Rethinking Emergency Preparedness for Bombings After Jericho

Are we prepared to live in a state of emergency?  My previous research into emergency preparedness brought me to develop the Emergency Preparedness for the Pantry: Checklists To Get You Ready.  These checklists are a great starting place, but are designed for natural disasters, fires, earthquakes, loss of power, etc., not specifically for dealing with bombings.  How much different is emergency preparedness for surviving a nuclear attack and living in a world after radiation and fallout?
My husband and I have been watching a TV series called Jericho, which, strangely enough, started in 2006 but we never heard of it until now!  The show is about a small town in Kansas which sees a mushroom cloud in the distance and loses all power and communication with the outside world.  We later find out that all the major cities in the United States have been bombed and the world as we know it has completely changed.
Watching Jericho has sent me seriously deep into thought night after night.  How prepared would we be if something like this nuclear attack actually happened?  As dependent upon information as we are in our society, would we know how to survive if our information sources (the internet, the news, etc.) disappeared?  Really, would we be able to make butter from scratch if we couldn’t just go to Google and search “how to churn butter recipe”?
I’ve been rethinking my emergency preparedness efforts since I’ve started watching Jericho.  Where before I thought my modest pantry stockpile was a good start at being ready for an emergency or disaster, I now know I was way off.
I told my husband yesterday that I realized we would probably die in a post-nuclear world and definitely would not be able to provide for our children.  I think I’ll be adding in some survival training to our homeschool curriculum this year, not only for the kids, but for mom and dad as well.

Most Needed Items to Have or Have Stockpiled to Survive Nuclear Attack

The people of Jericho found themselves trading, fighting, and stealing for necessities in a post-nuclear attack world.  What were the items considered necessities?  How many of these do you have on hand in your emergency preparedness kit?  Below are 17 most needed items I brainstormed after watching Jericho.

1. Food with long life that doesn’t require refrigeration or freezing
2. Salt
3. Pesticides (to save crops from infestation)
4. Antibiotics
5. Medicine
6. First aid supplies (bandages, iodine (for radiation poisoning), etc.)
7. Clean bottled water
8. Non-electric tools (hand can openers, hand crank washing machine, etc.)
9. Guns for protection against invaders and looters
10. Duct tape and plastic sheeting for sealing off a home from fallout
11. Candles and flashlights
12. Gasoline and diesel
13. Blankets
14. A fireplace in your home to use as a heat source and firewood
15. A basement
16. Batteries (not rechargeables)
17. Clock (not digital)

Top Survival Skills Used in Jericho

How many of the survival skills below do you know?  If you’re like me, you’ll be lucky if you can check off one or two items on the list.  There are a lot of survival skills we may need to use after a nuclear bomb near our town which are NOT things we do in everyday life.  Perhaps it’s time to get back to basics and learn to take care of ourselves!    The people in Jericho were able (thankfully) to do the following survival activities:

1. Hooking up a generator
2. Hunting animals for food
3. Washing laundry by hand
4. Building windmills (wind turbines) for electricity
5. Sending and receiving morse code
6. Repairing ventilation systems (in fallout shelters)
7. Harvesting crops by hand and storing them
8. CPR and other first aid skills
9. Self-defense training
10. Taking apart machines to salvage parts
11. Using salvaged parts to build a radio for communication
12. Hooking up a fire hose and putting out a house fire without help of firefighters
13. Shutting off electricity to a building in case of electrical fire

It’s always a good idea to be prepared, as every boy scout knows very well.  It’s not likely that we’ll have to deal with a situation like living after nuclear bombings, but having a good emergency plan, provisions, and skills is a good idea anyway.  This solid basis can help us in case of a natural disaster as well, and help us to give our kids the necessary skills to survive should they ever be in conditions like these.  Give your emergency preparedness plan a good look today and start making some additions!