Greetings and welcome to the Patriot Express Newsletter Edition #244. Welcome to Hope for Survival. Thanks for stopping by to share your time with some weekly preparedness news. I feel like my forehead should have the michelin tire logo acrossed it about now. It was another fast week with time spent in Huntsville, AL with my day job. You know the trips are getting old when I find myself humming the tune "the wheels on the bus go round-n-round" during my trip.
We are approaching 15 days till Christmas and the spirit has yet to light me up, even after attending several Christmas events with Ms. Lucy. We enjoy attending and supporting our local community churches and other organizations hosting Christmas music type events. It's not to stop the world around us and take in the moment and wonderful voices filling the air with spirit.
I had planned to share some neat stocking stuffer gifts one could purchase or gift to others but held off on it this year. I used to do this in the early years of HFS until a few wives started getting ticked at me because their husbands started to buy things. True statement. I'm lauging about now but you will have to figure out which part I'm laughing about.
Let us move along....
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HFS Thursday Zoom - HFS Zoom Rally 120 was held with special guest, Sara Hathaway from the Burning Earth Podcast. She taught a class on personal protection and human abductions. Thanks to everyone who attended and supported this event. Thanks to Ms. Sara for a great class and her time to share with the HFS family.
Check out HFS YouTube. - Two new HFS videos for your viewing.
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Hope for Survival books and HFS Thumb Drive for Emergency Documents -: You can obtain information on the two HFS books at this link: Survival, Preparedness, Disaster Management for individuals or family (hopeforsurvival.com)
Hope for Survival - How Food, Water, Shelter, and Security Could Save Your Life (Book 1)
Hope for Survival - The Mindset (Book 2)
HFS Thumb Drive for Emergency Documents - We just restocked the HFS Thumb drive and have them available now. Follow this link and you will see the add at the top of the page. Blog | Survival (hopeforsurvival.com)
We must make this brief public announcement to protect the innocent.
Ding, Ding, Ding....Attention HFS readers..... Opinions shared in this newsletter are just that, opinions, and nothing more. Read at your own risk. The owner and author of this site is not responsible for hurt feelings or thin-skinned readers. I do my best to show restraint and respect to the best extent possible. I take as many precautions as possible and try to remain as nonpolitical as possible, however, there are times when I just can't help but point certain things out. Occasionally I use words only Patriots recognize and understand. It's not personal against any non-Patriot. It's just the truth. Sometimes we must pull up our spenders and suck it up. Just saying. Stay the course, read what you want, and avoid the rest. Avoid fear porn as much as possible and the day will be okay. When all else fails… Keep the faith and always have Hope.
Let’s move along and get to some thoughts...
Thoughts for the week -
Something that is escalating quickly in our daily life is the inclusion and implementation of AI or Artificial Intelligence. So what. Festus and I started following AI roughly ten years ago when watching video highlights of a global telecommunications conference broadcast from Spain. It was frightening to put it mildly.
It is here. It is moving fast and entering all facets of our daily life. Communications, banking, all facets of digital communication and platforms, medical, military, government, and your daily life. Does this scare you?
We warned you of these possibilities a few years ago and many blew it off as far-fetched and crazy. The youth today who are writing the AI technology are pro and supportive of the capabilities and easy of expansion to what AI will do. Senior executives stated ten years ago their concern was the fact the AI creators and writers are not building security safeguards into the development because the youths designing the system believe in a society where no secrets exist.
I would encourage you all to go find this PEO and read it slowly.
Preparedness Support -
FAMILY COMMUNICATION PLAN
When I teach preparedness classes and attendees are offered multiple topics to select from such as Bugging In, Bugging Out, Urban and Rural Preparedness, Risk Analysis, Preparedness 101, the topic of this chapter, Family Communication Plan, is the most requested topic. People are genuinely concerned with how they will communicate during a period of crisis.
One should consider planning for the worst and hope for the best when building plans. Don’t assume or take anything for granted. What is today could be gone tomorrow. Television broadcasts, radio, phones, cell-phones, and other avenues to communication could vanish based on the disaster. How would you communicate?
I am a firm believer that one must be able to see and communicate at night to survive long term. Each disaster and scenario will bring different levels of threats to you. There is also a misconception with the box store sold walkie-talkie sets that advertises the 30-mile range. I have never witnessed a set like this that will reach the advertised range. Why? Line of sight. This communication device operates on direct line of sight ability and one will rarely experience this type of landscape. This type of communication equipment works okay in neighborhoods and while mobile with multiple vehicles in most cases. One may wish to consider investing time in passing the Ham radio license test and then procuring a set of Ham radios. This is not a buy and deploy concept. Once must learn to use the equipment and program the Ham radio(s) in order to communicate.
