Survival By The Book: Short Term Survival And The 10 Essentials

Welcome to the Third episode of Survival By The Book, the podcast series where local librarians learn about how to prepare for emergency situations because being prepared shouldn't be complicated. 

When emergencies strike, preparation can make all the difference — and your local librarians are here to help you turn information into action.

In this episode of Survival by the Book, we talk about short term survival situations you might face here in Harris County from power outages and severe storms to unexpected evacuations. Join us as we break down the classic “10 Essentials for Survival,” and explain why each item matters. Along the way, we'll recommend trusted preparedness resources and survival guides available right at your local library.

Whether you’re brand new to emergency preparedness or looking to strengthen your family’s disaster plan, this episode is packed with approachable advice, real-world scenarios, and a few librarian-approved book recommendations to keep you ready for whatever comes next. 

Recommended readings and sources: 

Breakdown of Survival Situations: Categorization of Survival Situations by Length by Bruce Zawalsky

Ready.gov: Be Prepared for Any Hazard

The Ten Essential

The Survival Handbook by Colin Towell

Created by the Podcast Team at the Harris County Public Library.
www.hcpl.net

Podcast Team Members include: Beth Krippel, John Harbaugh, Mary Mink, Dylan Smith, Sadina Shawver, Alinda Mac, John Schaffer, Jennifer Finch, Katelyn Helberg, Darcy Casavant, Darla Pruitt and Nancy Hu 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Have you always been curious about survivalism, wanted to take a trip outdoors or into the wilderness, but didn't know what you need or how to prepare? Or maybe you're just someone who wants to be prepared for an emergency situation, but have no idea where to start. If any of these things sound like you, then you've come to the right place. Welcome to HCPL's new podcast, Survival by the Book. I'm Dylan, and I'm joined by your host, John, Caitlin, and Mary. And in today's episode, we're going to talk about short-term survival, the 10 essentials, and our own personal stories or experiences with short-term situations. But as always, before we get started, I would like to say that while some of us may have more survival experience than others, none of us are survival experts or have experienced every survival situation that gets mentioned or is known to man. So if you would like to do your own research or see where we're pulling our information, tips, and research from, please check out the resources located in the description of this episode.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Alright, so according to the Boreal Wilderness Institute, short-term survival is one to four days, which incorporates about 99% of all survival situations. Most of the situations that we will have in our daily lives are going to be weather related. So there isn't going to be too much of there's a plane crash and you're in the Andes mountain and you have to decide who is and isn't going to be eaten. Instead, it's going to be there was a hurricane, there was a tornado, there was a winter freeze. And how do we go about surviving during the one to four days in which this weather event is occurring?

SPEAKER_04 1:44

And how how do we?

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Well, uh, ready.gov has a really great resource. And they, these are the hazard information sheets. They have all sorts of different situations. More or less, we'll kind of just talk more about the weather-related ones, but some of these include avalanche, earthquake, extreme heat, flood, hurricane, landslide, power outage, thunderstorms, lightning and hail, tornado, tsunami, volcano, wildfire, and winter storms. I'm pretty sure that the only ones that we may not get here in Texas are going to be avalanche, earthquake, and volcano.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

The ones that come to mind that we might experience more readily here in Harris County would be the flooding, hurricane. When you say it, we the one question I had is how would we experience a landslide here in Harris County? Like in my head, I'm like, I can't picture too many hills or anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Or what exactly would it doesn't necessarily have to be hills, it could be just the liquefaction of land. So say you've got a house that's on the edge of a bayou and rain saturation happens to where the soil underneath said structure has liquefaction, then it slides right into the bayou. So it could happen. We're more likely to have hurricanes and floods and thunderstorms, lightning, hail, and power outages and winter storms, extreme heat.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

We are cooling centers. So if we are ever in that extreme heat situation, you guys can always come visit your local Harris County public library, cool off, and enjoy some good books.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

I mean a bunch of them. Even when hurricanes come through, if you're out of power, come on in.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Yeah. Uh my branch was a cooling center when the Derecho hit because the Derecho was like random, like completely just caused so many power outages and things like that. So we were packed. People needed a place to go. It was 105 degrees outside in July. Like, so yes, the cooling centers that we offered Monday through Sunday, we even open on Sunday when we usually weren't. So keep that in mind that your library is a local resource when these things happen. Ready.gov hazard information sheets have a lot of good facts and things. There's preparation, there's what to do when it's happening, and then how to recover. So all three of these things are covered in the sheet itself. And they have more situations than just the weather ones that we listed. They are free and readily available at ready.gov. So the 10 essentials um originally for hiking, but they can be duplicated for anyone. I basically carry the 10 essentials with me almost everywhere, um, definitely in my car. So the first one is navigation. That could be a map, that could be a compass, GPS device, a personal locator beacon. Your phone could be your navigation if you have Wi-Fi, anything that you can use to pretty much tell you where to go, what direction in which you are going.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

