When All Hell Breaks Loose

STUFF You Need to SURVIVE When DISASTER STRIKES

Illustrations © 2007 Russell Miller
Photographs © 2007 Christopher Marchetti

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Published by
Gibbs Smith, Publisher
P.O. Box 667
Layton, Utah 84041

Toll-free number to buy more copies for everyone you know:
1.800.835.4993
www.gibbs-smith.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lundin, Cody.
When all hell breaks loose: stuff you need to survive when disaster strikes / Cody Lundin; illustrations by Russell L. Miller; photographs by Christopher Marchetti.—1st ed.
p.cm.
ISBN: 978-1-4236-0105-0
1. Emergency management—United States. 2. Natural disasters—United States. 3. Survival skills. 4. Disasters—Psychological aspects. I. Title.

HV551.3.L86 2007
613.6'9—dc22

2007018636

This book was written with solar power to the ear-bleeding, head-banging tunes of Vivaldi, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Bach, The Grateful Dead, Judas Priest, Mozart, Metallica, Handel, Lamb of God, Bob Marley, Rush, and many others.

T
his book is gratefully dedicated to the Great Ones, and to every thought, feeling, and action, no matter how small, of encouraging harmony, freedom, courage, integrity, and truth for all Life. May the Earth's Light again shine as Freedom's Star and complete the Music of the Spheres.

T
his book is written to remind people of their right to self-reliance within a world community and to offer them no-nonsense, home-tested tools and techniques toward the goal of obtaining greater peace, harmony, and independence during troubled times. It's based upon popular lectures and hands-on skills about self-reliance that I've taught to thousands of students around the nation. Using common sense and the hierarchal necessities of human psychology and physiology,
When All Hell Breaks Loose
concisely and humorously outlines the often simple steps needed for preparing a self-reliant home to survive urban and rural emergencies from Los Angeles to Paris and everything in between. My intention is to offer these "survival tools" in the most practical, affordable, simple, efficient, and realistic way as possible.

Don't assume to whip out this book while three feet of floodwater lingers in your living room and expect to be a happy camper.
The information in this manual should be studied and used BEFORE the next emergency
. It's too late to read the book on how to swim when the boat's going down. Proper advanced preparation can mean the difference between your living or dying. There is an old survival saying that's prudent to understand and follow:
Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
.

God

This is not a book based upon religious prophecy, dogma, or "end times." Regardless of your faith or lack of it, I'm betting that you reside within a human body that lives upon a physical planet. If this is true, you and your loved ones will benefit from the contents in this book whether Armageddon happens or not. That said, embracing and strengthening a personal and family spiritual path will deepen your connection with the Source, the only truly permanent supply on Earth.

Goosebumps

This is not a book based in fearmongering and paranoia. It doesn't matter what preparedness gear you have stored in your garage or buried in your backyard if you are too much of a mental and emotional basket case to use it. You will learn later in this book about the power of your attention. Whatever your attention focuses upon, you draw that quality into your life to act. Perhaps nothing is needed more in today's world than inner harmony consciously held by the individual. To be able to maintain and hold a harmonious attitude in the face of all things chaotic is true mastery. It is your biggest and best survival skill. Have faith and keep trying. This book is dedicated to your Divine right to think and act for you and your family's welfare—and those serious about advancing on the path will remember that we are all "family" on this planet. Self-understanding and self-reliance minimize fear and manipulation, increase positive attitudes, and allow you to become one of the stronger links in the chain of humanity during times of turmoil.

Goats

This is not a book on homesteading skills. I don't write about growing gardens, planting fruit trees, or milking goats—all of which would be wonderful resources and skills to have during a prolonged crisis. There are books available that deal with small- and large-scale homesteading and I encourage you to learn all that you can about self-reliant strategies. If you have the initiative and the space to raise some or all of your family's food, you have my praise and a hearty slap on the back.

Guns

Unlike some survival manuals that offer handy tips for cooking the family pet, stockpiling ammo and only ammo, improvising explosives, and properly fitting the family with gas masks, this book sticks to the basics of being prepared in a populated environment when shopping at the discount or grocery store is not an option. That said, I'm not discounting the potential weirdness that could threaten our towns and cities in current world affairs. However, planning to survive the
effect
of a catastrophe is very different from planning to survive its
cause
. The former is dictated by a mind-set of fear and hysteria; the latter, a mind-set of common sense and practical wisdom. If you think there's no difference between the two, please rethink your intentions and strategies for your family's preparedness plan.

Gold

I'm not a financial planner and I don't want to be. Through this book, I hope to educate the public on what is truly needed to live during a compromising scenario in which you are "on your own." A friend of mine once told me the sobering story of how his German grandparents, during World War II, witnessed urban dwellers making their way into rural farming areas to trade. He said, "They went to farmhouses with suitcases full of silver dinnerware, gold, and jewelry, and left with suitcases full of very expensive vegetables." The supposed value of an item is dependent upon that which society decrees upon it at the time. Don't repeat history by forgetting your priorities.

