Disaster survival kit: Must have gadgets

A hand-cranked torch can get enough charge to last half an hour with just a minute of winding. Photo / Thinkstock

As a Wellingtonian, it's all too easy to be blasé about the frequent tremors wobbling the capital. This complacency was bought into sharp relief by the Christchurch earthquake, which served as a stark reminder of just how poorly prepared I was should disaster strike. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

If my household were hit by the big one, we'd have no way of staying in touch, seeing in the dark, eating - or even finding the most basic information about how best to cope, and where to get help.

Horrified by my complete and utter lack of disaster readiness, I sought out some gadgets to create a disaster survival kit. In addition to water, tinned food, loo paper, and blankets there were must-have survival gadgets that my inner geek demanded.

Let there be light

The first gadget in any survival kit ideally should be a torch. For some reason a lot of disasters seem to happen in the wee small hours, so being able to see what I'm doing as I stumble around surveying any damage is at the top of my must-have disaster gadget list.

As luck would have it, I happened upon torches.co.nz, who sell flashlights that seemed purpose built for a place in my disaster survival kit.

These torches don't need batteries (which knowing my luck, would be flat when disaster struck) but are instead powered by a built in crank handle that supplies power to ultra-efficient LEDs. A minute of winding produces just over 30 minutes of light, and five minutes gives up to two hours of illumination. Many of the torches available from the site also double as mobile phone chargers for selected brands and some models also incorporate an AM/FM radio plus a siren. Prices start at $40 ranging through to $95.00.

Radio

Now able to see in the dark, my next must-have disaster gadget was a radio. Being able to tune into civil defence alerts (or at the very least catch some cheery tunes as the world ends) could mean the difference between knowing where to find food, water and shelter or the unthinkable (and no cheery tunes).

Being keen to avoid battery-powered radios, I eventually found a Dynamo powered AM/FM radio from Jaycar. Like the torches, the radio is powered by a crank handle and according to Jaycar's sales blurb, five minutes of winding is enough to fully charge the radio's built in batteries. Add a low energy LED torch plus a siren into the mix and the radio definitely earns a place in my disaster kit.

Food

Knowing my luck I'd have a survival kit loaded with tinned food but no tin opener. In the interests of killing several birds with a single multi-tool, I tracked down thecuttingedge.co.nz whose wares included the Leatherman C2 Juice multi-tool.

Only marginally larger than a standard pocket knife, the Leatherman packs a formidable array of nifty gadgets including that vital tin/bottle opener, pliers, a knife, wire cutters, screw drivers and of course a corkscrew. At $182.00 it might not be cheap, but about the only thing missing from it is the kitchen sink.

Having found the means to open tinned beans, I was keen to avoid eating them cold and to be able to boil water (should there be any water contamination risks). Heading to Mitre 10 I snaffled the small single burner Campmaster Stainless Steel Table Top cooker for $88.96. Small enough to fold into an easily stowed (and included) case, the Campmaster took up hardly any room in my survival kit.

Staying in Touch

Having a decent post disaster location for your family to meet up at is a must and as an extra insurance I also decided to stump up for a set of Uniden UHF walkie talkies. With my partner also working in the CBD, giving her a walkie talkie to keep in an office drawer struck me as a great contingency should both landline and mobile networks be knocked out. Priced at a reasonable $79.98 a pair from Dick Smith, they're well worth the extra peace of mind.

Keeping things juiced

Whilst crank powered torches and radios are fine as a temporary solution, keeping gadgets going presented me with a more serious challenge. Should the power be out for extended periods of time, spending several weeks in the technological equivalent of the Stone Age would most likely result in this geek going into severe gadget withdrawal.

Thankfully answers were at hand both in the form of the Freeloader, and a car inverter.

The Freeloader may sound like an unloved member of the extended family, but it's actually a solar powered charger from solarpower.net.nz. Only marginally larger than a soft cover book, the freeloader comes with a bunch of adaptor cables and is able to charge iPods, phones, handheld game consoles and a multitude of other gadgetry using a simple fold out solar panel.

Harnessing the power of daylight, the Freeloader charges its built-in lithium-ion batteries in approximately five hours depending on how much sunlight there is and, as a fall-back, can also be charged by plugging it into a PC's USB port (which given it can hold a charge for up to three months, means it can be ready to go should it ever be needed). With a sticker price of $58.75, adding it to my survival kit was a complete no-brainer.

While a small solar charger is fine for smaller gadgets, running larger equipment requires a more heavy duty solution such as the 150 watt voltage inverter from Jaycar. Costing $53.90, it plugs into a car cigarette lighter to convert the 12volts supplied from your car battery to a more usable 240 volts via a standard mains socket. Able to power laptops, fluorescent lights or even power tools, the inverter is more than likely to come into its own should it ever be needed in a disaster situation.