Disaster Survival Lists, Guides and Tips

Home Safety & Survival Tips:

• Get an Emergency Weather Radio and make sure you know how to use it. Listen to your radio during an emergency for any further instructions, officials may call for evacuation in specific areas.
• Be ready to take care of yourself with your ownWater Storage, Emergency Food, & Survival Supplies that you have prepared and stored. Don’t expect the government or anyone else to be available for a rescue, you are responsible for your own personal well-being.
• You may not want to think of adding this option to your survival lists... but it is important to consider Self Defense Products to protect yourself from the looting, unruliness and panic that often follows a major emergency or disaster.
• Chemical or airborne hazards require a special response, this is calledShelter-In-Place. Here is a guide provided by the American Red Cross to help you fully prepare for that type of event.

Another very smart preparedness tip is becoming educated and prepared to take care of yourself and others around you by learning basic First Aid and CPR.

Thanks to the availability of computers, it is no longer necessary to leave your home to obtain a certificate for either of these life-saving techniques.

Here are two recommended courses that are available at a very reasonable cost and can be completed at your convenience:

1. First Aid Skills Certification - Expert Rating Online First Aid Certifications.
2. CPR Skills Certification - Expert Rating Online CPR Certifications.

Evacuation Tips For Your Survival Lists:

• If your plan calls for an evacuation, get out early. Don’t wait until gasoline is in short supply and the highways are clogged.
• Always have a backup travel plan, with various routes to and from home, work, school, etc.
• Plan ahead with friends or family to stay in a distant city that is unlikely to be affected by the same disaster.
• Plan a meeting place you have identified in advance with each member of the family, certain buildings around the city are set up as shelters, but if at all possible identify your own "safe house", so you won't be trying to beat thousands of others into a shelter.
• Each member of the family should have their own Grab-bag. The purpose is to be able to grab-it-and-go, thus avoid running around the house packing it during an emergency. 1-3 days of emergency supplies should be in the bag. Suggested survival list items for the bag are included in the printableAll-Things-Emergency-Prepared 72 Hr Emergency Check List, if you would like to build a Grab-bag yourself.
• Have a plan ready for your pet survival lists, your Dog and Cat Emergency Evacuation Kits, a pre-arranged place to stay with your pets (motel or hotel), or a place for your pets to stay if they cannot travel with you.
• Keep Some Cash Available. During blackouts or power outages, cash registers, ATM's and other things that we use to get cash or make purchases, will not be available. You will be unable to swipe credit cards or access ATM's. Having cash readily available will allow you to make critical purchases that you need.

Emergency Water Tips:

Drinking Water Storage:

• Fill all available containers, pots and pans with water.
• Keep safe drinking water methods on hand, such as:
  filtering and disinfecting.

Emergency preparedness includes safe drinking water. The AquaPod Safe Emergency Drinking Water Storage Kit fits in your bathtub. The KIT lets you store 65 gallons of water, a 14 day supply for a family of 4 - Use it when a flood or hurricane is predicted that could interrupt a safe water supply.

General Use Water Storage:

(Do not use the following options for drinking, water can be used to flush toilets, wash your hands, etc.)

Increase your water storage quickly with items that most people already have:

1. When fore-warned of an event, fill your bath tub, and sinks almost to the top.
2. Additional water is available in your water heater, pipes and toilet fill-tank (don't use the bowl).
3. Put two or three heavy-duty plastic trash bags inside each other. Then fill the inner bag with water, you can use your trash cans to give support to the bags.

• Preserve water by saving the water from washing your hands, clothes and dishes to flush your toilets.

Emergency Home Made Water Purification System:

*This home made system is only for an emergency situation where you have no other means of purifying the water - 

• This is a pour-though filtering system that can be made in an emergency, it will remove many contaminants, but should only be added to your survival lists as a "last resort" for water purification.

