Guides › Rural and Remote Pack
Rural and Remote Pack
A calm planning guide for homes on wells, propane and wood, far from towns and emergency services
When help is hours away, the plan has to be yours.
- Quick Pack (14 pages) + Full Guide (105 pages)
- Instant download
- US Letter, prints on A4 too
- Worksheets you fill in
- Plain English
$12.99 one-time, instant download
- Secure checkout by Payhip
- Download link on screen and by email
- Read the free sample first
- No refund once downloaded
Who it is for
For people who live far from shops and emergency services, on a well and propane or wood, where phone coverage is patchy and a road can close for days.
What you get
- Worksheet 1: a Time-to-Help Call Sheet and a script for your call to county dispatch, so you plan around your real response time.
- Worksheet 2: a two-part Property Emergency Sheet with directions, GPS, gate details, shutoffs (including solar and septic), hazards, suppliers and contacts, ready for responders.
- Worksheet 3: a Supply Planning Table with a worked example for a 3-day go bag, a 14-day home stock and a stretch target for water, food, fuel and medicine.
- A fridge and freezer clock and a twice-a-year rotation check, so supplies do not quietly expire.
- Worksheet 4: a Check-In Schedule and Trip-Plan Card, with a map of where your phone works, a missed-check-in rule, and a plain guide to radios, phone options and beacons.
- Worksheet 5: a Medical Readiness Card, a first aid kit list, a long-wait add-on and long-wait skills to learn, without dosing or diagnosis.
- Worksheet 6: a Well Owner Sheet and Post-Flood Test Calendar, with a clear stop-and-call rule for flooded wells.
- Worksheet 7: a Priority Load List and Fuel Log, with step-by-step generator setup, backfeed and refueling rules, and carbon monoxide rules.
- Worksheets 8 and 9: an Animal Water and Records Sheet and a Neighbor Pact, plus a sanitation kit with quantities and an emergency toilet method.
- Stranded-car rules, a vehicle kit for all seasons, and a day-by-day plan for the first 14 days cut off.
- Worksheets 10 and 11: a Driveway and Gate Access Checklist and a Leave-Early Trigger Card, with a defensible space ladder from 0 to 5 feet out to 100 feet.
- Flood rules for people, vehicles, wells and food, and a checklist for coming home safely after a flood or fire.
What is in it
- Help Is Hours Away: Your Starting PointThis section helps you find out how long help really takes at your address. Then you write down everything a responder needs on one Property Emergency Sheet.
- Two Weeks and Longer: Water, Food and Fuel Planning"Several days" is not a number you can shop for. This section turns it into three numbers you can calculate for your own household: a 3-day go bag, a 14-day home baseline, and a stretch target sized to the longest closure your area really sees.
- Talking to the World When Coverage Is PoorOut here, one phone signal is not a plan. This section builds layers: alerts coming in, calls going out, check-ins that someone is waiting for, and a paper copy of it all.
- Medical Readiness for a Long WaitOut here, you and your household are the first responders. This section helps you act well in the gap before help arrives: stop bleeding, keep a kit that fits a long wait, plan your medicines, and work with dispatch on how help reaches you.
- Well Water and Pumps: Power Loss, Backup and FloodsThis section shows what your pump needs, how to keep water on hand when the power fails, and how to make water safe to drink. It ends with a flood rule that tells you when to stop and call a contractor.
- Fuel, Generators and Heat: Store It Safely, Burn It SafelyThis section shows you how to store fuel, run a generator, heat the house and plan your fuel by the hour and by the cord. Carbon monoxide (CO) is the thread through all of it, because you cannot see it or smell it, and help may be hours away.
- Sanitation, Pets and Livestock in a Long OutageWater, food and heat get the attention. Soap, a safe toilet and animal care are the jobs that quietly run out on day three. This section helps you plan them before you need them.
- Snowed In or Cut Off: Roads, Vehicle Kit and NeighborsUse this section when snow, ice or water shuts your road. It covers warning times, the vehicle kit, the rule for a stranded car, protecting your vents and fuel, a pact with your neighbors, and a day-by-day plan for the first two weeks.
- Wildfire and Flood: Routes, Gates, Driveways and Coming HomeWhen fire or water forces a decision, you want a property that crews can find and a plan you made while calm. This section covers the ground around your home, the driveway, the flood rules for people and vehicles, your leave-early triggers, and the checks after you return.
- Readers Outside the USThe rest of this guide uses US numbers and rules. This short page is for readers in the UK.
Read a free sample
This is the opening of the guide, exactly as it appears in the PDF. Download the free sample PDF (4 pages: the cover, the one-page plan and a first taste).
Part 1
Help Is Hours Away: Your Starting Point
This section helps you find out how long help really takes at your address. Then you write down everything a responder needs on one Property Emergency Sheet.
Find your real numbers
Most safety advice assumes help is a few minutes away. Where you live, it may not be. So the first job in this guide is not buying anything. It is learning your real numbers.
Every later section sizes itself to what you write down here: how much water to store, how much fuel to hold, and how long to plan to manage on your own.
What the national numbers say
In town, an ambulance often arrives in about 6 minutes. A national study of 2015 EMS data (EMS means emergency medical services, the ambulance crews) found the typical rural wait was about 13 minutes. Nearly 1 in 10 rural calls waited close to 30 minutes. Other national sources agree that rural response is almost double urban response, and a review of 37 studies found rural times were usually longer.
These are national middle values, and they include rural towns. A home far down a long road may wait longer, and storms, floods or fire can add more. Serious bleeding or a stopped heart cannot wait that long. So the person next to the patient has to act first. Do not rely on any national figure. Use the number dispatch gives you.
$12.99 one-time, instant download
- Secure checkout by Payhip
- Download link on screen and by email
- Read the free sample first
- No refund once downloaded
Questions
What exactly do I get?
Two PDFs in one download. The Quick Pack (14 pages) is the short version: the one-page plan, the checklists and the sheets to fill in and keep. The Full Guide (105 pages) has the reasons, worked examples and everything else. Open the Quick Pack first. Both are laid out for US Letter paper. You print them, or read them on a tablet or computer. There is nothing physical to wait for.
How do I get it after I pay?
Payment is handled by Payhip, a payment service for digital products. As soon as it goes through, you see a page with your download link, and the same link is emailed to you. This website never sees your card details.
Can I print it?
Yes. It is made for printing: big type, plenty of space to write, and worksheets you fill in by hand. Print the whole thing, or only the pages you need. Print at 100% size on US Letter (it also prints fine on A4).
Is it based on real sources?
Yes. Every instruction traces to an official source such as Ready.gov and FEMA, the CDC, the National Weather Service, the American Red Cross, the US Department of Energy and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The sources are listed at the end, with tags next to the items they support. It was fact-checked and safety-reviewed before publication. It is still general information, not professional advice, so check anything critical with your local authorities.
Is it just the free plan on a PDF?
No. The free personal plan gives you a checklist and your top priorities. The guides go further: decision rules, schedules, scenario walkthroughs and worksheets you fill in, written for one situation in depth.
Can I get a refund?
Read the free sample and the full contents list first, so you know what you are buying. Because this is a digital download, we cannot refund it once you have downloaded it. If you have not downloaded it yet, email hello@afternormal.co within 14 days and you will be refunded. If the file is faulty, will not open or is not what we described, email us and we will fix it, replace it or refund you. See the terms for the details.
Will I get updates?
Official guidance changes. If we revise this guide you will be able to download the new edition from the same link.