When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need To Survive When Disaster Strikes [Paperback]

Cody Lundin (Author), Russell L. Miller (Illustrator), Christopher Marchetti (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 20, 2007

Survival expert Cody Lundin's new book, When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need To Survive When Disaster Strikes is what every family needs to prepare and educate themselves about survival psychology and the skills necessary to negotiate a disaster whether you are at home, in the office, or in your car.

This is not your father's scout manual or a sterile FEMA handout. It entertains as it informs, describing how to maximize a survival mind-set necessary for self-reliance. According to the book, living through an emergency scenario is 90 percent psychology, and 10 percent methodology and gear. Relevant quotes and tips are placed throughout the pages to help readers remember important survival strategies while under stress and anxiety. Lundin also addresses basic first aid and hygiene skills and makes recommendations for survival kit items for the home, office, and car.

Watch naturalist Cody Lundin in "Dual Survival" on The Discovery Channel as he uses many of the same skills and techniques taught in his books. When All Hell Breaks Loose provides solutions on how to survive a catastrophe. Lundin addresses topics such as:

• Potable drinking water
• Storing super-nutritious foods
• Heating or cooling without conventional power
• How to create alternative lighting options
• Building a makeshift toilet & composting the results
• Catching rodents for food
• Safely disposing of a corpse

Editorial Reviews

Review

"When All Hell Breaks Loose is aimed at empowering an urban and suburban audience to deal with survival situations BEFORE they happen." -- SuperConsciousness Magazine

"When All Hell Breaks Loose is the essential survival guide for the twenty-first century." -- Jim Mulvaney, Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist Tactical intelligence Services, Inc.

"When All Hell Breaks Loose-all 450 pages of it-is aimed toward educating and preparing you and your family for change and the unknown." -- BackHome Magazine

When All Hell Breaks Loose breaks survival preparedness down into a common sense approach, although Cody's style is still "in your face." -- Wilderness Way magazine

When All Hell Breaks Loose provides insight into common-sense solutions that can keep you and yours . . . alive. -- Bob Nelson, Executive Director, National Disaster Communication Response Team

Cody Lundin has written a book that eloquently makes the strongest possible case for robust, profound, and holistic emergency preparedness. -- Kay C. Goss, Senior Principal Director, Emergency Management and Crisis Communications Systems Research and Applications Corporation (SRA International)

Cody Lundin's When All Hell Breaks Loose is not your grandpa's survival manual--this book is just damn entertaining. -- Read It Here magazine

Lundin's suggestions and encouragements are clear and kind, offering readers a new-found confidence regarding survival before crises occur. -- Tucson Weekly

When All Hell Breaks Loose by Cody Lundin instructs readers how to dispose of bodies and dine on rats and dogs in the event of disaster. -- The New York Times, April 6, 2008

[The] book's key message--that advance preparation and personal responsibility are crucial in mitigating the effects of a disaster--is an important one. -- Elizabeth Gary, Acting Executive Secretary, National Protection and Programs Directorate, U.S. Department Of Homeland Security

From the Inside Flap

Ever stay awake at night running through "what if" scenarios? Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, famine, tornadoes, and terror . . . .Well, hold onto your gas masks, folks, survival guru and acclaimed author Cody Lundin is back with a no-holds-barred guide for surviving the next urban and suburban disaster! This isn't your father's boy scout manual or a FEMA handout. In his latest book, When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes, Lundin, founder and director of the internationally recognized Aboriginal Living Skills School, takes you on a wild ride into "self-reliant land" with an honest, blunt account of what every family needs in the home, office, or car to prepare for possible emergencies. From the basics such as shelter, water, food, survival kits, and first-aid, to survival exotics such as building a makeshift toilet, catching rodents for food, and safely disposing of a corpse, When All Hell Breaks Loose is the first book to concisely and humorously outline a simple survival system using everyday household items to survive catastrophes from Los Angeles to Paris and everywhere in between.

Lundin also delves into the little understood realm of "cause and effect" and the creation of a self-reliant mind-set, unleashing essential psychological secrets vital for survival to keep you from falling into full-blown fear and panic. Lundin's presentation style is fresh, entertaining, and a bit irreverent. Spirited characters such as Vinny the (Uptown) Cockroach, Holy Cow, Robbie Rubbish, and others climb aboard to graphically show you how to prepare for the unexpected and help you remember important survival strategies while under great stress and anxiety.

When All Hell Breaks Loose delivers home-tested techniques, tips, and tricks that will help anyone become more self-reliant in any situation. So ditch the fearmongering and paranoia, lower the shotgun, and immerse yourself in the most common-sense, in-your-face book on preparedness yet! Buy a copy for yourself and several for your friends and family too!

