When the Grid Goes Down: Disaster Preparations and Survival Gear For Making Your Home Self-Reliant: Nester, Tony: 9780971381148: Paperback $12.99

I am an ex-Airborne Infantry grunt and ER and Family Practice doc with a decades long interest in disaster preparation. I have read and/or have hundreds of books on this topic and I can’t believe I just found this short but superb book! This is good material down to the excellent suggested reading and “other resources.” I especially liked his recommendation to attend a seminar with the Wilderness Medical Institute.On a personal note, I took my fiancée, a Mechanical Engineer, to a Wilderness Medical Society seminar and she loved it and can’t wait for me to choke so she can try an emergent cricothyroidotomy! OMG, I muffle even a small cough now.The chapters on 1) Water, 2) Food, 3) First Aid, 4) Home Security & Personal Defense, 5) Heating, Cooling & Energy Needs and 6) Hygiene & Sanitation are the best distillation of my 20+ years of research and application I have ever found. I have minor quibbles (Stabil only preserves your gasoline 6-12 months and propane stores for years, maybe decades.) but he even taught this old dog some new tricks. No spoiler here but see recommendations for staying cool in Phoenix pre-air conditioning or the sweet old lady who had survived several hurricanes, “I am not recommending anything. I’m just saying….” :)p.s. I have eaten my share of MREs and I give his food advice 6 stars.

Some good, basic advice for preparation. I like the Summary checklists provided with each section, how the author offers several options/ideas for purchases/solutions in each area, useful (not complicated) instructions, and excellent diagrams/photos.

I’m a part-time outdoors survival instructor and have many texts on the subject of rural and urban survival. This short book by Tony Nester is the most complete one that I own. By that I mean he covers a broad range of subjects concerning everyday survival issues in depth enough that you know a little something about it after you read his work. The author has obviously spent a LOT of time working out the methods, tactics and techniques in this book.Many books offer some things with a bit of depth to them, but Mr. Nester leaves out the extraneous things that don’t work and cuts right to the chase of how and why you should use certain items and techniques.I try to have my students have the least amount of survival library books as possible with the most amount of information possible in the few that they have. This book is now one of the four books I require them to read.There are a lot of armchair commandos in the survival field that don’t spend much time outdoors. This book is written by a guy who obviously spends the better part of his life learning and practicing his trade.Excellent book and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the subject.

This book is perfect for everyday people like me. It’s easy to read and the author interjects a sense of humor along the way which really helps! I like that he gives specific examples of the products he recommends and shows pictures, which also helps. I’m not a survivalist; I’m just an everyday person looking for ways to be prepared should an emergency occur. With the recent tornadoes and weather issues, along with the scare of what I would do should the power go out for an extended time, this book is direct and extremely helpful. The author mentions things that had never occurred to me, should a hurricane hit or power go out. He walks you through scenarios and offers basic everyday items you can use. An excellent guide on how to be prepared without investing a lot of money. I have recommended this book to several of my friends and they have started using some of these ideas in their daily lives to help them be ready should something happen. I’m a nurse in an urban hospital and some of the ideas he mentions for first aid were remarkable and often not known, even to medical people. I especially like the summary at the end of each chapter with a review of suggested items. If you only do one thing to prepare for a disaster, you should get this book. I’ve gotten one for each of my kids to keep in their emergency kits.

There’s a LOT of useful info packed into this small volume’s 78 pages. Tony Nester cuts right to the chase in each chapter (Creating a Self-Reliant Home; Water Storage/Purification; Food Recommendations/Storage; First-Aid Kit; Home Security/Personal Defense; Heating, Cooling, Lighting and Cooking When the Power Goes Out; Long-Term Sanitation and Hygiene) with very specific recommendations, plus the back of the book provides suggestions on sources of necessary kit and relevant training courses, books and videos.