Customer Reviews

PREPAREDNESS NOW!: An Emergency Survival Guide for Civilians and Their Families

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you're like I was, you're looking through the various disaster preparedness books wondering which one is best. I have worked my way through many of the most popular books and offer a shared review of all of them here. I hope this comparison helps you make a decision. I should also point out that I researched nearly every disaster book out there and recently published the Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family. If interested, search Amazon for the title. Onward with the reviews!

Book 1: Crisis Preparedness by Jack A. Spigarelli
Like many of the disaster preparedness books, this one begins by answering the question, "Why bother being prepared?" It also outlines a framework for being prepared that includes accumulating supplies, getting mentally and physically prepared, and having your finances in order. One thing I particularly liked was the emphasis on the importance of knowledge. It wasn't just about what items you need, but also what skills and knowledge you should develop. But this book is mostly about food preparation for a major disaster, with emphasis on having a year's food storage, milling your own grain, growing sprouts, home canning, dehydrating, freeze-drying, etc. There are detailed tables showing the calories of various foods including their protein, fat, and carbs. The final third of the book offers advice on other topics, including weapons, hand tools, clothing, energy, medical, sanitation, transportation, communications, and home preparation. The book concludes with a list of recommended books and a brief listing of companies that sell disaster preparation items. Overall, this is a very good preparedness book. I probably should have given it 5 stars, but I thought it went a bit overboard on the food plan. That said, it is the most comprehensive of the preparedness books.

Book 2: Preparedness Now! By Aton Edwards
This is another thorough disaster preparedness book, one that focuses more on emergency situations (fire, chemical attack, etc.). It is organized into brief chapters (some only a few pages) on a variety of important topics, including: water, food, shelter, sanitation, communication, transportation, and protection. It is also filled with many packing lists detailing what you should get in preparation. It introduces the e-kit (a very lightweight kit to keep with you) and grab-n-go bag with more extensive items. Final chapters of the book discuss various possible disasters, including earthquakes, tsunami, infectious diseases, chemical and bio warfare, crime, fire, and extreme weather. Some of the commentary is a bit questionable, but the technical content is good. Note the deficiency with this book is that it does not offer any detail on food storage.

Book 3: Disaster Preparedness for Dummies
First of all, this isn't a book. It's a DVD video. I wasn't paying attention when I bought it, and was a bit surprised when it arrived. I generally like the Dummies series. They are well researched and serve as a good summary. This DVD offers a lengthy video discussing many disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, etc.), briefly outlining how you might prepare for them. It also has an overview of how you should react in case of a terrorist attack (nuclear, chemical, and biological). But the advice is all very general, and is more like what you'd expect to hear from your local weather station. For example, the video repeatedly advises you to "stay calm" and "evaucate in an orderly fashion." The videos are high quality, but don't expect detailed outdoor survival tips or food storage suggestions. Everything presented is relevant and useful, but it feels more like a FEMA public service announcement.

Book 4: Emergency Food Storage and Survival Handbook by Peggy Layton
This book is broken into six main sections. The first section offers decent but very incomplete summaries on preparing for short-term emergencies. The second section discusses how to store and purify water. The third part talks about the logistics of setting up a food-storage program, and has some suggestions on how to store food. The fourth section details what types of foods you should store. The fifth section has blank inventory planning pages. And finally the last section has some recipes. About half of the 285 page book is either blank planning pages or simple recipes. The first half of the book is pretty good stuff, but I found this book to be incomplete. It does however offer some good advice on food storage.

Book 5: Organize for Disaster by Judith Kolberg
This book goes an entirely different direction than the other preparedness books. Emphasis is on understanding the federal resources (i.e. FEMA, Red Cross, etc.) available, creating a personal intelligence network, organizing essential documents, maintaining insurance coverage, listing a home inventory, preparing your house for disaster, basic first aid, and having a good family communication plan. There is also a good list of necessary items to have on hand that would suit many common disaster. I recommend this book for its common-sense look at disaster preparedness. However, it is not the only book you would need, because it doesn't detail food storage, water purification, heating, etc.. That said, it covers some topics that the other books overlook.

Book 6: Making the Best of Basics, Family Preparedness Handbook by James Talmage Stevens
This book is almost completely about in-home food storage and preparation. There is little discussion outside that (except for basic water issues). Many chapters discuss food in significant detail, to include things like grains, recipes, preparing sourdough breads/biscuits, dairy products, honey, sprouting, drying of fruits/vegetables. At the end of this book is a huge compendium of preparedness resources, telling where things can be purchased in every US state.

