Company: Omega Survival Supply LLC.
Owner: Matt Jones.
Address: 300 Warren St., Dayton. Customers should knock on side door for entry.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, but will take appointments.
Phone: (937)212-5561.
Former Boy Scout Matt Jones is launching what he hopes will be the ultimate local store for the thoughtful “Be Prepared” crowd.
Omega Survival Supply, 300 Warren St., in Dayton, across the street from Coco’s Bistro, is filled with hard-to-find items useful for coping with flood, tornado, power outage, Tsunami, winter storm, or even worse disaster.
When it opens Monday, it’ll be the only retail location of its exact type around.
Customers can pick up camping gear at most outdoor retail stores and hunt and peck on the Internet for particular items. But Jones, 39, is a student of the topic and has taken much care in selecting the survival tools he has on sale.
There’s the “LifeStraw” water purification system, a device that makes foul water safe for consumption and has been distributed by relief missions throughout Third World disaster zones. There’s the ingenious Prep Stove, an emergency stove that uses air flow to more intensely burn sticks, leaves and other fuels you can find around.
A 1,000-calorie vacuum-sealed emergency food brick could keep you going a day if nothing else is available. It’ll last five years. For people who need a sheet of Mylar film to seal in their own dry food supply, Jones has it.
In the age of cable television’s “Doomsday Preppers,” Jones strives for a more reasonable approach and careful consideration of what is really necessary to ride out the most likely disasters to hit. In this part of the world, that would be power outages and major storms.
“I don’t want to be helpless, waiting in line for a handout,” he said, referring to the recent drinking water contamination from a chemical spill that affected 100,000 West Virginians and Hurricane Katrina, which overnight made drinking water a precious commodity.
Jones has put together a dozen or more bulletins on preparing for specific disasters like blackouts, earthquakes, pandemics and flooding.
“I find more and more people are getting receptive to this,” he said.
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