The 72-hour Kit: Gotta Rosary for the run?
http://www.jesusbewith.us/?p=1731
By Ben Fisher - Jesus Be With Us
Published February 13th, 2009
In the event of an emergency, do you have a 72-hour or Bug-out Kit? Gotta Rosary for the run?
A 72-hour kit is a bag, bucket, or box of everything you will need (food, water, medicine, …) to survive 72-hours as you flee a natural disaster, terrorist event, or civil unrest.
The idea is that you should be able to get where you’re evacuating to within three-days, or that civil authorities (police, national guard, etc.) will have brought the unrest under control.
There are as many variations on the 72-hour or bug-out kit as there are websites dedicated to readiness.  The key for you is to adapt YOUR kit to your needs, budget, and the time you can spend putting it together.
Big Budget - Little Time to Shop and Assemble
If you’ve got the money and not enough time to shop for a list of things to buy, there are plenty of companies who can supply you ready-made kits. You should add local maps for your area, prescription medications you need, infant formula, pet food (if you’re scatting with your cat or dog), to the ready-made kit. They don’t supply everything and you can’t assume any given company is going to know specifically what you need.
With that in mind, below are several ready-made kits and sites to shop from:
Little Budget - Lots of Time
If you’re on a budget, you may want to assemble your own kit. Wikipedia has a fairly decent emergency kit list which you can buy piece by piece during normal shopping trips to the supermarket, sporting or hardware store:
- Enough food and water to last for seventy two hours. This includes:
- 4 litres (1 gallon) of water per person per day, for washing, drinking and cooking.
- Non-perishable food
- Water purification supplies.
- Cooking supplies
- Cutlery and cups/dishes.
- A first aid kit.
- A disaster plan including location of emergency centers, rallying points, possible evacuation routes etc.
- Professional emergency literature explaining what to do in various types of disaster, studied and understood before the actual disaster but kept for reference.
- Maps and travel information.
- Standard camping equipment, including sanitation supplies.
- Clothes and bedding.
- Enough medicine to last an extended evacuation period if, for example, one’s home were destroyed.
- Pet, child and elderly care needs.
- Radio.
- Lighting (battery or crank operated flashlight, glow sticks).
- Firearm(s) and appropriate ammunition.
- Crowbar (offensive weapon, building and vehicle entry, etc.)
- Cash and change, as electronic banking transactions may not be available during the initial period following an emergency or evacuation.
And finally the Catholic touch!
- Small travel bible (and reading glasses if you need them). The Word of God can sustain you during a crisis!
- Small bottle of holy water. Bless your family throughout the evacuation! Small signs of faith are powerful prayers for intercession!
- Blessed candles if you have them. Again, using a sacramental is a sign of faith in Christ, faith which will hold you up during an emergency. And in this case, light up your world!
- A Rosary. If you’re stuck in traffic on an evacuation route or find yourself in an unknown place, the power of the Rosary calls loudly to the Blessed Mother and will settle your heart and help give you peace. She will also be watching over you!
You can also explore links to other innovative do-it-yourself 72-hour kits I found on the net:
So, what’s the plan?
As important as the kit is that everyone in the family knows where the kit(s) is(are) AND what to do if the family is separated.
- Where is your rallying point? IE, where are you going to try to regroup at? A friend’s house? A hotel? (Call as you leave because these book quickly!)
- What is the travel plan to get there? Remember, most primary and secondary highways are likely to be full. Which one will you try first and what’s your alternate? If you live near an airport, are you going to try to get the first flight out to anywhere?
- Cell phones are likely to be jammed, so your plan should be to try TEXTING one another. Text messages typically go through much faster!
- Who’s your triangulation point, i.e., who is the friend or neighbor who you all are going to call to let know what your status is. Imagine you can’t get a messages between family member’s cell phones. Plan to try calling a third-party everyone knows about. That person may be able to help coordinate logistics for you.
Practice the plan
You and the family (or yourself and friends) should practice the plan at least ONCE! Taking a weekend to go through the plan and traveling to your rallying point will make everyone familiar with what to do/where to go. THIS IS IMPORTANT as during a real emergency, you may be worried/distracted/upset. Being familiar with your plan will make the entire evacuation go much easier.
Involve friends and neighbors
This is a hard one. I’ve read on many survival sites that it’s often hard to find people who want to be as prepared as you! Yes, many will agree with you, but few will actually join you in preparations.
But you must try! There is strength in numbers and you never know how each family will be able to help the other!
Creating a user group on Yahoo Groups may also be one way to keep a group together and on message during preparations.
Arm yourself
This is a topic that is going to trouble some readers, especially on a religious site.
But the reality of the world is that during an evacuation or emergency, evil people may attempt to harm you or your family, or take your emergency kits, your car or truck, etc.
As a Catholic, you DO NOT have to give in to this. And as an American Catholic, you HAVE THE RIGHT (and responsibility I believe), to arm yourself.
You also have a responsibility to:
- train yourself and/or your family on how to use firearms (take a course),
- practice, practice, practice!
- know how to handle and store firearms safely,
- know the laws of your state or city concerning firearms,
- know the Church and Biblical contexts that assures you that you can defend yourself.
If you believe Catholicism (or Christianity for that matter) are incompatible with gun ownership and self defense, please read some of the following resources. This should calm your fears:
And as one site mentions:
There are saints for ammunition magazines (Barbara), ammunition workers (Elmo), anti-Communism (Joseph), archers (Sebastian), armies (Maurice), armories (Lawrence), armorers (Barbara, Dunstan, George, Lawrence, and Sebastian), arms dealers (Adrian of Nicomedia), arrowsmiths (Sebastian), artillery gunners (Barbara), battle (Michael the archangel), against battle (Florian), against burglaries (Leonard of Noblac), cavalry (Martin of Tours), Crusaders (Charles the Good, King Louis IX of France), fortifications (Barbara), freedom (Holy Infant Jesus of Prague), hunters (Hubert), hunting (Eustachius, Hubert of Liege), infantry (Martin of Tours), knights (Gengulphus, George, James the Greater, Julian the Hospitaller, Michael the Archangel), military chaplains (John of Capistrano), paratroopers (Michael the Archangel), quartermasters (Martin of Tours), security forces (Michael the Archangel), swordsmiths (Maurice), United States Army Special Forces (Philip Neri), and the Women’s Army Corps a/k/a WACs (Genevieve, Joan of Arc). There are also a large number of saints for the armies or navies of particular nations.
You can verify these saints here.
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