Disaster Responder’s Prepping Lessons

New Orleans and surrounding areas were a complete mess in so many ways after Katrina; but they did have a lot of lessons preppers can learn from. My friend Doc was called into the disaster response early on and spent several weeks working in the worst areas. I asked her what she’d learned from the experience that was prepper-relevant, and here were the main ideas she wanted to share. Salty and I talk them over in this podcast:

Many of the dead perished because they wouldn’t leave their pets

A surprising number of the fatalities of Katrina were found in their attics. They lived below the ocean level but would not evacuate because the evacuation buses and centers would not let them bring their pets. They stayed until the levees broke, climbed to the highest point in their houses, and were drowned when the water came up that high. In an ironic twist, most of the pets were not with their owners in the attics. 

That problem has been lessoned, as many of the disaster responders noticed this and encouraged change. Relief organizations for both animals and people now have some plans for helping people with pets evacuate safely. The point here is, do You have plans that accommodate your pets? There’s a post here with some ideas on the subject.

Don’t think you’re immune to disaster

Doc’s team needed to travel a ways through the trashed area to get to their assignment. Other team members laughed at her for grabbing a case of bottled water and some ration packs. It was the victims that needed such things; they were the medical responders! … They still ate the food and drank the water when road conditions kept them from returning to base.

That’s one danger I suspect preppers are at risk for. Hey, we’re *prepared* for disasters, right? We can’t forget that some disasters are better left behind, and that some problems can’t be solved by stored food and and some skills.

Group Think is a disaster in itself

Most people tend to normalcy bias anyway, but there are two conditions, more than any others, that people reported to Doc as reasons why they didn’t think it was a big enough deal to bother evacuating.

One big factor was how many of their neighbors were leaving. Some stayed just because their neighbors stayed, even though they were in sight of the levee and could see it wasn’t the safest neighborhood in the city just then. They’d have saved themselves a bad time if they’d followed their own good sense.

The other factor Doc noticed — sorry guys; it’s her observation; I’m just calling it like she saw it — was the testosterone effect. In a group of guys, none of them wanted to be the voice of caution. I suspect they were less afraid of the disaster than of looking afraid to the other guys. Well enough, until it got in the way of a reasonable response. In her own response group, it did end up being the only woman who bothered to bring supplies or suggest that it might be wise to check the tire that had been flat at the beginning of the day.

Disasters brought out the worst in people

This one surprised me; I’ve always considered the ‘wild west lawlessness’ aspect overdone in prepper thoughts and literature. Nevertheless, Doc saw a lot of aggression and threatened violence. This wasn’t only true in the areas that were still in very bad shape with people in great need; it was also happening in back areas that were upset but not devastated or flooded.

She even had a gun pulled on her for no apparent reason – the kid (and it was a kid) wasn’t trying to rob her or make a sexual attack either; apparently he just wanted to instill fear. It takes a pretty strong breakdown of normal controls to have this happen on an open street in broad daylight *with her security team less than fifty feet away, also in plain sight*. Yep, it was so bad the medical response teams had to have private bodyguards from Blackwater accompany the teams.

Two weeks and two guns for regional disasters

A flood of donated goods followed hard on the flood of lower New Orleans, but it did take some time to get it distributed. Doc’s recommendation for this sort of regional disaster was a couple of weeks worth of supplies and a couple of guns to deal with the increased aggression.

Isolation gear takes a lot of practice to be dependable

Some of you may have those Tyvek isolation suits. Salty and I have a few ourselves, and have watched the YouTube videos on doff and don. Well, Doc was considerably better trained than that, but still found it difficult to do it properly, every time, when real risks were on the line. That was common on her team; there were potential exposures until everyone had a lot of practice in.

Minor things you might not think of in disaster preparedness

Here are some items both the victims and the responders wished they had more of on hand that wouldn’t be obvious to every prepper:

• Laxatives. Stress makes people constipated.
• Beano. Seriously. That whole ‘beans and rice’ stereotype was What’s For Dinner for the first three weeks.
• Birth control. Danger and awareness of death spikes people’s sex drives.

Bonus tip: High-rise disasters

Since she was providing me ideas on preparedness, Doc wanted to put out one that’s not from her Katrina experiences. Instead, it’s based on a fire that happened when she lived in a high-rise building. The place caught on fire and the top floors filled with smoke. Doc herself was about the last person to successfully escape…but she wasn’t the last person in the building.

She was able to make it out because she happened to be very familiar with the fire exits, as she’d used them for exercise when time was tight. That was important when the smoke got too think to see and the power was out. Still, it was a near thing, lungs not being all that fond of smoke.

If she ever lives in such a place again, she’s going to have an emergency air supply. I told her about a diver favorite called Spare Air. Ok, it’s not really a diver favorite; a lot of us make fun of it because it’s too little when you’re at depth taking in five times as much air with each breath. On the surface though, it’s a useful amount with its own regulator. An airtight mask (such as a scuba mask) to keep you seeing the light would be a good accompaniment.

Note: We have no financial interest in any product mentioned.