You don’t know what can happen in the world today. Global warming has made natural disaster much more frequent and powerful. Wars are happening everywhere. Virus outbreaks are getting more frequent and dangerous. There is nothing we can do to stop a major disaster from happening but we can make preparations for it. While there are no guarantees for survival there are steps you can take to increase your chances.
1. Planning
The best thing you can do to prepare for an emergency is planning. The plan might not be followed exactly but the planning process increases your awareness so that you act in the best way possible. Make sure you keep everything in the same place, and that the place is easily accessible. Prepare for everything including cases where you’re on the road. If possible, everyone involved should know what the plan is.
2. Medical Emergency Kit
Ready made medical emergency kits are a good place to start but be sure to keep building your kit until it is complete. Try the professional version of the emergency kit. It’s still not complete but it’s a very good place to start with.
For instance, if the medical kit has only one snakebite kit, you might want to add another one; the same goes for bandages. “Too much” might not still be enough in a natural disaster but at least you did your best. Always buy extra bandages and antiseptic wipes for better protection.
3. Practical First Aid Skills
There are a lot of courses you can take to train yourself to become proficient in using the medical kit you built. To help you gain knowledge, courses on CPR, First Aid and AED are offered by the Red Cross. Other recommended ones are injury prevention courses, blood borne pathogens training and community disaster education. This skill can save a life.
4. Stock Up Your Drinking Water Supply
Water is critical for survival because you’re not likely to survive long without water. Store them in container that is not easily punctured and replace old water with fresh water every three months. If you’re certain a difficult situation is building up, fill up all your water containers.
The European Union have announced that it will ban iodine for use in disinfecting drinking water. It will no longer be an option for many people.
5. Food
Make sure you have different types of food in your stock to cater for time when you can’t heat up your food. In a worst-case scenario, if you’ve built your emergency kit well, you can warm the packets up next to a wood fire.
6. Cooking
Some emergency situations can make it impossible to get to a stove or some other method of cooking. I recommend propane heating stoves because they’re easy to use. To help your body regulate your temperature in cold weather and to keep your body nourished you need hot food. Hot food nourishes your body and help regulate your temperature during cold weather so make sure you have a camp stove as part of your emergency kit. Remember to have plenty of fuel as well.
7. Replacement Lights
In natural disasters, you most likely to lose power so you alternative source of light. Be sure to stock up on the correct type of battery if you light source is battery operated. However, depending on how long you’re out of power, light sticks are excellent choices. You can get them in varying lengths of hours, different colors and in packs. Since they’re fairly cheep, it’s recommended that you stock several of them.
8. Tool Kit for Emergencies
In an emergency situation, you might need some tools for whatever tasks comes your way. You might need to dig of hole, cut wood, fix the camp stove or tons of other stuff. A multi-tool is always handy so make sure you have that.
9. Emergency Radio
In any type of natural emergency, you need to be able to keep up with the news and weather reports. Radios are an age-old tradition, but technology has made them even more versatile for emergencies. It’s important that an emergency radio can still play even without power e.g. a wind-up radio.
10. Guides
There are a lot of useful tips you can get from survial guides. Check with other guides to see if the informatoin has at least some truth in it. Pay particular on the part about foraging. There are thousands of deaths in a free because of eating poisonous food in the wild.
