Everyone's survival situation is different, so use these steps as a suggestion and modify
them to fit your specific needs. The key is to never stop preparing. Start
small and build until you consider preparedness and survival whenever you make
your major decisions. Not surprisingly, the steps below follow the guide:
Step 1: Identify the most severe threats likely to affect you, so that you can prepare for them
first. (This is spelled out in Chapter One.) Think of it as knowing your enemy.
Step 2: Make evacuation plans and prepare a bugout kit for yourself and each member of your family. Not
coincidentally, this is covered in Chapter Two of Captain Dave's Survival
Guide.
Step 3: Prepare a permanent survival kit for your car. This will serve you well if you need to
bug out or if you are caught away from your home. There's an example of an
automotive kit in Chapter Three under shelter.
Step 4: Start building your food and water stash at home. (Food storage is discussed in depth
in both the food storage FAQ and in the food section of this guide. Techniques
for saving money while buying food are covered below).
Step 5: Start acquiring survival tools. These could be anything from a plastic wrench to turn
off the gas to a chainsaw. A list of tools is provided as a resource for you.
Step 6: Start expanding your knowledge base through reading and taking courses. Build a
survival library. You should review our list of survival links for online
resources and visit Captain Dave's Book Shelf for some good reading.
Step 7: When you make large purchases, such as your car and home, consider its application for
survival and preparedness reasons. This means avoid hurricane prone areas and
stay well away from the fault line.
Additional Steps:
You should be adding to your survival skills or supplies every week. Sound hard? It doesn't
have to be. It could be as simple as adding a few purchases during your weekly
shopping trip. Or it could mean picking up a new magazine at the newsstand. Or
you could rent or buying a book or video on a survival-related subject.
Your best weapon is your mind, and reading and practicing will help polish and improve your
survival skills. Some skills, such as identifying and gathering foods in the
wild, are obviously and directly survival-related. Others, such as learning to
weld or repair small engines, may be more of a stretch. But who's to say your
future survival situation might not require someone who can weld a
water-storage tank or repair a generator?
Rehearsal:
Planning is important, but rehearsal is when you will test your plan and identify flaws.
Rehearsal is simply pretending you are in a survival situation and acting
accordingly. Here are some survival examples to try:
Try living for a
weekend without electricity. You can do this the real way by shutting of the
breaker (to prevent cheating) or the easy way by just "pretending."
If you do the latter, you should fine each other for violating the rules. The
exercise will teach you that boiling water over a camp stove or a fire in the
back yard just to make you're morning coffee can really wreck your normal
morning routine. But hopefully the experience will also help you identify
missing supplies, bad ideas and develop a new, stronger plan.
Try to evacuate your family to another location (anywhere from a friend or relatives to a motel 100 miles away). Give yourselves 20 minutes to pack. Once you've reached your destination make a list of everything you forgot and then add it to your bug out bag. Once you've settled in at your destination, take a minute to think how you would feel if everything you left behind was destroyed by a fire or if everything below the second floor was damaged or destroyed by a flood. Revise your storage and survival plans accordingly.
Go for a drive
one Saturday in the fall. Pull over in a remote area (if it's safe) and spend
the night there with only the supplies on hand in your car.
Try eating only
your survival foods for a weekend or even a week. This is a good one if you're
ready to rotate out some of your food. It also has the added benefit of letting
you identify any dishes you can't stand or to realize you need to add some
spices and a cook book to your stash.
Developing a Survival Mindset:
Being mentally prepared is a key to successful survival. Just as athletes can improve their
performance by mentally reviewing their actions before the big game, you can
improve your performance in a survival situation by reviewing your options and
plans before you need them. Play scenarios through your head and rehearse your
options and actions. For example:
If you are stuck in traffic, imagine what you would do if a large earthquake struck. Where would you go? What would you do? (If you're not in an earthquake-prone area, think
what you would do if you saw a huge funnel cloud heading towards you.)
In your work place, think what you would do if an ex-employee returned to work one day a bit drunk and verbally abusive. You know he owns guns, but you don't see one on
him. How do you react?
If you're traveling out of town or in any unfamiliar area, think about what you would do
if you were stranded due to a breakdown or if the area was suddenly hit by a
flash flood. What would you do to increase your chance of survival?
You're in a convenience store picking up milk and as you turn around form the cooler, you
see a man holding a gun on the cashier. What do you do?
(Maybe I am being cynical, but by expecting the worse, I am never disappointed and
occasionally receive a pleasant surprise. After all, we're not practicing how
to survive winning the lottery or getting a promotion and a big raise at work.)
Survival Awareness:
Part of developing a survival mindset is being aware of your situation. The military
developed a set of color codes which Col. Jeff Cooper (a respected firearms
trainer) adapted for personal "street" survival by those who carry a
firearm. Captain Dave has adapted and modified those again to pertain to
survival in the broader sense:
Condition White
An individual in Condition White is totally unaware that the world is an
unpredictable (at best) place and that they could be put in danger by a
man-made or natural disaster with little or no warning. They suffer from the
misguided belief that the government will protect them and keep them safe.