Book 7: No Such Thing as Doomsday, by Philip L. Hoag, revised in 2001
This book offers well-researched insights into disaster preparedness. Topics include water, food, heating/cooking, light, power, communications, medical, sanitation, and security. Those subjects are well done. However, much of the book reads like a bit of doomsday prediction, with many pages devoted to scaring the heck out of the reader... focusing on missile attacks, chemical dangers, nuclear war, radiation, decontamination, communist threat, etc. For me personally, I would have like to see more pages devoted to likely threats (e.g. hurricanes, floods, earthquake, blackout, fire, etc.). Also note that Amazon may not carry the latest version (updated in 2001), so you may want to buy directly from the author.

Book 8: When All Hell Breaks Loose, by Cody Lundin
This book falls somewhere between doomsday survivalism and practical disaster preparedness. It is a high quality publication, filled with illustrations and a color insert. My prediction is that you will either love this book or hate it. It does cover many of the basic topics (food, shelter, water, sanitation, light, first aid, self-defense, communications, and transportation). But the material is presented in such a way that it is very chaotic and difficult to read. There are distracting quotes and cartoons, as well as advice that is targeted more towards the end of civilization scenario. For example, he discusses how to wipe your bottom with a stick or other foreign object, how to cook up a rat, how to compost your poop, etc. It's all very interesting, but not particularly useful for say preparing for a harsh winter storm.

Overall, if you can only purchase three books, I would recommend Book 5, Book 6, and either Book 1, 2, 7 or 8. With those three, you should have a balanced look at common sense organizing, food storage, and emergency items to have on hand. If you can buy only one book, I recommend Book 1.

Written by Arthur Bradley, author of "Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family" - just coming available on Amazon (July 2010).

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I have scanned thru most of the book by Edwards and have enjoyed reading it. This is perfect reading for the toilet-I don't mean to sound crass but this is a perfect book to read in sections as opposed to from page one.
It makes sense to me to read this book and modify what Mr .Edwards says in order that it may fit a specific scenario. Not all of us can carry a huge Bug Out Bag( I do) but his suggestion of multiple bags is a bit over the top. I got several very useful tidbits from this book and will continue to gleen more as I read more. Most of his book delves into prepardness(hence the title) and there are aspects that everybody should have some grasp of. The threat of future terrorist attacks is inevitable so it makes perfect sense to have knowledge of what will happen in various situations ie nuclear,chem/bio etc. It would also seem that in order to survive most of these attacks one needs fairly deep pockets in order to afford the quality protective gear needed to withstand such an attack. I think a basic preparedness is a must in todays world-having some essentials close at hand is simply common sense and I think that is where most people should be. If you have unlimited resources then by all means fully suit you and your family and pets up and have 3 plus BOBs, water, food and games etc ready for any impending emergency.
Another thing I like about this book is that Mr.Edwards uses real companies and their products-some of which are useful and most can accessed via the internet. It's important that in this modern world websites and product names be given and even recommended. This makes it easier for the reader to draw their own conclusions on products and even formulate their own recommendations and what may work better for them.
I like what Mr. Edwards has to say but as with anything in life use the info as it applies to you and your situation.

I have a pile of thes books at home & this is the first one that ever gave me any useful information. I am physically challenged and I have a hard time getting around. This is the only book I ever read that features information for people like me.

The information found in this book is very useful, exact, correct and spot on. I can find no flaw in the INFORMATION of this book what-so-ever. I recommend this book to everyone who is interested in the subject matter. That said, there is one fatal flaw. Overt Liberalism from the author (which, I guess for Liberals make this a great book!). From claiming to know something bad (i.e. 9-11) was going to happen to the World Trade Centers and warning all his family and friends to stay away as early as Feb. 01, to commenting on Weapons of Mass destruction--saying something along the lines of "real WMD's, not imaginary ones that weren't found in Iraq" the author proves again and again that he's always right and that everyone else (i.e. the government) is always wrong. But, again, the Author's writing style is my only complaint.

This is an unusual but really good emergency survival handbook. It emphasizes urban survival for people in sizable cities, which sets it apart from most others in this genre. Most other books tend to emphasize survival outdoors or in rural environments. The author is from New York City, and it shows. Preparedness Now is all about temporary but major disasters, i.e. it is not a hard-core, "survive the end of civilization" book - in case this is what you were looking for.

This book handles many urban disaster scenarios, like fire (probably most common urban disaster), floods, winter storms, earthquakes, various terrorist attacks, etc. It is surprisingly comprehensive in fact. There are urban specific topics like escaping from a subway tunnel and evacuating town. However, in many cases the coverage is superficial, e.g. to deal with disaster X, you need this list of items. It is almost like in the movie Matrix, where the characters are expected to gear up and learn everything needed in an instant :)

One big shortcoming of Preparedness Now is that it does not teach any skills. There is nothing much about building latrines, lighting a fire, or other practical survival skills. The author sometimes says things like, you should learn judo or jujitsu for self defense, or you need to work out to be in good shape, or rapelling with a rope is a good way to exit a burning or damaged building, but teaching any particular skill (even simple ones) is beyond the scope of this book. Most distressingly, there is NOTHING ABOUT FIRST AID which is essential in most disasters!

