Hi, Joseph noise Squires from well prepared, we're disaster preparedness experts, we'd like to ask the question, do you have what it takes to survive? Today we're going to talk about why you need to be well prepared to survive for three days, three days is actually the period of time that the US government expects you to be self sufficient and prepared to survive. In the case of any kind of disaster or an emergency. There's a lot different scenarios. While you might need to be well prepared to survive for three days, we're going to go over some of the basics, some of the most common disasters that we see that last, typically three days in which you might be cut off from any kind of help any kind of assistance, or any kind of government intervention to where you really need to be able to take care of yourself.
As a lot of natural hazards. The most common things that we see that you need to be prepared to survive for three days would be earthquakes, floods, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, and severe storms and surges earthquakes in America, the West Coast is the region most at risk from a major earthquake, California is that particular risk. Other areas prone to earthquakes are the San Madrid fault in the central United States. In the past 100 years, at least nine earthquakes in or near the US have registered a magnitude greater than seven. Even a magnitude six earthquake could do extensive damage in developed cities. In fact, a strong quake near one of the America's major urban areas would likely be the most destructive natural disaster this country could ever experience.
A new study finds that there were more than twice as many big earthquakes in the first quarter of 2014 as compared with the average since 1979. It's no question and the recent years that we've seen huge influx and increase of volcanic activity and earthquake activity, seismic activity around the world just recently some big 8.3 in South America, including two years ago, a major earthquake in Japan that wiped out the food kashima nuclear plant on the west coast, the San Madrid fault, and also in Alaska are probably the greatest risks in the US for an earthquake. Unfortunately, earthquakes cannot be predicted. They're one of the most destructive forces that we face. And in some of the more developed in urban areas and countries and millions of people are at risk. The biggest risk is due to collapse and the different calamities that come from the the loss of services after an earthquake.
But most important is that you do need to be prepared to survive at least three days in the event of an earthquake. This is the basic and bare necessities essential for survival. You're going to need water, you're going to need food, you're going to need some type of communications device, you're going to need light, you're going to need shelter. In some cases, you may even need the tools that are necessary for rescuing others that need help. If you don't have these things, there's a good chance that you're not I can be prepared and you could die, you could suffer. Unfortunately, these types of disasters, don't wait until you're ready.
They're not going to sit there and take place. When you're in your living room with your go bug out bag right next to you and all your food storage. These things strike at anytime, day or night, an earthquake can occur. When you're driving to work. It can occur when you're at work. It can occur when you're at home or when you're at school, when you're dropping your kids off to school.
So it's most important to have some kind of a 72 hour kit, a bug out bag, something that you can have with you in your car that you take everywhere you go. In case you need these bare essentials for survival. Just imagine going three days without food without water. Three days is basically a limit that you can go without water. You can go maybe three weeks without food, and three minutes without air. So earthquake facts, in case you don't know their Earth's crust is composed of many large and small segments called tectonic plates.
There's a bunch of plates that float around on top of the mantle of the earth, and they kind of crash into each other they cross. They they bump up against each other and cause crests and mountains. And some of the other ones are called subduction is where it goes underneath as opposed to up into a mountain. He's plants are in constant slow movement. With these movements come small tremors in earthquakes, earthquakes cannot be predicted some interesting facts. Unfortunately, climate change has more of an effect than most people realize.
It's not just about El Nino and warmer water and colder conditions and temperatures and bigger storms. Melting polar caps actually creates heavier oceans and puts immense forces on these plates. This increases the risk of earthquakes. Here you can see a general map of some of the big plates in the world. Over on the left hand side, you see that we have the Pacific plate and the Juan de Fuca plate. They're bordering the West Coast, North America.
These are on huge expense Answers have ocean. As the oceans become heavier with more and more freshwater as the polar ice caps melt, that puts immense pressure on the edges of these plates. And as one edge one side of the plate is pushed down, the opposite side of the plate is pushed up so the heavier ocean can create more and more earthquakes is a side effect of climate change that most people don't focus on. In the US, the West Coast California the most at risk side is actually part of the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is where we see most of the volcanic and earthquake activity is bordered on the opposite side by Japan. So as you see the plates start to move in this big crust.
If you imagine earthquakes on the side of Japan, they can also affect the opposite side of the West Coast us which is at the most at risk in the United States. What to expect during an earthquake smaller monitor Earthquakes not too much to worry about. Very rarely Are there any reported injuries. This can last only a few seconds and really represent no emergency risk. ceiling lights may move, some minor rattling of objects may occur in your home, you may feel a slight quiver under your feet if you're outside. And if you're close to it source, you may hear a loud bang followed by shaking.