Condition Yellow An individual in Condition
Yellow has accepted responsibility for his or her personal survival. They have
admitted that the veneer of civilization can be wiped away, catapulting us back
to an era where our modern conveniences don't work. They realize that the
police cannot protect them before a crime has been committed. They realize that
while mankind can harness some of nature's powers, and predict some of her
behavior, it cannot stand against her fury.
This individual has started making preparations to protect themselves and their loved ones from
potential disasters. They monitor the news for weather-related danger or
potential civil unrest. By reading this far into Captain Dave's Survival Guide,
you are probably in condition Yellow.
Condition Orange
You are in Condition Orange when you realize a dangerous event is on the
horizon and looming closer. It could be a hurricane heading towards you, an
impending snow storm or a gang of youths crossing the street on a course ready
to intercept you. In condition Orange, you are preparing to survive an
impending situation. This could mean filling improvised water tanks or bringing
extra fire wood into the house to dry. It could be loading the car in
preparation to evacuate or hanging hurricane shutters.
(Note, in some emergencies -- like an earthquake or terrorist bombing -- you may go straight
from Condition Yellow to Condition Red or Black.)
Condition Red
You are in a survival situation and the dangerous event is there NOW. This
means the bullets are flying, or the water is rising or the wind is howling,
the electricity is out and the snow is piling up. You're most important
priority is to ride out the moment, to survive the immediate event. This
probably means taking shelter or running or, depending on the situation,
fighting back.
Condition Black
Condition Black is after the
catastrophic event, but before the situation has returned to normalcy. You
still are depending on your survival stash and skills to survive, but the
danger is longer term, not immediate.
Examples of condition black could be the earthquake that is over, but you can't return to
your home. Or the river has crested, but it will be days before your can return
home and longer before you are cleaned out. Or the riots have died down, but
you dare not leave your house or neighborhood. Or the snow has stopped but the
electricity has not been restored, and it will be a few days before the plows
dig you out.
Think about your worst-case scenario and determine how
long you might have to survive in condition black. Remember that in a
catastrophic event, such as nuclear war, a terrible plague, a comet strike or
an alien invasion (people have been e-mailing me asking me why I haven't
addressed the latter two) "normalcy" may only be in your memory.
h/t Sharon N Lance Palmer
them to fit your specific needs. The key is to never stop preparing. Start
small and build until you consider preparedness and survival whenever you make
your major decisions. Not surprisingly, the steps below follow the guide:
Step 1: Identify the most severe threats likely to affect you, so that you can prepare for them
first. (This is spelled out in Chapter One.) Think of it as knowing your enemy.
Step 2: Make evacuation plans and prepare a bugout kit for yourself and each member of your family. Not
coincidentally, this is covered in Chapter Two of Captain Dave's Survival
Guide.
Step 3: Prepare a permanent survival kit for your car. This will serve you well if you need to
bug out or if you are caught away from your home. There's an example of an
automotive kit in Chapter Three under shelter.
Step 4: Start building your food and water stash at home. (Food storage is discussed in depth
in both the food storage FAQ and in the food section of this guide. Techniques
for saving money while buying food are covered below).
Step 5: Start acquiring survival tools. These could be anything from a plastic wrench to turn
off the gas to a chainsaw. A list of tools is provided as a resource for you.
Step 6: Start expanding your knowledge base through reading and taking courses. Build a
survival library. You should review our list of survival links for online
resources and visit Captain Dave's Book Shelf for some good reading.
Step 7: When you make large purchases, such as your car and home, consider its application for
survival and preparedness reasons. This means avoid hurricane prone areas and
stay well away from the fault line.
Additional Steps:
You should be adding to your survival skills or supplies every week. Sound hard? It doesn't
have to be. It could be as simple as adding a few purchases during your weekly
shopping trip. Or it could mean picking up a new magazine at the newsstand. Or
you could rent or buying a book or video on a survival-related subject.
Your best weapon is your mind, and reading and practicing will help polish and improve your
survival skills. Some skills, such as identifying and gathering foods in the
wild, are obviously and directly survival-related. Others, such as learning to
weld or repair small engines, may be more of a stretch. But who's to say your
future survival situation might not require someone who can weld a
water-storage tank or repair a generator?
Rehearsal:
Planning is important, but rehearsal is when you will test your plan and identify flaws.
Rehearsal is simply pretending you are in a survival situation and acting
accordingly. Here are some survival examples to try:
Try living for a
weekend without electricity. You can do this the real way by shutting of the
breaker (to prevent cheating) or the easy way by just "pretending."
