No matter where you live, prepping has its own unique challenges. Living on an island in Southeast Alaska is no exception.  With an average of 13 feet of rain per year (yes, feet), Ketchikan, Alaska is a soggy place. The island’s population is roughly 14,000 souls. You cannot drive off of the island – even our airport is across the bay and you have to take a ferry. Living in a temperate rainforest presents some prepping considerations that most people just never have to think about.

I was born and raised on this island, though I have come and gone in my adult life enough to know this is home. That being said, the types of disasters one would consider here are;

• Earthquakes. We are right on the Ring of Fire and have had multiple 6.0+ magnitude earthquakes located fairly close within the last year.
• Tsunamis. This is something for any community at sea level to consider and prepare for however; we are more protected than most due to the little islands dotting the map around us. This area is called the “Inside Passage” with good reason.
• Floods/Mudslides. I used to think that because we are ‘used’ to having a bunch of rain, floods were not much of a worry. Our main road runs right along the coastline and some of it even is over the water on pilings driven into the ocean bedrock. A landslide can cut off access from one side of the island to the other (and has in recent memory).
• Wildfires. While having a time of year where it can be dry enough for this to be a true threat is rare, it is still possible. You have a fire extinguisher in your house right? At the very least a smoke detector? How is that any different than prepping for other “oh crap” moments? The tree density of the Tongass National Forest is such that pretty much everyone has at least a few around their house. Sadly, so few people even think about it.

“Man-made” disasters we have to consider are much fewer than other places. We have a Coast Guard base and there is a submarine base located on another island but it is not a major military hub, per se. We are a tourism port, dubbed the “Salmon Capital of the World”. We aren’t some strategic location for world dominance. I do not think that we will have to deal with wave upon wave of refugees or constant bands of roving gangs in a societal breakdown.  Yes, there would be some of that aspect but not anywhere near the scale that would be seen in larger urban areas.

In my mind, the absolute major drawback we have here is our reliance upon the barges and planes and ferries that bring in our supplies. Just like everywhere else, we are on the Just-in-Time system and there is roughly only about 7-10 days of supplies available at any time.  I know that is the same as pretty much anywhere else however, virtually our entire supply has to be shipped in, over water, in containers. It all has to go through international waters. Any disruption in the ‘lower 48’ supply chain almost certainly would have catastrophic effects here. The reality is that if supplies are scarce in the contiguous states, there is no way in hell we would see any of it here.

Even if it made it to the barges – once it passed into Canadian waters – they could (and likely would) claim it for themselves to sustain on. Anchorage would have a better shot than we would of getting supplies simply because of population and resources, flight patterns, etc.

When it comes to climate, we are lucky in that it is very mild here. This winter and its odd weather patterns notwithstanding, we rarely get snow that sticks. If it does, it is usually gone within a couple days because the rain takes it away when it warms back up. We do not have the subzero temps that most people think of when they think “Alaska.” It would be easier to compare us to the Seattle area…except cleaner, greener, and wetter. It is the rain that is the real game changer when it comes to prepping in Southeast Alaska. When I am researching different skills and methods of survival in either a bug-in or bug-out situation, there are things I always have to alter. Simply setting up a tent in a bug out location for a few days will NOT work when you can get literal weeks of rain in a stretch.

Some special considerations when it comes to bugging in is how to get the water catch into the house and the gray water back out. Thankfully, catching water off the roof of your house and holding it in a large cistern is extremely common here. The rainwater is clean, fresh and requires little ‘purifying’ by chemical means. Most households have a simple filter system that takes out the bigger stuff and they treat the tank with a little chlorine bleach. The best part? No water bill! It would not be too difficult to utilize a gravity system to get running water as the majority of the town is built on the cliff side of a mountain. The grey water coming back out will be the issue. Just like anywhere, we would have to deal with sewer issues. Many would simply let it go into the storm drains that drain into the ocean. Others may divert sewage into the ditches. I think it would take longer for there to be a sewage issue here than in a major city (another plus to living here) but it would happen.  You would soon see outhouses going up everywhere in a prolonged survival situation. Many homes have woodstoves here as a normal mode of heating.

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