Just in Case: How to be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens [Paperback]

There are a few good pointers in here about being prepared for relatively minor things, and some good additions about things that should be considered for preparedness for major things, however if SHTF, and all you had was one book, this book would leave you out in the cold.

This book is too limited to live up to its title in being self-sufficient. Virtually every subject is too abbreviated to not require additional reading, and for anybody living in an urban setting, some of the information is impractical, if not downright unrealistic. As if I'm going to find a place to hook up a makeshift steel-barrel wood-burning furnace, just in case! Can you imagine the conniptions an insurance company would have?

I was particularly disappointed in the information about food supply. Really, if SHTF and there's a three week power-out, it's a good idea to sit there making yogurt? Why? There's very little information about estimating requirements and a lot about her using special equipment. It'd be nice to have a dehydrator, but what do I do if I need to use the sun? How do I go about salvaging the contents of my freezer without an extensive canning operation or a propane-powered appliance? The author lives in a (semi)-rural setting where she has sufficient space to set up a backyard garden large enough to grow luxury food items like popcorn. There's only the barest hint of information about small-scale gardening.

This book should be called "Everything You Should Have In An Ideal Situation Before the Unexpected Happens." I would highly recommend skipping this book in favor of the SAS survival guide and a couple books on urban homesteading if you're actually looking for How to be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens.

I recommend this book for every household. It covers many possible emergency situations: loss of power, evacuation, fire in the home, pandemic, terrorism and much more; it explains what to expect and what an individual/family should do to be prepared in these circumstances. There are detailed lists for stocking up and for working through every situation. The book is thorough, even containing a section on how to "make your own staples, such as bread, cheese, and yogurt" as a "way of ensuring your fresh food supply." Now that's comprehensive! I had planned to work on emergency preparedness for our family this winter and this book gives me the tools I need for the task. A final note: this book is written in a positive light, it's no gloom and doom manual. And there is repeated encouragement to look out for unprepared neighbours and others and to give them a helping hand. Great job, Kathy Harrison! This book is going to help a lot of people.

I've been reading a fair number of "survival"-type books recently, both wilderness and home survival. I think this one will be the last for a while as I'm getting filled up with the genre. That said, I think this was a good book to choose to end with. To start with, the author (Kathy Harrison) is a good deal less paranoid and a good deal more practical than most urban survivalists. Which is why I bought this book. If you're expecting any discussion of necessary guns, armor, or anti-government tactics, this book is not for you.

Rather, it's a book that outlines how to be more self-sufficient and how to cope with potential disasters that affect you and your home. The book includes general discussions of power-loss, fire, terrorist attacks, chemical and nuclear accidents, storms, pandemics, a small bit about wilderness survival, and a good bit of talk about self-sufficiency, especially with regards to food. In that regard, I think the book goes a little over-board in talking about building up a one-year supply of emergency food. As with other books that I've read, I think that if civilization craps out to the point where there's no food for a year, we'll all be so far up the creek that surviving an extra year will be the least of your worries. It's pretty hard to imagine anything short of a planet-wrecking asteroid or nuclear war leading to a scenario requiring one year's worth of food in your basement!

In fact, we just had a huge wind storm here that knocked out the power for half a day. This is the kind of thing I'm interested in reading about. A few days worth of food storage, a week or two if things are really awful. Which is why I found this book less-than-perfect. Kathy states how nice it is now that survivalism has gone "mainstream" (has it?) and now she isn't considered a paranoid wacko anymore. But I don't know. Lining up shoes beside your kids beds and keeping the floor clear to exits at night seems a little over-the-top to me. Sure, practice fire safety, develop a plan, practice it with your kids (all things she advocates). But make sure before they go to sleep they have a safe escape route or an escape bag packed and ready to go? "If I die before I wake..." kind of advice if you ask me! As mentioned, the book also includes a lot of writing about food. Food is nice, but it's hardly the most important thing in a critical situation, even over a period of days. The large final section about how to cook with emergency food rations was interesting, but not likely to be terribly useful.

So once more, this is a book that's probably tailored to someone more anxious and worried than I am. Yes, it's important to be prepared. Yes, self-sufficiency is a good thing (I look forward to trying her recipe for home-made mozzarella). But I'm not going to be telling my children to keep a close eye on their shoes before they fall asleep in case the house catches fire, terrorists attack, or a nuclear-reactor somewhere blows up. Life is short. By all means, prepare yourself for the unexpected, but also take the time to stop worrying and enjoy life a little. This book does deliver more of that message than any other survival book that I've read, but I still tend to follow that message even further. For that reason, for me, it's a four-star book.