of up to 480km/h (300mph) and flattening houses, uprooting entire trees, flinging cars about like toys and turning even the smallest objects into lethal projectiles. Yet individually, even the largest tornadoes rarely ever exceed 3.2km (2 miles) across at the base (typically, US tornadoes are an average of 150m/492ft wide at ground level); therefore, the damage they inflict is largely confined to the track they cut across the ground, and the duration of their travel – anywhere from a few kilometres to more than 300km (188 miles).

For those caught directly in the path of a tornado, the effects can be devastating, their homes and livelihoods, the work of years, decades even, obliterated in seconds. Yet, by being a localized phenomenon, tornadoes tend to have a limited societal impact. The major infrastructure of an affected area still tends to function; although electricity supplies are often interrupted, they are usually restored within 48 hours, and building reconstruction can begin in a matter of days.

Greater problems come, however, when the extent of the disaster widens. This can happen in the case of a ‘tornado outbreak’, when multiple tornadoes develop from a single storm system. During 25–28 April 2011, the Southern, Midwestern and Northeastern United States were hit by no less than 359 confirmed tornadoes, the worst-affected states being Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia. A total of 364 people were killed, and the physical damage reached $11 billion. A federal state of emergency was declared, with residents of tornado-struck areas having to cope with power outages for up to a week (although most had power back within a couple of days) plus contaminated water supplies and local shortages of food and other supplies.

Anatomy of a Tornado

Tornadoes are one of the most destructive natural phenomena on the face of planet. Here we see the characteristic tornado funnel shape, the wind made visible by the ingress of water vapour and dust.

Hurricanes

The devastation caused by even multiple tornadoes tends to pale in comparison to that delivered by a hurricane. Hurricane winds are not as fast as those of tornadoes, but they can still reach up to 252km/h (157mph) at their most extreme. More importantly, an individual hurricane is typically in the region of 30–65km (19–40 miles) across, and sometimes can even be several hundred kilometres wide.

Hurricanes not only deliver crushing winds, but also huge volumes of rain and devastating storm surges – significant rises in sea level that can result in massive flooding across coastal districts. Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge, which inundated large areas of Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005, reached more than 8m (25ft) in height, and thereby washed out large areas of both states’ coastlines.

Hurricane Formation

The powerful destructive winds of a hurricane rotate around a central ‘eye’, which has the lowest atmospheric pressure of the storm system. While conditions within the eye are typically calm and relatively benign, the outer storm winds can hit prolonged speeds of up to and beyond 241km/h (150mph).

Flood Protection

Flood protection is a fairly basic process. Sandbags are a critical line of defence; when the sand becomes wet, it provides a waterproof barrier around doors and windows. Other apertures, such as ventilation ducts, can be sealed with plastic and tape.

In fact, Katrina is a salutary illustration of how even the most developed of nations can struggle to cope with the enormity of a major natural disaster. Some 1836 people were killed and $81 billion of damage was inflicted. The great city of New Orleans was virtually destroyed – 80 per cent of the city was under water – and more than one million people were displaced from the Southeastern United States. Hundreds of people found themselves clinging to life for days without adequate food or water supplies, in a declining security situation that necessitated the mass deployment of the US National Guard. (Looting became a serious problem, although reports of violence were subsequently found to be somewhat exaggerated.) Some areas did not have their essential utilities restored for weeks after the disaster.

Hurricane Katrina was actually far from the most devastating hurricane in history. In the United States, that grim accolade goes to the Galveston hurricane of 8 September 1900, which slammed into the Texas coast and resulted in the deaths of 8000 people. But it is in South and Southeast Asia that hurricanes have had their most lethal results, not least because of the poor housing, poverty and health issues that already affect many regions.

The Bhola Cyclone (cyclone is another word for hurricane) hit East Pakistan (modern Bangladesh) and West Bengal in India on 12 November 1970. Up to 500,000 people died either during the storm or from the appaling after-effects of disease, starvation and dehydration. Most of the region’s crops were destroyed, and drinking water was contaminated by seawater, making this one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history.