In many spots, the author sounds gear-obsessed. In fact, he apparently regularly carries with him more than 6 lbs of emergency kit! That said, the pointers are all good, and the author does recommend more minimal setups. A couple of interesting ideas I had not seen in other books: (1) a smoke hood or respirator is useful to carry for surviving fires and possibly chemical attacks, and (2) a small pry bar is good to carry for breaking / removing windows or opening elevator doors.

Get this book if you live in a city, and you will be well ahead on preparedness for disaster. However, the books is incomplete in many ways, especially when it comes to skill building. Cody Lundin's book "When All Hell Breaks Loose" is an excellent complement to this one - read it also. Like this one, it is aimed at beginners, but it is less gear-focused, and more about survival mindset, practical exercises, and building of skills. If you want to learn even more about skills, read the SAS Survival Handbook.

I would normally give it 3 stars, but it gets +1 for the outstanding coverage of urban issues. Recommended.

While I'll admit to having a paranoid streak dating back to childhood, I think I'm a pretty far cry from the stereotype of a "survivalist." A recent criminal event involving a parent from my child's school--luckily not occurring at his school!--re-activated my dormant interest in preparedness and led me to this book.

I found the author's views fairly balanced and realistic without excessive paranoia or any political extremism. Unlike many survival themed websites I've visited, the author never makes me feel like an unwanted interloper due to my religion or my moderate political views.

After reading this book, I felt further motivated to improve our family's preparedness plans and supplies. I started our "Go Bag" (sounds better to our ears than the common "Bug Out Bag") and have it in the front closet. I re-stocked the first aid kit and increased its comprehensiveness. I went over our family emergency plan with my husband and actually committed it to paper instead of just talking about it. I'm in contact with another concerned parent and a teacher at school to help get my son's "home away from home" improve its level of preparedness. I took stock of our emergency food supplies and am working on a plan to dramatically expand them. I collected our many supplies into a more centralized and itemized cache.

Maybe the most useful facet of this book, in my opinion, is that I didn't close it and feel the sick-with-dread-but-helpless feeling that some other resources engender in me. I felt motivated to do some work. I was reminded how important keeping up with good health habits is for emergency (and life!) preparedness and not just "because I should."

While I'm also using many online resources and a few other books to enhance our level of preparedness, this book would be the first one I would recommend to a friend getting started--or a person who might just be overwhelmed and depressed by the more common and more extreme survivalists I've encountered elsewhere.

I considered waiting for the updated edition I see coming out in September, but I am very happy I read this book now. It helped me get organized. Many websites were listed, though I did encounter many that were out-of-date when I followed up. Those being my only negatives on this edition of the book, and easily remedied with some good Googling, I can highly recommend Preparedness Now!

I have now read through this book 3 times and I highly recommend it for everyone. It starts out with descriptions of different disasters that could strike anyone - it is not a 'doom and gloom' book but simply states facts that really makes one think about their situation. The author then introduces the e-kit that one can always have with them to handle most situations. To be as fully stocked as the author suggests would take quite a bit of time and money but I consider it a small price to pay when and if a disaster strikes.

While promising, this book has some serious flaws.

In addition to a leftist philisophical and political bent which is out of place among the facts, the urban-focused survival orientation limits the value of the information to non-city dwellers.

Some of the information presented is just factually wrong. For example, his comments about firearms are clearly acquired from someone with limited knowledge of the technical aspects of firearms, and regurgitate a number of misconceptions and urban myths about them. These errors cause me to question the validity of many of his other perspectives, especially when they seem to be politically driven.

There is some good information here, but it must be gleaned from the chaff and outright propogandizing in order to find it. Unfortunately, the reader must already be knowledgable about the subject matter in order to determine preparedness fact from fiction.

The book has merit for those who already posess good survival knowledge, and might make a decent addition to a good preparedness library. A good resource for those living in cities, who will suffer the worst should disaster strike. At the very least, it makes the reader consider personal preparedness planning and take stock of one's degree of readiness.

For a novice who does not live in an urban area, or belong to the Green Party, the book would not be among my top recommendations.

I don't usually read this type of book. It was given to me by a friend. I think that is very informative and very interesting. It has lots of information that I never knew and that I needed to know. How come the government can't put something out like this? Those people in homeland security need to get with this author right away. He should be in charge. I give it five big stars!

Great product. The lists and explinations are a supurb starting point for anyone who wants to be prepared when bad things happen. The author is very careful to emphasize that physical fitness and acquiring certain skills are key to survival; just good common sense. He also provides web sites and resources for items on his list. I've used all of his lists to build my car, home and personal kits. In an all electronic age, we are VERY reliant on electricity...which gets knocked out when grids are overloaded. Well written and easy to read, I would recommend this book to anyone as an initial intro to self-reliance and disaster preparedness. Be prepared!