Other basic essential items should include a radio tuned to the Emergency Broadcast Service. It will help you make informed decisions. This type radio offers AM/FM and NOAA. As previously mentioned, purchase an all-weather radio that is powered by crank, battery, solar, or electricity. Maintain one in your vehicle and one at home.
What is your plan to communicate with loved ones when separated at the time of a crisis or disaster? It may be you and your spouse, or you, your wife and kids, or multiple families planning to rally together if things escalate to Level 1-3. If you have four, six, or ten family members rallying together and the grid collapses at 1 p.m. today, how will you communicate to launch the plan to begin the rally point rendezvous?
If you haven’t considered setting up a Family Communication Plan, do so ASAP. Consider all locations you and your family would be during the day; work, school, home and so forth. Where is your rally point? What is your primary and alternate route from current location to rally point? Establish a primary and alternate means to communicate to provide updates. If all communication fails, establish landmarks to mark that would allow your family members to know you transited through the area in the event you don’t make it to the rally point. They will have a starting point to look for you. This is a basic premise to the plan.
When discussing a Communication Plan with others, I like to reference a quote by Sydney J. Harris which says, “The two words “information and communication” are often used interchangeably, but, they signify quite different things. Information is given out; communication is getting through.” If you do not communicate the exact information you want transmitted, you are wasting your time and could put the life of others in serious jeopardy. Especially if and when the information is translated wrong. Be precise and timely with your message.
I like to think of a good communication plan as a quality insurance policy. There is no prejudice in disaster type or when it will strike. You may or may not be together with your family when it strikes. Again, I ask, what is your plan when the feces hits the rotating steel? A well-documented and practiced communication plan should help bring your family together if separated during a natural, manmade, or technological disaster.
Let us discuss the meaning of communicate.
Create a family communication plan so you can get in touch with family members.
Options are available; telephones, cell phones, text messages, and email.
Make sure you know the emergency plan at school or work locations.
Make a decision, where you will meet in case you cannot get home, a rally point.
Understand that it may take time to get through to everyone. Patience!!!
Needs of your pets should be kept in mind. Keep a pet carrier for easy transport.
Inform yourself. Watch news broadcast, read online news, or radio news. Prepare in advance.
Copies of emergency plan should be in your emergency supply kit or “football” bag.
Ask kids to discuss their concerns and feelings. Do they understand the plan?
Take kids/adults to visit “rally points” so they are familiar and can find on their own.
Emergencies take many forms. Categorize types of emergencies and discuss impact to plans.
The main purposes for Emergency Communications is first and foremost, to ensure safety of each person in your family or group. You want to determine the next plan of action and acknowledge or communicate a phase has begun or changed. The plan could be meeting at a rally location or secondary location. Pass on information to one’s (individual) status or requirements. Some may refer to this as a Situation Report (SITREP). Information gathering is obtaining information about the situation. The better the information, the more effectively you will be able to keep your family safe and plan the next course of action.
So let us talk the basic plan. Here are several steps you will need to figure out before you start or as you go, but knowing in advance will help speed your plan along.
What will you use to communicate with them? Use tools which you have had regular practice with such as a phone, text, email, CB radio, and even land marks when systems fail.
When will you communicate with them? How often? Set up a schedule for those who are mobile to attempt to contact with those who are at home or the rally point once every hour. Determine in advance when the attempts are to take place, such as at half past every hour. If you have multiple teams mobile, consider a different time within the hour for each team.
Who will you communicate with? Your immediate family and those in your group.
There are five objectives to achieve in the communication plan:
1. Be clear and understandable.
2. Ensure completeness in your instructions and explanations.
3. Be unambiguous.
4. Be concise. Straight to the point with specifics.
5. Confirmed. All users understand the plan. Practice the plan.
So when I say be clear, what do I mean? How you communicate your plan must get through to every user and they must clearly get the point. No room here for misunderstanding. This is not simply about hearing the plan, but what is the intent of the message. Is it clear and direct? Keep in mind, communicating with a second party could mean attempting to pass instructions via cell phone or a means where eye contact is not possible. Often, words mean different things to different people, and communicating can become more difficult if communicating with a person of foreign descent. Decisions are based on information. When communicating or relaying information, make sure you provide the clearest available picture to the receiver of the information. Provide complete information and save the side chatter for another time and day.
Your Family Communication Plan must be thorough yet specific to work. If you identify a Rally Point at x location on X street at x hour, make sure X street has one x location. It could be a disaster if you waited at x location on a family member to arrive at x hour and they never arrived. Then you find out the family member did go to x location on X street, however X street offered three different x locations on X street. The family member complied with the plan that wasn’t practiced and went to the x location in a “high threat” location. Don’t make the assumption that they know “who” you are talking about and “where” you are talking about. Use photographs in hard copy plans. If you are building a phased or tiered plan and you consider alternatives to communicating after cell, text, and email services are down, then you should consider landmarks and specific locations along the route or destination to be achieved.