Know Your Enemies

As the examples above illustrate, nature is a mighty force once unleashed, and many of its victims are relatively powerless. Yet humans can and do endure the worst that nature can throw at them. Those who come out best tend to be those who have prepared in advance for disaster, and preparation begins with knowledge.

This book is essentially about preparation – preparing yourself, your family and your home for what should happen if the world around you suddenly plunges into chaos. While natural disasters are inevitably arbitrary by nature, the fact remains that modern science has provided us with a deep insight into the natural world. As the old adage advises, forewarned is forearmed, so anyone interested in survivalism should have a detailed knowledge of the natural dangers in their locality, region and country – and, of course, in world at large. Only by fully understanding the threats, is it possible to make the precise preparations needed to survive them.

Seasonal Extremes

Start by looking at the natural seasonal extremes of weather in your part of the world. Every year, millions of people are caught out by unusually intense summer heat and exceptional snowfall and sub-zero temperatures, despite the fact that such conditions occur regularly. At the time of writing (February 2012), for example, more than 300 people across Europe have been killed by a sudden precipitous drop in winter temperatures, as low as -35°C (-31°F) in parts of Russia and Ukraine. In Serbia, 11,000 villagers in mountainous areas have been trapped by blizzards and heavy snowfall. Similarly, in December 2010 the Eastern United States was locked under the icy grip of a powerful blizzard. New York received 51cm (20in) of snow, shutting down the city’s major airports, subway and most roads, and New Jersey’s problems were so great that a state of emergency was declared.

Snow Storm

Snow storms imperil millions of people every year throughout the developed world. Part of the problem is that many countries do not have predictable seasonal extremes, meaning that the inhabitants of those countries are not prepared when such conditions do occur.

The important point about these natural events is that while they are unusual, they are not unprecedented. In 1888, exactly the same areas affected by the 2010 blizzard were hit by up to 127cm (50in) of snowfall in an appaling winter storm. A total of 400 people died, and major urban areas of the Eastern Seaboard came to a virtual standstill. The message is clear – such events are rare, but repeated.

Do Your Research

History is something the survivalist can never ignore. Take time to find out all about the most extreme weather conditions that have visited your community in the last 200 years, and base your preparations on the expectation that similar events could happen again. The type of data you should gather includes the following:

Seasonal extremes of temperature.

Areas with a proven or historical susceptibility to flooding.

Parts of your region worst affected by adverse climatic conditions, e.g. roads regularly impassable in winter, or rivers likely to burst their banks under heavy rainfall.

Common extreme weather phenomena in your region, e.g. drought, tornadoes and blizzards.

History of disaster response in your region, including its effectiveness and measures that have been put in place in recent years.

Drought

Drought is a threat for many countries over the coming decades. Some specialists see water shortages as the world’s greatest security issue.

The locations of any dangerous geological features, such as tectonic fault lines and volcanoes.

By gathering as many facts as you can about the natural history of your region, you can build up a threat profile and act accordingly. In addition to books and the Internet, your local library or historical society should be able to assist in your research. Draw on first-hand accounts from survivors of disaster; even if they were written in very different times, they will still provide you with useful clues about the types of challenges they faced. Also, ask relevant local government bodies for copies of any emergency-response policies in place, to see if there are convincing measures to cope with any of the kinds of disasters you have found in your historical research. If not, approach influential officials and make determined requests that the authorities improve their disaster preparations. Make this campaign as public as possible by using the media – no official wants his or her name to go down in history as the person who ignored the available warnings.

Tornado Facts: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

• They may strike quickly, with little or no warning.

• They may appear nearly transparent until dust and debris are picked up or a cloud forms in the funnel.

• The average tornado moves southwest to northeast, but tornadoes have been known to move in any direction.

• The average forward speed of a tornado is 30mph [48km/h], but may vary from stationary to 70mph [112.6km/h].

• Tornadoes can accompany tropical storms and hurricanes as they move onto land.

• Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water.

• Tornadoes are most frequently reported east of the Rocky Mountains during spring and summer months.

• Peak tornado season in the southern states is March through May; in the northern states, it is late spring through early summer.