When you say personal locator beacon, the thing that comes to my head is like if people get buried in like an avalanche and stuff like that. Is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_00 5:09

That's exactly it. Depending on which one you get, a personal locator beacon usually operates on 243 hertz, which gives a data packet to the AFRCC coordination center from a satellite that tells the Air Force pretty much within six meters where you are. And then they dispatch either a local agency or law enforcement to pretty much go and find you. So this is a cry for help. This is help, help, help, mayday, made a made day. I'm lost and I have no idea where I am. Or there's an emergency happening, I broke my leg, something like that. Some of these are pretty like complicated to the point where like you can send text messages from your personal locator beacon through a satellite. It is a last entry, last, I'm in an avalanche, somebody come find me.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

A lot of phones now, too, which I mean, this is also assuming that you're near Wi-Fi, which I guess is more of a man-cause disaster more than a weather disaster, but you can still call 911 over Wi-Fi, which you can enable through at least iPhones. I assume most smartphones. So if the cell towers go down, you can still make your phone call, but not the same if you're out in the middle of the wilderness under an avalanche of snow or something.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Well, I will say potential there, the potential there is. I know that recently my partner's sister, like she has all her, I guess, like emergency contacts like updated and stuff like that on her phone. And she got into a really bad car accident. And I don't know if it was what's up or if it sent messages through her phone, but basically it alerted everyone that was on that emergency contact list like, hey, I've been in an accident. Contact authorities or X, Y, and Z if you don't like hear from me or anything like that. And it automatically and she got in the big like when I say bad car accident, I don't mean like she fell off like the side of the mountain. Like she just like she was in a car accident, her arm was all bruised up and everything.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

So like it wasn't like just the airbags deployed. It was enough like EMS needed to be yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

And so that sent out an alert through through that, and so then her family then started to call her and be like, Hey, are you okay? Like X, Y, Z. But again, I can't remember if it was specifically that message went out specifically through what's up, or if it was a message as it got sent through iMessage and stuff like that. I just remember my my fiance getting that message and be like, Oh my gosh, at least it was in a car accident.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

And a lot of new cars, um, I've been doing some car shopping lately, a lot of new cars have SOS buttons where it'll the car itself will directly connect you to an emergency operator, you know, like the old days of OnStar.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Yeah, that's what I was just thinking about.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Yeah, because I will say I don't know how OnStar has changed, but I do remember as a kid, like my mom was able to use OnStar to get like directions and navigate and all that stuff. And now I see an OnStar button in my car and I'd like to press it or something, and it does like nothing.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Like um, I was looking at one one Toyota, and Toyota said that there had been so many like people like trying to hit the the light at the top, but were hitting the SOS button that they they put a little piece of plastic in front of it, like you have to pull it down and then press it. Oh but it'll automatically activate if the airbags deploy.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Okay, okay, yeah. I was gonna say if your car flips over, you're not gonna be like, oh, we're let me pull down.

SPEAKER_04 8:33

And what what was the mechanism for your sister-in-law's app? Like, does it have crash detection or did she have to initiate it? Oh, wait, don't go.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Okay, I don't know, but like I said, like as far as I as far as I know, I don't know if she actually had to like have that as a setting in her in the app or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 8:47

In WhatsApp?

SPEAKER_02 8:48

In WhatsApp or through iMessage or through iMessage. I don't remember the specific details. I just remember it was one of those two two messaging services. Um, and it automatically just sent out that info as soon as she got into that car accident.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

So everyone while you guys are talking, let me just look through my settings on my iPhone and see if that yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

iPhone does have a couple different settings, as well as if you smash the buttons, then you can click the one that says medical alert or emergency alert. Same thing with an iWatch.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Oh, there it's turned on on my phone. Call after severe crash. If you're in a car crash, iPhone can automatically call emergency services. iPhone will start a countdown and sound an alarm before the call. iPhone cannot detect all crashes, and then you can set up emergency contacts in health.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

So beyond navigation, we also have illumination. So that's like a headlamp, a flashlight, or glow sticks.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

I have a question just about the because you know, you see all these ads and stuff. I'm not well, I see all these ads. I want to say assume that everyone gets these flashlight ads on YouTube or whatever about all these different like luminosity and the numbers involving that and stuff like that. Is there just like a basic minimum?

