Survivor McGyver- Airborne

McGyver-
To repair or enhance something previously broken through use of everyday objects.
To use ingenuity to fix or remedy a problem using only the tools available at hand.

Latest problem at hand that needs your ingenuity-



It is April. You are sitting at home alone or with those that live in the house (no extras- just those that reside in your dwelling). Emergency broadcast system comes on- an unknown substance has been released and is killing people in_____________ (the nearest town, city or metro area closest to you). Seek shelter immediately. We repeat there is an unknown airborne toxin. Officials are mobilizing.

Winds are very light but blowing from town toward you. Nothing is known about the airborne killer, except it kills quickly, and in great pain. How long it is toxic or if it will dissipate is not yet known and no one seems to be answering the phones in town anymore. All radio messages appear to be automated......only full body hazmat suits would be likely to be safe as skin irritations seem to be one of the first symptoms of exposure.

You are facing an unknown threat for an unknown time. It is unknown whether you can go outside. So hunker down monkeys, what are you going to do? What is your plan?

 

if you find out in time getting BOB and going is 1st option

However, in most cases by the time we find out in a large metro area... the freeways are going to be clogged.

So industrial plastic or garbage bag windows and doors with duct tape and glue. get as air tight as I can. (I have water and food on hand but would still fill washing machine, tubs and sinks etc and bleach water, use as a last resort as you can always distill the water later)

The only thing i dont know how to do is create positive pressure in the house to keep germs, bacteria out... If I could figure out how to do this staying hope could be relatively safe for a few days. Also im assuming you all have masks

Im open for ideas on creating positive pressure in the house.

 

make you house air tight ...
put a vent in with a check valve
get lots and lots of high volume high pressure air cylinders and a pressure regulated dump valve gauge thingy ....
seal everything from the inside...
or get a air scrubber and clean the air u r using ....

 

Go bag kids and dogs and haul ass as Burce describes.

 

I'm screwed. Still in the middle of nowhere waiting on the dang wrecker to pick up this rental car.

 

When u are right you are right. I'm considering my circumstances.... And I know what I have on hand... And I know my roads on and out.... So I also know if I can wait a few days I can get out of town and avoid fidiots

 

I hadn't even considered bugging out. The EBS said to "seek shelter". Never considered not following directions. The first thoughts - bag and tape the windows but actually I think sealing off a small section of the house would be more efficient. The issue I discovered is that my generator is outside. If the power stays on then I would be fine but if the power went out, which it probably would then I have an issue with water, heat and cooking. Yes I have water and Sterno things but not enough to hunker down for months unknown.

@BTPost & @whynot would you seal your car or wear a hazmat suit/ mask when you bug out? Cars have vents like homes.

It is almost a damned if you do, damned if you don't, you just have to figure which is the safest.

As for the filtering system @KAS is that what you are talking about? Most of my "stuff" for repairs and such are in the shed and I don't know if I want to go dig around in the shed.

 

We're 60 miles from the nearest urban center. Seal off all windows, exterior doors, including garage doors, and all interior doors that go to unneeded areas. We have plastic and duct tape for that. Shut down HVAC system. Then hook up our squirrel cage ammo can HEPA filter blower which will filter incoming air and pressurize the interior space enough to cause air to go out, not in, at the cracks. Or so that's the theory.

And then wait. We have enough stuff for a very long time indoors. It would, however, royally suck with the dogs. They'd have to go poop/pee in the garage.