1. Take a five or seven gallon pail (a 55-gallon drum can also be used for a larger scale system) and drill or punch a series of small holes on the bottom.
2. Place several layers of cloth on the bottom of the bucket, this can be anything from denim to an old table cloth.
3. Add a thick layer of sand (preferred) or loose dirt. This will be the main filtering element, so you should add at least half of the pail's depth.
4. Add another few layers of cloth, weighted down with a few larger rocks.
5. Your home-made filter should be several inches below the top of the bucket.
6. Place another bucket or other collection device under the holes you punched on the bottom.
7. Pour collected or gathered water into the top of your new filter system. As gravity works its magic, the water will filter through the media and drip out the bottom, into your collection device. If the water is cloudy or full of sediment, simply let it drop to the bottom and draw the cleaner water off the top of your collection device with a straw or tube.

To Prep, or Not to Prep? That is the Question.

 Whether or not to prep for upcoming disasters is totally up to you. You cannot make a one size fits all preparedness plan. There are a lot of things to decide on when you are prepping. Everyone has a unique situation such as, you live in an urban area, you live in the suburbs, or you live in a rural area. When living in an urban area such as, New York City, Boston, any large city. You have to prep differently than if you were in a suburban or rural area. I am also a person, that is never too late to start prepping. Even though, the economic and social collapse of the United States government is close to fruition. I’m going to give you some basic ideas about prepping an urban area. You can take these with a grain of salt if you want but I do feel that these are just some of the things you might want to do.

 You need to come up with a plan whether you are going to be able to put out or or bug in. You may want a bug out plan, if you live near the edge of an urban area. This is only if you have adults and older children that can travel quickly between same zone to safe zone. There are several suitable and cost-effective bug out bags online. On the other hand, if you have to bug in, because of young children below the age of 6 or you have elderly parents they need to take care of. If this is your situation, you need to come out with a bug in plan.

BUGGING OUT- First thing is you have to come up with an exit strategy. I wouldn’t just plan one exit strategy, I would have several at least three ways to get out of town. Just in case and areas blocked off by either the government or roving gangs. Like I said before, this is only for adults and older children, because they will be able to run quickly and hide quickly. In this case, you just want to have a bug out bag. Most bug out bags have 72 hours worth of food, first aid kit, and miscellaneous items that you need to survive in the works for 72 hours. This means that you only have three days to get out of the city. I recommend that a family should bug in for a couple weeks and let the smoke blow over and then try to get out of the city. So this means you will need some storable food and potable water stored and have enough for family of four or whatever your family size is, for two weeks to a month. The longer you stay out of the hands of FEMA, the better chance you have of survival. If you have to walk around your neighborhood and draw a map. Find areas where you can hide along the exit route, because you have to walk out of the city, because the streets will probably be littered with cars that are empty, run out of fuel, any number of reasons why. Know your exit route very well because if something gets your way to where you can’t go your exit route you have to adapt and change your plan as you go. This is the reason why a map of the area is so critical. I’m not talking Street map! The map should be handmade street maps doesn’t show the hiding places that buildings provide,  you’ll need to get out of town.

BUGGING IN- I would only bug in, if I had obligations such as, taking care of elderly parents and young children. If you live in the center of the city, you might want to bug in you also. If you are bugging in, you need to calculate how much food you would need for your entire family to survive several weeks, if not several months. Many online storable food websites have food calculators for those people who have mixed family of adults, elderly and children. You will also need storage for potable water for the same amount of time, depending on your water usage and depending on the side of your family you should decide on how much you need. I KNOW I’M NOT GIVING A LOT OF ANSWERS AND THAT IS BECAUSE EVERY FAMILY’S NEED TO SURVIVE IS DIFFERENT. I know a lot of survival websites will give you a lot of advice or tell you exactly what you to do. I’m not here to do that.

The basic items you will need, if the lights go out and electricity just stopped working. Any disaster where you don’t have the basic necessities these suggestions might help you. If you live in an apartment, in the middle of the city and are limited on space.  I would suggest getting a storage locker that is close to you to store food and water in, because more likely than not have enough room in your apartment to store some of the stuff you’ll need.

1.       A large army duffel bag.(More depending on family size.)

2.       a solar powered flashlight.

3.       solar or crank radio.

4.       solar or crank recharger for cell phones (just in case their generators are still working at the cell towers).

