Essential Survival Skills In Case Of A Disaster

Well 2012 is here and some people are panicking and thinking that the end of the world is almost here. I don't think the world will end in 2012 but I do think it is essential to prepare for either natural or man made disasters. If tomorrow morning you woke up with no electricity or no running water what would you do. And believe me it could happen. In today's world the threat of a terrorist attack is very real as is the possibility of a natural disaster. I think its very important to be prepared and ready in case of anything major happening in our country. If the average person woke up in the morning with no electricity or water they would panic. If it didn't come back on for days to weeks you would see turmoil in this country like we have never experienced before.

If you live in a large city in a coastal area it is only a matter of time until we have a major hurricane strike a large population center. Its not a question if it's a question of when. The last few years we have been lucky that a major hurricane has not struck America. But it will happen again and it probably won't be long in coming. So I strongly suggest you get prepared. I'm not suggesting that you go as far as doomsday prepping but you should prepare especially if you live in an area where a major natural disaster could occur.

You should know that the most important resource you will need in the event of a major disaster is water. You can not survive a prolonged disaster with out water. I would suggest having a weeks water for each person in your household stored on your property in the event you ever do need it. You should use up your stored water about every six months and replace it with fresh water. This way you'll know that your water is always fresh. If there is a creek or fresh water source near you then you will need to have a water purifying device on hand ready to use or water purification tablets to put into the water to make it safe to use.

You can set up rain barrels under your homes down spouts so you can use that water in an emergency. Buy fine screen wire to fasten on top of your rain barrels to keep mosquitoes out. If you keep bugs and insects out of your rain barrels and have a way to treat the water to make it safe for human use then you could use this water for drinking, cooking, or bathing.

You should put wire covers over all your gutters to keep leafs and trash out of your rain barrel water supply. Each rain barrel should be equipped with a spigot at the bottom to make it easy to empty the rain barrel. About every six months you should empty your rain barrels to make sure the water stays fresh.

You can watch the video here on rain barrels and learn exactly how to make rain barrels for your home and to supply your family with a water supply in an emergency. But be sure your rain barrels are covered with fine screen to keep out mosquitoes and other insects. You can buy and keep a battery powered pump to use with your rain barrels in an emergency situation.

In some parts of the American west rain barrels provide a lot of the water needs for many people. Keep in mind you want good quality rain barrels like in the video here.

Food is another thing that you can't do with out. Plus you have to have a way to cook your food. The easiest way to do this is to buy a Coleman Stove and enough gas to last a week and keep it stored where you can get to it easily. You can even buy an oven that will fit onto your Coleman Stove and allow you to do baking.

You need to keep a supply of wooden matches in sealed jars in a couple of places in your house so you can easily get to them in an emergency. If you keep them sealed in a quart jar you'll never have to worry about them getting damp and not light. Its very important that you can have a fire or a way to cook in an emergency.

I buy and keep a couple of cases of MRE's ( Meals Ready To Eat ) in my storage room so I will always have food in case the unexpected does happen. I also keep peanut butter, powdered tea mix, soda crackers, canned meats, canned beans, canned milk, shortening, flour, and cornmeal so I could make a meal quickly in an emergency. You can quickly cook up fried bread and it will fill you up. I also keep a supply of dried herbs both to cook with and to use for medicine in an emergency.

I also keep canned fruits and canned vegetables and a supply of dried beans and rice. If anything serious ever happens I can quickly prepare a delicious meal and keep right on going. Don't forget to store things like salt, sugar, black pepper, cinnamon, coffee and etc. I bought me a coffee pot to use on the gas grill if I ever need to. I put everything in plastic storage boxes with lids and I rotate stuff out before it goes out of date and replace it to always make sure we have food that is not out of date.

You need pots and pans to use on your gas grill. They need to be heavy duty stainless steel with out Teflon coating. You'll also want cooking spoons, spatulas, wooden spoons, knives and etc so that you can easily cook and prepare food. In my emergency cook box I also have two large packages of Styrofoam plates, paper bowls, solo cups, plastic forks, and plastic spoons. This way I don't have to worry about washing any dishes for a few days.Don't forget to include a couple of bottles of dawn dish detergent.