Goofs

This is not a survival book that caters to what most "hardcore survivalists" would consider a good read: there is no instruction on booby traps, camouflage, fearmongering, or homemade explosives. No doubt I'll read online "reviews" mocking the book scribbled by underinformed, well-armed, aging, overweight, henpecked wannabe survival gurus sitting in comfortable yet dependent on-the-grid homes with vulnerable water, sanitation, heating, cooling, lighting, and communication systems. While this book is obviously my opinion about survival skills, it is an opinion based on years of self-reliant living and experimentation. I live what I teach by informed choice: I consciously chose to design and build a home that heats, cools, and ventilates itself; I gather power from the sun, catch rainwater for drinking and gardening, compost fecal matter, and grow food. This book is geared toward helping the masses of people on the planet, readers who may or may not have a passion for becoming more self-reliant, not supporting the macho, dogmatic delusions of those who choose to put themselves into a self-limiting box of what urban and suburban survival skills should or should not have.

Gear

Although there is physical gear that you should have on hand during any emergency, I am not a "gear head" and do not wish to entice you into buying items that you don't need. This is not a book about cool survival gear and where to get it, thereby distancing yourself from crucial aspects of personal responsibility. True self-reliance—and the emotional, mental, and spiritual mind-set it perpetuates—allows form to follow function. Don't become mesmerized by people or organizations trying to pitch the sales of survival gear in your direction. Many people that manufacture, test, "improve," and/or market survival gear have little experience in the field. The vast majority don't live what they teach, as this requires a lifestyle commitment on all levels. Unless individuals and organizations offer education aimed at your ultimate freedom and self-reliance (in general, and from their products), they have an agenda, one of which is to make money by selling you their stuff. Even if they are correct that their product seems to be the best,
the maker will always be biased about what they make
.

Keep purchased gear simple and don't forget the core reason why you are buying what you are buying. Complicated specialty gear can be a real drag to service, return, and buy spare parts for, so keep your intention and what you buy as simple as possible. I have my students strive to broaden their motive and identify the
intention
behind the physical act of what their survival gear is supposed to perform. In other words, although there is a difference in quality between many flashlights,
sustained lighting
is the key concept or intention to keep in the forefront of your mind, and there are several ways to accomplish this intention.

Grace

This book will devote a good chunk of time delving into the "cause" and "effect" relationship of energy;
your
energy and the ones whom you love. Ultimately, we are all the cause of the distress in our lives, whether we care to acknowledge the fact or not. Unless this Law of Life is explained, understood, and put into practice, we will all continue to play the victim game in our lives, endlessly blaming persons, places, or things for the seeming failures that pop up in our experience. If we as a people on this planet understood and lived this law, there would be no need to write this book.
Truly understanding that we are masters of our own world by where we put our attention, thought, and feeling, is the essence of personal responsibility
. Personal responsibility is the essence of developing and maintaining a sound family preparedness plan. Work on getting your "inner house" in order with as much or more dedication as you will your outer house.

Most of the topics covered in this book are simple, yet forgotten, common-sense issues that will directly affect your family's life during a short or long-term survival scenario. Other topics are extremely involved, and required much research on my part. Similar to my first book,
98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive!
, I will reiterate critical points throughout this text, as science and psychology have proven for decades that folks do not remember things unless they are repeated several times. Also, I will strive to give you the necessary background information into why I am writing what I am writing, in the hopes that you and your family will take a proactive role in determining the fate of your preparedness plan.
Furthermore, like my first book, the style in which this book is written, and the accompanying illustrations, are not by accident. If you only read fine literature and drink Earl Grey tea with your pinkie extended, choose another book. I won't conform to so-called world literary standards at the expense of losing the imagery and feeling regarding the information being presented.
I am a survival instructor by profession, and I teach all types of people in order to make my living. I am passionate about what I teach, and I have learned what presentation style keeps a student engaged and awake. Many books on self-reliance are a drag to read. If they bore me to tears, God only knows how your aunt Florence will react to them.

While my presentation style may be unorthodox, I will gratefully risk unsettling a family member in order to give them valid information
in a style that will cause them to remember survival strategies while under great stress and fear
. After all, it's difficult to offend the dead. When you're stressed out or scared, your ability to take in and assimilate information is severely impaired. When your heart rate increases from anxiety or fear, your ability to accomplish fine and complex motor skills suffers. Learn how to swim before the boat begins to sink. Fear not, for the very fact that you are reading this book is proof that you're a swimmer.

The characters living within these pages, Vinny the (Uptown) Cockroach, Robbie Rubbish, Trevor, Holy Cow, and others, are reminding metaphors for essential psychological qualities inherent within all survivors, as well as core needs and intentions for survival, and important items to acquire to prepare for the widest variety of disasters. They are meant to keep your spirits and attitude uplifted, happy, and positive—all significant survivor qualities. Enjoy!

Read this book, and others, and then make up your own mind about what your family requires. Resist the temptation to take this or any other book or opinion on the street as gospel about what you should do about your situation. Unless your preparedness plan is customized to some extent by paying attention to your particular needs, frankly, it's someone else's survival plan.

Special circumstances or limitations involving your family that are above and beyond the scope of this manual are your responsibility to research and deal with, and every family will have their fair share. Face it, combining the unknowns of a chaotic urban or suburban landscape with the personalities of your stressed-out family will be challenging, regardless of how much you have prepared. Once again, like every decent survival manual ought to do, I'll focus as much as I can on dealing with the cause of the calamity, instead of reeling in the aftermath of its effect.

My hope for you and those you love is that the material contained within these pages offers you a positive yet realistic plan for living a safer, happier, more fulfilling life. After all, if your preparedness plan breeds mistrust, paranoia, and fear, you're missing the point.

URBANELY Yours,
—Cody Lundin
September 2007