Basic HTML Version
winter
|
spr ing
37
“out the back” and parachuted down to their destinations. “The cube is
really tough,” Conner adds, “and will take a good drop.”
Michael explains that he’s been trying to get the Federal Emergency
Management Agency’s (FEMA) attention for two years and that, “because
of watching us grow, developing and improving the unit, [the Santa
Barbara chapter of ] Red Cross has put enough pressure on FEMA to where
the agency has finally called us; they’re now looking at us and going, ‘Oh
my God; this is what we’ve been looking for!’
“We’re enormously excited about that,” he continues, “and of course
terrified all in the same breath, because they’re going to want a thousand
units, so you’ve got to be careful what you wish for...” Conner credits 30-
year Red Cross veteran and former Santa Barbara Chapter CEO Louise
Kolbert for this progress.
It’s easy to see why Red Cross, FEMA, Doctors Without Borders, Direct
Relief International, and a host of similar emergency relief agencies would
be interested in the Life Cube. It arrives packed with survival gear for five
people for five days – a window meant to close the gap before city services
arrive after a disaster. Items that come standard include: air mattresses,
sleeping bags, water (with a filtration system – “just a small UN-approved-
style filter, very simple, very effective”), stacking water buckets that double
as seats, freeze-dried food, AM/FM and Citizens’ Band (CB) radio (“even
when the satellites are down, the CB is not”), a hatchet, matches, 12-volt
gel battery pack (good for charging cell phones and laptops; battery is
refreshed through a solar panel trickle charge), a fan (“a 12-volt bilge fan
out of a boat”), lighting (“12-volt landscape lighting”), stove, an inflator
and other incidentals.
The Life Cube is the only tent system with an integrated, hard-surface
floor to keep the occupants off the ground and the elements. The shipping
container comes with integrated steel hoops that unfold to allow easy
maneuverability (rolling) over most terrain by two adults, a feat that has
proven impossible for most trailers and other delivery vehicles.
Life Cube is intended to be 100% U.S. made. The inflatable canopy
material, for example, is manufactured by the Patten Company in
Lakeworth, Florida, inventors of the original self-inflating life vest. “They’ve
been in business for sixty years,” Conner points out, “and the grandfather,
Contractor-developer-inventor Michael Conner (above) boasts that his Life Cube contains all the necessary ingredients for short-term survival and can be air-dropped and
ready to function faster and cheaper than anything now available