In another emergency box I have tiki torch fuel, flashlights, extra batteries, towels, wash cloths, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, battery powered AM/FM radio and battery powered weather radio. In this same box I also have heavy duty tarps, ropes, a big roll of plastic sheeting, duct tape, hatchets, and flare gun with flares. I have four tiki torches stored in this same area for emergency light.

I keep four good fishing rod and reels in this area along with all needed fishing lures, supplies and etc. You also need a large first aid kit and you should buy back up supplies for everything in the first aid kit.

If you plan on staying put if something does happen either a man made or natural disaster you should really think about having a garden. In order to have a garden you need to have the below supplies.

1. Garden Tiller

2. 50 Gallons Of Gas And A Hand Pump To Pump It Out Of Its container, several cans of oil.

3. Several Good Garden Hoes.

4. Several Sizes Of Shovels.

5. At Least 2 Heavy Duty Garden Rakes.

6. Large Water Can With A Spout.

7. At Least Two Pump Up Hand Sprayers.

8. A Wheelbarrow.

9. Several rolls of Twine, Rope, a Hammer and a supply of Nails.

10. Vegetable Garden Seed.

You can dig up a garden space with out a garden tiller but it will be much easier with a garden tiller. If you have a small garden shed with a secure lock on it to store the above items that would be great. Keep your 50 gallons of gas topped off all the time so if you get where you can't get gas you have a supply to last a while.

Keep your garden simple and you will be a lot better off. Some things you can grow easily in your garden include.

1. Lettuce.

2. Radishes.

3. Several Types Of Squash.

4. Tomatoes.

5. Cayenne Pepper.

6. Cucumbers.

7. Green Beans.

8. Corn.

9. Pumpkins.

If you grow those things you will be producing food that will keep you and your family from going hungry. You will need a good supply of 5 - 10 - 5 fertilizer so that when you till your garden up you can work in one pound of fertilizer for each 20 foot vegetable row.

You can use your hoes to keep weeds out of your vegetable garden. Keep in mind that you can plant your corn and let it get up about a foot high and then plant pole beans right beside your corn so it can grow up your corn stalks and you can pick delicious pole beans and corn.

Radishes, lettuce, and green onions will grow rather quickly. If you want green onions you'll need to buy onion sets to set out to produce green onions. If you can buy seed potatoes you can plant potatoes in your garden. With all of these items in your garden you should be providing your family with a lot of their needed food.

Keep your garden free of weeds and it will grow so much better. You will probably need to water your garden if it doesn't get at least one inch of rain fall a week. Your tomatoes, cayenne pepper and cucumbers will need to be tied up so they will not fall down in a thunderstorm or heavy wind. Your cucumbers need poles and hog wire put up beside them and allow them to grow up and over the wire so that you will get the most cucumbers.

Buy at least one and preferably two multi rack food dehydrators so you can dry your excess left over vegetables and put them in containers to make soup out of in the winter to come. You can quite easily dry ripe firm tomatoes and they are delicious. You can also dry herbs, cayenne pepper, and garlic. The more you can grow and provide for yourself the less you will have to buy.

Be sure that you grow heirloom purple basil, rosemary, and elephant garlic if you can and you will have all the spices you will ever need for cooking your food. You can also grow catnip and mint in containers or pots to be used for medicine or to make tea with. Catnip will help you to get to sleep if you need something like that. You can also give a small bottle of catnip tea to a restless baby and it will get a good nights sleep.

I purchase and keep a supply of zip lock food storage bags so I can easily store processed or dried foods. You need to always have a back up of vegetable oil, peanut butter, coffee and similar items so you won't run out until you can get back to a store.

I will caution you here to always have three or four hand operated can openers so you are always able to open cans. If you have a little bit of room you can build a chicken tractor so you will have fresh eggs and think about raising rabbits for their meat.

With as little as three acres of land you should be able to grow and produce almost anything you or your family should need. If you have the room have some ducks because you can eat the males and duck eggs are rich and a great source of protein. You can raise ducks using the same chicken tractor that you use for chickens.

Be Prepared To Get Gas Out Of Abandoned Vehicles And Storage Tanks.

In order to do this you will need.

1. One Set Of Heavy Duty Bolt Cutters.

2. Four Five Gallon Gas Cans.

3. A Hand Pump Rigged Up With A Long Hose.You really need two hoses. One about 12-15 foot long and one 20-25 feet long. This way you can siphon gas, diseal fuel, or kerosene out of almost anything. Its always better to be prepared so that if you ever do have to forage for gas you can.

