Winter is here. Cold, wind, snow, and ice make winter travel challenging at best and dangerous at worst. Oftentimes, vehicles get stuck in these conditions forcing the occupants to spend an unexpected night or two out in dangerous weather. Fortunately, this need not be a life-threatening experience.
1.
Assemble an
emergency kit (see below) based on your personal needs, the season, and the
geographic location. If you become stranded, this kit becomes your
lifeline until you are rescued.
2.
Tell someone your destination and
approximate arrival time. This way, if you are overdue, someone starts looking for you, thus shortening the time of the ordeal.
3.
Dress to
survive, not just
to arrive!
When the engine turns off, the temperature inside the car nears outside
temperatures. In other words, if it is -5°F outside, it will be close to -5°F inside.
4.
Never set
out in stormy conditions without a full
tank of gas, a good battery, proper tires, a heater and exhaust system in good
working condition, good anti-freeze, and a good dose of common sense.
1. Stay calm
and don't panic! Many panic and wander onto an icy road only to be struck by an out-of-control vehicle.
2. Stay with the
vehicle and emergency kit. First, being windproof and waterproof, your vehicle makes a
good shelter. Secondly, because of its
size, the vehicle likely will be found before you. Digging yourself out or walking for help oftentimes
proves fatal. Let the rescuers find you!
3. Move emergency equipment and other
useful gear into the passenger compartment.
1. Put on your warmest clothes (socks,
hat, gloves, long underwear, and additional insulation layers) and wrap yourself
in blankets - or get inside a sleeping bag - before becoming cold.
2. Sit sideways on the seat or place
cushions on the foot wells. Otherwise, your feet get cold.
3. Place insulation (foam, cardboard,
extra clothing) over windows, so your head stays off the cold window when you lean
back.
4. Using plastic, a space blanket, or a
tarp and duct tape, partition off the back of the vehicle from the front, so you
only warm the part of the vehicle you occupy.
5. Before starting your vehicle, ensure snow- and damage-free exhaust. Then, run
the engine for ten minutes each hour or five minutes each half hour. With the car running, turn the radio on for
news and weather. Do not go to sleep with the engine running. (See carbon
monoxide warning below.)
6. To create heat without running the
car, you can use long-burning candles, small stoves, and Isopropyl alcohol/toilet
paper improvised heaters. (See carbon
monoxide warning below.)
7. (Carbon monoxide warning) If running the car or using fire for heat, ventilate
the vehicle by opening a downwind window approximately one inch. Carbon
monoxide presents a very real threat to your safety. Its deadly effects sneak
up without warning. Carbon monoxide poisoning from vehicle
exhausts causes almost 60% of unintentional deaths in the United States
annually.
8.
Produce internal heat via metabolism
by eating carbohydrate- and fat-rich foods. Your emergency kits need to include quantities of high-calorie,
non-perishable food items (for example, trail mix and carbohydrate food bars).
9. Stay hydrated. Your
blood circulates heat from the core to extremities such as fingers, toes, ears, and
nose. Dehydration reduces the amount of
warm blood circulating throughout the body, thus increasing the chance of cold
injuries such as frostbite. (Don’t
eat snow! It takes body heat to convert snow to liquid. Instead,
use a heat source to melt snow for drinking water.)
10. Don’t smoke. The nicotine in cigarettes reduces blood flow
to the skin and extremities, increasing the possibility of frostbite.
11. Don’t drink alcohol. It affects judgment. Bad judgment decreases your chances of
survival.
12. Lastly, if getting out of the
vehicle in a blizzard, put on snow goggles (if you have them) and tie a lifeline
to yourself and the door handle before moving away from the vehicle's proximity. In white-out conditions, visibility reduces to as low as 12 inches.
********************************************************************************************************
Vehicle Emergency Kit
□
Blankets
or sleeping bags
□
Book
to read
□
Booster
cables
□
Cat
litter
□
Cell
phone with charger
□
Chemical
hand warmers
□
Cordage
(50')
□
Duct
tape
□
Emergency
candles
□ Fire Kit: cotton balls and Vaseline, metal match, matches, and fatwood
□ First-aid
kit
□
Flagging
tape
□
Flashlight
and spare batteries
□
Food
(three dehydrated meals plus additional calorie-dense foods)
□
Gloves
□
Knife and saw
□
Lightsticks
□
Metal
cup
□
Multi-purpose
tool
□
Personal
medications
□
Portable
radio with spare batteries
□
Road
flares
□
Shovel
(folding or breakdown)
□
Ski
goggles
□
Small
stove
□
98.6 Shelters for all family members
□
Toilet
paper and wipes
□
Tools
to include jack & spare tire
□
Tow
strap
□
Two
empty cans (one for melting snow & the other for sanitary purposes)
□
Water
(4 quarts minimum)
□
Windshield
scraper and brush
□
Winter
clothing
□
Winter
footwear
Peter
Kummerfeldt has walked the talk in the wilderness survival field for
decades. Peter grew up in Kenya, East Africa
and came to America in 1965 and joined the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of
the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and has served as an
instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Washington; the Arctic
Survival School, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, Republic of
the Philippines.
For twelve years, Peter was the Survival Training Director at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He retired from the Air Force in 1995 after 30 years of service.
In 1992, concerned with the number
of accidents that were occurring in the outdoors annually and the number of
tourists traveling overseas who were involved in unpleasant and sometimes
life-threatening incidents Peter created OutdoorSafe, Inc.
He is the author of Surviving a Wilderness Emergency and has addressed over 20,000 people as the featured
speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and national conventions.
