The other piece that was missing was that the gas mask is THE VERY LAST thing to come off when conducting decon. It is important for people to remember to ONLY touch the inside of their suit when removing it because as you stated the outside is contaminated. Once everythig is removed and your ready to enter your cold zone is the mask removed and left in the warm zone. The issue is IF you were actually in a true contaminated HOT zone you would need to don your protective gear again in order to decon the gear you just took off.
DUCT Tape IS NOT recommended for use in a chemical environment!!! First of all when you go to remove it from a Tyvek suit it will adhere to the suit and rip it as you try to remove it from the cuffs and ankles. This now makes the suit unusable. Additionally duct tape WILL degrade (read MELT) when it come into contact with certain agents. For instance if you you were to use it as a means of protection in a chlorine spill, it will literall mely within a few minutes of exposure to the gas. Again you now have NO protection at all. The second point is that you dont have to carry an entire roll of duct tape on your wrist. Think of how heavy and cumbersome that would be. All you have to do is tear a long strip and place one strip on each arm and each leg as a means of emerency repair.

The last point is that if at all possible a safe room should be considered on an upper floor. This is because MOST (read NOT ALL)chemical agents and toxic industrial chemicals (TICS) are heavire then air, forcing them into or below ground level. If a amily made their basement a safe room for a chemical attack this may actually lead to thier demise, as the agent is going to see the lowest point.

These are just a few of the issues that people should be aware of when considering a protective posture.
Thanks for your site and the great information,
Bill S.

“Windage and elevation, Mrs. Langdon”. John Wayne, The Undefeated

Please stop insisting that some catastrophy is absolutely going to happen. I’m certainly going to take basic precautions (mainly for weather and natural disaster issues), continue gardening and canning (for saving money, as well as keeping a food stock for leaner financial times ‘just in case’), and I am also allowing myself a FEW precautions for civil unrest.

This civil unrest, however, will come from people who either did not prepare for events, or who are taking advantage of a chaotic situation. Just think about your ‘civil unrest’ precautions as ones you’d consider taking just in case there is an earthquake in your area (and miraculously your home still is standing). You’ll be worrying about the folks whose homes are NOT still standing, and you probably have a good reason to be.

In those situations, survival in place might not be your best option! I personally would recommend a good bug out location, keep your to go bags ready, and find a really great way to hide your surplus food (randsack your kitchen so looters think you’ve already been hit). One idea a friend of mine had was to create a false wall with storage shelves behind it just wide enough for food storage (ie. jars and cans). Then put pegs on the outside of it and hang old jackets and beat up baseball hats from it on your way out the door. No one will suspect anything else is behind that wall (try beadboard, it’ll be easier to hide seams because…well…it’s full of seams already!).

If your food is gone when you finally return, well hopefully you already had a buried store of food (we are planning to dig out a spot near our tree line, line it in concrete, and then plant pricker bushes all around the opening….planting one in a container that will be atop the moss-covered hatch. Before bugging out, we could try to slip over to the hatch, open it up, and store a stash of food in there for our return…if we ever do return).

Anyway, back to my point about energy. We all…each of us…helps create the energy field around our community. Build an aura of peace, cooperation and a believe in the ability of our country to avoid catastrophy if we put our minds to it. Stay alert, not alarmed people. That alarm feeds that negative energy. Be joyful about your preparations, and then try to put them somewhat out of your mind as you live your life.

Don’t feed the FEAR. Nourish the belief that a great energetic shift is upon us, and we can choose a more positive outlook on life.

Do what you can with what you have, and then just live your life. What is a life worth if it is spent in constant FEAR and stress about something that may or may not happen??