Community-Prepping

Prepping for the Heat Dome Emergency

mbelcher Community-Prepping , ,

We’re currently under a Heat Dome in Tennessee, and the temps aren’t going to drop until next week. This is just a part of the Long Emergency everyone is going to have to deal with now.

Remember to check in with your neighbors, especially the elderly ones. I know mine like it hot, but a heat like this can quickly put them in danger.

Planning ahead for a time when either this heat dome or the next take out the power grid is something I do, but this time I’m putting my back-of-the-napkin ideas out there for others to use.

There’s going to be a couple different sections to this covering different things someone could do to keep the inside of a building at a livable temperature.

  • Things to do to the building
  • Running a small AC to keep a room cool
  • Keeping people cool
  • Going somewhere else

Building modifications

It sounds silly to put it this way, but keeping the sun from directly shining on the house will make it cooler.

When I worked on Rx fires two decades ago it was always amazing to see the fire line die down as a cloud rolled overhead. It would immediately lower the temperature and raise the humidity.

The walls of modern building should be fairly insulated, but windows and doors can warm up and transfer heat into the house. Blackout curtains on windows will keep out some of the direct sunlight, and shade cloths or shudders on the outside will keep the heat from hitting the windows.

If you’re looking for ways to use things that you may already own moving a patio umbrella to where it shades some windows will help. Blankets can be used a curtains indoors and sun shades outside to add shade to the side of the house.

The Cool Room

This involves spending money if you don’t already have the items, but the items can be used for other things until the heat dome brings the grid down.

You need an AC window unit and a backup battery (like an ecoflow or jackey) that can run it. While you’re already spending the money, it would be a good idea to pick up some solar panels that will work with the battery. The panels will help recharge the battery during the day when you’ll need the AC the most, adding a bit of run time to the setup.

While the power’s still on you can run the AC to keep one room a little cooler than the rest of the house, helping out your stressed HVAC system. The battery pack you can keep around to use in case of a non-heat related power outage the rest of the year, and the solar panels can help you keep it charged for free.

Keep your body cool

Drink water! If you think you’ve had enough then drink some more. If the power goes out

Sit in front of a fan. Airflow will help your body’s sweat evaporate, even if the air is warm. You can also place moist bandannas or towels around your neck; this lets the water in the bandana evaporate without your body losing moisture. There are cheap, USB powered fans that can be run off of one of those small battery packs they sell to recharge phones.

If you feel yourself getting overheated, get some ice packs and place them under your arms to cool down quickly.

Evacuating

Have a plan to go somewhere you know will be cooler than your house or apartment. If the power goes out and you don’t have the ability to make a “cool room” or you think the power will not be back on anytime soon you will need a place to go.

Controlled brownouts will be focused on residential areas more than commercial areas (and we all know the reason why). Public libraries will probably still be powered during a brownout, as will community centers and park buildings. You could also pay to see a matinee or work at a coffee shop. Waffle House still has bottomless cups of coffee 24/7.

These are just ideas that can be turned into plans of action if the need arises. The world isn’t going to get any cooler anytime soon, and the Long Emergency, as author Adam Greenfield names it, is here.

Again, remember to check in with your neighbors. We can get through this, but it would be much easier to get through this together.

Building Your Own Off-Grid-Internet Hotspot for Cheaper

mbelcher Community-Prepping ,

Author of the great book Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves in a World on Fire, Adam Greenfield, posted this today on Mastodon:

And it links to this brief but good 404Media article: “Sales of Hard Drives for the End of the World Boom Under Trump“

And now I feel the need to hammer out this quick post.

YOU CAN BUILD THIS YOURSELF or
YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO CAN BUILD THIS FOR YOU.

As someone who has spent the last decade on the sales side of the prepping community, and as a guy who like computers and tech, I’ve been getting ads for these things for a couple years now.

And they’ve always really, really hacked me off, too.

Each of these products that I’ve seen; SurvivalNet, PrepperDisk, GridbasePocket to name a few; are filled almost entirely with free, publicly available software and information.



Each runs the Kiwix software and related ZIM files, sometimes with the branding scrubbed off. They all run off of some version of a Raspberry Pi single board computer. Some of them may run more advanced software from the educational nonprofit Internet-In-A-Box to host things like maps (again with the branding replaced with TacticoolPrepperWords).

All the info is free, and the hardware to run it is very cheap.

But to make matters worse, these “Off-Grid Computer” companies didn’t even come up with an original idea: Kiwix already sells a “Prepper” Raspberry Pi Hotspot image you can buy ($25, with proceeds going back to the Kiwix non-profit), alongside ones for Wikidpeida and Medical info. You can also pay a bit more (and support the non-profit that built the software) for a whole pre-built Raspberry Pi kit.

Build one yourself with an old phone

Kiwix can run off of pretty much any old phone! Yes, even that two year old iphone 11 in your junk drawer.

You can get the Kiwix app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, and all the featured “prepper info” items, from offline Wikipedia to every English-language book on Project Gutenberg to “Military Manuals” and “Survival Guides” are available to download, for free, to your phone’s storage (if you have the space).

Special Android features

Due to some limitations found in iPhones and iPads, Kiwix has some special features found only on Android.

Storage settings

After you download and install the Kiwix app go to the app settings and switch the Storage to External so it uses the microSD card. This keeps the Kiwix files, which can be very large, off your main internal storage and on your swappable microSD card.

Wifi Hotspot

To make what you’ve downloaded available to others, just open the sidebar in Kiwix and click “create hotspot”. Follow the prompts and once it’s running there will be a URL at the top of the Kiwix screen starting with http://192.168… This is the URL other devices will use to access the Kiwix hotspot.

Don’t Give These Folks Your Money

These types of products may be helpful in the future. The ability to look up how to filter water, how to prepare food for lots of people, and how to build makeshift shelters is (sadly) valuable. The ability to share that information with people is maybe even more valuable.

I saw this by talking to friends in Western NC after Hurricane Helene; potable water was hard to come by, and folks gathered together to eat.

But what’s helpful right now is the money in your pocket. There’s no need to give these people $300 if all you need to do is dig out an old android phone and spend $20 on a 256gb microSD card. You can much more cheaply DIY this setup for yourself, your friends and your family, probably with stuff you already own.

And once you get it set up Show Your Friends. Call them up and talk to them about what’s going on, and see if they need anything.