• Tornadoes are most likely to occur between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., but can occur at any time.

(For further information, see:www.fema.gov)

Weather Effects

In addition to historical research, you should also find out more about the science of the specific threats that confront you. By understanding how, say, hurricanes do their damage or volcanic ash clouds affect health, you can make informed decisions in adverse situations. The quality of those decisions could make the difference between life and death, so don’t feel that a little bookwork is an unnecessary diversion.

In terms of specific weather events, we have already touched on the nature of tornadoes and hurricanes. Because hurricanes require large volumes of warm water to form, they emerge only from tropical waters during specific seasons. Around the Bay of Bengal and India this season lasts from May to November, while the southwest Indian Ocean is affected from December to April. In the western North Pacific, roughly from Japan to Guam, hurricanes occur in June to December, while further south (down the northern coastline of Australia) they occur in December to March. For the Southern United States, the Caribbean and Central America, the hurricane season lasts from June to November. Such information can act as a prompt for you to check your survival preparations in advance; if you live in a hurricane-affected area, put a note in your diary to check supplies at least a month before the hurricane season begins.

Tornado Alley

Tornadoes are also limited by time and place. Although they are a worldwide phenomenon (mild tornadoes have even been known to occur in rural England), they principally occur in North America. Here, the so-called ‘tornado alley’ area is most affected, in which 90 per cent of all US tornadoes occur. Tornado alley consists of the south-central United States, particularly eastern South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, northern Texas and eastern Colorado. Florida and the Gulf Coast are also frequently visited by tornadoes, the latter earning the nickname ‘Dixie Alley’. Thankfully, meteorological tornado tracking has become a refined art in the United States, with regular media warnings issued when tornadoes are likely. The frequency of such warnings can lead to some complacency, but as we shall see later in this book, they should act as regular prompts to put your survival house in order (often quite literally).

Flooding

Hurricanes, tornadoes, regular storms and seasonal rains, particularly the monsoon in Asia, often bring with them the blight of flooding. Widespread destructive flooding tends to occur for two main reasons: 1) storm surges along coastal areas; 2) a massive volume of rainwater bursting the banks of rivers, lakes or other bodies of water. Flooding can also result from the spring melt of large volumes of snow, but this effect tends to be well known to locals, and so preparations are usually, although not always, in place.

Flooding can be a progressive experience, with flood waters steadily extending out from an overloaded river across adjacent fields and streets. Yet it can also be extremely violent, producing flash floods of often-underestimated power. Flash floods occur when a volume of water suddenly undergoes a massive volume increase, overwhelming its banks or defences and unleashing a torrential and fast-moving outflow. The flash flood tends to follow specific natural routes, such as valleys and channels in rock, and will move much faster than you can run. They also carry with them enormous kinetic energy. Studies have shown that flash floods of just 0.6m (2ft) in depth are sufficient to carry away large cars, and people are caught by this phenomenon every year. In fact, on average more people die in the United States from flash floods than from the results of lightning, tornadoes and hurricanes.

Force of Water

Wave impact naturally increases with the height of the wave and the volume of the water it contains. These illustrations show the clear importance of staying on the upper levels of the house if flood is a definite threat.

Flooded Roads

Fast-flowing water carries with it great power. If it is running higher than the wheel arches of a car, it can easily push the vehicle uncontrollably in the direction of the flow. For this reason, only attempt to ford running water if you know for certain that you can make the other side safely.

Some entire regions are prone to widespread destructive flooding on a regular basis. Few countries wrestle with this problem more than Bangladesh, situated as it is on the Ganges Delta, through which the Himalayan melt waters flow on their way to the sea. Being only a few metres above sea level, and also prey to storm surges from seasonal cyclones, Bangladesh has seen terrible aquatic disasters on a regular basis. The 2004 floods, for example, affected 25 million people and flooded roughly two-thirds of the country. Yet, looking further afield, anywhere close to a major water source is at risk, and even the best-established and most developed of towns and cities can be affected. In 2010–11, the Australian state of Queensland experienced major flooding, affecting 70 towns and the state capital Brisbane, and killing more than 35 people. Although many modern cities have put in place extensive flood defences, exceptional weather patterns mean that these defences could be overwhelmed in extreme circumstances.

