Don't choose a charity for Haiti based on administration costs

Don't choose a charity for Haiti based on administration costs: "While it seems logical that the less a charity spends on administration the more of your donation reaches the people that need it the most, it's not as simple as that. In reality the amount that a charity spends on administration costs is a meaningless and potentially harmful indicator."

This is a good article on choosing a charity.

Like anything else it is best to do it before you need it or in this case before someone else needs it urgently.

ht Marginal Revolution

Latest storm brings tornado-like winds, floods roads and causes small mudslides in foothill communities [Updated] | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times

Latest storm brings tornado-like winds, floods roads and causes small mudslides in foothill communities [Updated] | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times: "The latest winter storm moved through Southern California with a wallop this afternoon, flooding roads, causing tornado-like winds in Ventura and Santa Barbara and causing small mudslides in foothill communities."

California is having some difficulties with rain and mud.

Disaster Cooking For Lots of People

Another lesson to learn from the Haiti earthquake is that with a lot of people in distress there will be a need to feed them. Even if the food from the stores are looted a lot of that food needs to be cooked in some way. Especially things like rice and beans, which take a lot of water and heat to cook.

75% of American homes have a grill in the backyard. This means that most people have a backup cooking system in place already. After about a day without power you are going to need to cook any uncooked meat from the frig as it will be getting too warn in there. You may get a couple of more days before you have to do the food from the freezer.

A typical 20# bottle of propane will run for about 10 hours depending on the output of your grill. An important thing to do is to conserve fuel. Cook as much as you can in one go. If you can't fill the grill, you can always add a pot of water to boil to make safe drinking water.

If you have a side burner you can just use that and it would use a lot less fuel because you have the heat focused on one pan.

If, like me, you are part of a group preparing for a disaster and you have a place you can setup as a shelter you may end up trying to feed hundreds of people. Then the equation chances. To give you some perspective try the Manual of Army Cooks and Manual of Army Bakers.
These are old manuals from before WWI, which would be close to the level of technology we would have after a major disaster.  They even have plans for field expedient ovens.

Earthquake survivor says iPhone helped save his life

Earthquake survivor says iPhone helped save his life: "Here's a remarkable story coming out of the horrendous tragedy in Haiti. Colorado Springs resident Dan Woolley was at a Port-au-Prince hotel when that tremendous earthquake struck, trapping him with a compound fracture in his leg and a laceration on his head. Fortunately for Dan, he had his iPhone and a medical app with him (plus a lot of luck), which he used to successfully diagnose and treat his injuries."

Knowledge is power. An amazing use of an iPhone. Is there anything it can't do?

They link a few apps. I grabbed Phone Aid of my iPod touch.

The "If There's Time" List

Hundreds evacuated as storms batter Calif. - USATODAY.com: "Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies are preparing to go door-to-door Wednesday morning to order people out of their homes as another powerful storm moves toward foothill communities at risk of mudslides and flooding."

Are you ready to leave your home because it may be destroyed.

A 72 hour kit is great but it is for personal survival in case of a come as you are emergency.

There are probably some things you haven't thought about putting in it in a case like this. The good thing is that there is plenty of warning this time.

The problem that happens in a case like this is that you are rushing around trying to get everything together and you'll run right past the things you know you want. The sentimental items that you have out that you see every day but don't think about much any more since you see them everyday.

You don't want to be driving past the checkpoint and then remembering you forgot the family photo book on the mantel.

You may want:

Family photos

Sentimental items

Antiques or hard to replace items

Computer backups or the computer itself

You don't have to keep them in a box by the door, but you should go through the house and make a list of the items and where they are. You could even take pictures.

Now print up a checklist and put it at the top of your 72 hour kit.

This way when there is a mandatory evacuation it will take you mere minutes to collect all the important items you don't want to forget and you can be calm because you did the work beforehand and didn't forget anything important to you.

Earthquake Preparedness Ideas

We used to live very near a major fault line (<1 mile). Once I figured out what that meant we made some minor changes to our habits.

We lived in an apartment so we had to do things differently then in a home. We kept an evacuation kit in our car, and kept the car half full of gas almost all the time.

The most unconventional change was where we would park our car. I would pick parking spots away from trees and buildings so if an earthquake did happen anything that did fall down would be less likely to hit our car. Our car being our primary backup to our apartment.

Sure, we would have to walk a little further but that was not a big deal at all. There were no  earthquakes that we could feel while we were there but the potential was there. It helped us feel a lot safer be thing it through.

If you are in a home, you would have put a kit in a shed in the far reaches of the backyard so even if everything fell down it would be still pretty easy to get to. You could also add some rescue equipment like a couple of crowbars, some cribbing and a chainsaw and fuel.

72 Hour Kits Are Just Not Big Enough

I think it is quite obvious now with what we have seen in Haiti and really all the big disasters lately, is that a 72 hour kit just isn't big enough.

The idea for a 72 hour kit is valid. It takes about that long for national organizations to mobilize and get to the disaster area. That doesn't mean they'll get to you in 72 hours. I still have a 72 kit but it is more for evacuations rather then hanging around.

It's been almost a week and their still working really hard just to get stuff out to the capital and that is next to the airport. It will be a long time before they get to all the outlying areas.

Two weeks would be a much better level to achieve. One thing that means is not just some water storage but a water filter. You can get great portable ones from a camping store. The major feature you are looking for is a filter that will filter out viruses and cysts. That means an absolute pore size of less then 1 micro.

Something you'll want to add to a water filter is a bandana and some rubberbands. While most filters have a prefilter, it is best to pre-prefilter it through the bandana so it lasts as long as possible.

You want enough capacity to last a couple of weeks so it needs to be able to do 14 gallons or 56 liters times how ever many people are in your family or expect to supply with drinking water. A typical backpacking filter can filter about 500 gallons of water before the filters need to be changed for 14 days that would serve 35 people.

Another important thing we are seeing is that in a major disaster you might be trying to help rescue or care for people, so you are going to be needing lots of calories.

For this kind of kit you don't need to worry about a balanced diet. You can survive for months before nutrient deficients become a problem, if you are eating correctly now.

This is emergency food not your regular daily diet, priorities are different during a disaster so plan accordingly. Go for big calories in small packages, things like peanut butter, honey, canned fish packed in oil, candy and other foods packed with fats and sugar.