 

This is about as right as you can be, provided you have enough time, and can leave the building without contact with the killer substance. That all depends on distance, wind speed, and toxicity of what ever it is.
My wife would require more time to pack than I, because of her health needs, and we may not have enough time, because I am in city.
I would have to sit this one out, most likely, and I don't have a hazmat suit, or even good filters for a mask. Nor do I have a garage for the dogs.
What I DO have, is two boxes of visquine plastic in 3mil and 6mill both clear. 8 rolls of duct tape, and dozens of oxy cylinders of various sizes. (Medical grade). Several cans of expanding foam, and several staplers, (one electric).
We would seal off the kitchen, bathroom, and livingroom, the basement is already sealed off, but I would go over it again with the foam. The fresh air intake for the furnace would be capped off. (4" PVC cap is already hanging there for the purpose) all air returns lift out of the floor, so a piece of plastic will seal it off easily by just being pushed back in place.
The back porch is roofed with 4x4 post at the corners. It would take about 20 minutes to wrap it in plastic, staple and tape all seams (with floor boards covered as well.) This will act like a small airlock of sorts. So nothing is blown inside the house. Generator set up and ready with the cords run but not plugged into house. It is illegal to do it this way, but I would cut the female plug off and add a male plug, instead. (This way it can power the house backwards through the outlet. If power fails, open the main breakers and plug in cord to feed power into house. This way there are no openings for air flow.)
Dogs go to the basement, beds to the living room, and living space has just lost the entire upstairs, and the bedrooms.
6mil visquine cut and taped to create a hazmat suit, with complete coverage as needed for short outdoor use. No vents, as I will be sealed inside, with a small oxy travel bottle and mask. (Only to be used if nessisary, but ready. Final seam up the front (overlapping) so I can open and close it myself if needed. (It would be much like a giant surgical glove for human being.
Feed oxy in house to the wife, only. The excess would be enough for me for quite a long time, and as it is bottled gas, creates a slight positive air pressure inside. Eat fresh foods and can goods, things that do not require cooking. I don't want flame around that level of oxy.
Now... Assuming the airboure substance is a gas, it should blow over in a few days tops, if it is a powder or dust, it would have settled or blown away as well, so unless the winds increase, a few days should be enough to be sealed tight.

Hopefully, by that time, more would be known about the risks, substance, and progress of neutralization.

 

this is prolly a stupid question but could we use the oxygen off the oxy/acetylene set up to create a pressurize house to keep out some of the airborn mess?

 

Exactly correct.

 

Wow @kellory I really like the plastic the porch plus the room after. I saw a show on Alaska and they had an entrance area prior to getting into the house to keep the cold out, like a barrier. Question there are vents on the house- I see them on the roof, I think they are bathroom vents. Air only goes out right? I don't even know where those vents are in the house.

 

I am unprepared to bug in for a situation like this. @Motomom34, they said seek shelter, they didn't say where.
Sadly, i have nowhere to bug out to in this scenario either. I could drive and I have always been taught to drive away from the problem at an angle similar to what @BTPost mentioned but going "up and around" would not have occurred to me.
it is very possible we'd succumb to this one depending on the actual nature of the threat.

 

"Air borne and light wind blowing toward me" make distance and time my friends.

Think WWI gas attacks or Bhopal India, gas/bio will rapidly decrease in concentration with distance and time from point of dispersal. No way to seal up a house or car quick and easy but I can be out of a plume pretty fast if I have a head start.

Whynot

 

No, moto, air can go both ways, so seal that ceiling fan in the bathroom. The cooking hood in the kitchen as well if it is not ventless. There is no ball check or flap that only allow for one way flow. It relys on thermals and a fan at the intake to give it a direction.

 

Like @ditch witch we have a large squirrel cage fan set up with 0.05 micron HEPA filters to put a positive pressure through out a large portion of the house once sealed with visquine and duct tape. We have done this and tested it in the past. There is to be a decon area set up just out side the safe area using a kiddie pool to stand in to catch the chemicals used,mainly bleach, all depends on what type on decon we need. We have 4 complete hazmat suits with SCBA masks and backpack tanks. We have 12 full size o2 tanks that can be set up with a manifold with a couple hundred feet of air line that will quick connect to the masks if needed. this is the same breathing system that is used on drilling locations that have H2S present. In addition there are 4 cases of the white Tyvek suits, booties, n100 masks and gloves-both inner and outer. Might get a little odorous with the cat boxes moved in but such is life.Pressure fan/filter system will run on house current/genset/solar backup.

 

Note to self Stock up on baking soda for cat boxes =)