SPEAKER_00 9:58

350 doesn't matter. So it lumens is based off of a candle and candle power. So one lumen is like one candle. Like if you've ever lit one candle in a dark room, it's not very bright. But if you lit a hundred, it'd be a lot brighter. I usually go around at a minimum of a hundred, but usually around 350. Once you get into the ones that are like a thousand lumens, then that's like you're if somebody comes to rescue you and you flash that on them, they're gonna be blind.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

And then I guess do you happen to know off the top of your head how bright your phone's flashlight is?

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Uh no, I don't, because it's variable. Okay. So I don't know what the the max is. But yes, you by proxy of carrying your phone, you also have a flashlight, uh, as long as you have battery.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

I don't know about you guys, but I carry around a portable charger with me. I hope if I well, God forbid, I ever in a terrible accident and I need to reach the power battery or whatever, the power bank, I hope I have it in my back pocket or something. Somewhere accessible within my emergency repair kit that I have after doing this podcast.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Well, and if you're trying to save battery, just put your phone in airplane mode. Then it stops seeking signal. And once it stops doing that, it's just the maintenance of the phone itself. All right. Also, sun protection. Another one of the 10 essentials, make sure that you have something like sunglasses or UPF sun-blocking clothing, sunscreen, a hat. I mean, I I carry a jacket in my car all at all times. And I think I have a hat and an extra pair of sunglasses since I wear prescription. It's you know, the old prescription, but you know, it still works.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Yeah, a lot of people don't realize you can actually sunburn your eyes. So when I see people walking around, kind of walking around unprotected with their eyes, I always think you don't realize how badly you can sunburn your eyes. And also the light bounces off the cement, which intensifies it. And same with water. Same with sun. Yeah. Oh, snow, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Snow blindness is a thing because it's so white, your eyes will absorb so much of that light and burn the cones and rods. Also, uh, number four on the list is a first aid kit. So, first aid kit, you know, whatever you are able to render aid, we will be going over this in more detail later. Uh, but you know, band-aids, antiseptic, um, you know, depending, I also have foot care in mine that's like moleskin and things like that in case you get a blister, insect repellent, stuff like that. I also recommend, yeah, number five, which is a knife or a tool with a blade, which could be like a multi-tool type thing that has a cutting blade. Amount of tools doesn't really matter. You really just need a knife. Worst comes to worse in a car crash. You need to be able to get yourself out of that seatbelt. Um, some people have the type where it's like the glass breaker that also has a blade on it to cut the seatbelt. There's lots of different things out there. Um, but you know, you can literally go to Walmart and get a $5 knife.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

You know, it's poor me, because I mean, every day at my home office, I do have one of the glass breakers with the with the blade to cut the seatbelt, and I always just mess with it. It's like I use it as a desk toy at this point, and I don't ever need to put in. But I definitely need to go ahead and just move that over.

SPEAKER_04 13:30

I know we're gonna talk more about placement when we talk about first aid kits in depth, but I'm wondering about the placement of the knife tool with someone as someone with small children that get into everything. Well, I keep in the car specifically.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

I have one that lives in my pocket. Yeah. But then I also don't always have pockets. I I understand.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Uh what about the little pocket that's on the driver's side door?

SPEAKER_00 13:59

You know, you can also keep it in the visor. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

I mean they love to clicky clacky. The the garage door openers right there.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

That's fine. No, well, I'm saying the visor. Like if you brought the visor down.

SPEAKER_04 14:14

Which they do. Yeah, clicky clacky.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

I mean, how old are we talking about?

SPEAKER_04 14:19

Seven and three.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

My dad had me trained not to touch blades by probably four.

SPEAKER_04 14:24

They don't make kids like they used to, John. You can make yours like they used to. This is your twenty. It's a personal problem, okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

I mean, definitely with your seven-year-old.

SPEAKER_04 14:36

No, no, she would be, yeah. Seven-year-old would be definitely trainable. The three-year-old is a chaos agent, though.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Do you have uh one of those things in your car where it holds your sunglasses?

SPEAKER_04 14:46

Mm-mm.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

So I was gonna say it would fit easily in there. No, yes, I do.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

A little thing that swings down, yeah. I do.

SPEAKER_04 14:52

If they don't play with that, they do occasionally, but I can try to, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

If I if I had a knife in there, I would and my recommendation would be leave them alone. A folded knife for that situation so that they have to open it. There's a little extra So the three-year-old would have to have the hand strength to grip both sides and open it and know how to open it.

