Outdoor Life Prepare for Anything Survival Manual (5 page)

Mark some dates on your calendar to perform emergency drills with your family. They may not want to participate, but find a way to get them involved nevertheless. Here are some emergency drills that can keep a family’s skills sharp.

DISTANT CONTACT
Have each family member contact a friend or family member who lives outside your area—without using a phone (cell or landline). This could be done through e-mail, social media, satellite phone, ham radio, or even a carrier pigeon. Get creative!

SUPPLY SHAKEDOWN
Pull out all of your emergency supplies, take inventory, check expiration dates, use up older items, replace them with new supplies, and make sure you end up with a few more items than you started with.

FIRE DRILL
For starters, perform a classic fire drill, evacuating the home at an unexpected time. Make sure you have a planned meeting spot outside the home, and have everyone low-crawl out of the house. For more practiced families, eliminate the easy exits and add some obstacles. Also, round out the exercise with some stop, drop, and roll each time you have a fire drill.

EVAC
Take the fire drill exercise one step further with a mock evacuation. Tell everyone that they have 2 minutes to grab some clothes and supplies and get to the family vehicle.

If you don’t think that tools and supplies are important, just try going without them. Gear makes almost every task easier, and when you’re staring down the barrel of a life-or-death scenario, easier is always better.

Imagine yourself in a survival situation without any gear. Perhaps you went for a hike with nothing in your pockets or pack. People do it all the time and rarely face tragedy. But you’re tempting fate by heading off without any emergency supplies—and if we add an injury or wrong turn to this situation, your simple walk in the woods may be the last trip you ever take. Now consider this scenario with a little survival gear in hand—a whistle to call for help, or a space blanket to stave off hypothermia. Maybe all you have is a lighter—well, then you have warmth and a way to signal distress. A little bit of gear can make the difference between getting home in one piece or never getting home at all.

And survival is not always about the wilderness. Just ask the survivors of Katrina, Fukushima, or Chernobyl. Life-ending events can happen anywhere, and you’ll need the right resources to have the best chances of enduring both natural and man-made disasters.

In our first chapter, we are going to look at the value and benefits of everyday items as well as some specialized survival equipment. Don’t look at these items as a list of goodies that you hope to someday have; treat the chapter like a shopping list, and get the items relevant to your situation now! Your first acquisitions should be for the most pressing dangers and the survival situations you anticipate in your area. Then add to your supplies by preparing for less-likely situations as well.

Mid-crisis is not the time to pick up some gas jugs, start pricing generators, or consider which types of weapons would be most effective against a mugger. The point of supplies is to have them before you need them. We’ve all heard the adage, “It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.” Make that your mantra next time you’re at the store, prioritize your needs, and get prepared.

A BOB (bug-out bag) is a collection of goods that you would need to survive if you had to flee your home with no guarantee of shelter, food, or water during an emergency. Think of the BOB as your survival insurance policy for any disaster or mayhem. There may not be one perfect, universally agreed-upon set of equipment, but with a good core set of items (similar to those used in backpacking) you can put together a BOB suited for a wide variety of situations. Most people use either a backpack or a duffle bag as a container for their goods, which should include basic survival essentials and a few irreplaceable items. Fill up your BOB with a minimum of the following things, with most items sealed in zip-top bags to prevent damage:

• Shelter items like a small tent and sleeping bag, or a tarp and blanket

• A couple quarts (or liters) of drinking water, and purification equipment to disinfect more water

• High-calorie, no-cook foods like protein bars, peanut butter, trail mix, etc.

• First-aid, sanitation, and hygiene supplies

• Several fire-starting devices

• A small pot for boiling water or cooking

• A few basic tools like a knife, duct tape, rope, etc.

• Extra clothes appropriate for the season

• Flashlight with extra batteries

• Cash

• A digital backup of all your important documents and artifacts. This could be a thumb drive with your bank info, insurance documents, wills, and family photos and videos

Keep your main BOB safe and ready to go in a secure location, with modified versions in your car and office. It’s also a good idea for you to have “everyday carry” (EDC) items— survival essentials that you can carry in your pocket or purse. Here’s a breakdown for these different types of kits.

One of the first steps toward being prepared for anything is having a multipurpose, day- or week-appropriate survival kit stocked and ready in your home. It’s always a good idea to have certain essentials at hand whenever possible—you never know just where you’ll be when disaster strikes.

Here are a few essentials that will help meet your needs (and those of your family) in a hunker-down scenario. Store the kit somewhere easy to access, and make sure everyone knows where to find it.