The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 11, Issue 22

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. May was a rather stormy month in my area, and June has begun the same way. We just had another round of storms come through last night, with tornado sirens blaring across the county, and we might see even more of them this evening. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good thunderstorm. But I could do without the damaging winds and hail that have been so frequent lately.

On the work front, all of the articles are done for Prepper Survival Guide 24 and I’m deep into editing the stories for Backwoods Survival Guide 31. Both of those will be out in the fall. I have a fun trip coming up soon and I’m trying hard to get all of my deadlines met before I head out the door.

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Prepper Tip -- More and more, I’m thinking a drone or two is a must for security and defense purposes after a disaster hits. I’ll admit that I’m still in the beginning stages of my research into drones and doing comparison shopping. But, here’s what I feel drones can do for you.

Basically, they can see what you can’t. For example, they can be high in the sky and give a bird’s eye view of what’s going on around you, from possible incursions to checking for available resources, such as bodies of water. You can maneuver them around or over obstacles, including buildings.

Let’s say you’re bugging out and you’ve hit a traffic jam. You could pop a drone up and ahead to see what’s causing the delay, giving you a heads up as to whether you want to wait it out or exit stage right and find a new route.

On a smaller scale, a drone could be used to inspect your roof for damage after a storm, as well as the roofs of neighbors. If you have a large plot of land, you could use it to check fence lines and such.

They aren’t cheap. A decent quality drone, without a ton of bells and whistles, will run you a few hundred bucks from what I’ve seen so far. But, I think it might be worth the investment.

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A quick thank you to everyone who has been buying and reading our magazines. We just received an attaboy from the publisher after they went through sales figures for the last few months. If you keep buying 'em, we'll keep publishing them!

Huge thanks also go out to our contributors, who keep bringing their A game issue after issue!

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My friend Craig Caudill has a great article here on 25 uses for paracord. I learned a few new ones myself.

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This weekend is the Blade Show in Atlanta, and I’ll once again be missing it. Next year, however, I’m making it a priority. It’s the only place where I’m going to see so many of my friends in one location. If you’re headed to the show, please take lots of photos and share them.

Here’s a list of booths you should make time to see. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few.

• Vehement Knives / Kopis Designs (they’re sharing a spot)

• DLT Trading

• White River Knife & Tool

• Spartan Blades

• Night Watch Knives

• Buck Knives

• Kershaw Knives

• CRKT

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The subject of blackout boxes came up on FB recently. The basic concept is that some people have put together small kits specifically for use in a power outage. I think this is very much one of those things that will work great for some folks and others will have solutions that work better for their home/situation.

I think every home should have some basic supplies to be used in a power outage, including portable illumination, stationary illumination, and power banks to charge devices. But I don’t know that it all needs to live in a single, dedicated location. I tend to keep my power banks near my desk, as that’s where they’re charged and then grabbed when needed. I have flashlights in literally every room of the house. I have lanterns stored in my office.

That said, I could easily see some families putting together a box of flashlights and other supplies and storing them in a utility closet or something, if nothing else than to keep kids from playing with them.

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For our hike this week, we ventured out to a state park that’s a little bit of a drive for us, but worth the trip. The place is pretty big, around 4,500 acres all told, and it has a bunch of different trails throughout. We tend to gravitate toward water features, so we chose a couple of trails that took us near a few different ponds.

Survival Tip – Hazard Diamond

My wife and I went through the drive thru at our local Panera earlier this week. She joined their Sip Club a while back, which is a pretty good deal if you like their coffee. As we were sitting in the line, she pointed to the delivery door at the back of the building. “What’s that sign mean?”

I knew what the multi-colored diamond shaped sign on the door meant in a general sense, but I couldn’t remember the details. It struck me that knowing that information could prove rather useful to an urban disaster survivor.

This is the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Hazard Diamond. It provides quick information related to hazards found in the area, both the nature of them as well as severity. Each section of the diamond is devoted to a type of hazard. They are rated on a scale of 0-4, with zero meaning no hazard and 4 meaning severe.

The red section at the top is flammability. Left side is blue, which is health hazards (think poisons and irritants). Right side is yellow and refers to instability hazards (explosives). At the bottom is white, which is Special Hazard. Some examples of symbols you might find here are: OX means oxidizing, SA is simple asphyxiants, and a W means the material reacts violently or explosively with water.

This sign is supposed to be prominently displayed at doors firefighters might use to enter a building in an emergency.

I lifted this image from The University of Texas at Dallas website. They have a lot more information about each of those hazard categories at their site here.

Prepper Survival Guide and Backwoods Survival Guide

For those new to my little corner of the Internet, I am the Editor in Chief for both Prepper Survival Guide and Backwoods Survival Guide magazines. Here are the covers for the current issues that are available in stores right now. 

You can find them just about anywhere magazines are sold, including:

• Walmart

• Sam's Club

• Costco

• Publix

• Walgreens

• Rite Aid

• CVS

• Tractor Supply

• Fleet Farm

• Barnes & Noble

Subscriptions to both titles are available here.

Questions, Comments, Complaints, Concerns?

I am always just an email away - jim@survivalweekly.com.