Flooding

Flooding is not only a major structural issue. As well as weakening walls, floors and foundations, flood waters tend to carry with them serious health hazards, such as water-borne diseases. For this reason, try to avoid wading through the water unless you are wearing appropriate protective clothing.

The obvious threat of flooding is that of the inundation of homes and business premises, and damage to physical infrastructure. Yet, as always, there are other serious attendant effects. Diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhus can thrive, as the flooding spoils drinking water with sewerage and other contaminants. Food supplies can be affected, too, as crops are damaged or destroyed, and the sudden cessation of business can plunge communities into economic hardship, from which they may take some years to recover.

Many local government authorities will hold information about flooding risks in your area, and you should take caution if your property sits in an area that has a historical record of flooding. Note, however, that exceptional rainfall can bring even the most innocuous river or lake into flood, so put in place the flood precautions outlined in this chapter if you live in proximity to any natural watercourse.

Volatile Earth

The earth beneath our feet is ever changing. We stand on a relatively thin crust up to 50km (30 miles) thick, but composed of vast tectonic plates that ‘float’ and move on the hot, viscous mantle beneath. Such movement produces effects that have had periodically disastrous effects on entire regions of the planet. Where the plates meet, they crush up against one another, building up huge reserves of pressure that when released deliver earthquakes that can bring down cities and even nations.

Earthquakes often occur along identifiable ‘fault lines’ – fractures in the surface of the Earth created by the meeting of two geological plate boundaries, or by similar phenomena. For the survivalist, fault lines are a blessing in that they provide a clear warning of where earthquakes can occur, but a curse in that the interval between earthquakes is often measured in many decades, which can breed complacency. One of the world’s most famous fault lines – the San Andreas fault visibly running 1800km (810 miles) through California – produced a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in 1906 that nearly destroyed the city of Los Angeles, killing 3000 people. Although there have been numerous minor tremors since then, and a more serious eruption in 1989 that killed 63 people, on the whole the fault line’s activity has remained within manageable levels. Such will not always be the case, however, and another major eruption is virtually guaranteed at some point in the not too distant future. Normal life continues in the meantime, and it remains to be seen whether Los Angeles and other areas on the fault line have embraced earthquake precautions sufficiently to prevent future massive loss of life.

Modified Mercalli Earthquake Intensity Scale

LEVEL DESCRIPTIONI Not felt except by a very few under especially favourable circumstances.IIFelt only by a few persons at rest, especially on upper floors of buildings. Delicately suspended objects may swing.III Felt quite noticeably indoors, especially on upper floors of buildings, but many people do not recognize it as an earthquake. Standing motor cars may rock slightly. Vibration like passing of truck. Duration estimated.IV During the day felt indoors by many, outdoors by few. At night some awakened. Dishes, windows, doors disturbed; walls make cracking sound. Sensation like heavy truck striking building. Standing motor cars rocked noticeably.VFelt by nearly everyone, many awakened. Some dishes, windows, etc., broken; a few instances of cracked plaster; unstable objects overturned. Disturbances of trees, poles, and other tall objects sometimes noticed. Pendulum clocks may stop. VI Felt by all, many frightened and run indoors. Some heavy furniture moved; a few instances of fallen plaster or damaged chimneys. Damage slight.VII Everybody runs outdoors. Damage negligible in buildings of good design and construction; slight to moderate in well-built ordinary structures; considerable in poorly built or badly designed structures; some chimneys broken. Noticed by persons driving motor cars.VIII Damage slight in specially designed structures; considerable in ordinary substantial buildings, with partial collapse; great in poorly built structures. Panel walls thrown out of frame structures. Fall of chimneys, factory stacks, columns, monuments, walls. Heavy furniture overturned. Sand and mud ejected in small amounts. Changes in well water. Persons driving motor cars disturbed.IX Damage considerable in specially designed structures; welldesigned frame structures thrown out of plumb; great in substantial buildings, with partial collapse. Buildings shifted off foundations. Ground cracked conspicuously. Underground pipes broken.X Some well-built wooden structures destroyed; most masonry and frame structures destroyed with foundations; ground badly cracked. Rails bent. Landslides considerable from river banks and steep slopes. Shifted sand and mud. Water splashed (slopped) over banks.XI Few, if any, (masonry) structures remain standing. Bridges destroyed. Broad fissures in ground. Underground pipelines completely out of service. Earth slumps and land slips in soft ground. Rails bent greatly.XII Damage total. Practically all works of construction are damaged greatly or destroyed. Waves seen on ground surface. Lines of sight and level are distorted. Objects are thrown into the air.