SPEAKER_04 15:11

Right. Oh, she would figure it out. But yeah, but no, all good points, yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

All right. Um, so multi-tools, knives, and things like that, because you could also get a multi-tool to put in your car that has that's inside of a sheath. So it'll have more than one tool in it, and the blade will be minimal compared to yes, yeah. It's like a switch army knife. Yeah. Well, not a switch blade.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

You were saying compared to.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Yeah, Swiss Army knife versus a full-to-based. Wow, such jump. So we'll go on to the next dangerous thing, which is fire. Again, the matches. You can carry matches, a lighter, tinder, not the app, um, stove, magnesium, a ferro rod, something that's going to be able to start a fire if you need to.

SPEAKER_04 16:06

What is a ferro rod?

SPEAKER_00 16:07

So a ferro rod is basically like a flint. You use a piece of metal against it to create sparks.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Just to create a visual image.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

It's the one, it's like the real long ones that are like the description you want is a metal rod with a handle that can be scraped to create sparks. Yeah, it's like a metal on metal creates like a flint-like experience to light whatever tinder that you have.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Okay. Could you you can maybe use the flint for this, but this is a thing I just thought of. Say you have matches and the matches are still good, but the box is messed up, so you can't strike it. What do you use? Are those matches now useless?

SPEAKER_00 16:51

No, I mean, any rough search surface should be able to strike a match.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

I mean, according to the mummy returns, you can use uh your beard.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Only if you're that ruggedly handsome. Five or five o'clock shadow required.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Although I wouldn't recommend it because that would hurt.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

So number seven is shelter. Shelter could be a tent, it could be an emergency blanket, it could be a vivi sack, it could be a tarp, could be a rope that you use with the tarp. Worst comes of worse, emergency blanket that is shoved into your clothes will still heat you as long as you have enough of an air gap and your clothes aren't wet. So you can literally carry an emergency shelter with you at all times if you wanted to carry one of those little uh Mylar emergency blankets. I do keep a tarp in my car. So and bungee cords. You also want to have extra food. So food beyond the minimum requirement that may be freeze-dried, dehydrated, or otherwise preserved. So in my car, I've got, I think, three different like freeze-dried meals, like the camping meals. So I'll at least have three or six thousand calories to try and get back home.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

What's what's the minimum requirement referring to?

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Minimum requirement for a day or for whatever the circumstance is. So if you're taking a seven seven-day backpacking trip in Europe, you want more than seven days.

SPEAKER_04 18:24

Okay, that makes sense. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

So same, same goes for water. So water beyond the minimum requirement, which may also include a filtration method like a life straw, which is what I carry around, chlorine tablets, UV light, or activated charcoal filter. There's a lot of different ways to filter and purify water, but take the one that's going to be the easiest for you to carry along with you. Then I also recommend extra clothes. So clothes beyond what is expected, like gloves, a rainproof jacket or poncho, extra socks, or any other layers to make one comfortable. I don't know about you, but my mom always said make sure to have clean underwear in case of an emergency. So both my wife and I have clean underwear in a Ziploc baggie in our cars in case of an emergency and socks, because you don't want to get trenched foot. Well, trench foot or like jungle rot. It's basically if you have wet, soggy socks, then your feet are going to be wet and soggy. And that is going to cause a fungal infection, which could cause decay, which could cause amputation.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

I always think about this. There was this trend for a while going around on like TikTok specifically, where people were talking about when they go on vacation, how many pairs of underwear do they bring? And it it was insane. Like I thought I just bring, you know, one for every day. That's normal, hygiene. But I think you really need to pay attention to where you're going. He's like, if I'm going to visit family, I know for some reason I walk into mud one day and I go through all my pairs of underwear somehow. Like I can use their washing machine, I can clean them. But these people were packing like double the days that they were going. I was like, are you going to the middle of nowhere? Because then I kind of understand, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Yeah. But well, and then there's other hacks, like if uh merino wool is one of the best things to get. And in the United States, like a merino wool pair of socks can be, depending on if they add nylon or if it's 100%, could be anywhere from $12 to $24.

unknown 20:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

They're super cheap in Ireland because that's where the wool comes from. So you could literally get two, bring two pairs of socks and have extra room in your suitcase so that you could buy more pairs of socks that are cheaper, made out of a better quality material in the place that you're going. So there's things like that that you could do. But at the same time, worst comes to worst, you go to a five and dime and you just buy some socks.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Right. I also thought about that. You know, like, are you not close to a Walgreens? Where are you going?

