Survival Tips

I live in a hurricane prone area. You have to have enough food that does not need refrigeration such as canned foods, or buy the food as you need it. Cook on a camp stove or BBQ grill. Learn to like a cold shower. Go to bed when the sun goes down, and enjoy not having a television filling your brain with senseless fluff. It can be done. I've done it. It's like a camping trip at home. But when the power comes back on it's HOT shower time!

Preparedness Is Key!

If possible, keep frozen gallon jugs of water in your freezer. When the power is determined to be off for a period of time perhaps over 4 hours, place the frozen jugs in a cooler to keep items cool. The jugs are basically 8 lb blocks of ice with handles. Once melted, you can drink the water.

River, stream, or pool water can be used for flushing. Scoop a bucket full and pour directly into the toilet bowl when flushing is required. Don't waste time trying to pour it into the toilet tank, you'll only spill it all over the place.

General Items

• Try to choose flashlights that have LEDs in them. The LEDs don't have filaments that will break and they also run much longer on batteries than traditional lights.
• Purchase lights and radios that use "D" batteries. Standardize your battery types. Keep spare alkaline batteries on hand in quantities sufficient to change each device a couple of times.
• When listening to a radio, do so at reduced volume. This allows the radio to run much longer.
• Buy some chemical light sticks. These will supply light for about 8 hours and they are handy to have in the bathroom.
• Avoid using ANY open flames such as candles and oil or propane lanterns.
• Keep a battery powered carbon monoxide detector and smoke alarm in your house as a backup.
• Do all cooking outside when possible.
• Store sufficient quantities of water per person (and per pet). Guidelines call for 1 gallon per person per day. A hot water tank is also a source of water for persoanl hygiene. First turn off the burner or element (in case the power returns). Drain water from the drain valve. If water seems to drain slowly, open a hot water faucet for a minute upstairs. Remember to shut the faucet again for when the water returns!
• Have spare medications on hand, along with an extra pair of eye glasses.
• Have a flashlight for each person, along with spare batteries (see above). "D" cell recommended.
• Have an LED area lamp or two for generalized lighting.
• Make sure you have a car charger for your cell phone.
• Consider a car charger for NiMH batteries for radios and lights.

The purpose of the merit badge is to allow you to explore and understand the subject. In order to complete the merit badge you need to do some research. Resources are:

• The merit badge pamphlet
• Your merit badge counselor
• Your school teachers
• Your school or community library
• The BSA website at Scouting.org[linked]
• MeritBadge.org[linked]

things u need to survive

1. food

2. camel

3. water

4. blanket

5. cloths

6. map

7. car

Knowledge is power. Fire burns UP. Prepare your fireplace/firepit/oven (with flue) and load with tinder at the bottom, and a FEW small twigs on top of them. Have progressively larger pieces of wood handy for stoking. Stoke so as not to Choke. That means, leave room for the air to circulate. A fire must be built from the botton UP.

Friction is the key answer.

You will need some (preferably very dry) pieces of wood.

One could be a flat piece, as in a stick, split in half.

Another piece, preferably round and pointed on both ends.

Method one, my preferred method.

Make a third piece that fits into your palm.

The flat first piece is placed on ground. Make a small cavity where you want the fire to start.

The third piece is held in your palm. Make a bigger cavity in this.

Place the second round longer stick between these in both cavities.

This makes out how you hold them together in an upright condition, not angled.

Now for the trick of applying a lot of friction fast.

Make a bow with a juicy fresh piece of a young small green tree.

The rope/string need to be of some quality, otherwise the friction will eat it away fast.

There are methods one can use to minimize friction here as in adding a bit of oil or water to the rope. (Oil might be a bad choice if the rope/string you use does not manage to "grip" the pointed stick afterwards. In most cases it will but it depends on the rope)

When you have made the bow, twist the string one or two times around the pointed stick.

Place the stick as mentioned before and start moving the bow back and forth. This will spin the stick clockwise and counterclockwise creating the friction needed.

If you place some very dry moss at the bottom of the stick and start spinning, then it should only take a few minutes to create the heat needed to make the moss catch fire.

When it smokes a lot, it will be glowing and then a little gentle blowing would make it catch fire.

Obviously you should have a fireplace ready with dry tiny bits of wood so that you just move the burning moss over there and it will light up the rest if it is done properly.

This is my preferred method of creating a fire as it actually involves little physical effort for the friction and provides almost a guaranteed result every time.

Method 2:

The flat piece of wood is placed on the ground.

if you have split it perfectly, then you should have a narrow canal in the middle.

If the piece of wood does not have this canal, then you will have to make one.

Put a piece of very dry moss or something equally as flammable at the end of the canal.

Place the second round stick with the pointed end down into the canal at approx 45 degrees angle and start moving it back and forth towards the moss.

Apply some pressure as this increases friction.

Within not too long you should see smoke, then it will start glowing. when it is glowing you need to "catch" the glow into the moss and blow a little bit for it to light up.

Practice makes master. If you do not succeed first time, have a short break and start again.

Method 3: Cheating.

Wear protective glasses. This method can hurt your eyes if not careful.

We would need some petrol. A tiny amount is often enough. 3-4 drops.

If you are able to find some hard rock and some tiny hard pebbles of quartz or granite then carry on.

On a big flat rock you place some moss.

Add 3-4 drops of petrol. (More is not better as it will be unsafe)

Put one little hard pebble of granite or quartz on top.

Smash this with a big rock.

(If you can not find any suitable small pebbles then it might work well with some dry sand (spoonfull) from a beach but add a drop or two of petrol to this too.)

As the pebble is crushed this causes friction and sparks. This is often enough to ignite the petrol. The petrol will ignite the moss. Move moss to your fireplace.

Petrol, turpentine, pure alcohol and other highly flammable liquids work well.

Oils as in diesel and various household oils will most likely not work. The reason for this is that they do not give off flammable fumes. These oily liquids does not catch fire easily unless they are heated up quite a bit first.

• 150

you could die from a fever that elevates your core body temperature even by two to four degrees. So real answer would be 101-103 Degrees Fahrenheit.