Source: Farzad Naeim, The Seismic Design Handbook (New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989)

Seismic Waves

The seismic waves of an earthquake ripple outwards from the hypocentre, which is located on the geological faultline and which forms the origin of the earthquake. The epicentre is the point on the earth’s surface immediately above the hypocentre, and is typically the location where the seismic waves are at their strongest.

Questions of Scale

Various scales, including the famous Richter scale and the Mercalli scale (see box, pp26-27), are used to measure the severity of earthquakes, and the greater the release of tension, the more severe the damage. The primary initial damage mechanism is, of course, the violent geological shaking composed of the initial earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. Most of the human casualties result during these phases, caused by building collapse and the impact of falling debris. In towns and cities with a poor-quality infrastructure, the death tolls can be dreadful – 316,000 people died in a series of earthquakes in Haiti in January 2010, with 300,000 injured and 1 million made homeless.

Mudflow/Rockfall

Earth can fall or slide in various different ways, depending on the material involved. Mud tends to flow in successive powerful waves, whereas a rockfall typically moves in a bounding mass.

How Tsunamis Work

A earthquake-related tsunami is generated when the slip of tectonic plates at a plate boundary causes a massive water displacement, generating a huge wave that can travel hundreds of kilometres to strike land.

Yet earthquakes, as with all natural disasters, produce a range of other effects that add to the calamity. Gas lines are fractured, resulting in major fires breaking out; more people died from fire in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake than from the tremors. Landslides and flooding are often produced as terrain is reconfigured by the shake. Most destructive, however, is a tsunami, a giant plane of seawater (rather a single cresting wave) created by an offshore earthquake or similar seismic effect, such as a volcanic eruption. Travelling at sports-car speeds and with wave height measuring in the tens of metres, tsunamis are capable of devastating entire regions of the planet. The Indian Ocean earthquake of 26 December 2004 set off a tsunami that killed about 300,000 people in 14 countries. Eastern Japan was also hit by a terrible earthquake-related tsunami in March 2011, demonstrating that even the world’s most advanced nations can be humbled by such natural phenomena.

Escaping Floodwater

If flooding is severe enough, sometimes the only option for escape is to take to the roof of your home. From there your best option is to attract rescue escorts, carrying signalling materials (including torches and whistles if they are to hand) with you up onto the roof to ensure you can attract attention.

Pyroclastic Flow

A pyroclastic flow occurs when the superheated ash and gas plume from a volcanic eruption (left) collapses and races down the side of the volcano at speeds of up to – in the fastest examples – 700km/h (450mph). If caught by a pyroclastic flow in the open, a person has little chance of survival if he cannot find cover.

Volcanoes

The other great expression of our geologically volatile planet are volcanoes. Seventy-five per cent of the world’s active volcanoes are dotted along what is known as the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’, a fiery tectonic belt around the perimeter of the Pacific Ocean. Active volcanoes are nevertheless found across the world, and their periodic eruptions cause if not a human disaster, then at least widespread disruption.

Erupting volcanoes reap their destruction in several ways, depending on the type of eruption. The blast can be truly enormous. The greatest explosion in human history, including those from nuclear weapon tests, was that delivered by the volcano Krakatoa, in what is now Indonesia, on 27 August 1883, equivalent to the blast of 200 megatons of TNT. The shockwave travelled around the world seven times, and was heard more than 4800km (3000 miles) away. It generated an ash cloud that reached a height of 80km (50 miles) and which lowered the temperature of the planet by around 1.2°C for five years. Tsunamis crashed into distant shores, and pyroclastic flows – superheated clouds of gas and ash travelling at up to 700km/h (450mph) – struck land 40km (25 miles) from their origin.

