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Try snakebite, purify water, generator carbon monoxide.
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Stop severe bleeding
Blood that is spurting, pooling, or soaking through cloth can kill in minutes. Pressure stops it.
- Find it. Open or cut away clothing so you can see exactly where the blood is coming from.
- Press hard, directly on the wound. Use a folded cloth, gauze or shirt. Both hands, straight arms, your body weight. Do not lift it to look.
- Deep wound in the neck, shoulder or groin? Stuff the cloth into the wound as far as it goes, then press on top of it.
- Arm or leg still bleeding through? Put a tourniquet 2 to 3 inches above the wound, not over a joint. A belt or strip of cloth with a stick twisted through it works. Tighten until the bleeding stops, even though it hurts. Write the time on their skin.
- Do not let go. Keep pressure for at least 10 minutes, then wrap tightly over the cloth. Never remove a tourniquet yourself.
- Keep them warm and lying down. Cover them. Pale, cold, confused or very thirsty means they have lost a lot; raise their legs and keep talking to them.
Sources: Stop the Bleed (American College of Surgeons); U.S. Army Training Circular 4-02.1, First Aid; CDC.
Reference material from published sources, for use when no help is available. It is not a substitute for professional care. Call for help whenever you can.
CPR
Someone who is not breathing, or only gasping, needs chest compressions now. You cannot make it worse.
- Check. Tap their shoulders and shout. No response and not breathing normally? Start.
- Position. On their back on a hard surface. Kneel beside the chest. Heel of one hand on the center of the chest, other hand on top, fingers up, arms straight, shoulders over your hands.
- Push hard and fast. At least 2 inches deep, 100 to 120 pushes a minute, the beat of “Stayin’ Alive.” Let the chest come all the way back up between pushes.
- Do not stop. Switch with someone every 2 minutes if you can. Continue until they breathe, help takes over, or you cannot go on.
- Trained in breaths? 30 pushes, then 2 breaths: tilt the head back, lift the chin, pinch the nose, seal your mouth over theirs, blow for one second until the chest rises. If not trained, just keep pushing.
- AED nearby? Turn it on and do what it says. Resume pushing the moment it tells you to.
Sources: American Heart Association CPR guidelines; CDC; U.S. Army Training Circular 4-02.1, First Aid.
Reference material from published sources, for use when no help is available. It is not a substitute for professional care. Call for help whenever you can.
Make water safe to drink
Each person needs about a gallon a day. Boiling is the surest way. Bleach is the backup.
- Cloudy? Let it settle, then pour it through a clean cloth, paper towel or coffee filter first.
- Boil. Bring it to a rolling boil for 1 full minute (3 minutes if you are above 6,500 feet). Let it cool. Pour it back and forth between containers to improve the taste.
- Cannot boil? Use plain bleach. Regular, unscented household bleach, 5 to 9% sodium hypochlorite. 8 drops (⅛ teaspoon) per gallon of clear water; 16 drops (¼ teaspoon) if cloudy or very cold. Stir, wait 30 minutes. It should smell faintly of chlorine; if not, repeat once and wait 15 more minutes.
- Hidden water in the house: the water heater tank (turn off power or gas first, open the drain valve at the bottom), ice cubes, the toilet tank (not the bowl, and only if no cleaning tablets are used), liquid from canned vegetables.
- Store it covered, in clean food-grade containers, out of sunlight.
Sources: CDC, Making Water Safe in an Emergency; Ready.gov, Water; EPA, Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water.
Reference material from published sources, for use when no help is available. It is not a substitute for professional care. Call for help whenever you can.
Shelter: stay warm, stay cool
A house with no power loses heat fast. One small room and dry layers keep a family safe for days.
- Pick one small room on the sunny side, away from big windows. Everyone in it, doors shut, blankets or towels over the windows and the door gaps.
- Dress in layers, loose and dry, hat and socks on. Wet clothes off. Sleep together under shared blankets; body heat is the reliable heater.
- Eat and drink, warm if you can. Your body cannot make heat without fuel and water.
- Heat only with things made for indoors. A fireplace with the flue open, a wood stove, or a heater labelled for indoor use with a window cracked.
- Too hot instead? Lowest floor, shades down, wet cloths on neck and wrists, drink water before you are thirsty, no heavy work in the middle of the day. Check on older people and children every few hours.
- Check on neighbors, especially anyone old, sick or alone.
Sources: Ready.gov, Power Outages and Extreme Cold; CDC, Staying Safe During a Power Outage; CPSC, generator safety.
Reference material from published sources, for use when no help is available. It is not a substitute for professional care. Call for help whenever you can.
Hypothermia and frostbite
Shivering, fumbling hands, slurred words and confusion mean the body is losing the fight for heat. Warm the core first.
- Get them out of the wind and wet. Indoors, a tent, a car: anything with walls.
- Wet clothes off, dry ones on. Wrap them in blankets, sleeping bags, coats, including the head and neck. Put something under them so the ground does not draw heat.
- Warm the middle of the body first: chest, neck, armpits, groin. Skin-to-skin under blankets works. Warm (not hot) compresses or bottles wrapped in cloth.
- Awake and able to swallow? Warm sweet drinks and food. No alcohol.
- Handle gently and keep them lying down. A very cold heart is fragile; no rubbing, no jarring.
- Not breathing? Start CPR and keep going; cold people have survived long resuscitations.
Sources: CDC, Hypothermia and Frostbite; U.S. Army Training Circular 4-02.1, First Aid; Ready.gov, Extreme Cold.
Reference material from published sources, for use when no help is available. It is not a substitute for professional care. Call for help whenever you can.
Poisoning and carbon monoxide
Swallowed, breathed in, on the skin or in the eyes: the first steps are the same everywhere in the country.
- Breathed in (smoke, fumes, carbon monoxide): get everyone into fresh air immediately. Do not go back in. Headache, dizziness, nausea, confusion, or several people sick at once in a closed house means carbon monoxide; the generator, grill or heater is the cause.
- Swallowed: take anything left out of the mouth. Do not make them vomit and do not give anything to drink unless a professional tells you to. Keep the container to show what it was.
- On the skin: take off the clothing that touched it and rinse the skin with running water for 15 to 20 minutes.
- In the eyes: rinse with lukewarm water for 15 to 20 minutes, blinking, from the nose outward so it does not run into the other eye.
- Unconscious, having a seizure, or not breathing? Roll them onto their side if breathing; start CPR if not.
Sources: Poison Control (HRSA); CDC, Carbon Monoxide Poisoning; U.S. Army Training Circular 4-02.1, First Aid; USDA, food safety during power outages.
Reference material from published sources, for use when no help is available. It is not a substitute for professional care. Call for help whenever you can.
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