If you do the latter, you should fine each other for violating the rules. The
exercise will teach you that boiling water over a camp stove or a fire in the
back yard just to make you're morning coffee can really wreck your normal
morning routine. But hopefully the experience will also help you identify
missing supplies, bad ideas and develop a new, stronger plan.
Try to evacuate your family to another location (anywhere from a friend or relatives to a motel 100 miles away). Give yourselves 20 minutes to pack. Once you've reached your destination make a list of everything you forgot and then add it to your bug out bag. Once you've settled in at your destination, take a minute to think how you would feel if everything you left behind was destroyed by a fire or if everything below the second floor was damaged or destroyed by a flood. Revise your storage and survival plans accordingly.
Go for a drive
one Saturday in the fall. Pull over in a remote area (if it's safe) and spend
the night there with only the supplies on hand in your car.
Try eating only
your survival foods for a weekend or even a week. This is a good one if you're
ready to rotate out some of your food. It also has the added benefit of letting
you identify any dishes you can't stand or to realize you need to add some
spices and a cook book to your stash.
Developing a Survival Mindset:
Being mentally prepared is a key to successful survival. Just as athletes can improve their
performance by mentally reviewing their actions before the big game, you can
improve your performance in a survival situation by reviewing your options and
plans before you need them. Play scenarios through your head and rehearse your
options and actions. For example:
If you are stuck in traffic, imagine what you would do if a large earthquake struck. Where would you go? What would you do? (If you're not in an earthquake-prone area, think
what you would do if you saw a huge funnel cloud heading towards you.)
In your work place, think what you would do if an ex-employee returned to work one day a bit drunk and verbally abusive. You know he owns guns, but you don't see one on
him. How do you react?
If you're traveling out of town or in any unfamiliar area, think about what you would do
if you were stranded due to a breakdown or if the area was suddenly hit by a
flash flood. What would you do to increase your chance of survival?
You're in a convenience store picking up milk and as you turn around form the cooler, you
see a man holding a gun on the cashier. What do you do?
(Maybe I am being cynical, but by expecting the worse, I am never disappointed and
occasionally receive a pleasant surprise. After all, we're not practicing how
to survive winning the lottery or getting a promotion and a big raise at work.)
Survival Awareness:
Part of developing a survival mindset is being aware of your situation. The military
developed a set of color codes which Col. Jeff Cooper (a respected firearms
trainer) adapted for personal "street" survival by those who carry a
firearm. Captain Dave has adapted and modified those again to pertain to
survival in the broader sense:
Condition White
An individual in Condition White is totally unaware that the world is an
unpredictable (at best) place and that they could be put in danger by a
man-made or natural disaster with little or no warning. They suffer from the
misguided belief that the government will protect them and keep them safe.
Condition Yellow An individual in Condition
Yellow has accepted responsibility for his or her personal survival. They have
admitted that the veneer of civilization can be wiped away, catapulting us back
to an era where our modern conveniences don't work. They realize that the
police cannot protect them before a crime has been committed. They realize that
while mankind can harness some of nature's powers, and predict some of her
behavior, it cannot stand against her fury.
This individual has started making preparations to protect themselves and their loved ones from
potential disasters. They monitor the news for weather-related danger or
potential civil unrest. By reading this far into Captain Dave's Survival Guide,
you are probably in condition Yellow.
Condition Orange
You are in Condition Orange when you realize a dangerous event is on the
horizon and looming closer. It could be a hurricane heading towards you, an
impending snow storm or a gang of youths crossing the street on a course ready
to intercept you. In condition Orange, you are preparing to survive an
impending situation. This could mean filling improvised water tanks or bringing
extra fire wood into the house to dry. It could be loading the car in
preparation to evacuate or hanging hurricane shutters.
(Note, in some emergencies -- like an earthquake or terrorist bombing -- you may go straight
from Condition Yellow to Condition Red or Black.)
Condition Red
You are in a survival situation and the dangerous event is there NOW. This
means the bullets are flying, or the water is rising or the wind is howling,
the electricity is out and the snow is piling up. You're most important
priority is to ride out the moment, to survive the immediate event. This
probably means taking shelter or running or, depending on the situation,
fighting back.
Condition Black
Condition Black is after the
catastrophic event, but before the situation has returned to normalcy. You
still are depending on your survival stash and skills to survive, but the
danger is longer term, not immediate.
Examples of condition black could be the earthquake that is over, but you can't return to
your home. Or the river has crested, but it will be days before your can return
home and longer before you are cleaned out. Or the riots have died down, but
you dare not leave your house or neighborhood. Or the snow has stopped but the
electricity has not been restored, and it will be a few days before the plows
dig you out.
Think about your worst-case scenario and determine how
long you might have to survive in condition black. Remember that in a
catastrophic event, such as nuclear war, a terrible plague, a comet strike or
an alien invasion (people have been e-mailing me asking me why I haven't
addressed the latter two) "normalcy" may only be in your memory.
h/t Sharon N Lance Palmer
No comments:
Post a Comment