How to Call for Help When the Phone Network Is Down
Text, don’t call: texts get through when calls do not. Then 911 by voice, text-to-911 where your county supports it, licence-free FRS radios, and the signals that need no electronics.
Preparedness Blog — Survival Guides, Gear Reviews & Family Emergency Planning
All Preparing with Dan articles, sorted by latest update. Browse by topic via the main menu, or scroll for the freshest posts.
Before You Buy a Geiger Counter: What It Can and Cannot Tell You in a Radiation Emergency
A consumer Geiger counter answers one question — is the level going up, down or normal? — and none of the first-24-hour decisions. What to look for, what is marketing, and the models people compare.
Car Emergency Kit: The 7-Item Base List, Then the Layer Your Climate Needs
One base list — the seven items Ready.gov names — plus a climate layer: sleeping bags and sand up north, a gallon of water per person in the desert, a window breaker in flood country.
Hurricane Watch vs Warning: What a Family Does in the 48 Hours Before Landfall
The National Weather Service issues a hurricane watch 48 hours before tropical-storm-force winds arrive and a warning 36 hours out. This is what a household does in each of those windows, in order, with the jobs that become impossible once the wind reaches 39 mph.
Best Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms: Ten Years Is the Number on the Back
An alarm is replaced ten years from the date printed on its back, and the US Fire Administration wants both ionization and photoelectric sensing in every home. Six combination smoke and CO alarms compared on sensor type, power and interconnection, with the catch for each.
Best Fire Extinguishers for Home and Apartment: Read the Rating, Find the UL Mark
The US Fire Administration explains the label: the number before A is a multiple of 1.25 gallons of water, the number before B is square feet of liquid fire, and the UL Listed mark is the thing to look for. Six extinguishers compared on that basis, and which listings do not show the mark.
How to Survive an Urban Flood: The 12-Inch Rule, the Attic Mistake, and What Renters Miss
Over half of US flood drownings happen in a car driven into water. Six inches knocks you over, twelve carries the car. Before, during and after an urban flood — including the renter version.
How to Heat One Room Without Electricity — and Not Die of Carbon Monoxide
You do not heat the house, you heat one room — with something that cannot fill it with carbon monoxide. Heat sources from safest to deadliest, the 20-foot rule, and when to leave.
Best First Aid Kits for Families: The Red Cross List Is 60 Items, Not 500
The American Red Cross publishes exactly what a family-of-four first aid kit should contain: about sixty items. A 516-piece kit is not eight times better, it is four hundred adhesive bandages. Six kits compared against the official list, and the four items most of them lack.
How to Seal Mylar Bags: Sizes, Oxygen Absorbers, and the Mistakes That Let Air In
A step-by-step method for sealing dry food in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, the sizes that match real portions, and the two rules that matter more than the brand of bag: keep the food under 10 % moisture, and open only as many absorbers as you can seal in a few minutes.