These you don't have to really worry about they're unsettling. Sometimes they're a precursor to a larger earthquake. So you do want to be aware that something bigger may be to come. A larger earthquake can last up to several minutes and constitute a natural disaster if its Epicenter is near a densely populated area or its magnitude sufficiently large for the region. So usually it's a disaster only if it's in a populated area. if a tree falls in the middle of the woods and nobody hears it make a sound same applies to an earthquake.
The ground or the floor will move perhaps violently, weather far away or close to the source. You'll probably feel shaking followed by a rolling motion, like being at sea. A lot of people that have survived some Larger earthquakes equate it to being inside of a box and having someone shake the box, see your house and all of your furnishings move around in the floor just moves out from underneath you. Whether far away or close to the source, you'll probably feel shaking, followed by a rolling motion. Like being at sea, you may feel dizzy and be unable to walk during the earthquake. If you live in a high rise or multi storey building, you may experience more sway and leg shaking than in a smaller single storey building.
Lower floors will shake rapidly, much like the residential homes but on the upper floors, movement will be slower but the building will move farther from side to side. So you see that huge swing in the larger buildings. furnishings and unsecured objects could fall or slide across the floor like being in a box and getting chicken. unsecured light fixtures and ceiling panels may fall windows may break. You may want to pay attention to some of your electronic devices to make sure that there's no sparks, no fires. If you have a gas operated stove that the gas line isn't broken.
A lot of explosions of fires could ensue after an earth way, so something you may want to have is gas shutoff valves. Or at least have it in mind how the readiness to go and check those types of utilities and make sure that you're safe. fire alarms and sprinkler systems may be activated, may break may malfunction. And more than likely your lights and power may turn off so you'll lose electricity. What's like in any disaster. Looking at the map of the earthquake hazard map, you can see that not only is the West Coast, highly at risk, but we do have the st San Madrid fault it's in the central us is actually encountering a lot of activity in the last two years.
Some scientists have actually said that a 300 million year old fault line has suddenly awoken in the area. So you may want to keep your eyes on San Madrid fault in the central us and be prepared in that area to survive for at least three days in the event of earthquake before help can arrive. floods are another natural disaster that you definitely want to keep an eye out for. It's more of a regional type of threat. Not everybody is at risk for floods, but floods are the most frequent natural hazard in America. They occur at any time of the year and are most often caused by heavy rainfall, rapid melting of thick snowpack, ice jams, and more rarely, and the failure of a natural or manmade dam is a good illustration of what you can expect to see during some severe storms and flooding.
A lot of flooding that you'll see is during hurricanes and storm surges, we can see tidal flooding as well. Some scientists predict that as soon as the year 2100 many cities mass population areas on the east coast will be completely submerged to the coastal flooding. Some of this just occurs during extreme weather. with things like El Nino and climate change. We see stronger and stronger storms we see larger and larger surges. There's also a threat of flooding during other events such as tsunamis that can result either from earthquakes or other anomalies.
A lot of things you want to be prepared for in a flood is To have food to have clean water and to have some means of sanitation, usually you're going to lose all electricity, all gas services, there's gonna be no running water. And the water itself outside is is undrinkable and unusable. It's going to be full of backups, sewage systems, trash, a lot of bacterias and viruses. There may be things floating by so you don't want to go into the water in case you might get cut. A cut can become infectious and even life threatening in these cases. So if you can keep at least three four days worth of food and water available recently during Hurricane Katrina, a lot of the survivors were left without any assistance or aid for up to three days.
It took FEMA three to five days to get aid to these people where they were completely stranded and without any help. So you definitely want to be able to sustain yourself for a three day period in the event of a flood. A couple of facts about floods, a heavy rainfall can result in flooding, particularly when the ground is still frozen or already saturated from previous storms. Some of the threats with floods is areas that have already received a lot of rain or don't have the type of soil that can absorb rain so the rain stays on top of the soil and creates flash flood type of events. Some of these areas would be deserts and different deserted areas with a generally dry climate that aren't used to absorbing rain or in the case that it's frozen, the water will have nowhere to go, it cannot be absorbed, and it will basically find the path of least resistance and move downhill.
You don't want to be downhill from a flood in these cases. flash flooding occurs pretty much the warning time is extremely limited. It can happen in as little as seconds two minutes. It can be caused by hurricanes, violent storms or dams breaking. Many us rivers experienced flooding at one time or another. The potential for flood damage is high where there is development on low lying flood prone lands.