Top 10 Most Active Volcanoes

VolcanoLocationChaiténSouthern ChileMayonLuzon, PhilippinesMount EtnaSicilyMount NyiragongoDemocratic Republic of the CongoWhite IslandOff east coast of New Zealand’s north islandMount St Helens KilaueaSkamania County, Washington, USA Part of Big Island, the Hawaiian IslandsSoufrière HillsMontserrat, CaribbeanPopocatépetlMexico, 70km (43 miles) east of Mexico CitySakurajimaOsumi Peninsula, Japan

Krakatoa, and the numerous volcanic eruptions that have occurred globally since then, remind us of nature’s immense, blind capacity for destruction. Indeed, it might well have been the cataclysmic effects of massive volcanic eruption that were a primary cause behind the extinction of the dinosaurs, creatures who had successfully inhabited the planet for millions of years, not the few hundred thousand years of humankind. For the survivalist, earthquakes and volcanoes are important phenomena to study particularly because a localized event can have continental or even global effects. For example, seismologists note that virtually all of Yellowstone Park sits on a massive, pressurized magma chamber, causing the entire park to rise and fall each year by a few centimetres. This ‘supervolcano’ last erupted 640,000 years ago (although there have been more recent smaller eruptions), throwing out 1000 cubic km (240 cubic miles) of rock and ash into the atmosphere. If that were to happen today, it would dump up to 3m (10ft) of ash on the ground at distances of 1600km (1000 miles) away, rendering two-thirds of the United States uninhabitable. Globally, air travel and communications would cease, or be extremely limited, and temperatures would plunge as the ash cloud blotted out the sun.

The Yellowstone supervolcano is not theory, but geological fact, and while we cannot be certain when it will erupt, we can be certain that it will. Indeed, so great is the very real threat of supervolcanoes, tsunamis and mega-earthquakes that we cannot treat the possibility of facing a global or continental survival situation as the stuff of fiction. To such threats, we can also add the dangers posed by humankind itself.

Vulnerable Species

The greatest single threat to the human species is, arguably, the vulnerability of our own biology. As the examples of Spanish Flu and the plague in earlier times demonstrate, a single virus can be responsible for millions of deaths, transferring effortlessly between human beings via either contact or respiration. Yet, the conditions for a pandemic have to be just right. Illnesses that kill their host too quickly tend to burn themselves out quickly too, as the rapid mortality prevents the necessary widespread transference. Hence, the truly terrifying Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF) of Africa, an illness that has easy transmission but which kills the victim in just a few days, has never resulted in more than localized epidemics. Yet viruses are changing constantly, evolving new ways to bypass vaccinations programmes and resist treatments. Flu, for example, has the potential to transmute from an illness that has no more serious repercussions than a week off work, to a pandemic that kills millions.

Survivalist responses to pandemics are studied in depth in the last chapter of this book. Suffice to say here that you should watch the news closely for signs of any epidemics originating elsewhere in the world. Find out all you can about their symptoms, method of transmission, affected age groups, treatments available and so on, as international travel makes it a strong likelihood that a foreign disease will reach your own shores. As always, forewarned is forearmed.

War and Conflict

Human disasters are not, unfortunately, caused purely by naturally occurring events. People are also quite capable of being the authors of their own destruction. World War II, the most destructive conflict in human history, resulted in the deaths of an estimated 56 million people during six years of unimaginable bloodshed. For those in the worst-affected combat zones, the effects were just as severe as living under the shadow of an erupting volcano or a tsunami wave. The same is true of the countless wars that have ravaged the Earth’s surface throughout human history, in which there has scarcely been a single day in which conflict has not been rumbling somewhere on the planet. The tragedy of war is, of course, often compounded by the fact that one side in a conflict has a vested interest in seeing a humanitarian crisis escalate among the opposing side, forcing its compliance or destruction.