5.       Several candles.

6.       5 gallon bucket for human waste.(Maybe more based on the size of your family)

7.       as much peanut butter as you can get.(This is a cheap way of getting something that is high in protein and I can be eaten on the run.)

8.       Make sure your storable food has individual servings in a bag.(Just in case you have to run you can take much of your food with you.)

9.       A hunting knife.(For self-defense because most major cities are gun free zones, but that doesn’t come into play, if there are other people with guns.)

10.   A folding knife.

11.   A multitool.(Such as a Leatherman)

12.   Handgun, if you can, with nine clips of ammunition.

13.   First aid kit.(The large first aid kit is best.)

14.   Liquor or any kind of alcohol.(For purposes of trade and barter)

15.   find people in your building that think the same way you.(Allies are always a good thing.)

16.   Extra oxygen and medications for the elderly and young children.

17.   Sewing kit.

18.   Heavy winter clothes.(You can always take off clothes in the summer but you can never have enough clothes in the winter.)

19.   Have several escape plans. (Even if your bugging in because you can’t stay there forever.)

20.   Have extra sharpened stakes to set booby-traps.

21.   Learn self-defense.(krav maga, knife fighting, basic tactical training, anything that will give you an advantage.)

22.   Stay in shape.( If you’re not in shape or fit. You will not be able to escape.) Even if that means walking every day, because every day you can walk further.

23.   Take a tactical weapons class. (This will come in handy even if you don’t have a weapon because you may be able to acquire one later.)

24.   Read as many survival books as you can.(Every survival book has something a little different that you can learn. Even if you’re in an urban environment, you can’t stay there forever sooner or later you’re going to have to leave. Just don’t read one type of survival book reads several different types survival in the woods, suburbs, anything dealing with survivability)

25.   Be adaptable.(The more adaptable you are to your situation or any coming situation the better off you will be. ADAPTABILITY IS KEY ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT.)

26.   Sometimes you’re going to have to do things to protect your family, that you would not do in a civil society. PREPARE YOURSELF MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY.

Now whether to prepare yourself for a disaster of any kind, or not. This is purely up to you, if you’re real man and you want to take care of your family during a disaster, start prepping now. The government is not going to be able to help you in the time of the disaster. They have proven themselves to be inept and unable to really help people in their times of need. These are just suggestions, they are not guidelines. Prepping is an expensive endeavor, but it will save your life and your family’s lives. People who depend on the government to help them in the time and need have basically made their family worth nothing. How much would you spend to ensure the safety of your family. As for myself, there is no price high enough to ensure the safety of my family. Whether you choose the prepper not, you need to ask yourself a question how much is your family really worth. there is no price

“Doomsday Prepper” versus Disaster Preparedness Engineer

I know this is basically a play on words but but if liberals can play on words than I should be able to play on words. People have bad perception of what a “doomsday preppers” is! What is a doomsday prepper? A doomsday prepper is a person who is preparing for major crises like collapse of the US economy, collapse of the US government, major disasters that have an impact on the way we live our lives today. Doomsday preppers make provisions and stockpile weapons, food and may have bunker of some type. They are the ones that have over a years supply of food, thousands of rounds of ammunition for several different types of weapons, which isn’t a bad thing but many people who think that FEMA will be there and their time of need think doomsday preppers are a bunch of crackpots. But as soon as FEMA doesn’t show up within the first week, the people who are not prepared are all of a sudden seeking help. I don’t like the wording of doomsday prepper. I don’t think it should be used anymore. Instead of using doomsday prepper, we use ”disaster preparedness engineer.”

A disaster preparedness engineer is a person or family, that prepares for any natural, environmental and man-made disaster. These disasters include; a nuclear meltdown at a power plant, a biochemical spill, volcanic eruption, hurricane, snowstorm, intruders, the power going out, or any other emergency that may arise. Just because you’re prepared for an emergency does not make you a crazy person. I was a Boy Scout when I was young man I was always talk to be prepared. The government is not always going to help you, especially at the time when you really need help and that is usually immediately. Not two weeks later, when FEMA finally arrives.