The only way that you can ultimately survive to not be affected by a flood of this nature is to not live in that area to move from any low Lying flood prone lands. And if you can't just up and move or you like where you are or flooding isn't that frequent of a problem, the best thing that you can do is be prepared to survive for at least three days in the case of a flood. So refresh yourself not only with sandbags, and and with alternate means of electricity, but you're gonna want to have food, you're going to want to have water, and you're going to want to have it portable, and it means that you can pick it up and go in a moment's notice when you need to. So looking at the flood risk map of the United States, if you're in an area of high or above average risk, you definitely want to be well prepared to survive for at least three days.
Three days basic essentials would be a gallon of water per person per day, roughly 1200 calories at the very least, you're gonna want some sanitation supplies, some of the modern conveniences you want electrical devices, some light, maybe even the ability to communicate. Most importantly, in these cases of floods, you want to have a hand crank radio so that you can listen to NOAA listen to the weather alerts, and Stay informed in case a bigger surge is coming towards you, or help is coming towards you or they need to tell you to stay put and kind of buttoned up, batten down the hatches to survive. So if you live in any of these areas, you want a, at least a 72 hour three day kit, something that is it's lightweight and easy to move and take with you a sort of a bug out bag or survival kit.
One of the next big threats is wildfires, we see an increase in wildfires in recent years because of a lot of dry conditions and droughts. These dry conditions and droughts do create an increased risk of wildfires that can be naturally created or they can be manmade. Wildfires are a natural hazard basically in any forest or grassland region in the US. This is a worldwide risk as well, but in the US, it's pretty severe on the West Coast regions have the highest wildfire occurrences and are in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and the boreal forest zones on the west coast. forest fires or wildfires are common occurrences from May to September. can cause extensive damage and put lives in danger.
So basically spring to fall, the whole of summer, you're at the highest risk for forest fires is a fast moving. These are completely unexpected. There's no indicator in many cases that a forest fire is going to start. If you live in an area that's in a forest, as we've seen many times over, especially in on the west coast, that people's homes, their livelihoods, all of their possessions and sometimes even their lives and the lives of their families and their their their animals are put at risk due to a wildfire and they have to leave at a moment's notice. Sometimes these wildfires do occur naturally, sometimes they're man made. Approximately 100,000 wildfires occur each year in the US.
The average area burned in the US is 5 million acres per year. Sometimes it's actually a little bit over 5 million. Sometimes it's under we've seen up to 8 million acres in a year burned fires caused by lightning represent Nearly 50% of all fires, but because they occur in remote locations and often in clusters that represent 81% of total area burned, that is a little breath of fresh air. The majority of wildfires that are naturally created by things like lightning are in less populated areas where most people are not at risk. There's not going to be a lot of people that need to flee or that are going to lose property, or the person's human cause fires represent 55% of all fires. This is either intentionally or by accident.
They occur more populated areas are usually reported and extinguished quickly. We do have good fire departments that can put out some of these fires, but when they're in the remote areas and the border, small populations, maybe of 10 to 30,000 people that's when there's greater risk, harder to put out and more people are in the line of fire. They can move as fast as 6.7 miles per hour in the forest and 14 miles per hour in the grasslands. So these are things that you cannot outrun. There have been circumstances in high winds where firefighters in their entire truck have been been overtaken and burned in the fire, they couldn't even drive away quick enough. So you can't get out on foot, you're going to need to be prepared to to move quickly and grab what you can and take whatever you can salvage and get in a vehicle and go to get away from this fire.
An average surface fire on the forest floor might have flames over 10 feet in height and can reach temperatures of 1400 degrees or more. These are huge flames, huge fires, you can't jump over them. In some cases, you can't drive through them, you need to just be completely ready and well prepared to evacuate at a moment's notice. So a map of major fires shows a pretty good illustration of not only the fires that have taken place in recent years since about 2001, but we're also seeing the intensity of the fires on a scale of power output. So some of the bigger areas and fires and the drought stricken drought stricken Central California in Southern California. And then up into Idaho.
You see a lot of the worst fires if you live in any of these areas, and you're at risk for a wildfire. You need to be prepared, you need to have a bug out bag you need to have a survival kit with three days worth of food, water, some of the essential tools that you would need some some basic electronics that you can communicate and see at night so you can purify your water so you can cook your food if you're not able to stay home and you have to flee in a moment's notice. hurricanes are another natural disaster or natural hazard that you want to be prepared for. Mostly on the east coast. You don't see too many hurricanes if ever on the west coast, although they can occur. hurricane season officially runs from June through November when the waters of the Atlantic Ocean are warm enough to produce a tropical cyclone, a category of weather systems that includes tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes.