Cody Lundin and his Aboriginal Living Skills School have been featured in dozens of national and international media sources, including The Today Show, Dateline NBC, CBS News, Fox News, USA Today, CNN, The Donny and Marie Show, The Discovery Channel, Good Morning Arizona, Field and Stream magazine, The Los Angeles Daily News, Esquire magazine, CBC Radio One in Canada, and 702 Talk Radio in Johannesburg, South Africa, as well as on the cover of Backpacker magazine. He has consulted for several organizations including National Geographic Television, the Public Broadcasting Station (PBS), The History Channel, The Travel Channel, and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

When not teaching for his own school, Cody is an adjunct faculty member at Yavapai College and a faculty member at the Ecosa Institute. His expertise in practical self-reliant skills comes from a lifetime of personal experience, including designing his own off-the-grid, passive solar earth home in which he catches rain, composts wastes, and pays nothing for heating or cooling. Cody lives in Arizona and is the author of the best-selling book on wilderness survival, 98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 450 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith (September 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 142360105X
• ISBN-13: 978-1423601050
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (295 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Disaster Relief

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

238 of 248 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good beginners book March 8, 2008

By A. Piro

Format:Paperback

This book is focuses on urban survival. I would recommend this for any person initially looking into the subject matter, but not to anyone that is primed already. Although well written, you will have to further your knowledge on certain topics with supplemental reading. I feel like I got a huge start with this book with a lot of direction on where I need to study further.

Written in an easy to read format, Lundin does a good job at grabbing you and keeping your attention throught the book. There are lots of silly figres with helpful tips, drawings and blocked out page sections further detailing subject matter.

The first 60 pages are dedicated to the psychological effects of a disaster and trying to mentally prep for survival. He then lays out a nice piority pyramid and starts getting into the meat of the matter, including transportation, lighting, first aid, communications, cooking, shelter, food, clothing, water, and sanitation.

Topics I feel I dont need to research further after reading this book include body temp regulation (he has another book more dedicated to this) and clothing, nutrition, water storage and sanitation, solar cooking, a preparadness "bug-out" kit, general hygiene and sanitation, lighting, and communications.

Topics I do feel I need to read more on are specific food storage, fire starting, more detailed first aid, shelter building, alternate energy sources, indoor shelter temp control, homestead and food storage defense, edible wild foods, trapping, skinning, tanning, meat curing and storing etc... In Lundins defense a lot of these topics are more for wilderness survival, and this was not really the focus of this book.

115 of 122 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good deal... June 13, 2008

By Quality Man VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Having read Cody's "98.6" book, I was eagerly looking forward to this book. I'll say up front that this book's writing style isn't as good as 98.6 but it's a great value that I recommend.

Cody's strength is his experience and blunt comments that really try to get the message through. The book is vast in its coverage (450 pages) so you really get a great value for your dollar. I really like how the book covers non-obvious topics and gives you historical examples/studies where people learned the hard way to help reinforce the point.

Cody's weaknesses are that he comes across as more condescending than in 98.6 and often seems to repeat himself far too much. I sometimes think that Cody believes we are all scared little creatures psychologically incapable of surviving without his 80 page "yes-you-can" lecture. I don't mind some encouragement here, but it should definitely be scaled back as it isn't one of his strengths and shouldn't require so much text. And as for the repetitiveness, for example, by to 20th time you read about how worthless our government is, you feel like saying "I get it, Cody, preaching to the choir." There are indeed too many political, personal, and off-topic concepts in this book. Stick the meat of what the title advertises. Cut off the fat from this book and you'd probably arrive at about 300 pages of solid and wonderful content.

Enjoyed the coverage about water, food, sanitation, body temperature, etc. Well done and informative. The self defensive chapter was hugely disappointing. It seemed more suited for daily urban survival at the local bar and not for catastrophe survival. I agree with Cody that food and water are often greatly overlooked by the Gold/Guns crowd, but to have hardly any advice about firearms seems bizarre. I am not recommending to have guns out of fear but out of reality. Imagine if someone with a gun comes for your supplies or loved ones and the only thing you know how to do is close combat fighting. Guess who will control the situation? And know that guns were confiscated illegally by law enforcement during Hurricane Katrina from law abiding people.

Yes, there are times where it seems Cody may not have listened to his editors or earlier reviewers based on my comments above and a lack of 'polish' on the text. And yes, the cutesy drawings are out of place. However, despite my minor complaints, for a very low price you get such a wide range of very useful information. At minimum the book will make you think in more depth about the subject at large. Most likely though you will learn a amazing amount of survival information. Either way Cody may have helped saved your life someday.

218 of 238 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Some Good Stuff But Needs Editing June 24, 2008

By Steve Dietrich VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I had high expectations for this book and perhaps that's why I am a little disappointed. I thought it lacked organization and editing and perhaps was a little heavy on the funky side.

* Replace some of the cartoons with more specific sketches

* Rate measures as to their effectiveness and difficulty

* Serve as a foundation

There were a lot of nuggets and reminders. One was that a .22LR is a lightweight rifle suitable for most small game and certainly effective in stopping another human that wants to cause harm if properly used. Ammunition is cheap and lightweight. It is all useless without practice.

The section on hygiene was great.

More guidance on threat assessment would be helpful as what's needed depends on the prospective challenges, goals and characteristics of the area. What are the worst case scenarios, would you need to leave the place where you normally live or live in-place without outside support and stuff like utilities. Are the natives friendly? What's the prevailing weather? What are the reader's goals - personal survival, family survival, help neighbors and family.

Perhaps the real answer is a bundle of smaller books including a pocket guide to handling medical problems and a survival guide to pack with the gear.

Fun reading but time invested is not adequately rewarded.