4. Several Hoses Of Various Sizes.

With these items you can get gas out of abandoned vehicles or out of storage tanks. Go out and get the gas and pour it into your fifty gallon storage tank. If everything goes all to hell you are going to have to do things like foraging for gas, food, water, and other supplies.

After a major disaster or a total break down of services you may be forced to take care of yourself and provide your own protection and do a lot of things to make sure you and your family can survive.

Have several whistles so you can give one to each member of your group. You can use the whistles to signal to each other so you can stay in touch and know what is going on.

You can buy a set of portable 2 way radios so you can stay in touch with each other. This may be one of the most important things you ever do.

Buy each adult in your family or group a backpack with a frame so you can go foraging if you need to. Each person should also have the below packed carefully in the back pack.

1. Water Canteen.

2. Plastic Case With Several Books Of Matches.

3. Good Flashlight and plenty of Batteries.

4. Small Crowbar.

5. Heavy Duty Hammer.

6. Several Sizes Of Screw Drivers.

7. Plastic Tarp and 50 Feet Of Rope.

With those items you can go foraging and protect yourself. You will also have the ability to start a fire, see at night, and build an emergency shelter. In really rough hard times this may prove to be necessary and essential for the survival of your group or family. You should keep a list made up of places you could go foraging after a major disaster strikes.

It is essential that you and your family or group be prepared in the event of any major man made or natural disaster. Below are some things you can do to insure survival.

1. Set up a feeding station in your yard for squirrels and birds. Keep your feeders full and well stocked and if you ever have to the meat is right there in front of you to use. If you never have to use it you'll have some fat and sassy squirrels and happy birds.Squirrels are edible and a source of protein. Almost all birds can be eaten if you need to and are also a source of protein.

2. Purchase a high powered pellet rifle, plenty of ammo and targets and become an expert shot with it on targets set up 25 - 50 yards from you. In the event of an emergency you could use this pellet rifle to hunt small game and it doesn't make the loud sound of a regular wepon to let people know you are in the area.

3. You can take a bed sheet and seine a small creek or stream. Two people stand and hold the sheet in the water so they can scoop it up and out of the water when they need to. Several people go up stream about 50 yards and beat the water with broke off bushes as they come down the stream. In an emergency even small fish and crayfish can be used for food.

4. If you have deer on your property set up a regular feeding site where you provide salt and deer corn on a regular basis. Set up a tree stand or blind over looking the feeding area. If you ever need the deer for food you already have them drawn into your area. If not you can take some great wildlife photos.

5. If you have room on your property start to raise chickens and rabbits for meat and eggs. You can use chicken tractors and rabbit cages to provide much needed protein especially in an emergency.

6. If you have the room start a garden where you can grow vegetables and herbs to be used as a much needed food source. Even if there is not a disaster you can use the fresh vegetables to feed you and your family.

7. At least one person in your family or group should learn everything they can about herbal medicine and first aid. This way you will have a medic in your family or group in the event of a disaster and you need one.

8. Make one of the rooms in your house into a safe room. You should install a heavy duty reinforced door on this room with a drop bar to hold the door closed in case some one is trying to break through. Install metal grates on the inside of the windows that can only be unlocked from the inside. Check common walls with other rooms or halls to see if you need to reenforce any areas to make sure some one can't easily kick their way through into your safe room. Keep a stun gun and a spray device or two of tear gas in the room. A couple of metal ball bats can be kept in this room for added protection.

9. Someone in your family or group should become a licensed ham radio operator and you should purchase and set up a two way short wave radio for emergency's.

A major disaster or emergency may never happen but it could and being prepared can make sure your family or group survives. Being prepared and ready is always the best way to be.

You can set up a garden, raise chickens and rabbits, and set up rain barrels and use all of these items to save money. You can hook a hose to rain barrels and water your garden. You should also set up and maintain a compost bin. You can use the finished compost in your garden.

Thanks For Reading My Hub Page.

I want to thank you for reading my Hub Page on Survival. and Essential Survivor Skills. Comments, tips, or suggestions are welcome. If you are doomsday prepping you know that being prepared is essential for your survival.