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Yes. I mean, granted, if you're again backpacking in the middle of nowhere, you want to make sure that, you know, you could also bring some camp soap so that if you come across a stream, you could literally just go wash your clothes, put them on either, you know, a line or branches and let them dry out, depending on how ultralight you're trying to go.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Or the situation that we might experience in your county, like hurricanes, floods, power outage and stuff like that. How would you prepare, or like what kind of which of the 10 essentials kind of would you prioritize in those situations? Because obviously in my head, I think like, oh, if I if we are in a power outage during a hurricane, well, I have more than enough clothes in my own house and I'm going anywhere. But like how much food would you have prepared before the hurricane? And obviously, like I think I would have canned food gas stove, electric stove. What's the basic requirements or how would you start preparing for these short-term possibilities that we might experience in Paris Town?

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Colin Towell has a book called Essential Survival Skills, in which he has a list of the rule of threes. Three seconds to react and to make a decision, three minutes before your brain needs oxygen, three hours in extreme climates unprotected, three days without water, three weeks without food. So first and foremost, you need to make sure that you have oxygen, obviously. So we had talked about you know some of these plants and things having like you know the shelter-in-place warnings and stuff like that. So that's where the like the plastic sheeting and duct tape or evacuate evacuation comes into play. Um but that's kind of far and few between for the majority of Harris County. It happens maybe what, once every two or three years. And then we would transition into the three hours in extreme climates unprotected. So you want to make sure that your home is safe to be at. So in the case of a flood or a hurricane, if you know your area is going to get hit or you're in a floodplain, it's best to evacuate. Um, don't even preparation and mitigation, as we talked about in the, I believe, second episode. If you can get out, go. Just go. You know, just don't be there. Don't put yourself in that situation. But if you have to stay, like in some situations, like we did, with the winter storms, power outages, and like thunderstorms, lightning, and hail, make sure that your home is, you know, is an appropriate shelter, that you have the food and water that you need, um, which are the next essentials, three days without water and three weeks without food. Uh, and to have the appropriate like cooking methodologies, because you don't bring your barbecue inside because you'll kill yourself with carbon monoxide. Uh, that's not always apparent because some of these camping stoves use butane, which will do the same thing as a byproduct of carbon monoxide, which is why they're designed for outside use instead of indoor use. Uh, so there's things like that. You want to weigh your options. Are you in an apartment? Are you in a home? What is the land situation? How well do you know your neighbors? And things like that.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

Currently, me and my partner have a decent relationship with the two neighbors next to us. But this is the first time that we've actually like known or comfortable talking to our neighbors and stuff like that. Um, I don't know if this is the same for you guys, but we feel like it's super it's it's more common nowadays to really just stay in your little bubble in your house and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

But well, if I didn't know my neighbor, then during the last uh power outage that we had, uh, you know, it was in the middle of July. It was hot. Uh, my wife is recovering from, you know, having breast cancer and no AC, no power, no nothing. She's not able to regulate her body temperature that well. He said, Hey, hook up a power line to me and you know, hook up a fan. You know, if you have a portable AC unit, hook it up. My generator can handle it. So if I didn't have that relationship with that neighbor, then we wouldn't have been able to get that help. That's why creating community, even in your own neighborhood, is very important.

SPEAKER_04 25:40

Yeah, it really is like a very underrated survival skill or or something to do. Um the there's a book, it's kind of a seminal book on extreme heat events called Heat Wave by Eric Kleinenberg. And he did a big study on an uh, I think it was in the 90s, a big heat wave that hit Chicago. Um, and like very targeted research, like zip code by zip code. And they were like they had the exact same event, but there were very different outcomes. And it wasn't um, it wasn't the what he was expecting. It wasn't always like the people with more resources were the ones surviving better. It was the people with more social connections and a stronger community tie that actually had better survival outcomes in that event. Um, so yeah, knowing your neighbors is a lost art, but actually very important.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Oh, we might touch on that in the next episode where we analyze survivors.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

True. In the next episode, as Mary just mentioned, we'll be talking about the TV show Survivor. And we're going all the way back to the beginning, starting with episode one, season one, where they're in Borneo. We'll see you guys then.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Bye.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Survival by the Book. I just want to remind everyone that while some of us may have more survival experience than the others, none of us are survival experts. We are in fact librarians. So if you would like to do your own research, preferably at your local ACPL library, or see where we're pulling our information, tips, and research from, please check out the resources located in the description of this episode.