A Communication Plan is developed to fit directly in to all scenario(s). Remember, flexibility is key. Imagine, you are at work and a situation occurs that requires immediate emergency plan engagement. You initiate the “Bug In” plan. The plan calls for family member A to mobilize to the “Bug In” location to meet family member B at the “Bug In” location. The receiver of the text either doesn’t understand the plan or misunderstands the instructions, initiates the “Bugout” plan and proceeds to a neutral site halfway between each member. You now have a “Houston, we have a problem” moment. If the emergency condition were such that time was critical and only allowed a brief text message stating you departed work because of emergency conditions, refer to Family Communication Plan for actions under “Emergency Conditions.” The family member either doesn’t remember the plan or can’t find a copy of the plan and can’t communicate back to you. What would you do? Plan concepts should be step-by-step moving forward. A plan allows for retracing steps.
P.A.C.E. – Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency – This process and plan is the most utilized that I’m aware of for building a family communication plan. It is easy and can be used as is or altered to fit your circumstances better.
P = Primary – Represents the first communication plan to use. Should be the method that is most likely to succeed on the first attempt as well as the easiest for all to use.
A = Alternate – If the primary means of communication isn’t working, this is your backup plan. Ideally, it will be almost as good as your primary method in terms of both ease of use and likelihood of success.
C = Contingency – If both the primary and alternate methods aren’t working, this is where you will go to your contingency plan. Remember earlier I mentioned having a Plan A, B, C, and D?
E = Emergency – If all else fails, this is what you’ll do. This is the last resort when all bets are off, and you are desperately trying to get in touch with someone.
Go through the P.A.C.E process for each family or group member and determine the means of communication available under your circumstance. Bottom line is to determine who is in charge and how you will reach out to each person.
Okay, now is the simple part once you understand it and translate it to your life and plan. It is up to you decide how many people will be in your communication plan and how you will communicate with each one. As you can see on the example, each person has a different primary and alternate means of communication. Work this out with your family or team.
Example – A family of four, dad, mom, daughter, and son build a communication plan using the PACE format. Here is how it would look:
Contact – Dad (Age 55)
P = Text Message
A = Phone Call
C = Email to Gmail Account
E = Depending on the circumstances, either drive to work place for face-to-face or leave a note at his car to communicate. Remember, this is the emergency component in your plan.
Contact – Mom (Age 53)
P = Phone Call
A = Email
C = Text
E = Depending on circumstances, either drive to work place for face to face or leave a note at her car to communicate. Remember, this is the emergency component in your plan.
Contact – Daughter (Age 17)
P = Text
A = Phone Call
C = Email
E = Identified neighbor (Pre-identified neighbor who family has entrusted in their plan or pre-identified location in home or property to direct person to find hidden instruction on what to do.)
Contact – Son (Age 15)
P = Text
A = Email
C = Phone Call
E = Identified neighbor (Pre-identified neighbor who family has entrusted in their plan or a pre-identified location in home or property to direct person to find hidden instructions on what to do.)
Another option is to include ham radio or walkie-talkie as COM device if available and trained.
Crisis Communication Hub
A crisis communication hub should be included within your Communication Plan to be contacted immediately after a disaster. The hub person will serve as a backup to your attempts to contact family members and obtain information and directions. The goal has everything to do with rallying the troops and to ensure everyone in your immediate family and group is safe and secure. Bottom line - you will have to identify a “trusted agent” outside your family who doesn’t live in your local area. The person should be reliable and familiar with several forms of communication such as texting, email, cell phones, and possibly ham and CB radio. They should be internet savvy with strong search skills from an internet provider. Aunt Rosie may not be a good candidate if she is always calling with internet problems and also claimed her grand prize from the Kenyan lottery. Consider a candidate where a major disaster likely wouldn’t strike.
Sample Family Communication Plan
This is a sample Family Communication Plan. This is a scaled down model of a basic plan containing minimal information that a family should complete. Tailor the plan to meet your needs. Remember, it’s your plan!
Make sure your family has a plan in case of an emergency. Before an emergency happens, sit down together and decide how you will get in contact with each other, where you will go and what you will do in an emergency. Keep a copy of this plan in your emergency supply kit or another safe place where you can access it in the event of a disaster.