The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration outlook predicts a 70% likelihood of 13 to 20 named storms per year, of which seven to 11 could become hurricanes, including three to six major hurts gains. These figures are increasing yearly. These ranges are well above the seasonal average of 12 named storms, six hurricanes and three major storms. As of the last few years. Hurricanes can produce violent winds extreme flooding. Hurricane fax, a hurricane is a tropical storm whose winds revolve around a center of low pressure.
The center is called the eye and the eye of a hurricane there is a calm area of blue sky. around the eye there are very strong winds a minimum speed of 75 miles per hour, accompanied by torrential rains. Hurricanes caused more widespread damage than tornadoes because they're bigger, some are as large as 600 miles across. One of the most destructive effects of a hurricane is a storm surge, often causing serious flooding and wind damage. There's a map of the major hurricane hazard areas. As we know Florida and most of the East Coast is at a constant hurricanes, we've seen some terrible hurricanes such as Katrina that have hit the lower southern states as well.
All these areas are susceptible to not only the storm surge, but extreme flooding and extreme winds and the wind damage. A lot of times you'll see people boarding up their windows and creating sandbag dams to try to head off some of that damage before they flee the area. So you definitely want to be prepared. If you get stuck, such as Hurricane Katrina, and you're not able to leave the area, you need to be prepared to sustain yourself for at least three days. The US government has already said that they expect people to be self sufficient for at least three days. So you need the supplies to be able to hold on and hold out until help comes.
It doesn't only include food and water, and tools. If you're on any kind of medication, you're going to want to make sure that you have enough medications to to survive for three days. You want to make sure that you have enough supplies for at least three days at any given time. So if your prescription is up in one day and you live down in here in Florida, you don't want to wait until you have one day worth of medication left at any time. If a hurricane could Come, you want to have at least three, four or five days worth of medication so that you can survive. Here's a really cool map that shows hurricanes that have hit the North Atlantic Atlantic region since 1851.
So between 1851 2014 This is a map that illustrates every single hurricane and the path that they took. So you can see not only the path that they took, but also based on the color, the category, the severity of the storm. Tornadoes are another disaster that you need to be prepared to survive for at least three days. The US gets more tornadoes in any other country. But not only do we get more tornadoes, we get more destructive tornadoes, especially in populated areas where they can destroy whole towns. Tornadoes are rotating columns of high winds.
Sometimes they move quickly up to 70 miles per hour, and they live a long wide path of destruction. And other times the tornado is small touching down here and they're large or small, they can uproot trees, flip cars or demolish houses. Tornadoes usually hit the in the afternoon. or early evening, but they have also been known to strike in the middle of night. Warning Signs of potential tornado. Severe thunderstorms with frequent thunder and lightning could indicate that a tornado is coming if you're in a tornado, tornado prone area, and extremely dark sky, sometimes highlighted by green or yellow clouds, rumbling sound or whistling sound and a funnel cloud at the rear base of a thundercloud, often behind a curtain of heavy rain or hail.
So if you see any of these things, you can, it's a clear indicator that a tornado may be coming, the best thing you can do is seek shelter underground. Make sure that in your underground shelter, you have the supplies that you need to survive. That would be at the very least a three day emergency kit, a 72 hour kit, a bug out bag of sorts, whatever survival kit you can put together. You'll want to have that inside of your tornado shelter. If you have to get out of the area. If you have enough warning, you can leave from an area to a safe place.
A lot of times there will be at a hostel Little are a school, you can go to a tornado shelter. Severe storms. In America we're seeing an increase in severe storms is not only due to climate change, and El Nino, but we're just seeing shifting weather patterns around the world. Severe storms can produce a variety of natural disasters and emergencies. So a severe storm doesn't necessarily Institute an emergency in and of itself. But that storm may lead to flooding.
That storm may lead to a whiteout or a gray out ice storm. There's a variety of different conditions that can take place during severe storms that lead to an emergency and constitute a disaster. flash flooding landslides, tornadoes and hurricanes are common during severe storms. blizzards hail storms and ice storms also leave people stranded with no resources or power. You need to consider what you would do in the middle of winter. If severe whiteout or an ice storm takes place and leaves you stranded in your home.
For a week to where you can't travel and no one can travel to you, you have no electricity you have no heating. You have no running water because the pipes are frozen. Do you have the supplies Do you have what it takes to survive during a severe storm during a flood during some kind of a whiteout or an ice storm, keep at least three days worth of food at least three days worth of water, necessarily medications. That means to heat yourself if necessary. If you live in a cold climate, or the needs the means to cool down if you live in a hot climate, there's a severe drought. Thank you for watching what you need to be well prepared for at least three days.
Make sure and catch one of our next videos. What you need to be well prepared to survive for three weeks.