Your Emergency Plan

When you are serious about providing for survival during an emergency or disaster, the best way to go about it is to draw up a plan.  Use some of the resources available on this website to help you, and go to government information sources, too, then draw up a plan that will cover all aspects of survival to assure that you and your family will be as unscathed as possible should trouble occur.

Begin with the absolute basics: food, shelter, and water.  You will first have to decide how much of an emergency supply of food and water you will need.  While a 3 day supply may be what is recommended, having more on hand is only prudent as some emergencies will take much longer than 3 days to set straight.  An emergency food supply can be collected from the grocery, but a much more convenient way is to use prepared food kits.  These usually have a shelf life far beyond canned food from the store.

You can bottle up your tap water, or store it in barrels, as long as you purify it beforehand.  Purified water will be good for up 5 years.  Bottled water from the store generally has a shelf life of around 2 years.  Water purification tablets and water filters can also help you use nearby water sources safely.  Streams, lakes, ponds, and rivers may look clear, but can harbor bacteria, cysts, parasites, and viruses.  These can be removed using purification tablets or crystals, but chemical pollutants will have to be removed with a filter.

Hopefully, you home will still be inhabitable during an emergency, but you should also have some means of keeping warm during the winter.  Extra blankets are always a good idea, and wool or wool blend ones are ideal for keeping the family warm if needs be. 

Security can be another important issue during times of social unrest or when a disaster has upset the normal order of life.  Firearms could be considered the ultimate security solution, but there are other ways to assure the safety of you and your family that are effective but non-lethal.  One of the best ways to stop anything from a housebreaker to an attacking dog is with pepper spray.  This spray is so debilitating that it can even stop someone who is drunk or on drugs, which products such as mace are unable to do.  Another alternative would be a stun gun, which will also render most attackers helpless.

First aid should never be ignored, and a good first aid kit can truly prove to be invaluable during an emergency.  Trauma kits can provide a step up in first aid, and allow you to deal more effectively with serious injuries.  Remember, if anyone in the family is using prescription medication to include a two weeks’ supply in your emergency first aid kit.