Communication Plan Part 1
Out of Town Contact – Name:
E-mail: Phone:
Neighborhood Meeting Place: Phone: if applicable
Regional Meeting Place: Phone: if applicable
Evacuation Location: Phone: if applicable
Fill out the following information for each person and keep it up to date:
Name:
Social Security Number:
Date of Birth:
Important Medical Information:
Communication Plan – Part 2
Work Location 1: School Location 1:
Address: Address:
Phone Number: Phone Number: Evacuation Location: Evacuation Location:
Work Location 2: School Location 2:
Address: Address:
Phone Number: Phone Number:
Evacuation Location: Evacuation Location:
Other Places You Frequent Evacuation Location:
Communication Plan – Part 3
It is important to have this type of information available, especially if your residence has been evacuated or destroyed by a natural or manmade event. Keep information up to date.
Sample Family Emergency Plan
Make sure your family has a plan in case of an emergency! Fill out index cards and give one to each member of your family to make sure they know who to call and where to meet in case of an emergency. Here is a sample of the index card type plan.
Emergency Contact Name: Phone:
Out-of-Town Contact Name: : Phone:
Neighborhood Meeting Place: Phone:
Other Important Information:
Call 911 for Emergencies (If applicable)
Stay safe.
Preparedness News -
1.From Linda Loosli - Food Storage Moms - What You Need in Your Evacuation Shelter Bags - Food Storage Moms - Interesting suggestions one should consider.
2. From Dr. Joe Alton - Doom and Bloom - Flesh-Eating Bacteria | (doomandbloom.net) - Does anyone else give second thought to the flesh eating bacteria during the summer months when around water sources?
3. From Tom Marlowe - Survival Sullivan - Harvesting Rainwater: 8 Ways to Collect it Without Gutters - Survival Sullivan - Good information.
4. From Tim Gamble - Dystopian Survival - Dystopian Survival : Do You Bio-Prep? Have You Even Heard Of Bio-Prepping? - Have you ever heard of this before? Interesting indeed.
5. The prepping guide - How Long Does Freeze Dried Food Last? + Storage Tips (thepreppingguide.com) - Good information to consider.
Other News -
1.From Andrew Couts and Lily Hay Newman - Wired - Police Can Spy on Your iOS and Android Push Notifications | WIRED - If you are a big Apply or Android user you may want to read this article. (Thanks Festus, for this submission)
2. From Toyota - https://youtu.be/8HhBIg3rGv4?si=hr6XRGerkeTSmzCw This would be a total massive game changer that would rock the world and all the pocket padding global warming elite. (Thanks Festus for this submission)
3. From Frank Bergman - Slay - Hunter Biden's Burisma Salary Was Slashed When Trump Took Office - Slay News - Read this and read it again. Each time you pay your grocery bill, utilities, or anything else you must pay to survive monthly, stop and remember this article. Ask yourself, do you believe anyone in Washington, either party, cares about your situation?
4. From Luis Costel - Headline USA - House Investigates Georgia DA’s Potential Coordination w/ J6 Committee | Headline USA - It often seems if one is not corrupt in this nation you are weird or strange. What happened to inegrity and personal self-respect?
5.
Prayers - Please keep our great nation, our elected leaders, military and first responders in your thoughts and prayers. We pray for good health and wisdom. Please pray for our leadership to find answers and guidance to the problems facing our great nation. May your faith remain strong and answers to the unknown provided. God is good and may our prayers blanket and protect you and your circumstances. I pray for each, and every one of our Patriots.
Please continue prayers for our Patriot sister who had successful surgery yesterday and now enters her recovery stage. Please pray for our Patriot brother in Western N.C. who was recently diagnosed with a form of skin cancer. Please pray for our Patriot brother in Western N.C. who has completed cancer surgery and roughly 3./4 of his post-surgery treatments. We pray for his recovery and immune system. Please pray for our Patriot sister in Western N.C. while she awaits answers for her rotator cuff issue. Please pray for our Patriot brother in Kentucky who underwent a second surgery to replace a rod in his leg caused by a vehicle accident on his final night of work going into retirement. Please keep our Patriot sister in central Alabama in your prayers as she recovers from recent eye surgery. Please keep our Patriot sister in your prayers while she awaits answers on possible internal bleeding. Our HFS family has many prayers needs for health and moral.
May we pray for all the blessings and things in life to be thankful about and continued hope for revival around the world. We must continually pray for the unsaved, our family and friends who live each day without the protection for eternal life and salvation.
As Patriots we must stay strong and never give up. Our home, community, and nation need us now more than ever. Stay focused on your local community and things that will impact you around the nation. Don't allow the events around you to create fear in your life. Build your own self-reliance and focus on faith and hope. Remember we are a blessed nation, and we must continue to be great people today and make a better tomorrow. Keep charging.
Blessings,
Bravo Echo Out,
